National Park

Chapter 7

This birthday could not get any better, thought Raja. He had been befriended by a lion and the circle had now grown to include an elephant and a young wild dog! "The pets back home are not going to believe this!"

Niol, Niya and Sqwee quizzically turned to look at Raja.

"Oops. That was not meant to come out aloud," said Raja sheepishly. "I was just thinking about the pets in our neighbourhood. I'd explained to them all about the upcoming trip. I had also told them about my fear of lions! They teased me continuously, saying I would be caught by a lion and made into dessert. They thought I was not big enough for a main meal, but would make a juicy dessert! They will truly be blown away by the turn of events!"

Raja's mind wandered and he started daydreaming of the day he would return to the neighbourhood and tell the story. They would not believe him, but he didn't really care. Raja actually only wanted one person to believe him: his Rani – Hindi for 'queen'. Her name was actually Samantha, but she was known to all in the neighbourhood as Sam. She lived four houses away, and was Bradley's pet. Bradley was the brat of the neighbourhood, much feared, as he not only bullied the other kids, but he would also make their pet's life a misery. He had once got hold of a bag of fireworks and walked down the road throwing a lit firework into each yard. Many of the animals were still traumatised, and would jump at everything, especially cars that backfired!

Surprisingly, Sam seemed immune to his antics. Like clockwork, she would step out of her house at exactly 3pm each day, walk across the road and visit her immediate neighbours. Raja always made sure he was peeping through the gate, and, on a few occasions, he had stepped out to speak to her, but had chickened out every time or been interrupted or intercepted by either another pet or Bradley. Bradley had noticed the other pets coming up to her as she crossed the street, so he had made an extremely crude, but effective, slingshot. Raja could still feel the sting on his backside from the day he had built up the courage to walk up to Sam! Of course, that attempt ended with him running back into the Patel's residence hiding from Bradley. Raja silently made a promise to himself that the first thing he would do when he got back home was to speak to her!

Raja was shaken from his daydream as he slipped on a loose stone and tumbled forward onto his face. The path leading away from the baobab tree was tricky for both Sqwee and Raja because of their short legs. The ground appeared flat from a distance, but was actually quite uneven, and Raja fell a few times before he decided to stop dreaming and start paying attention to the terrain. Sqwee, on the other hand, seemed quite adapted to the conditions, and would shriek with laughter as Raja slipped.

Niya moved very quietly considering her size, and Niol barely said a word except to warn the group of rocks, thorny shrubs or large dips in the path. In the distance, Niya could make out other younger elephants playing in the stream. A soft smile crossed her face as she thought about her life some months ago, when she would sneak away from her herd and disappear. Search parties were initially called out, but eventually they had all come to expect her to be at the nearby stream. When the animals questioned why she just stood in the stream for hours, she could not really explain the healing effects she felt from the constant flow of water against her feet. No one else seemed to feel the way she did, so she would just respond that her feet were hot and she preferred them to be cool. She could not explain the calmness that ran through her body, how she melted into the water and became a part of the stream. Recently, though, she had not been able to spend much time at the stream, and her soul was longing for this release.

She had stopped going to the stream because of the pressures of not being able to communicate ultrasonically. All the other elephants her age were already able to communicate and were having discussions over short distances. Many times, Niya noticed her peers looking at her and giggling. She was sure they were mocking her, but, of course, they denied her accusations and said it was just a coincidence that they looked at her while speaking ultrasonically.