The Runaways Read online

  Yolanda looked up at the huge beast.

  ‘She’s been crying,’ she said, staring at the half-dried tears on Shanti’s face.

  ‘She’s very sad,’ AJ said.

  ‘All elephants look a little sad,’ his dad told him. ‘It’s the way their faces are.’

  But AJ didn’t believe him. He knew sadness when he saw it.

  ‘Here, Shanti,’ Yolanda called to the elephant, holding out a carrot from the wheelbarrow to her.

  Shanti came down the ramp a little way, stretched out her trunk, took the carrot from Yolanda and ate it. Then she came down the ramp a little further, plucked a cabbage from the pile of vegetables in the wheelbarrow and ate that too.

  ‘That’s it, Shanti,’ Mr Jones said. ‘Move back with the wheelbarrow,’ he told Yolanda. ‘Brisk march back to the farm now. Quick.’

  Shanti followed the wheelbarrow, helping herself to tasty carrots and apples, cabbages and maize while Yolanda kept the wheelbarrow moving as fast as she could because even when Shanti was walking slowly she was still going quickly.

  ‘It’s like the donkey and the carrot on the stick story,’ AJ said as he pushed his dad’s wheelchair behind Shanti and Yolanda.

  The news that the elephant had finally arrived at the station, and was on its way to Mr Jones’s farm, had spread through Stony Oakhill like wildfire. Villagers came out of their cottages to see Shanti. Some of them brought more food for the elephant.

  ‘Here, elephant, here,’ a lady said, holding out half a loaf of stale bread.

  Shanti whisked the bread away from her with her trunk and swallowed it in a single gulp.

  Others weren’t so brave and rolled cabbages to the elephant instead. Shanti picked them up in her trunk, took them to her mouth and swallowed them down.

  ‘Wheelbarrow’s almost empty and we’re not home yet,’ Yolanda said.

  Shanti was determined to finish off every last small plum and potato from the very bottom of the barrow and she kept on helping herself all the way through the village until they reached Forest View Farm and the barn that was to be her new home.

  ‘Home at last,’ said Yolanda and not a moment too soon. The wheelbarrow was now completely empty.

  The children pulled open the barn door. The barn had been filled with sweet-smelling hay and straw and although they thought Shanti should have been full she ate some of that too.

  AJ was worried again.

  ‘Should we tie her up?’ he asked, looking round for anything they could use. They’d left the chains she’d been shackled with back at the station, along with the elephant goad.

  ‘Why?’ his dad asked him.

  ‘In case she runs away.’

  ‘If an elephant truly wanted to run away there’d be nothing we could do to stop it,’ his dad said.

  ‘Oh,’ said AJ, now worrying that the elephant would run away.

  ‘Although it might be good if we put a cow bell round her neck so people are warned when she’s heading their way, that’s what we did in Ceylon.’

  ‘Should we take her beautiful headdress off?’ Yolanda asked.

  But her dad shook his head. ‘I think it’s best if we leave her be, let her adjust to her new home for tonight. There’s potatoes and carrots over in the corner and more hay up in the hay loft which she can reach with her trunk.’

  ‘She can’t still be hungry after all the food she’s had!’ AJ grinned.

  ‘Elephants eat up to three hundred pounds of vegetation a day,’ Mr Jones said. ‘And fifty gallons of water. There’s a fresh barrel of water by the door if she’s thirsty and we need to make sure it keeps being refilled. But why don’t we give her some space and let her rest now. It’s time you two had your supper and got some rest too.’

  ‘I’ll get it ready,’ said Yolanda.

  ‘Oh no, Dad. I’m not hungry at all,’ AJ said, although he was really. He just didn’t want to leave Shanti yet.

  ‘You’ll have plenty of time to be with her tomorrow. Come on now.’

  ‘Night, Shanti,’ said AJ, waving to her as he left.

  ‘Sleep well,’ said Yolanda, and she touched her trunk before following the others out of the barn, pulling the door to behind her.

  Yolanda and AJ were in bed when Shanti’s mournful bellowing began.

