Ambush at Amboseli Page 4

  Rick had come back. He leaned back against the car with his arms crossed. His eyes were watching the Masai. I saw him look at a moran—that's what the young men who are warriors are called. He looked at the old women with their shaved heads and big beaded earrings.

  Finally the speech was done. Daddy walked over toward us. Rick stood up and said, "I'd really like some pictures of these people if you think it's safe. I'll pay, of course."

  The elder smiled when Daddy asked him. Mom let us get out of the car. I stretched, glad to be out in the action finally. Warm sun and the strong smell of dry cow dung from the manyatta surrounded me.

  Some of the Masai girls ran together and started dancing. They wanted Rick to take their picture. Dust spurted from under the dancers' feet. They sang in high, shrill voices. Their shoulders, hips, and hands jerked in time to a complicated rhythm. I grinned. Africa was full of the best stuff!

  Before Rick had finished getting his camera out, both of the Geislers came over. "Thanks for saving our hide!" Mr. Geisler said, wide-eyed. "I thought we were going to get lynched for a second there. Why so much fuss about paying for pictures?"

  All the time Daddy was explaining, neither of the Geislers would look at Rick. They didn't even look at him when he said something. Finally they got in their car and left. Rick stared after them, frowning. Then he went to take pictures of the dancers.

  The moran who had shaken his spear at the Geislers walked over near the line of dancers. He stood balanced on one leg, holding a long spear. The other foot was resting on the knee of the leg he stood on. The red cloth he wore outlined his sleek body. He looked proud and wild like an eagle.

  "Will you take a picture of me with him?" Rick asked Daddy. "Ask him politely. He doesn't look like a good man to offend."

  Daddy laughed, "You'll have to pay him, of course."

  Next to the sleek moran, Rick looked big and pale. Rick shook the moran's hand and paid him. Then Rick said, "I will be a warrior, too." He tried to copy the way the moran had been standing earlier. Rick couldn't do it. He couldn't balance on one leg with the other resting on his knee. The little Masai kids shrieked with laughter, and even the warrior smiled.

  When we drove off, the Masai smiled and waved. Little kids ran after our car, screeching and smiling.

  Sandy stared back at them, wide-eyed. She turned around and said, "Now I know why we never stop!"

  Daddy said, "Sometimes I think I'll never really have the patience I need to live in this country."

  "Hey, man, you did great!" Rick said. "After we got things straightened out, things were cool. I liked the old man and that guy about my age. Did you call him a moron?"

  We all laughed and Mom said, "No, moran. It means 'warrior.' Anyway, we should thank God that we're safe."

  I knew she meant that we should pray, but Rick didn't know that. He butted right in to ask more questions about the Masai.

  I watched out the window, only half listening, while Daddy talked.

  "Most of them still live the old way. They were a wandering warrior people who kept cattle. They lived on milk and blood from their cattle. They loved the cattle more than anything. No boy was considered a man until he had killed a lion or a man. They were so good at fighting that the slave traders didn't dare come into Kenya. When other tribes started wearing our kind of clothes and going to school, most of the Masai refused. The few that did go to school often did well. It's only recently that they've been sending more of their children to school."

  "You'll see more of them in Amboseli Park," Mom said. "They're allowed to graze their cattle in the park."

  "Are they poachers?" Rick asked.

  "Not that I've heard of," Daddy said. "In fact, they probably keep poachers out. They don't like other people on their land. The elephant herds are healthier in Amboseli."

  It was late afternoon by the time we got into Amboseli National Park. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is near Amboseli. It's so huge it fills up a whole section of the sky. Right then we couldn't see anything except the bottom of the mountain. The rest was under the clouds. Nearly every day Kilimanjaro makes itself a new cloud blanket.

  Tsavo, the park we'd just left, was different from Amboseli. Tsavo was wide, hot, dusty, and wild. It didn't have any center. Amboseli does. The heart of Amboseli is a huge swamp.

  After we came into Amboseli we saw zebra, wildebeest, and little gold-and-black Thomson's gazelle. We saw a secretary bird stalking through the grass, looking for snakes to eat. Daddy wouldn't stop. We were coming up on the eastern edge of a new part of the swamp when I saw them.

