The One and Only Ivan Read Online Free PDF Page A

using her trunk, she nudges Ruby into her domain. Only then does Stella enter. Mack slams the door shut with a clang.
    I see two trunks entwined. I hear Stella whispering.
    â€œPoor kid,” says Bob. “Welcome to the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, Home of the One and Only Ivan.”

old news
    When Julia comes, she sits by Stella’s domain and watches the new baby. She barely talks to me.
    Stella doesn’t talk to me either. She is too busy nuzzling Ruby.
    She is cute, little Ruby, with her ears flapping like palm leaves, but I am handsome and strong.
    Bob trots a circle around my belly before settling down in just the right spot. “Give it up, Ivan,” he says. “You’re old news.”
    Julia gets out a piece of paper and a pencil. I can see that she is drawing Ruby.
    I move to the corner of my domain to pout. Bob grumbles. He doesn’t like it when I disrupt his naps.
    â€œHomework,” Julia’s father scolds. Julia sighs and puts her drawing aside.
    I grunt, and Julia glances in my direction. “Poor old Ivan,” she says. “I’ve been ignoring you, haven’t I?”
    I grunt again, a dignified, indifferent grunt.
    Julia thinks for a moment, then smiles. She walks over to my domain, to the spot in the corner where the glass is broken. She slides papers through. She rolls a pencil across my cement floor.
    â€œYou can draw the baby elephant too,” Julia says.
    I bite the pencil in half with my magnificent teeth. Then I eat some paper.

tricks
    Even after Julia and her father leave, I try to keep sulking. But it’s no use.
    Gorillas are not, by nature, pouters.
    â€œStella?” I call. “It’s a full moon. Did you see?”
    Sometimes, when we are lucky, we catch a glimpse of the moon through the skylight in the food court.
    â€œI did,” Stella says. She is whispering, and I realize that Ruby must be asleep.
    â€œIs Ruby all right?” I ask.
    â€œShe’s too thin, Ivan,” Stella says. “Poor baby. She was in that truck for days. Mack bought her from a circus, the same way he bought me, but she hadn’t been there long. She was born in the wild, like us.”
    â€œWill she be okay?” I ask.
    Stella doesn’t answer my question. “The circus trainers chained her to the floor, Ivan. All four feet. Twenty-three hours a day.”
    I puzzle over why this would be a good idea. I always try to give humans the benefit of the doubt.
    â€œWhy would they do that?” I finally ask.
    â€œTo break her spirit,” Stella says. “So she could learn to balance on a pedestal. So she could stand on her hind legs. So a dog could jump on her back while she walked in mindless circles.”
    I hear her tired voice and think of all the tricks Stella has learned.

introductions
    When I awake the next morning, I see a little trunk poking out between the bars of Stella’s domain.
    â€œHello,” says a small, clear voice. “I’m Ruby.” She waves her trunk.
    â€œHello,” I say. “I’m Ivan.”
    â€œAre you a monkey?” Ruby asks.
    â€œCertainly not.”
    Bob’s ears perk up, although his eyes stay closed. “He’s a gorilla,” he says. “And I am a dog of uncertain heritage.”
    â€œWhy did the dog climb your tummy?” Ruby asks.
    â€œBecause it’s there,” Bob murmurs.
    â€œIs Stella awake?” I ask.
    â€œAunt Stella’s asleep,” Ruby says. “Her foot is hurting, I think.”
    Ruby turns her head. Her eyes are like Stella’s, black and long-lashed, bottomless lakes fringed by tall grass. “When is breakfast?” she asks.
    â€œSoon,” I say. “When the mall opens and the workers come.”
    â€œWhere”—Ruby twists her head in the other direction—“where are the other elephants?”
    â€œIt’s just you and Stella,” I say, and for some reason, I feel we