  ‘Maybe having an elephant living with us isn’t going to be such a good idea,’ Yolanda said, creeping into AJ’s room. ‘I didn’t know elephants could be so noisy.’

  ‘I told you she was sad,’ said AJ, sitting up. He knew the elephant was unhappy, whatever their dad said.

  When it was very late and dark and the farm was quiet, Shanti pushed open the barn door and went outside. She’d never been apart from Tara before and missing her was so painful she couldn’t bear it.

  She stood on the farm path and called to Tara using the elephants’ special deep call that was too low for people to hear. Her sensitive feet and ears were attuned for the slightest familiar vibration. There was no reply, but she didn’t stop. She carried on calling to her daughter throughout the night.

  Finally, just before dawn, she returned to the barn, went inside, lay down on the straw and fell asleep.

  Chapter 6

  By the time Carl and the ringmaster returned from the station, Harvey had finally managed to bite his way through the string that tied him to the tent peg and had gone – but not far.

  He watched from the bushes as the men dragged the little elephant back into the tent.

  ‘Dog’s gone,’ Carl said.

  ‘Good riddance to it,’ said Jedediah. He’d never wanted the old dog anyway.

  Harvey waited until the ringmaster and Carl had left the tent and then he crept back to it.

  Tara was tied with so many ropes that she couldn’t even stand up. The ropes had cut into her tender skin, but that wasn’t why she was sobbing. She was crying for her mum. They weren’t ever supposed to be apart, but now Shanti was gone.

  Harvey crawled over to her and whined as Carl and the ringmaster clinked glasses and celebrated in the caravan next door.

  Tara put her trunk out to him and he lay close to her. But nothing he could do could stop her from trembling.

  Harvey didn’t know where Shanti was. But he did know how to bite through a rope and once he’d bitten through the first one he was able to help Tara unwind herself and soon the baby elephant was free.

  The tent flap wasn’t secured and Harvey had opened it many times before. He looked up at Tara who had her trunk over his back. If she made her distinctive trumpet sound now their escape attempt would be discovered. Luckily the little elephant kept quiet and the sensitive soft padding on the bottom of her feet made her footfall as soundless as Harvey’s as the two of them slipped out of the tent and headed off into the night.

  Tara knew where they needed to go: back the way the men had taken her – back to where they’d left her mum – and she broke into a run with Harvey running along behind her.

  Before tonight Harvey had never been tempted to stray far from the circus where Albert and the two elephants that were his family were. But now he knew that he and Tara had to get away. The scent of Shanti was still strong as he and Tara headed back to the railway siding. But Shanti was no longer there.

  Tara had never been more than a few feet away from her mum in her life before today. Every night since she’d been born they’d slept with their trunks curled round each other. She called and called to her with the low rumbling elephant call, but her mum didn’t reply. Her head sank low as she stretched her trunk gently across Harvey’s back for comfort. The dog walked close to her so that she could feel his comforting warmth beside her. The little elephant hadn’t eaten anything since her mother had gone and her belly rumbled with hunger. Normally she had milk every few hours. She was thirsty too. There’d been no water since Albert had left.

  But they didn’t stop. The blackout that had been imposed across the country because of the fear of Zeppelins meant the two animals were able to pass out of the town of Whitehaven and into the countryside following the railway track unseen. Once there it didn’t matter if Tara made a sound. But she was too miserable to make her usual happy squeeing noise and called desperately into the air for her mum over and over instead, but Shanti never replied and the scent of her was gone now. They headed on towards the coast and away from the circus that was no longer their home.

  Harvey and Tara hadn’t been gone for more than an hour when Carl decided to check on the little elephant.

  ‘She should have stopped squealing for her mother by now,’ he said, as he staggered out of the ringmaster’s caravan. The night was beautiful and clear. Warm too.

  He pulled back the elephant tent flap and went inside. It was darker inside the tent than out, but he’d still expected to see a grey baby-elephant-shaped lump on the floor. He headed over to where he’d left Tara tied up as tight as could be. It didn’t make sense. He rubbed at his eyes. Where was she? He looked behind him and around the edges of the tent.

  He stumbled over something and picked it up. It was one of the ropes he’d used to tie Tara up. More of the rope lay scattered about. How on earth had the baby elephant managed to free herself?