  "Elephants!" I yelled, pointing. I could see two grey backs over the thick thornbushes.

  "Where?" Mom asked, craning to see.

  "There!" Rick said. "There by that big yellow-barked tree."

  I looked for the tree, and there were more elephants.

  "One, two, three…" Sandy counted. "There's ten of them!"

  Daddy had slowed down, but he still wouldn't stop.

  "Can't we stop?" I pleaded. "Just for a second?" In Amboseli cars aren't allowed to go off the roads. The tourists were following the big cats around so much that the cats couldn't hunt except at night. It made it hard for the lions. Some of the cheetahs died, so the park made a rule not to go off the roads. I knew we couldn't drive over closer to the elephants.

  "There will be more elephants tomorrow," Daddy said. "We still have to register, get set up, and make our supper."

  "Please?" Sandy broke in. "Rick hasn't seen any wild elephants up close yet."

  "Never mind me," Rick said. "Besides, isn't that group going to cross the road?"

  It was, too. There were three of them coming toward the other elephants. Daddy would have to stop now, with elephants right on the road.

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  Chapter Five

  The biggest elephant was in front. It paced slowly and gracefully toward us. One huge front foot swung forward. The foot got way wider when the elephant stepped down. I could hear a quiet scuffing sound. My insides suddenly jiggled and the car seemed to vibrate a little. All three elephants swung around.

  "Oh, cuuuute!" Sandy said.

  There was a baby elephant trailing behind. The elephants hurried back to the baby. My insides jiggled again.

  "Did you feel that?" I asked.

  Nobody answered. I shrugged. I was probably imagining the jiggling. How could elephants jiggle my insides, anyway?

  The baby was with its mother now. He was leaning up against her while she stroked him with her trunk. He looked tired. His little round ears drooped.

  "Look at the fuzzy hair on its back," Mom said softly.

  The big elephant looped her trunk around him and hugged him tight under her. She put one front leg a little forward. Then I saw her teats, there between her front legs. She was trying to get him to suck. He tried a bit. Then he quit and leaned against his mom. I wondered, Is there something wrong with him?

  After a minute the elephants started moving again. When they crossed the road in front of us, one of the middle-sized elephants seemed to be trying to help the baby. That's when I saw.

  "Look, the baby is hurt!" I blurted. "It's limping! Something is wrong with its back leg." It hurt me to watch it limp tiredly after its mother. I spun toward Rick and said, "You're going to be a vet, can you tell?"

  He was watching the baby, frowning. "Hip dislocated?" he said, not sounding sure. The baby was dragging its left back leg.

  Just then the other elephants saw the big elephant coming. Three hurried over. The way they touched each other with their trunks, you could tell they were glad to see each other. As soon as its mother stopped, the little elephant lay down flat underneath her to rest.

  I watched it lie there, and I felt terrible! That leg probably really hurt. "We've got to get somebody to help it!" I blurted. "We've got to."

  "Anika," Mom said. "I know how you feel, and I'm sorry. But I don't think anybody can help. It's a wild animal."

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bsp; "They have to!" I insisted. "Look how tired it is." I thought about leaving the little elephant to hurt and hurt. My throat got tight with panic. "It's not fair!" I yelled.

  "You're right. It's not fair. But things won't be fair until Jesus comes back and all creation is free of the suffering from sin," Mom said. "We fight the suffering when we can. But I don't see how we could possibly do anything about this."

  "You just don't care!" I said, sticking my chin up. "You just don't want to do anything about it!"

  "Settle down!" Daddy said. "That's enough."

  I crossed my arms and shoved myself back into the corner of the seat. I frowned and tried hard not to cry. Getting mad always made me feel horrible. I felt terrible for yelling at Mom. I felt even worse about the baby elephant hurting. I glanced at Rick. The way Mom and Dad acted, no wonder he thought Christians didn't care. I didn't even look up when a whole troop of baboons crossed the road.

  When we were driving up to our cabin I suddenly remembered Dr. Field.

  "We can tell Dr. Field!" I blurted. Everybody was getting out of the car. I didn't budge.

  "What, Anika?" Mom asked, sticking her head back in to look at me.

