Warning: This is going to be Looooonnng

All right. So here's the story I've been working on most recently, in fact, I only started it last Tuesday, so it took less then two weeks for me to finish it!
Maybe that's why I'm so tired...?
Lol.
Anyways, I got the idea from a writing prompt, from my fabulous book full of them, and the prompt was 'Write about the Elephant in the room.' So that's what this story evolved from. I don't think it's my best writing and I think it's kind of blocky, (maybe because I wrote it by hand at night...) but I like the CORE of it, you know? :D
And this is probably going to be the LONGEST post I'll ever post, so sorry bout that, but I just figured it would be easiest to post the whole thing at once, instead of in sections. And sorry for any typos that I'm sure are still in it. Like I said, I'm rather weary. ;)
Here we gooooooo....

This is a rather remarkable story.
It’s a little strange.
A little funny.
A little sad.

It’s about an elephant.

One day, in my social studies class at school, an elephant walked into our classroom. There was no warning, no commotion, no nothing. It just sauntered in. And it was really big. I’m not talking huge, or even gigantic. I’m talking ginormous. The elephant was ginormous.
It stood there, in the middle of our classroom, shuffling it’s feet and swinging it’s head from side to side. Our teacher, Mrs. Graystone, was standing pressed against the wall with a sort of half shocked, half terrified look on her face. I had a suspicion that this had not exactly been planned. No, I did not think it was part of the show and tell.
From the back of the room, I heard a squeaky “Oh my god!” and suddenly the room was a buzz with confused noise. Listening to the confusion, I coughed back a laugh. I guess it was a little unusual for an elephant, (an extra large one, even,) to come sauntering into our schoolroom like that was exactly where it belonged. Personally, I thought it was pretty cool. This kind of thing didn’t happen every day, right?
“Quiet down everyone!” Mrs. Graystone shouted, finally taking charge of the nearly chaotic classroom. “And stay exactly where you are! No one move. I - I’m going to get the principle.” She glanced nervously over at the still calm elephant, and then half stumbled out of the room. I watched her go with a slight frown. What was so scary about an elephant? Sure they were big, but they were also friendly and intelligent, and not very violent. Without even thinking, I scooted my chair back and stood up. All eye’s were suddenly on me, including the elephants. Feeling strangely calm, considering the circumstances, I walked forward and held out my hand. The elephant nuzzled it gently, getting my palm a little slimy. Frankly, I didn’t care at all. An elephant was touching me! I reached up with my other hand to stroke its trunk. It was leathery feeling, but almost soft, in a way. Slowly, other kids started to get up, coming one at a time to touch the elephant. The massive carefulness and respect in the room was surprising, considering we were in a 10th grade classroom. But this elephant just seemed really, really special. It had managed to walk through our entire school and into our classroom without being noticed, after all.
Suddenly, the elephant turned it’s massive bulk, and headed for the doorway. Kids scattered out of its way, but I followed instinctively. “Amy, where are you going?” one of my friends half whispered, as I followed it out of the room. My long brown hair swished as I turned around, and I immediately became aware that the elephant had stopped moving. I could feel it’s eyes boring into my back expectantly, like it wanted something from me.
“I don’t know,” I answered all of the curious and astonished kids facing me, “but I think - I think it wants me to follow it.” I looked at it to confirm my suspicion, but it sort of shook its head, and then started touching all of the kids behind me with its trunk.
“You want all of us to come?” a usually obnoxious boy asked the elephant directly, like it was a person. In answer, it turned and started thumping down the hallway. All of us looked at each other for one flabbergasted moment, and then rushed after it. I reached it first, and without thinking, grabbed hold of it’s tail. Then the girl behind me grabbed my hand, and the kid behind her grabbed her hand, and we formed a long line of kids linked to one thing.
An Elephant.
And the strangest thing was, no one tried to stop us.
We sauntered right out of school, and all the way through town, keeping hold of the elephant the entire time. I almost let got of its tail once, when it stepped off a side walk curb and right into a busy street. But amazingly, all of the cars started pulling over to let us through. It was like the elephant was Moses, and we were walking through the red sea. And the funniest thing was, it stopped for all the red lights. I’m not even kidding you. I can’t imagine what the drivers going by must have thought. They were just driving along on blue skied October day, when they turned onto main street and suddenly came upon a huge elephant standing in the middle of the road, with a long gaggle of kids trailing behind it, all of them just waiting for the light to turn green, along with everyone else.