  The ringmaster came in a few moments later with a lantern. Now they could both clearly see that Tara definitely wasn’t there. They stared at the ropes on the floor.

  ‘Someone must have helped her,’ Carl said. He’d tied those ropes himself. There was no way they could have just loosened themselves.

  ‘It wasn’t a someone. It was a something. Those ropes haven’t been untied or cut, they’ve been chewed through.’

  ‘Chewed?’ Carl said.

  ‘Yes, and I know who by,’ Jedediah said. ‘That dog …’

  Carl sat down on a hay bale.

>   ‘She might not have got far yet,’ Jedediah said. ‘We could follow her.’

  But Carl just shook his head, a weird look on his face. ‘She could’ve got quite a way away by now and we don’t know in which direction she’s gone. Best to let nature take its course.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Jedediah asked, his blood running cold.

  ‘Baby elephants are a lot like baby humans. She’s only what – two?’ Carl said.

  Jedediah nodded. ‘Just turned two.’

  ‘An elephant that young won’t survive without its mother for long.’

  ‘But we can’t just let her starve!’ Jedediah said, feeling dazed and a bit sick at what he was hearing. He’d just wanted some extra cash when he’d agreed to sell Shanti. But he hadn’t thought for a moment that her daughter would have to die because of it. The deal was he’d let Carl have Tara in exchange for a job at Cullen’s Circus. But now he wished he’d never made the dreadful deal. He’d been a fool.

  ‘Better get some sleep before we head over to Cullen’s,’ Carl said. ‘Don’t want those elephants forgetting who’s in charge.’

  ‘I won’t be coming with you to Cullen’s in the morning after all,’ Jedediah said slowly. His mind made up.

  ‘Suit yourself,’ Carl said. ‘Makes no difference to me.’

  As they trudged on into the early hours of the morning Tara’s walk became slower and slower. It had been a terrifying and exhausting day for the young elephant and she needed time and sleep to process all that had happened, as well as to grieve for the loss of her mum.

  Harvey was exhausted too and his leg hurt from where it had been cut.

  When Tara staggered and then lay down in the road, all Harvey wanted was to lie down too, but he headed towards the safety of some nearby bushes where they wouldn’t be so easily seen. He whined at the little elephant and Tara, who more than anything didn’t want to be left alone, crawled to her feet, stumbled her way over to him, lay down in the bushes and fell instantly asleep with a little sigh.

  Harvey watched her sleeping as he listened to the night-sounds of the wild animals in the woods around them before his eyelids grew heavy and he slept too.

  Chapter 7

  AJ and Yolanda, who’d fallen asleep to the sound of Shanti’s bellowing, were woken the next morning by the sound of the cockerel crowing.

  ‘We’ve got an elephant,’ said AJ.

  ‘A real-life elephant,’ said Yolanda.

  And they ran down the stairs and out of the front door to go and see her. But when they got to the barn, Shanti wasn’t there.

  ‘Where is she?’ Yolanda asked.

  ‘She must have run away,’ said AJ. But he didn’t want her to have done. Not one bit.

  ‘Her water’s all gone,’ Yolanda said.

  ‘And so’s her food,’ said AJ.

  They both had the same idea at the same time.

  ‘Maybe she’s gone to find some more!’

  Just then, they heard the sound of ducks angrily quacking and geese squawking and hurried out of the barn and along the farm track towards the pond.

  Shanti had drunk all of the water in the barrel in the barn so she decided to go outside to find some more. The ginger-and-white farm cat, Tiger, looked round from the mouse he was stalking, gave a yowl and jumped up on to the stone wall round the herb garden when he saw her. But he didn’t hiss as he would usually have done – she was much too big to risk doing that.

  Shanti went on down the farm path, past the stall that had once belonged to Noodles the donkey, and past the stables that had been the homes of Buttercup and Bluebell before they’d been requisitioned.

  At the end of the stables there was a barrel of rainwater and Shanti took a long, long drink.

  The few cows that the farm had were in the small pasture to the left, and on the rocky grassland and hills above were the sheep. Shanti had half turned to go and investigate the sheep and cows, when she spotted the pond.