  "We can drive and find Dr. Field and tell him. You know. He's that American scientist man that came up to our school once. Like, he studies how animals talk. He said he was going to start working on elephant talk. He said he'd start by working with that lady who studies elephants in Amboseli. So he's here, see. He's nice. We can go find him now. We'll tell him, and—"

  "Anika," Daddy said, cutting in. "Stop sulking about that elephant. There's a lot of work to do right now. Get out of the car and get busy. If you must, we can talk about the elephant later. Mom already told you, it probably can't be helped."

  Usually family devotions is our time to talk. Rick wasn't there. He'd gone to his room, saying he wanted to write in his journal. I frowned at Daddy, who was reading the Bible to us. Rick probably didn't want to hear us talking about God. Already he thought Christians didn't care about nature. Mom and Daddy wouldn't even help with the baby elephant.

  "Dad," Sandy said, interrupting, "how come it seems like you think it's OK for Rick to swear? I don't get it. Swearing is wrong, right?"

  "Right, swearing is wrong," Daddy said, smiling. "It's wrong all the time for anyone to use God's name in vain. It's also wrong to use coarse words for body functions. God made us in his image, and it dishonors him and us to use filthy language. But, Rick doesn't know Jesus. It's not proper for us to try to force God's rules on him before he knows God's love. While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us."

  "Still, we shouldn't let him think God is bad!" I blurted angrily. "When he said Christians treat animals like things, you didn't even argue. All you said was something about half the truth and not all of it. That doesn't even make sense!"

  "It's complicated," Mom said. "The Bible teaches the truth, that people are shepherds of nature. That means we are in charge of it for God. God is the real boss. When he made things, he said they were good. He wants us to take good care of the things he created on earth. But people got greedy. They only wanted to remember that they were in charge. They didn't want to remember that God is really boss."

  "Oh, I get it," I said. "The half of the truth they wanted to keep was that they were in charge of nature. Now people even say they own it. So then they think it's OK to ruin it if they want to get something like gold or whatever."

  Daddy nodded and said, "That's why what Rick says is partly true."

  "So we have to help the baby elephant to show him he is wrong!" I said triumphantly.

  "Anika," Mom said, sounding tired, "we can't bother busy scientists about a hurt wild animal. I'm almost certain it can't be helped anyway."

  "We can!" I said desperately. "They're studying the elephants. They care, even if you don't!"

  "Look," Daddy said, "I don't like your tone of voice. If they are studying these elephants they almost certainly already know about the baby. Now that's enough!"

  I bit my lip, thinking it was no use talking to them. They just didn't care.

  That night I couldn't go to sleep. I frowned in the dark. Well, if Mom and Daddy didn't care, I did. God told us to take care of creation and that included baby elephants. I knew that God also wanted me to listen to my parents, but I shut that out of my head.

  "Anika?" Sandy whispered.

  I pretended to be asleep. She called twice more, then was quiet.

  I turned over. Every time I shut my eyes I saw that poor, tired baby elephant. I remembered that Mom had said that she and Dad fight the suffering when they can. Yeah, sure! I thought angrily, but they won't even do anything to help the baby elephant.

  I clenched my teeth. I'll go tell Dr. Field myself, I thought fiercely. I'll get up early before anyone else. I'll walk to the gas station down the road and make someone take me to Dr. Field. I'll show Rick that Christians care.

  I was way too mad to pray. That should have warned me right then. Anytime I'm too mad to pray, it seems like I end up doing something stupid.

  When I was almost asleep, I suddenly remembered what the Geislers had said. A sick feeling washed over me. Daddy had said they'd gone to mission headquarters. I bit my lip. Could they really get Mom and Daddy kicked out of the mission? I shook my head and turned over. I couldn't fix the thing with the Geislers. The baby elephant was different. "I will help him. I will!" I whispered as I dropped off to sleep.

  Sometimes I can wake up when I tell myself to. It worked that morning. It was dark in the cabin, but when I looked out, the sky was dim grey in the east.

  The baby elephant, I thought, and I shivered. I'd never just gone off on my own before in the game park. I knew that this was wild, dangerous country. "I don't care!" I whispered and got out of bed. My knees quivered when I stood on one foot to pull my shorts on.

