“Elephant Child”

By Christine Stoddard

A shrill wail stabbed the air and the drought that had plagued the town for
countless months was briefly forgotten. Attentive sisters, cousins, and
aunts comforted the young mother with waves of encouragement and
compliments- oblivious to the fact that what imbued the bed cloths was
blood flowing from her womb.

She panted and smiled with triumph, despite the bitter taste of sweat on
her lips. Too weak to utter a word, she stretched out her arms for her baby.
He stared at her with blank eyes -pale blue as all newborns have. His mind
was an empty canvas that was ready for strokes of paint to be smeared
across its vastness. Tears ran down Mina’s cheeks from joy as she buried
her face into his tender skin.

The impatient mid-wife ripped the child away from his mother.

"Don’t grow attached! You know very well that his father will reject him!
Look!" she yelled sternly and pointed at the infant’s withered leg.

"He’s beautiful and he’s mine! His deformity makes no difference," said
Mina, her voice hoarse but defiant.

"Mina," whispered a cousin gently,"He’ll never amount to anything.

Besides, he’ll lead a deprived life- can’t play Cricket with the other boys
when he’s older or dance at festivals... he’d be better off dead."

Mina mustered up her strength to say," You were born with a crooked
foot... turned outwards..."

The others gasped, but were eager to obtain the gossip and leaned
forward.
"...yet your father spared you, Janu."

Not even the birds in the jute trees dared to speak.

Janu was speechless and burned red from anger. She stormed out of the
room, tugging the hem of her robe to further conceal what she had been
carefully hiding for years. A wise and terse aunt shattered the silence.

"Bundle him tightly- his defect will only thrive in the folds of this blanket.
Only we will know."

The women nodded and exchanged glances of affirmation. A cousin

wrapped the boy quickly, and then presented him to the anxious father
pacing outside the door.

His eyes lit up with happiness and pride. Mina’s cousin felt guilt saturating
her mind and her heart’s beating filled her ears. Her voice slithered like a
cobra, struggling to escape her throat. She nearly choked on the
venomous lie but reluctantly released it. "A healthy son, Ramish."

He beamed and cuddled his boy.

"My son," he cooed.

The infant whimpered and fell into a fit of coughs- the oxygen having
difficulty making the excursion to his tiny lungs.

Suddenly the room trembled. Items crashed and shards of pottery

carpeted the floor. Massive tusks protruded from the wall and trumpeting
came from the distance. Women scrambled from the bedroom, dragging
Mina by her arms.

"Out! Get out!" shouted Mina’s husband. The women dispersed and ran
out of the hut into the awaiting jungle. They huddled under a tree and
watched Ramish get trampled to death.

Those ten minutes lasted an eternity. An old and frail aunt rose to her feet
and muttered, "Perhaps it is over. All of them gingerly emerged from the
jungle to where the hut once stood.

"He’s gone", Mina said and began to cry. She clenched earth in her hands
and wept. Clouds began to blanket the sky. Pit, pat. Pitter, pat. Just then it
rained because every angel in Heaven felt Mina’s sorrow.

Two days afterward, one of Mina’s sisters and her mother gathered water
from the river.

"I made him this," said Mina’s sister, rubbing the ivory charm and showed it
to her mother.

"To keep the evil spirits away?"

"No... his father’s ghost." She tied the little elephant to the infant’s ankle
and lovingly called him Elephant Child.

Meanwhile, the others in the village were searching for Ramish’s body.
With no luck, they decided to melt the remnants of the hut and mold bricks
out of the substance to rebuild the hut. It was only a day’s worth of work.

Mina could not sleep that night as she hadn’t for many nights. Her hair was
plastered to her pillow with sweat and her sleeping gown clung to her legs.
She peeled her sheets off so she could go pour a glass of water. A strange
coldness swept the room.

"Mina... Mina... Mina...", came a haunting voice.

She perked up but shrugged and continued to grope her way in the dark.
"Mina... you lied..."

She slipped into her bed, regarding it as a figment of her imagination but
noticed her bed was damp. She wiped the sticky substance off of her leg.

"Blood!" she gasped.

She tore the sheet off of the bed and replaced it with a new one. Drip...
drip... drip... She shrieked when she discovered that blood was leaking
from the ceiling.

"Mina... your son will become an Untouchable if he does not leave now,"
came the voice again.

"Stop!" she screamed," Leave me alone! Stay away from my son!"

She rushed to her son’s cradle... but he was gone. His ivory trinket was on
the floor and an elephant’s call came from afar.