An Inconvenient Elephant Read Online Free PDF

blighter’s ruined my party.”
    The guide slowly approached the huge animal and faced him under the light, standing just a few feet away. He braced his shoulders for courage and stood on his toes to clap his hands in the elephant’s face. “Away, away!” he shouted. “Away!”
    The elephant calmly backed up, his face composed, blinking his eyes to show he would have a sense of humor about it all. He rolled his head from side to side as though to apologize for the ruckus and any trouble he might have caused, and stepping back, back, disappeared into the night with not even the rustle of a leaf.
    â€œThere’s your Tusker,” the thin man whispered to me. “There’s your boy.”
    I could barely breathe. I had seen something so transforming, so transcending that I had no need for air or light or anything else, except for this creature. He had retreated and taken my spirit with him. I had never seen anything more noble, more alien, more splendid. Everycell in my body was filled with him, and I felt adrift after he left.
    â€œBloody pest,” the British accent continued loudly. Its owner was a heavy man with a mustache, dressed in an immaculately starched, stiff new tan safari outfit. His round face was flushed as he kicked at the broken camping equipment. “Bloody beast should be shot.”
    The game warden, whom we had met earlier, walked into the disarray. He leaned over and pulled something from the broken refrigerator—a bag of lemons.
    â€œCitrus! You were warned about the citrus,” he said sternly to the heavy man.
    â€œYou can’t tell me what to eat,” the man retorted. “I use them for my drinks. I like my gin and tonic with a fresh twist of lemon.” He swayed drunkenly under the light. “The blighter ruined my party.”
    â€œHe was throwing firecrackers at the thing,” someone called out. “He was throwing firecrackers in the bush.”
    The heavy man waved them all away, his starched shirt riding up around his stomach. “Just having some fun.” A few members of his party laughed at this, but some of the other campers became angry.
    â€œI saw you throw firecrackers at him out in the bush. You sent him this way,” one shouted. “We could have been hurt.”
    â€œYou’re the one who should be shot,” the thin man yelled.
    â€œDamn you all!” The British man waved his arms at them. “I spent a bloody fortune to come here, and no one tells me what to do.”
    I made a move to join the other campers to protest, but Diamond pushed me in the direction of our hut, and I moved woodenly, reluctantly.
    â€œDon’t fight with him,” she said to me. “We need to get some sleep so we can go on safari, first thing in the morning.” She looked over at the fat man with disgust. “Remember, one never rubs bottoms with a porcupine.”

Chapter 5
    MORNING CAME UPON US LIKE A GOOD FRIEND, comforting and warm and ready to please.
    Diamond was sitting outside our hut, waiting for me to finish washing. I emerged from the little stall shower and stepped into brilliant sunlight. I threw the thin towel over a post—it would dry in just a few minutes—before sitting down at the table with her.
    I hadn’t slept well. I had spent most of the night sitting at the edge of my bed and thinking about the elephant I had seen. Tusker, they had called him. Tusker. It was a common enough name—most bull elephants are called tuskers—but the name suddenly took on a certain majesty. Tusker.
    â€œGood morning,” Diamond greeted me. She pulled her hair back from her face and secured it with a bolo string.Then she dug into her bowl of breakfast sadza , scooping it up with her fingers.
    â€œSo, I spoke to the game warden this morning before you got up,” she said, slurping down the white cornmeal gruel. “We needed permission for a walkabout, and at first, he denied