(A Short Story: 6th of 8 Installments)

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

This is the sixth installment of an 8-installment story of how things will end up if we do not STOP killing elephants NOW!

The Last African Elephant page 6 of 8 pages

I am a herbivore and as such have killed and consumed many a hapless plant. In addition, I have accidentally stepped on and maimed or killed numerous fellow animals. However, I do not particularly enjoy killing -- but I know that I must kill more apes sooner or later. No! I must not kill them, for that will only hasten my own death. Yet… If I merely stand passively, I will be killed. If I run, I will also be killed! If I fight openly I will also killed. I am so confused! I am so frightened.

I must conduct warfare in another way: I will drive the apes from my land! I will destroy their fields, break down their fences, smash their homes, knock down their electric power lines, and so on! These are desperate measures, but I will try! I must try! (But I will never win! I know it is hopeless!! There are so many of these talking apes!!)

All of the other animals are disappearing, and so are all the plants! These apes destroy rivers, forests, valleys, the air, and their fellow creatures. These apes think they are better than the other living creatures. Most of them do not worry that soon there will be no more elephants. In fact, the ones who cherish the ivory from our tusks as indicators of personal wealth want to see our numbers go down even more so that the value of the ivory they hold goes up. They believe that the scarcer something is, the greater is the right they have to corner the market in that particular commodity!

But enough of the shallowness of such thinking!

I must confront this greart loneliness! I really would like to rub up against another elephant, and I would love to spar with some young male elephants in order to condition them for the duty of mating. Also, I have quite a store of knowledge on how to forage in a sustainable fahsion, how to find water, how to mate. Oh, the babies! I just love those little creatures! How tiny and helpless, utterly defenseless without the herd there to shield them from the world!

I don’t want to think of all the carnage I have witnessed. But I must! You see, I have nothing to cling to now but the thought of my loved ones who were once around me. We had just enjoyed two weeks of happiness: the rains had brought sweet grasses up from the skin of our mother Earth, and they had temporarily made it unnecessary for us to venture near the ever-expanding domain of the talking apes in search of water. In fact, I was moved to notice that even my very fidgety mate Meili, pregnant with my fourth child, had stopped waving her trunk in the air in the dreaded fear that the talking apes lurked nearby. You see, we can smell the talking apes. They have such a variety of foods, you see -- each with its own smell. Added to that is the smell of gasoline, oil, plastics, and other unnatural odors that cling to their bodies and clothing.

(continued in tomorrow’s installment)

Steve Walker

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

EarthSaver

Steve Walker

(A Short Story: 6th of 8 Installments)