The Elephant

"Feed the Muse" Exercise B: number 9 is Use these three words in a sentence or brief paragraph: dream, heart, gold.

Yes, you guessed it. It's another PAMELA HARPER SHORT (I didn't feel like putting an exclamation mark there because I'm not particularly excited right now so... ).

Periods. Very classy.

~*~

On July 28th, Pam recieved an invitation written in what seemed like gold sharpie in Alex's handwriting, which she couldn't read, (she was only seven, and didn't know the word "illegible" yet) on pastel green paper, stuffed inside a green envelope that used to be white (someone used some paint to color it and left some spaces untouched). It was her first invitation ever, and she pranced around in tiny steps around her room, careful not to wake the Triple A, as it was already 10 PM. She squinted at it, like she'd seen many people do on tv when they couldn't read something.

Come to Alex b-day partee

start: 3

end: ?

Pleeze bring cards Mum took mine away

See you then!!!!

Alex? Partee? Pleeze? Pam rolled her eyes. Alex needed to stop daydreaming about penguins and pay more attention to the Mr. Sanwich, even though sometimes she would find herself nodding off to his lectures. They weren't in high school yet. Why would he give them lectures? Pam rewarded herself with a pat on the back for remembering that "big boy" word, and tapped her pointer finger against her chin, as she'd seen people do in tv shows, and said "Hmmm." She'd have to make a website - a blog, maybe - about her teachers and classmates, and life in general. Her first post would be about Alex's birthday party, and she'd make sure to spell "party" correctly. She briefly wondered if that was the Bri-ish way to say party, but it was only a fleeting thought and she didn't pay much attention to it. Instead, she flopped onto her mattress, which lay on the ground in what Aunt Agnes called "Japanese don't

question it style", and closed her eyes.

She dreamed she was riding an elephant across a safari, with a stampede of men in black close behind her, running from what looked like a huge colony of meerkats. No, not meerkats. They were like a combination of sticks and shrimp. Worms, they called themselves. And then she was falling, a pit of soft sand surrounding the elephant like the jaws of a snake, and she found herself running again, this time from a giant serpent that looked like rope. She tripped on an ant hole, and fell into a rabbit hole that looked like the one from that Alice in Wonderland movie she watched a few weeks ago. She crawled through a tunnel made of river rocks, and emerged under a waterfall. Well, almost. It took a couple of tries to poke her head out of the brownish liquid to breathe.

At the top of the waterfall was a shiny gold elephant, a shimmering speck against the dreamy sky, its ears and warm face like a heart. A lavender-blue halo grew behind it, until - wait. It wasn't a halo, but a portal; the men in black shot out of it like rabid wolves, whipped out black guns from their black suits, and took aim at the elephant. Noooooooo, she cried, reaching her hands desperately out and wading as fast as she could towards them, but the roar of the waterfall drowned her cry. Bang. Stop it. Bang.

Stop. Bang. Murderers.

Thick, golden blood flowed down the waterfall, turning the pool into a shiny soup. It was so beautiful and heartbreaking, she felt like crying two different tears: salty and tasteless. Her fingers started absorbing it first - then her arms, tummy, legs, feet - until she could feel her heart twist and shout to the angry heartbeat of the elephant. Her body was filled with the want, the need, for revenge.

Pam woke up shivering and sobbing into her brownish pillow, which seemed so beautiful until now. She lay there, unmoving, listening to the pounding beat that echoed in her ears until it calmed down. Pushing the faded quilt away from her, she got ready for Alex's "partee". Her eyes widened and she panicked when she realized she forgot to buy a gift. No worries, she assured herself, a card would be a nice present. She pondered over what to write over chewing soggy cereal - she wouldn't eat it if it wasn't mushy - and brushing her teeth. The Triple A was already gone, so she stole a dark green piece of origami paper and a black sharpie, and wrote away.

Dear Alex,

Thank you for being my friend and listening to me counting tiles when I'm bored. And also, making me eat lunch even if you don't get to eat as much Nutella as you'd like to. I'm glad you're my friend even if you have an obsession with magic and died your hair to look like Dave from Boyinaband. I don't get why you like such hair but I'm not you so oh well.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Pam

P.S. I feel really bad about writing "happy birthday" in all capital letters. And did you see that I wrote two exclamation marks instead of one? It was very difficult. I almost didn't do it. I guess sometimes you make me a rebel.

On the cover, she drew a picture of a dragon (Alex's favorite "animal"). Only until she was finished did she realize that she'd drawn a tiny golden elephant in the bottom right corner - almost like a signature. When did she get the gold sharpie in her hand? She rubbed her eyes, as she'd seen people do on tv when they couldn't believe what they saw, and sighed. The clock told her it was time to walk to Alex's house. She put on her rain boots (she only wore rain boots - except to gym and the pool) and waltzed out the door, away from the suffocating air of a house that wasn't quite home.

~*~

This took me way too long to write.

#PamelaHarper