Elephant Talks to God by Dale Estey

Author:Dale Estey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC026000, HUM014000, PHIL022000
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Published: 2006-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

Fishing

The elephant was standing knee-deep in the river.

It was not the usual place he would go if he wanted to cross to the other shore. Nor was it the wide section after the bend, where he romped in the water with little danger. No. It was the place where the rapids were numerous and the water frothed past.

He had to brace his thick legs against the current and occasionally lean into the force of the water. He was gazing intently at the river, his trunk trailing beneath its surface. Often the splashing water leapt in his face. He would straighten, coughing and shaking his head. Then he would wipe his eyes with the tip of his trunk. He tried to judge when a particular surge of water might cover him, but it was to no avail.

One time, as he raised his head while sputtering and dripping, he noticed the cloud. It hovered over the riverbank where it was safe from the wet extravagances of the rapids. He rubbed his trunk against his back and then ambled to the shore.

“Dare I even guess what you’re doing?” asked the cloud.

“Fishing.”

“And that …” began the cloud, tentatively indicating the elephant’s trunk.

“Fishing pole.”

“You don’t —” The cloud paused, then repeated with some surprise. “Your fishing pole?”

“Yes.” The elephant nodded his head with enthusiasm, splashing the cloud. “I put it in the water and wriggle it back and forth like a worm. It’s even the right colour.”

The elephant tried to wipe some of the water off the cloud but found it a futile venture.

“Sorry.”

“Right colour,” agreed the dripping cloud. “But rather the wrong size, don’t you think?”

“Light refraction,” said the elephant. “Things look smaller in the water.”

“Not if you’re in the water with them,” pointed out the cloud.

“Oh.” The elephant paused in thought. “Yeh.”

“You don’t even eat fish.”

“You know,” the elephant spoke with some exasperation, “for a God who so admires logic, you made an awful lot of illogical creatures.”

“It might be said,” said the cloud, “that a fishing elephant using a segment of its body as a luring apparatus goes beyond the realm of even the illogic.”

“Well,” said the elephant, “I wouldn’t have said it.”

“You see, something cannot be created without creating its opposite.” The cloud seemed to be warming up to the subject. “Nothing can be understood, without the existence of its opposite.”

“Like life and death,” suggested the elephant.

“Perfect example.”

“You can’t have one without the other,” said the elephant.

“I believe it has even been put to music,” said the cloud.

“So.” The elephant spoke with deliberation. “You’ve made things simple by making them complicated.”

“Exactly.”

“That can be pretty confusing,” said the elephant.

“You’ve just summed up life in a nutshell,” said God.

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