Once it had gotten through all the red lights, the elephant ended up taking us to Spillers Field. For the last couple of weeks, there had been a circus camped out on the field, and it was still there. When I saw all the brightly colored tents, and actors walking around, I realized where it had come from. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before!
I heard several “oohs,” of understanding from behind me, as everyone else realized it too. A strange feeling of disappointment washed over me, almost like I’d been expecting the elephant to be something more special then just a circus performer. But that was stupid. It was just an elephant, I had to remind myself.
He had not stopped walking once we’d reached the field, but kept plodding right on, towards a big tent in the center. The strange thing was, no one paid any attention to us. I kind of hunkered my shoulders and tried to look inconspicuous, but I didn’t think it would have mattered if I hadn’t. It was like the elephant was making us all invisible or something. And where I would have thought there’d be stable hands running around frantically, worried sick at the disappearance of a one of their biggest performers, (literally!) there was none. In fact, there weren’t many people around at all, and everything seemed strangely calm. We walked right up to the big tent in the center of the field, and then went in. And what we saw in there made my stomach drop, and a bad taste come into my mouth.
The tent was full of animals. I’m not talking nice, orderly clean stalls, with plenty of space here either. Oh no. I mean dirty, messy, cramped animals stuffed in together. There were six horses over in one corner, in a tiny pen, and they were practically walking on each other, it was so tight. The sides of the tent were lined with tiny barred cages, filled with snarling cats and goats and all types of animals. They all looked so, so miserable. The smell in there was horrible, as there was animal dung everywhere, and the little food and water I saw scattered around was all filthy. Then I saw the elephants. Oh my god, the elephants. There were two of them, and around them in a circle were long stakes that they were tied tightly too, along with being tied together. They couldn’t move a hair, and I could see their muscles straining against the ropes. They had big red welts where the cords where cutting into them, and it looked extremely painful. Was this where my great elephant had come from then? This horrible, horrible place? I couldn’t believe that I had actually gone and seen the circus, when they were treating their animals like this.
As I looked around in horror, cries of disbelief and outrage rose up from behind me. I was glad to know I wasn’t the only one to find this absolutely disgusting. Letting go of the elephants tale, I walked forward to it’s head, and gently stroked its trunk. What had it been through? It turned and looked at me, and in its dark brown eyes, there was no anger, but only a deep, deep sadness.
“Guys,” I said, turning to all of the kids behind me. “We can’t let the circus get this elephant back. Look at this place. It’s horrible!”
“So what should we do?” asked a girl named Laura, voicing all of our thoughts.
I bit my lip, thinking. “First, we should get out of here. I know for some reason no one’s noticed us yet, but that could change anytime.” Kids nodded in agreement, so I went on. “Does anyone know of somewhere we could take it?”
Brandon, the usually obnoxious kid I’d mentioned earlier, spoke up. “We could go to my house. My parents are gone for a couple of days, and we have a sheltered back yard.” His usually goofy face was for once very serious, but I still had trouble trusting him. What if he did something stupid and ruined everything?
“Okay...” I agreed reluctantly. “Where do you live? Is it far?”
“No, we can walk there from here,” Brandon answered quickly. “I can take him.”
“Probably we should split up,” Laura broke in. “I know at least my parents will be wondering where I am. I don’t know about you guys.”
“Yeah, I can take him to my house, and then we can meet there later,” said Brandon.
“Wait a minute!” I protested. “I - I don’t know how the elephant will act if I’m not there and I need to see if your house will actually work!”
“What, do you not trust me or something?” Brandon challenged. Laura stepped in-between us, holding up her hands and saying:
“Why don’t you both go to Brandon's house and get the elephant settled, and we’ll all come by when we can.”
“Fine!” Brandon and I said together, but it was obvious neither one of us was happy. Laura, who seemed oblivious to this fact, quickly went to a flap in the tent and peered out. “The coast is clear guys,” she announced. “Lets all go out one at a time, and try to look inconspicuous.” With a grin, she slipped out, and was gone. Slowly, the remaining kids trickled out behind her, with promises of coming to Brandon's as soon as they could. Finally, just me, Brandon, and the elephant were left standing there.
“Well, are we going?” I said tersely. Maybe I should have tried to be more nice, but this boy just really got to me for some reason.
“Yes your majesty,” Brandon replied typically, and then turning, he walked out without a backwards glance. I, on the other hand, took one long last look around. I smelled the horrible stench, and saw the animals suffering, and determined to do something about it, if there was anyway I possibly could. Then, placing my hand on the elephants leathery side, we walked out together.
