Free Tua and the Elephant by R. P. Harris Page A

her to move on. She called encouragement to her calf and continued down the road with her cargo.
    “Oh no, Kanchanok. We can’t go there,” Tua whispered.
    “They’re from a tourist camp upriver, not the sanctuary. Mae Noi asked them to let her take the mother and calf until he’s stronger, but they said the mother must work.”
    Tua turned and pressed her forehead to the base of Pohn-Pohn’s trunk. Pohn-Pohn blinked and hugged her back.
    “Come on,” said Kanchanok. “We’ll be able to see the sanctuary from the ridge.”
    They climbed up and down the side of the mountain until they came to a clearing in the forest.
    “That’s it down there,” said Kanchanok. “That’s the sanctuary.”
    Tua looked down to what at first appeared to be a large farm. There were buildings and orchards, fields and gardens. But what made this farm unusual was the presence of so many elephants. There were elephants everywhere! Elephants bobbed and floated in the river. More were taking mud baths in pits on the shore. One elephant stood chest-deep in the shallows while people with buckets and brushes scrubbed it down.
    “Pohn-Pohn loves playing in the mud,” Tua said.
    “It protects their skin from mosquito bites and sunburn,” said Kanchanok.
    “Oh!” Tua patted Pohn-Pohn’s trunk. “Aren’t you smart, Pohn-Pohn?”
    “Look! That’s the new baby, Mojo. He’s only three months old.”
    A small calf with a thin tuft of black hair sprouting from the top of his head ran between the legs of his mother and auntie, his small trunk flailing inthe air like a runaway hose. The skin sagged on his little body as he romped on stubby legs, flapping his ears and flicking his tail.
    “He’s so cute,” Tua gushed.
    “That’s Poon under the tree,” Kanchanok pointed his finger. “She stepped on a landmine in Laos and lost part of her foot. That elephant with the limp is Roy. He was hit by a truck and came here with a broken hip. And that old bull over there is Kanda,” he nodded toward the river bank. “He’s blind, because some men cut off his tusks with a chainsaw and it infected his eyes. Pranee and her two calves, Lucky and Mee, look after him now.”
    Tua swallowed a lump in her throat. “It’s a hard life for an elephant, Kanchanok, isn’t it?”
    “Not so easy,” Kanchanok shook his head.
    “But they’re safe now?”
    “As safe as Mae Noi can make them. Come,” he said, “I’ll take you and Pohn-Pohn to meet her.”



CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
A Raft on the River
    The motorcycle and sidecar turned onto a dirt track and followed a crudely made sign with the words rafts for rent painted above a crookedly drawn arrow. The track ended at a crudely made house on the bank of the river. Nak and Nang walked around to the back and lifted their visors.
    There were two boys asleep in either end of a hammock as if wrapped in a cocoon. Chickens scratched at a yard strewn with bamboo poles and coconuts. A dog came out from under the porch, murmured a bark, scratched his ear, and crawled back under the house.
    “
Sawatdee khrap,
” Nak said to an old man in a swing chair on the porch.
    The old man stared down at them, as still as a spider.
    “Do you have any rafts for rent?” asked Nak. “We saw your sign on the road.”
    Instead of speaking, the old man tapped his cane on the floor three times.
    A pig came out of the back door, followed by a man. The man yawned and blinked his eyes.
    “
Khrap
.” He squinted.
    “We’d like to rent a raft,” said Nak.
    “A raft?” He scratched his chin as if trying to recall where he’d heard that word before.
    “You do rent rafts, don’t you?”
    “Of course. They’re all out at the moment,” he shrugged. “But now that I think of it, I might have one I could sell you.”
    “And how much would that cost me?” Nak raised an eyebrow.
    “Let’s see … I could let you have it for …oh … say a thousand
baht.
”
    “A thousand
baht
?” squeaked Nak. “It’s a bamboo