An elephant, never forget

I had to do laundry.

It was lunchtime, and my clothes still weren’t dry (or clean, but I had given up on the stains ever leaving), so three others and I started walking down the road to eat at our camp.

Three hours later I felt like I couldn’t move my limbs.

The road was dirt and we were halfway up it, outside the gated research camp with one washing machine and wireless Internet. We didn’t see the elephant in the brush, but sure enough, there he was, not 10 meters away, his face and trunk and tusks facing us.

“Oh shit,” said Dan.

And the elephant stepped into what, in my mind, became a play. He took a step. We had startled him. He shuffled forward. We scurried back.

“No, don’t move! Stand here, stand here. Look big.”

“What are we supposed to do for an elephant? I forgot. Don’t climb a tree?”

My knees were wobbling too.

“He’s going off. He’s going to cross the road.”

“We should back up and walk to the research camp. You should back off from an elephant, right?” I said.

“He’s going to cross the road. He’s crossing.”

Elephant began to cross, but when he hit the middle, he stopped. He turned his body—it swayed like a two-story building —and faced us. It’s okay, I thought, he won’t trumpet.

“Oh my god, you guys,” Courtney said.

And then he did trumpet, shrill and fatal. It was the only thing in the world I could hear. My body was shaking but my head was clear. My mind had prepared me to die, I think. Tim said later that he felt the same way. My thoughts were all actions and I don’t think I could have felt any pain if his tusks had gouged me. If he charges, I will drop my computer bag and run, I thought. But it’s okay, he won’t charge.

Then he ran at us.

“Run! You guys, run!” Dan shouted.

I’m not sure when we all started to run, but I found I had turned and bolted and dropped my bag. When he turned, trumpeted and started forward was the last time I saw him. We knew we couldn’t outrun an elephant, but our bags might distract him.

“He’s crossed, he’s perpendicular to us now, guys,” yelled Dan, but I kept running; I was ahead of them somehow, separated. We got into the gate, closed it and called our teacher to pick us up, and he was able to get my laptop and Courtney’s shoes from the road. We were all fine, but I had never actually feared for my life like that before.

They saved plates for us at lunch. I waited for several hours to be driven to pick up my laundry and the next day I forced myself to walk the road to the research camp again so I wouldn’t be scared of it when we return to this part of the park in November. My heart started pounding when we reached that bend where we’d met him. It had been a mock charge, or we would all have been dead, and I know in the future that I should not run unless it is a real one. Nevertheless, despite that incident, I’ve decided that I still can love the elephants.

Ah, how different from Duke this is.

Rachna Reddy is a Trinity junior. She is studying ecology in South Africa for the semester. Her column runs every other Wednesday.