Brandon's house was really nice, I had to admit. It was huge, which meant if we stuck the elephant in the back, it couldn’t be seen from the road. Which was definitely a good thing. We walked the entire way there, but didn’t say one more word to each other. We were both lost in our own thoughts, I guess. That, or we were just mutually avoiding each other. Probably both.
We had to speak once we’d arrived at our destination and brought the elephant in back though, and we stood awkwardly for a moment, staring at the ground and the elephant and anything but each other. “We need a plan of action,” I finally spat out.
“I know,” Brandon nodded, apparently deciding not to be annoying, for the moment. “What are we going to do, just leave him out here?”
“I don’t know. Do you think it will wander off?” I bit my lip worriedly.
Brandon shook his head. “If it wants our help, it’ll be smart enough to stick around. But I think we should totally stop calling him an it, don’t you? Got any good elephant names?” He grinned, and I found myself laughing a little. Whoa, what was happening here?
“Uh, Leo?” I suggested.
“Uh, NO!” he immediately retaliated.
“Fine!” I said. “What about something that’s sort of short for elephant. Ele - Eli?”
“Eli, the elephant!” Brandon said, pretending to be a circus announcer. I full out laughed then, and he grinned at me. “I like it!”
Why had I never noticed this boys smile before??! Whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought. This is Brandon Applegate here, the number one most obnoxious boy in class, and all around trouble maker. Do NOT go making friends with him!
“So,” I said, wiping the smile off my face. “Now that we’ve got that settled, what are we going to do?”
“Lets try going inside,” Brandon said, a little sarcastically, and where a minute ago it wouldn’t have bothered me, it did now.
“Okaaaay,” I said, rolling my eyes with irritation, “but it is your house. You kinda have to invite me in.”
Brandon narrowed his eyes at me, and then muttered “whatever,” and headed towards the house. All I could do was follow, feeling very uncomfortable.
Once inside, we went to the living room, which was big and uncluttered and had huge glass windows through which we could see Eli easily.
“Nice!” I said in admiration. Brandon didn’t reply, but walked strait to a bookcase, from which he pulled what appeared to be a telephone book. “What are you doing?” I asked, instantly curious.
He turned and brought the book back to me, saying, “I think we should call a lawyer.”
“Huh?” was my educated reply.
“You saw how those animals were being treated, right?” he said, sitting down on the couch. “Well, I’m pretty sure there’s laws against treating animals like that. I mean, there’s got to be. Probably you have to have some sort of license to run a circus, and if we got a lawyer or something, maybe we could get their license taken away.”
“Wow,” I said, sitting down next to him. “You’ve gotten this all figured out, haven’t you?” For once, I wasn’t being snarky or sarcastic. I was genuinely impressed.
“Not really,” Brandon said seriously, “I don’t know what we should do about Eli. If we did get a lawyer to help us, would we get in a major trouble for taking him?”
“I don’t know,” I frowned. “Maybe we should just go one step at a time. First I’m going to call my parents.”
“You’re going to tell them?” His eyes bugged out a little in alarm, and I couldn’t resist a smug smile.
“Yes. I’m going to tell them I’m working on a project about elephants and cruelty to animals at a friends house.” I hesitated the tiniest bit on the word friend, and I saw a flicker of something in Brandon's eyes. Darn it, he had noticed. Stupid, stupid me.
“Ah, of course,” he said smoothly. “All the truth, except for the friend bit. Tell me this, dear Amy. Why, exactly, do you have such a low opinion of me?”
“I-” I stammered, feeling my cheeks beginning to heat up. “I don’t!”
“Oh right,” Brandon stood up, with ice in his eyes. “That’s why you ignore me in class. That’s why you didn’t trust me enough to take the elephant here myself. And that's why you look at me like I’m a worm, and stop yourself when you start smiling or laughing at something I’ve said!”
“I ignore you in class, because if I didn’t I wouldn’t get any work done!” I said, reverting to the only accusation I could defend myself on. Now I stood up, to face him. “You’re completely obnoxious, rude, and stupid. Of course I don’t want to be friends with you!”
He looked at me levelly for a moment, his face hard. “What basis do you have to say that I’m stupid?” he finally asked in a quiet voice. “Have you ever even looked at any of my work?”
“Brandon, I didn’t mean-” I cut in, feeling horrible, but he wasn’t done,
“As to obnoxious, disruptive, and rude,” he continued, “something comes over me when I’m stuck in a classroom. It makes me unable to sit still, controls my thoughts, even if I fight it. But it’s not ME. Whatever you do Amy, don’t pretend you know me!” Then he turned on his heel, and walked quietly away. I sat down heavily on the couch, and put my head in my hands. This day that had seemed so magical at first, was turning really, really sour. All because I’d made some judgments about someone I didn’t really know, and then couldn’t let it go.