  A few minutes later I was walking down the road behind the cabins. I smiled a wide smile. I was actually doing it! I was going to get help for that baby elephant. Cool wind stroked my cheeks. The air was full of birdsong. Kilimanjaro hadn't made its cloud hat yet. The smooth, snowy top shone pink where the sun touched it. The dust came over my thongs when I stepped into the soft powdery places on the road. It felt cool on my feet. All of the earth was singing a wild psalm of praise to God.

  I spun in a circle, throwing my hands out to the beautiful morning. Then I stopped. What would Mom and Daddy think when they found out I was gone? What if they thought a lion got me? I should have left them a note at least. I bit my lip, suddenly wanting to go back.

  "What about the baby elephant?" I whispered to myself fiercely. "How do you think he feels?" I thought of how he had looked leaning tiredly against his mother. I will help him! I thought and kept on walking.

  There were African men at the filling station. They were putting fuel into the zebra-striped minivans that the tourists rent. I hesitated. Would one of them really take me to Dr. Field? Suddenly I was afraid to ask. Those men are busy. Besides, they'd probably just make me go back, I thought. Well, I won't go back!

  I walked quickly past on the other side of the road. A couple of vervet monkeys in the big trees there chattered at me. A few minutes later I was out in the grasslands on the road to Amboseli Lodge. My insides quivered with fear. I knew perfectly well that no one was supposed to walk alone in the game park.

  Still, it was exciting. I'd always wanted to walk so I could really touch, hear, and smell things. "Amboseli Lodge isn't too far," I told myself. "I'll get someone there to take me to Dr. Field."

  Gold sunlight washed down across me. My shadow stretched across the dusty grass. I stuck my chin up and tried to look like an explorer. Explorers had walked all across Africa. A little Thomson's gazelle flicked its tail and trotted away.

  "Nhuh-nhuh!" something grunted. I jumped, but it was only a zebra. Their sound is like the beginning of a horse's nicker. Three of them were standing in a row staring at me. There were more zebras and some wildebeests behind them.

/>   Suddenly a wildebeest went into a wild dance. They do that sometimes. I couldn't help grinning, watching this one. Another joined it, then another. Wildebeest are goofy-looking gazelles. They're brown-grey with a scraggy mane like a horse. Now these three were kicking high, twisting like broncos, acting like they'd suddenly gone crazy with joy.

  When I looked down the road again, I could see elephants. I froze. They had come out of a patch of bush. If I kept going they would see me. I stood still, almost holding my breath. What did explorers do with elephants?

  The elephants were coming toward me. I felt bare and small in all that open space. There was nowhere to hide. If I even moved they'd see me for sure. I crouched down, making myself as small as I could.

  Maybe they won't care even if they do see me, I told myself. I hugged my knees, trying to make myself smaller. I wished I was beside some cows so I'd look like a Masai herd boy to the elephants. I knew that animals are nervous about things they're not used to. Somehow I didn't think these elephants would be used to a twelve-year-old white kid walking around by herself.

  The elephants were closer now. They swung steadily along, obviously going somewhere. The one in front had a notch in her ear. She swung her trunk back and forth along the ground as she walked. They loomed bigger and bigger. Elephants had never seemed this huge when I watched them from the car. I could see the pattern of skin wrinkles on the front elephant's forehead. She was heading a little to my left.

  I held still and prayed in my head, Please God, these are your elephants…

  I didn't get any farther. A half-grown elephant suddenly lifted his trunk and swung toward me. He froze, ears out, trunk up, sniffing and listening. He squealed. The whole bunch whirled toward me. Their raised trunks and wide ears made them look even bigger. My insides ached, and the back of my throat tasted like vomit.

  After a long minute, the big lead elephant put down her trunk. She started walking again, but she turned a little to the left to go by me. Most of the herd followed her. The one that smelled me first didn't go. He was still staring at me. It was a half-grown boy elephant. He wasn't very big for an African elephant. Still, he was way too big for me. Now he snorted at me and flapped his ears. He took two shuffling steps toward me, kicking up dust. Then he watched to see if anything would happen.