Johna & the Elephant, Episode 2

Episode 2

 

A skinny elephant with no tusks was not an attraction in a day when every animal under the sun was displayed along the circuit. Furgusun put in several requests for more food, but Mr. Dinsdale already granted more food than his father allotted for the animals, and could not afford to provide more.

Johna was not a man who thought about the same things other men were inclined to ponder. He tried talking with locals at lunch counters, but they were all so rooted in their local lives that Johna could not relate. Those people spoke with pride about a sedentary life that made Johna hurt in his stomach. From the confines of his elephant ride, Johna had seen more than some of these people saw in their lives. They were proud. Sometimes, late at night Johna confessed to the elephant he and Furgusun had not seen enough.

Johna no longer spoke more than he needed to the customers who handed him cash without looking him in the eye. If a customer had ridden upon an elephant in the past, Johna could arrange them by pointing. Some weeks, Johna would not speak one word to another human being. His voice was not idle, of course. When the rest of the carnies had stumbled off to bars and bed, Johna leaned against the elephant and talked for hours.

Furgusun didn’t understand. She would nuzzle his arm with her trunk through the bars and lay down on the bed of hay. The elephant always slept well if Johna was in the room, but he often would lie awake for long hours. If Johna continued talking, or even erupted into a sudden spell of yelling, the elephant did not stir. Johna had to work out his thoughts before he could finally drift off.

Furgusun died one night at a Ren Fest in Sterling, NY. Johna noticed the elephant had been sluggish all day. He later regretted he used the hook harder than normal when Furgusun wouldn’t leave the platform for three cheering tourists in fairy wings. As soon as Furgusun lay in the hay that evening, Johna knew there was no coming back. Johna wept, but he wouldn’t let the other carnies see his pain. There were other elephants in the world, and that was a comfort Johna didn’t want to hear. When Furgusun looked over Johna one last time, she drew her final breath and slumped into a gargantuan grey lump, Johna knew that no one left alive on Earth could ever understand him.

Mr. Dinsdale would never disclose what happened to the corpses of his deceased attractions, but he almost certainly sold what he could for dog meat. Johna held out until late in the morning to report the news, when the Ren Fest management was demanding the elephant begin its walks. Johna hoped this would be time enough for the meat to spoil beyond use. Furgusun was hauled from the park on a flat bed truck and never seen again. When Johna was put in the ground four days later, Mr. Dinsdale sprung for a modest plot and reasonable coffin for a loyal employee with no other family to claim the body.

END