Hearing a tapping on the window, I looked up to see the elephant staring at me thoughtfully through the glass. ‘Right,’ I thought. I didn’t know what to do about the mess I’d made with Brandon, but I did know what I was here for. And so I picked up the phone book, and flipped to the Ls.
I couldn’t get through to the first lawyer I tried, but with the second one I had more success. Unfortunately, as soon as I managed to get his secretary to pass me on to him, my mind completely froze up. What the heck was I going to say?
“Hello?” said a man on the other end of the phone line, “how can I help you?”
“Um,” I stammered out, my mind spinning frantically, “my name’s Amy Mcphee... I was wondering if you could answer some questions?”
“Sure Amy,” the man said in a friendly voice, “my name’s Don. I’ve got a spare moment, so what would you like to know?”
“Well,” I said, swallowing and trying to get a grip on myself. “I was wondering about circus regulations, and animal treatment.”
“Oh?” said Don, sounding interested.
“Say someone saw some animals being treated badly at a circus,” I said, more in control now. “What could that person do about it? Could they, like, shut the circus down?”
“There are rules and laws about animal treatment in circus’s,” Don said, sounding much more cautious now, “but what you could do about anything illegal is... questionable. I don’t work in this area, you know, so I’m not the best person to ask.”
“But you are a lawyer?” I questioned him, beginning to feel a little desperate, “so you could take on a case like this if you had to?”
“I could...” Don said hesitantly. There was a pause, and then he blurted out, “Amy, if you’ve seen some animal mistreatment, the first people you should to go is your parents. You’re in high school, aren’t you?”
“How did you...” I trailed off in complete befuddlement.
“I saw your name and picture in the paper recently, in the article about high school volunteers at the animal shelter.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling profoundly disappointed. He would never help us now, I was sure of it.
“I’m really sorry kid, but talk to your parents about it, okay? I can’t help you.” To his credit, he did really sound like he felt bad.
“Okay,” I agreed in defeat. Hanging up the phone, I had no idea what to do next. Telling my parents was out of the question. They were both working, and besides, there was the elephant to deal with.
“We’ll send him pictures,” Brandon spoke from the doorway of the living room, and I looked up, surprised.
“What?”
“We’ll send him pictures of what we saw at the circus. Maybe that will convince him.” He wasn’t looking at me, but outside at Eli, and his tone was kind of formal. No more goofing around for us, I guessed, feeling a little sad.
“I don’t have his e-mail,” I said, wishing I had asked for it.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Brandon, still not looking at me, “I can find it.” And so saying, he turned and left the room. I followed, feeling helpless yet again.
It didn’t take long for him to Google Don and find his e-mail address , so after a few quick calls, (one to my parents, and one to Laura, who couldn’t come by), we decided to head back to the circus to take pictures. I was really quite scared, but I certainly wasn’t going to let Brandon see that. Our luck had been incredibly good last time, and we hadn’t gotten caught, but I really wasn’t sure that would happen again. Besides, this time we weren’t bringing the elephant, and I had this weird idea that maybe he’d had something to do with our incredible invisibleness. I was glad to see that Brandon looked a little nervous himself, as he grabbed the camera and we headed out.
It wasn’t long before we were back at the circus. There still weren’t a whole lot of people around, although this time, a few did give us weird looks. Despite this, we managed to make it all the way to the center tent. Pulling the flap back, we both went in, and I immediately wrinkled my nose at the smell. It was even worse then I’d remembered. Brandon started taking picture after picture, and without even thinking, I went over to the elephants. Their muscles were quivering from straining against the ropes, and I felt tears stinging the back of my eyes. How could anyone do this to them? Silently, I reached up and began working on the knots that imprisoned them.
“Hey! What are you doing?” An unfamiliar voice broke the silence. I spun around to see a big, burly guy running at Brandon. Brandon looked over his shoulder in alarm, and then started sprinting towards me, as I was close to a flap in the tent where we could escape. It was obvious he wasn’t going to make it, as the huge man gained on him.
“Catch!” he suddenly called out, throwing the camera, just as the man tackled him. I managed to catch it, but didn’t want to leave him. “Run!” he yelled at me, struggling away from the man. So that’s what I did. I ran like my life depended on it, and you know, maybe it did.
