A Perfect Friend Page 6

  From close behind Ben a man’s loud voice said “If you want to give him your whole arm, just keep on doing what you’re doing now.”

  Ben hadn’t heard anyone’s footsteps, and the nearness and loudness scared him more than what the man said. He jerked his arm back out of the cage.

  The lion rose up as quickly as a bad storm and gave a deep roar so powerful it seemed to shake the world around them.

  Ben had never stepped back from the cage, and he saw that the lion’s eyes were locked on the man who’d come up near them from behind. So several times Ben said “Calm down, calm” to the lion and soon it did.

  It lay back down and looked to Ben; but before it could try to know him and maybe exchange some thoughts, the man put a heavy hand on Ben’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean to scare you there, son; but you were in danger. That cat’s named Trouble and you could have been in deadly trouble if I hadn’t caught you.” When Ben had turned and faced the man, the man put his hand out. “I’m Duffy Brown. Weren’t you here last night?” Duffy was not much taller than Ben, but he weighed a lot more, and his voice was nearly as deep as the lion’s. He was trying to make his dark eyes flash to show he was strong, but they looked a lot gentler than he intended.

  Still, it took Ben a moment to see that this crumpled little man was the circus ringmaster. The man still held out his hand; so Ben shook it, told the man his own name, and said “Yes I was here, with my dad and my cousin.”

  Duffy said “See, I knew you’d be right back today.”

  “How did you know that?”

  Duffy said “I saw you when the show was over. You were walking away but you were still lit up like a lamp—you were that excited.”

  The story didn’t seem likely to Ben, but he didn’t try to correct the man. He just said politely “If you know my thoughts, you’ll know I’m hoping to see your elephant.”

  For some reason Duffy laughed and shook his head no. Then he said “I’m afraid that can’t be arranged.”

  Once again Ben wondered if he’d somehow imagined the whole appearance of Sal last night. But hadn’t Ben’s dad and Robin confirmed that the show was real? Had he dreamed that too? He said to Duffy “I hope she’s not sick.”

  Duffy’s voice went down to a whisper, and he moved a little closer to Ben. “She’s not really sick but, see, she’s the boss’s personal pet. He doesn’t want anybody to scare her—she’s been through so much stuff here lately.”

  Ben nodded. “Last night it seemed like you mentioned her losing some kin. Is that true, sir?”

  Duffy went on whispering. “Just call me Duffy—everybody else does. You probably read about us in the paper. Small as we are, we had four elephants up till last summer. Then over the fall and winter, three died. Just stopped eating, got weak, and died pretty quick.”

  Ben asked “What caused it?”

  “The vet in Florida—where we spend the winters—he couldn’t explain it. I told the boss just what I thought but he wouldn’t listen. He wouldn’t believe anybody could be so mean as to poison creatures like Emma, Agnes, and Ravi—smart as they were. See, we’d had a young guy named Bert Beazley working with the animals for nearly a year. Bert was a peculiarly quiet fellow, barely spoke to anybody, even me, though he talked a lot to the cats at night. Then the boss caught him striking old Emma one day. Emma was the head girl of all our elephants, gentle as a puppy; but she never seemed to like Bert one bit.

  “After a while Bert decided she was snooty; and he’d hit her with his prod, up near her forehead and around her eyes. I saw him and told him he’d better watch his step. If an elephant really turns against you, you can wind up worse than a grape on the floor. Like I said, the boss wouldn’t believe me; but then he caught Bert in the act one day. Boss nearly tore him apart with words—told Bert he’d fire him the instant he heard of any more cruelty to anything. After that Bert worked for another three weeks. Then one night he just disappeared, and a few days later all four elephants started acting peculiar.” Duffy stopped there as if the story were told. He stepped up, put his face to the lion’s bars, and told the creature how much he loved it.

  The lion suddenly growled in what Ben thought was an affectionate way. But it silenced Duffy and when he gave no sign of saying more, Ben had to ask “Are you telling me Bert somehow poisoned the elephants?”