  Usually, Albert gave her and Tara a bath in the morning. And now it was morning and Albert wasn’t there so Shanti decided to give herself a bath.

  The geese came rushing at her, honking, but with a squawk and a rustling of feathers quickly made way for her to pass as she strolled on. Shanti knew where she wanted to be and she wasn’t going to be distracted by squawking birds, be they geese or the ducks that were already on the pond.

  The banks were very muddy and it wasn’t easy for a big elephant to get into the pond as the sides were slippery. Shanti normally preferred a firmer footing, but she managed. And once she had got into the water she found it wasn’t very deep, at least not for an elephant. She sat down in the middle of the pond with the ducks watching from the banks, dipped her trunk under the surface to suck up some water and then squirted it, along with some mud, over her back.

  ‘Shanti!’ AJ called, as he and Yolanda came running.

  The big elephant looked over at him and raised her trunk in greeting, before scooping up more squelchy mud from the bottom of the pond and depositing it on her head.

  ‘Her beautiful headdress will be ruined,’ cried Yolanda.

  ‘I don’t think Shanti cares much about beautiful headdresses,’ said AJ. And he laughed as he looked at Shanti’s muddy new look.

  ‘She’s so beautiful,’ Yolanda said. ‘I never realized quite how beautiful elephants are before we had Shanti come to live with us.’

  ‘What if she won’t come out?’ said AJ. He didn’t envy anyone who had to try and persuade an elephant to do something it didn’t want to do.

  ‘She’ll come out in her own time,’ their father said, rolling along the path to join them. ‘We’ll just have to wait for her.’

  They didn’t have to wait long. Shanti gave a trumpet and came out of the pond a few moments later. She wasn’t used to duck ponds and bathing herself – Albert had always done it for her.

  Yolanda couldn’t bear to see the headdress ruined. It had almost fallen off Shanti’s muddy wet head and now it dropped on the ground. Yolanda picked it up.

  ‘I think I can repair it,’ she said. ‘Or at least give it a wash.’

  ‘What’s that,’ AJ asked, pointing to the bit of white paper sticking out from the star.

  Yolanda pulled it out.

  ‘It looks like a letter, but it’s got wet and some of the letters have run. I can’t read it properly.’

  The two children and their father pored over the paper while Shanti stood watching them.

  ‘Can you make any of it out?’

  ‘Just a name – “Tara”.’

  ‘Who’s Tara?’

  When she heard her daughter’s name. Shanti gave a bellowing trumpet that made them all jump.

  ‘Do you think it’s her friend? They might have had lots of elephants at the circus she came from, or at least two or three.’

  ‘Which circus did she come from?’

  ‘Lewis Brothers’.’

  ‘Do elephants have friends?’

  ‘I don’t see why not.’

  Mr Jones looked down at the paper and tried to decipher more of it but it was impossible.

  ‘I hope it wasn’t anything too urgent. I’m sure it can’t be. Her headdress isn’t the safest of places.’

  ‘So what should we do?’ Yolanda asked.

  ‘I think the best thing to do is write to the ringmaster I bought Shanti from and ask him what the note said,’ Mr Jones decided. ‘You two go and get Shanti’s food ready. I expect she’s hungry.’

  ‘I bet she’s always hungry,’ grinned AJ.

  Shanti looked after the children as they ran off and made a soft sad sound.

  ‘Don’t worry they’ll be back soon,’ Mr Jones told the elephant. ‘And they’ll be bringing your breakfast.’

  Chapter 8

  It was just after dawn and the sky was streaked with pink when Tara was awoken by a bluebottle landing on her. She’d fallen asleep in a bush not far from the railway track alongside Harvey who was still sleeping. But now she was awake, her strong sense of smell picked up an interesting salty scent and with it, far off, but not too far away for an elephant to hear, was the whoosh of waves.

  Harvey woke as soon as Tara stood up. He staggered to his feet and yelped at the pain from the injury he’d suffered the day before. Nevertheless he trotted after the little elephant as she headed, almost at a trot now, towards the exciting smell.