I heard the man shout, “stop that girl!” and then several other cries that sounded like curses. A few people responded to his shout, and set off after me, and I looked over my shoulder to see that they were gaining. ‘Darn it!’ I thought, and tried to make my legs go a little faster, even though my muscles were already screaming at me. Just as I thought I was lost for sure, Eli suddenly came barreling around a corner, and strait for me. The people chasing me scattered, and as Eli ran towards me, I thought surely we were going to collide. But somehow I must have grabbed hold of his trunk, and amazingly he swung me up onto his back. I know that sounds crazy, and I have no idea how it happened, but that's the truth. One moment I was on the ground, the next, I was sitting on an elephant.
It was probably the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me.
Just then, Brandon came running out of the tent, with the big burly guy not far behind. He ran up to us, and adrenaline must have given me super strength or something, because I managed to pull him up behind me. The next moment, we were out of there. Those elephants; they may look big, but boy can they run!
Now, I may have said that being up on an elephant was amazing, but actually riding one was not. It was really, really bumpy, and Brandon and I were sort of just hanging on for dear life. It was terrifying, but about halfway back to his house, my huge adrenaline rush got to me, and I started laughing hysterically. Brandon kind of gave me a look, and then his face changed, and he started laughing too. His laughter just made me laugh more, and boy the time we got back, we were just one big ball of bounced around giggly-ness!
Sliding off the elephants back, we were both grinning like idiots. “Come on!” Said Brandon, full of energy, and we ran into the house. Once at the computer, it was only a matter of minutes before the pictures were uploaded, and they were on their way.
“What do we do now?” I asked, as ‘Mail sent successfully,’ popped up on the screen. “Just wait?”
“Yeah,” said Brandon, nodding. “We can try calling him in an hour, if he doesn’t get to us first. I think the pictures will really do it though. I mean, if he has any feelings for animals whatsoever, they should.”
“It is awful,” I greed. “I hate to see anything treated like that!”
“Yeah,” he said again. Standing, he added “hey, why don’t we go watch TV or something, to distract ourselves.” Things seemed a little awkward, so I agreed hurriedly.
When we arrived at the living room, it was revealed that it was raining outside. The huge glass windows showed Eli standing miserably out there, as the rain poured down in long, silvery streaks. “Oh, that looks not fun!” I said, immediately feeling sorry for him.
“Hey,” said Brandon quietly, “you want to... bring him in?”
“Like, inside?” I said, grinning at the idea.
“Well yeah. If you don’t mind, that is.”
“Mind?” I said, laughing, but then frowned. “But what if he, like, ruins some of your furniture, or... poops...” I bit my lip with embarrassment at the idea.
“You know,” he replied, staring out into the rain, “I don’t think he would. I don’t know, there just seems to be something special about him. I’m not sure he’s a normal elephant.”
“Wow,” I said, looking at him with respect. “That’s weird, because I’ve been thinking the exact same thing.” Then I broke into a grin. “Come on, lets do it!”
“Okay!” Brandon said, grinning back at me.
Running into the rain, neither of us minded getting wet, in fact, it was kind of fun. I put my hand on Eli's slippery wet side, and we led him in. There was no way he should have been able to fit through the doorway, in fact, now that I thought about it, he shouldn’t have been able to fit through our classroom doorway either. But somehow, he did. As we padded through the house, with Brandon on one side and me on the other, I had to laugh a little. “You know,” I said, “I think this has been the strangest day of my life.”
“Oh, not for me,” said Brandon, “I’ve done a few stranger things.”
“Like what?” I said skeptically.
“I could tell you,” he replied, “but then I’d have to kill you.” I snorted, and then stopped walking, thinking. Brandon stopped too, but the elephant, somehow sensing he needed to get out of the way, kept right on going. Brandon and I were left facing each other, and I swallowed hard.
“Look,” I said, meeting his eyes. “I’m really sorry for the things I said. I - I was wrong about you, and it was stupid of me to think that I-”
“Hey,” he interrupted. “I was wrong about you too. I guess Eli’s taught us a few things, huh?” His smile was small, but it went all the way to his eyes. I blew out a large puff of air, and then grinned.
“He sure has.”
We were sitting on the couch and watching TV, a little more then a half an hour later, when the phone rang. I jumped quite violently, I’m afraid to say, and Brandon and I exchanged a nervous look. Silently, he stood, and walked toward the blinking, ringing phone. Next to the couch, Eli shuffled his feet nervously. I held my breath as Brandon picked up, saying “Hello?” Then he turned to me and gave me a huge grin. It had worked! It must have!