  Duffy said “I guess I am. The day after he left, I found some green powder strewn in their hay—just a small handful. At first it looked suspicious to me, like arsenic poison; but I didn’t think much more about it. With all kinds of animals living around you, you see a lot of peculiar chemicals—things to kill rats and fleas, you know. Anyhow, by the time the elephants started getting sick, it was too late to do anything about it.”

  “So all the others but Sal got sick?”

  Duffy said “Oh no, Sal got sick too and lost a lot of weight; but she came through when the three others failed. It broke nearly all our hearts, I’ll tell you. And it nearly bankrupted the boss and the show. We’re staggering still and we may not make it.”

  Ben said “What kin were the others to Sal?”

  Duffy said “To tell you the truth, we never were sure. A ringmaster had to say that to his public—that they were a family—but none of us was working for this show back when the elephants were young. Even the boss bought the show when the elephants had been here for years, so we always just called them sisters. They lived in peace together anyhow.” Duffy paused a moment, then laughed and said “Which most sisters don’t!”

  Somehow that made Ben want to see Sal more than ever. He said “If Sal is here right now, I’d sure like to see her.”

  Duffy waited, “You’re not a big criminal, are you?”

  The question seemed serious but Ben had to laugh. “Sir, I sometimes think I’m stark crazy on the subject of elephants; but I’m no real crook.” Then like Dunk, Ben turned his pockets inside out and held his hands up to show they were empty. “The worst thing I’ve ever done was to shoot a bird with a B.B. rifle the day I got it. I’ve never used it since.”

  Duffy went silent and turned around slowly in every direction. Then he said “Look, the boss is in town right now. I don’t want to make him mad. He loves this creature—”

  Ben said “I love every elephant alive, all the ones I’ve heard about anyhow. Since I was a child, I’ve wanted to have an elephant to care for.”

  Duffy shook his head, frowning. “Whoa, boy! An elephant takes steady care round the clock. They may look strong but, if you take them out of the jungle, they’re fragile as light bulbs.” He looked around again and then whispered “Come on now with me. If anybody stops us I’ll say you’re my nephew—I’m your Uncle Duffy.”

  Ben whispered too. “Where is everybody?” He meant all the clowns and other performers.

  “They’re off in town somewhere like the boss. They take every chance they get to run wild. Still, somebody might come back and find us; so say you’re my son—”

  Ben said “No, your nephew. Your nephew, remember?” He remembered to look back and give a short bow and a wave to the lion, who still watched him closely, though Ben had all but forgot it was there, hearing everything they said.

  By then the lion looked like something that deserved the name Trouble as Duffy had said. He could no doubt swallow a boy, age eleven, in record time. Ben waved again, then followed Duffy onward in silence.

  To Ben it felt like a five-mile walk—he was that excited and his mind was that hot. Would Sal be hid underground somehow or in one of the trailers with the blinds shut tight? Maybe she was there in the dark pine woods, somewhere near his bike. But where Duffy led him was straight to the far back side of the main tent. Last night Ben and his family hadn’t noticed the single small tent with all flaps shut.

  At the main flap Duffy looked around again. Then he quickly undid a knot in the rope and lifted the flap just enough to let Ben through. Then he followed the boy in.

  The sky outside had been so bright that Ben’s eyes took aw
hile to adjust to the dim place he stood in. The first thing he could see clearly was a deep bed of hay under his feet. Then he caught the mixture of smells that he recalled from his other circus visits—a mix of dry hay and the strong but clean-smelling dung that comes from creatures who eat only grass and straw. Then Ben could see that Duffy had stepped ahead of him and was whispering again.

  Ben could make out words like My girl and Honey and Safety. By that time he could see Sal standing in place with her trunk laid lightly across Duffy’s shoulder. Sweet Sal were the words that first came to mind when Ben saw the whole enormous shape of an elephant not more than four steps beyond him. But he waited for Duffy to notice him and tell him what to do.