“So?” I asked eagerly, as he finally hung up after a short conversation that felt like it had taken hours, to me at least.
“It wasn’t the lawyer,” Brandon said seriously.
“It wasn’t?” My heart sank.
“Nope!” He grinned, unable to keep a strait face any longer. “He forwarded the pictures to a detective. Apparently that’s who we should have gone to in the first place.”
“Oh!” I said, immediately realizing how obvious this conclusion was. Detectives deal with animal mistreatment cases all the time. Like, duh!
“So, detective Slater said he would check out the circus, and thanks for alerting him”
“That's all?” I said, feeling disappointed. “We don’t get to help him or anything?”
“No,” Brandon looked just as disappointed as I felt. “But...” he said slowly, “he did say he was going there now. We could...” He trailed off, but I didn’t need him to finish.
“Lets go!” I cried.
“Are you sure?” he said, “we could get in trouble.” I gave him a look, and he widened his eyes and held up his hands, saying “fine! I surrender!”
“Good,” I said smugly. And so, we headed out into the rain once again. This, our third trip to the circus that day, wasn’t so fun and fascinating as the others. For one thing, it was still pouring, and it was very hard to see. Therefore, we were greatly relieved when the huge (albeit sopping), tents came into view.
We were heading towards the main tent once again, when I heard voices, and pulled Brandon behind a booth to hide. The big guy who’d tried to stop us walked by with another guy, who was dressed more nicely, and had a badge and a gun strapped to his belt. “The detective!” Brandon whispered, and I nodded. They were talking just loud enough for us to hear, and I strained my ears to listen.
“...Needed to check for animal mistreatment,” the detective was saying.
“Well, I don’t know why we would get charged,” the big man replied. “But you can check our our animal tent. There ain't many in there because we’re getting ready to leave. It’s a bit of a mess though...” Their voices faded out as they got further away, and Brandon and I glanced at each other, and then followed. The loud squelching of our boots in the mud seemed like thunderclaps to me, and I tried not to flinch every time I took a step. Fortunately the sound of the rain covered up any noise were making pretty well. Ahead of us, the detective and the guy went into the tent, and Brandon and I peeked in through a flap. My jaw dropped, and we looked at each other in dismay. The place was practically empty, with only a few animals penned in neatly, and although it was still a mess, it looked a whole lot better then when we’d seen it.
“Well,” we heard the detective say, “everything looks fine in here.” Brandon started tugging on my arm furiously, and we stumbled away from the tent to talk quietly.
“Someone gave them a heads up!” Brandon looked the most angry I’d ever seen him. “Who? Who could have done it?”
“That’s not important!” I hissed. “We can’t let the detective walk away, we need to find the animals!”
“Right,” Brandon said, focusing back on me. “They’ve got to be somewhere. Where could they have...” his voice trailed off, as his eyes landed on the patch of woods that lay only the edge of the field. The perfect covering for a bunch of animals, right?
Suddenly, I became intensely aware of movement behind us. We both froze, and then slowly turned around, to face the detective. There was a little silence, and then he spoke. “Are you the two kids who sent those pictures?” Beside him, the big man glowered.
“Yes sir,” I said, not even thinking about lying. This was a detective, remember, and that would just be stupid.
“I told you not to come back,” the detective spoke directly to Brandon now.
“Yes sir.”
“You kids have photoshop?” he asked suspiciously.
“Yes. I mean no, we didn’t do what you’re thinking!” Brandon stammered out.
“Mmmm,” the detective nodded, obviously not believing him for one moment. “I think you two should come with me. Sorry to have bothered you, Mr. Brown,” he turned to the other man, who was still glaring at us. I swallowed, trying to get some saliva in my very dry throat, and forced myself to speak.
“Wait detective Slater,” the words came out kind of squeaky, and I faltered. Brandon quietly took my hand and gave it a squeeze, and a surge of confidence filled me. “I know that you don’t believe us, but I swear that there are mistreated animals here somewhere. If you would just look around some more...”
“I don’t have time for this,” the detective said with annoyance.
“Just check in the forest then!” I pleaded, growing desperate. “Imagine how many animals they could hide in a forest if they wanted to!”
“Little girl, you watch too much TV,” the big man said, looking nervous as the detectives eyes automatically scanned the forest, through the rain. Then he turned back to us, and my heart sank.