  Finally Duffy looked back and asked Ben his name. When Ben had given his three full names, Duffy said “Sal, this boy Benjamin here is a great admirer of you and your family. You ready to meet him?”

  Sal reared her trunk up into the air above Duffy’s head and smelled Ben through the space between them. Then she reached the trunk out toward him.

  Ben could see the moist pink skin inside her nostrils, and he remembered how the first circus elephants he’d seen years ago had begged peanuts from the crowd. Now here was Sal maybe asking for food and Ben had nothing. Again he did what he’d done for Duffy. He turned out his pockets and showed his empty hands.

  Duffy said “Don’t worry. Sal doesn’t care what you’ve got to give her. Just tell her you like her, in your own voice.”

  That was the first time Ben realized that he’d never in his whole life said a word to a live elephant. He stepped forward now and took the end of the great trunk in both his hands. Then he said as clearly as he could manage “Sweet lady, hello. I’m just a local boy; but I’m happier to be here with you today than anywhere else I’ve ever been.”

  Duffy snorted, laughed, and said to Sal “You don’t believe a word of that, do you, darling?”

  Whatever she thought, Sal left her trunk in Ben’s hands all the same; and Ben tried to say what he meant in better words. “I don’t know why, lady; but I’m feeling better.” And so he was. Just holding the serious weight of the trunk seemed to Ben like a privilege—the thick dry skin and the hundreds of delicate muscles that made a trunk even more useful than any human hand.

  Ben was so involved in those feelings that soon Duffy had to say “Keep talking to her, son. She needs a lot of talk.”

  Ben asked him “Why?”

  Duffy said “She’s alone as a child at the North Pole. Can’t you see that?”

  Ben stared into Sal’s eyes and thought he could see the kind of look he’d seen on children at the orphan’s home on the south side of town. It was thoroughly lonesome and nearly hopeless but was also ready to laugh if anything or anybody would give it a chance. Of course Ben knew that, strictly speaking, elephants don’t laugh; but in movies he’d seen them play with one another, and he strongly suspected that almost every living thing could understand happiness and feel it at times. So he wanted to talk to Sal in whatever way she might like or need. Duffy was standing too near him, though. And Ben needed privacy before he could fully open his heart. He stepped a little closer to Sal and then said “Mr. Duffy, could I just be in here with her alone for a while?”

  At once Duffy shook his head. “No way. Boss would kill me dead.” But he thought about it and finally said “I’m going to pat you down like they do with real crooks in jail. Is that OK?”

  Ben said that it was.

  So like a policeman Duffy patted his way down Ben’s shirt and pants. He even looked again at both of Ben’s hands. Then he said “I’ll be waiting right outside here. You talk to her kindly, and I’ll give you warning if anybody’s coming.”

  Ben said “Thank you, sir.” And as Duffy reached the flap, Ben said “Please don’t listen to us. It’ll just ruin the visit.”

  Duffy smiled. “Son, Sal can do a lot of smart things; but Sal can’t talk, not that I ever heard.”

  Ben nodded to show he agreed, which he didn’t—not yet anyhow.

  And then Duffy was gone.

  Sal lifted her trunk again and smelled the air beyond Ben’s head to prove to herself that she and this boy were alone together. When she knew that was true, she stood in place, rocking from side to side. She accepted Ben’s presence as a natural fact, and that made a change in her loneliness.

  Ben leaned down and swept up an armload of hay. He held it close to his body but near enough to tempt Sal to eat.

  Her trunk pulled a few strands loose and carried them to her mouth, then more and more.

  When she’d eaten it all, Ben still kept his arms hugged tight to himself; and Sal probed inside Ben’s grasp to find any last hay, as if the ground weren’t covered around them.

  As Ben accepted Sal’s tickling gladly, he said aloud “This is one place I’ve always dreamed of being.” Then he wondered how weird or dumb that would seem to other people his age or to his father. What he didn’t wonder, not then, was whether Sal could hear what he said; and did she know his meaning?

  But as Ben’s hands came up again and took her tickling trunk and he laughed, he slowly began to feel a kind of rumbling, very low and deep in his bones. It was like the first faint signs of an earthquake or the bass line of music too far off to hear. At the start it came in short bursts. Then Sal laid her trunk on the top of his head. The weight was so heavy Ben thought he would soon be forced to duck out or at least to kneel at her feet in the hay.

  Just as the weight turned painful, Sal suddenly lifted her trunk; and deep inside his chest, Ben heard a few sounds that seemed like words. They were so soft he couldn’t really hear them well. But he stayed where he was, standing near Sal; and slowly he began to understand her. The first message was so dim that it seemed to be more like a far-off moving picture than words. Ben shut his eyes to focus on the message, and slowly all around his mind a new world opened as his thoughts moved forward.

  A whole new place took shape in his mind. It was so clear that Ben didn’t pause to wonder whether it was real or a dream. There were trees much bigger than any he’d known, and the path he was walking now in his mind was a narrow path through thick dark grass that came almost to his ears. After his mind had walked a long way, Ben finally stopped to take a deep breath; and then he heard the first clear words from this new world. They came from a little way behind him, and they came in a tone that sounded like the voice he had hoped Sal would have. To Ben’s mind alone she finally said Behind you is safe. All around you is safe. Be fearless now.

  Ben didn’t think he’d been afraid. There was nothing about sweet Sal that scared him. Even if Duffy’s boss should burst through the tent flap at that moment, the worst he’d find would be a young boy who plainly wouldn’t harm a living thing. Still, Ben appreciated the message and he whispered back. “I’m thankful, lady. But don’t stop guarding me. I’m still in trouble a lot of the time.” He wasn’t exactly sure what he meant, but he knew it had been true this whole past year.

  Sal was swaying side to side by then, the way trapped creatures often do. But she said nothing else.

  “I could try to stay here with you—”

  Sal gave him no answer.

  “Does that mean I should leave you now?”

  Again no answer.

  Ben wondered if anything he’d said or thought had been wrong or mean. He asked Sal please to excuse him for any mistake. He said “See, I’ve only talked with a dog up till now. I’m not much good at conversation.” The whole idea of conversation with this strange creature was so amazing that Ben had to laugh. Sure, he’d known Hilda all his life; but walking into a small private tent and having an elephant answer your voice seemed to Ben as wild as speaking to the ocean and having it speak back in words you could hear.

  What Ben had just said seemed to free Sal. She sent him some words about learning to cross the lines in nature. It’s much too hard for most of your people to talk to me or anything like me.

  Ben said “My people? I’d give up everythi
ng to be one of you.” As long as he’d loved elephants, he’d never wanted to be one before. Was what he’d just told Sal a lie? Was it some kind of insult? Ben waited to see what she’d do with the strange idea.

  Her body swayed on in place as before, her trunk rummaged in the hay but she didn’t eat, her eyes seemed fixed on nothing nearby. Was she hearing some sound Ben couldn’t detect? Was the boss back from lunch and walking this way? Was Duffy worried and ready to come back in and stop this?

  None of those questions got answered at once; but in a few seconds Ben heard clear words like Help and Promise and Don’t fail me, please; I’ve been failed before.

  Ben suddenly knew what he had to say, and he told Sal clearly what he meant to do next. He said “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here. See, I live in the country with my father. The only friend that hangs around much is my cousin Robin, a girl who’s a whole year younger than me. We’ve got a big field and woods and a creek; and except for an old dog that once was my mother’s, we’ve got nobody else at all to care for. Dad thinks the place will be too small for you, but I think you’ll love it and will want to stay. Anyhow we’d be together at last, and nobody else could come between us unless we changed our minds and asked them to be with us always.”