“I’m going to have to agree with that-” he started, but then spun around as he caught a movement in the corner of his eye. We had all seen it. There was something in the woods after all. “On second thought,” he said quietly, “I think I will check it out.” He started walking towards where we’d seen the movement, and Brandon and I grinned at each other joyfully, before following.
“Hey wait!” Mr. Brown called after us, sounding close to panic. He barreled past us and stopped right in the detectives path, panting heavily. “You don’t have authorization to search anywhere except the main tent!” he said desperately.
“Mr. Brown,” the detective said smoothly, “surely you realize that the woods are hardly circus property? Besides, I have authorization to search anywhere I need. So now, if you would please get out of my way...”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said Mr. Brown, planting his feet. Brandon and I slowed to a stop behind the detective, and watched nervously.
“And why would that be?” he asked. The big man only tightened his lips grimly. The detective nodded, and then suddenly moved to the right. Mr. Brown blocked him. He moved to the left, and Mr. Brown blocked him again. Brandon and I glanced at each other, and then split, running around the brute in opposite directions. The detective saw what we were doing, and almost got by, as Mr. Brown reached for both of us, but at the last second he turned away from me, and swung his fist at the detectives jaw. He had Brandon by the sleeve, and I backed away, as the detective leered from the hit. Everyone seemed to freeze as he looked up, his eyes steely and gray.
“Mr. Brown,” he said, a bruise already forming on his jaw, “you do realize I have a gun, don’t you?” Slowly, ever so slowly, he pulled it off his belt, and my eyes followed it instinctively. My heart was racing like a horse. Obviously it didn’t have the same effect on Mr. Brown though, because he snorted.
“It’s not loaded I bet!” he sneered. Next to him, Brandon was tugging on his sleeve, trying to get away.
“Let go of the boy,” said the detective evenly. Mr. Brown tightened his hold on Brandon's arm. All in one motion, the detective stepped forward, raised his arm, and fired into the air. I jumped, and I could see Mr. Browns hands begin to shake, as he let go of Brandon.
“Now you’ll be so kind as to accompany us to the forest,” said the detective, not pointing the gun, or even threatening in anyway. Even so, Mr. Brown gulped, and turned towards the woods, his entire body tense with fear. We followed behind him, our footsteps the only sound except for the dripping of a strong rain. It had petered out by now, thank God, but I was absolutely soaked.
It took only a few minutes for us to reach the woods, but it was plenty of time for me to get completely nervous. What if we were wrong? What if no one was there at all?
I didn’t have to worry for too long, though, because as soon as we stepped into the dark woods, we immediately began to hear unhappy cries. Animals were crying, somewhere in there. The detective took the lead now, and we followed the noise to a tiny clearing, where packed together were just about all of the animals in the circus. Just as we broke into the clearing, one of the men on guard was in the process of kicking a cat that had strayed to close to the edge. The man looked up with terror in his eyes, as the detective made a small growly noise in the back of his throat. They were caught red handed.
Despite the awfulness of seeing the animals so miserable, I couldn’t help grinning. We had done it. We had helped save these animals, and everything would be all right now. That's what I was thinking, until Laura stepped out of the trees. I inhaled sharply at the site of her angry, almost sad looking face, and I felt Brandon stiffen beside me. What was she doing here?
The detective had been speaking in a flat, angry tone, although I hadn’t really been listening, when Laura interrupted him. “Detective!” her voice rang out across the clearing.
“Who are you?” he asked, looking confused.
“I’m one of the daughters of this man,” she nodded towards Mr. Brown, and I gasped. “I realize maybe my Dad hasn’t been doing everything right,” she pleaded, “but if you shut the circus down, he’ll lose his job!”
“I’m sorry,” the detective said, looking troubled, “but the law is the law, and you have not been treating your animals right!”
“Well then,” said Laura, her eyes narrowing, “there’s something you should know.” Her gaze swept to us, and there was nothing but hatred in it now. I began to get a very bad feeling. “These two,” she hissed, “they aren’t all innocent. I happen to know that they’re keeping a stolen elephant at their house!”
“A stolen elephant?” the detective looked incredulous. “You mean one of yours?”
“Uh, yes!” Laura said quickly, her eyes sliding away from his. Brandon turned and looked at me, both of us thinking the same thing. She’s lying. But if the elephant wasn’t the circus’s, whose was it?
I didn’t have time to puzzle over this long, as the detective turned to us and said, “what do you have to say about this?”
“She’s lying!” I said quickly.
“That’s ridiculous,” Brandon said at the same time. “I mean, how would we have stolen an elephant? They’re huge!” We glanced at each other, as the detective scrutinized us, and I grimaced. Why couldn’t at least one of us have been a good liar?
“Well,” he said, after a pause, “I’m sorry, but I guess I’m going to have to check your house, after we get finished here.” My heart sank, and my mind began to race desperately. What would we do? It wasn’t just like we could run in and hide Eli, I mean, he was an elephant! I looked at Laura angrily, but instead of looking smug, she just seemed miserable. Amazingly, I found myself feeling a little sorry for her. I could sense that Brandon was not sharing my feelings though; he looked boiling mad. I glanced at the detective, who was now on a cell phone, probably calling in the troops, and then risked talking to Brandon.
“What are we going to do?” I said quietly.
“I have no idea,” he replied grimly. “I can’t believe it was Laura! She always seemed so nice and sincere and...”
“Shhhh,” I shushed him, as the detective put away his cell phone. We couldn’t risk talking anymore, since he was already suspicious of us. So while we waited for the police to come, I tried to think of a plan. But none came.
By the time the detective was ready to come with us, the entire clearing was pretty empty, and we had been standing in the damp for more then two hours. I would have enjoyed the site of Mr. Brown being led away in handcuffs more, if Laura hadn’t been trailing sadly behind. Even Brandon looked a little remorseful.
“Well kids,” said the detective, turning to us when things were cleared up at last. “I guess you’d better take me to your house then. And don’t try any funny stuff, it’ll be better for you if you don’t.”
“Yes sir,” Brandon and I said together. We led the way out of the woods, knowing it was all over for us. The detective would take Eli, and we would probably get in huge trouble. What was I going to tell my parents? The only nice thing about the situation was that we got to ride in the car instead of walking back, this time, but that was small comfort.
As we pulled into Brandon's driveway, Brandon and I looked at each other for one long moment, and then took hands and climbed out of the car. The detective was already out, and walking around the house, looking for any signs of an elephant. ‘This is it then,’ I thought, ‘in a moment he’s going to find a massive footprint or something, and then...’ I shivered, and Brandon put his arm around me. A tiny sliver of hope sprang up in me as the detective came back around the house, smiling in a friendly way.
“Well, I didn’t find anything. My guess is to believe you; that girl was probably lying just to get you in trouble.” Brandon and I grinned in relief but then our smiles faded ase he continued. “I’d better just check in the house real quick, even though I know it’s pretty ridiculous.” He laughed, and then opened the front door and went in. Brandon and I stared at the spot where he’d been in horror, and then ran after him. We skidded to a stop as we came into the living room, where he was standing, and stared around in wonder. Where was Eli?
“Nice house!” the detective said to us with a grin.
“Uh-uh thanks,” Brandon stammered out.
“Well, looks like everything’s fine here. Sorry for bothering you, and thanks for all your help. You might have to come into the station...” his words blurred together in my mind, drowned out by my confused thoughts. Eli could not have possibly gone out the front door, he wouldn’t have been able to open it! So where had he gone? The detective left, but Brandon and I just continued to stand where we had come in, a little numb from the whole ordeal.
“Eli?” I finally called out. My throat was raspy, and it came out dry and whispery. “Eli?” I tried again, and it was louder this time, better. Brandon put a hand on my arm, shaking his head.
“I think he’s gone.”
“But how?” I questioned. “Where could he have gone?”
“Maybe back to the land of the elephants,” Brandon said, beginning to smile, “where he’s the king.”
“He was special,” I said, smiling too now. “Maybe he is from another land. Maybe he only comes here occasionally to help hurting animals.”
“It could be,” said Brandon. “It could be.”

Later that night, Brandon and I were sitting on the couch, eating pizza and watching a movie, when I suddenly heard a noise. “Did you hear that?” I asked, instantly aware. “It sounded like something was tapping the window.”
“Could it be...?” Brandon started, and then we both bolted off the couch, and ran out of the house. We slowed once outside, breathing in the cool night air.
“It’s probably not...” I said.
“We shouldn’t get our hopes up...” he said. Then we turned the corner, and stopped. There stood Eli, even bigger then I remembered, even more beautiful.
“Ohhh,” I breathed, the air whooshing out of me. Eli turned his head, and then walked towards us. We held out our hands to touch his trunk for the last time, and he nuzzled both of our faces gently. Then he turned, and started walking away. A tear slipped down me cheek, and then Eli... disappeared.
“Goodbye,” said Brandon, taking my hand, “King of the Elephants.”

Okay. I think I'm going to go take a nap now. Snnoooooooore.
Lol!

LOVE,
Annapants