Page 50 - Dark Matter Issue5 Part II

There was no attack, no threat, nor had there been for all the time we had been with him

over four days.

Now he ambled very slowly ahead of us down the stone-faced incline that was also

masking the diminishing light. We might have thought he was oblivious to us if he had

not defecated several times along the way. A sign of honor. Connection. (When

Elephants meet after being separated, sometimes only for hours, they are overjoyed to

be in each other’s company and this is expressed through pissing and defecating.)

I kept reminding our impatient guide, eager to return to the Lodge, to slow down and to

wait. It was 7:30 and we were an hour late and tired. It was difficult to contain all the

energies and stay parallel or behind the Great Elephant so that he could lead.

The Great Elephant came to the stony edge of the slope where the wide plain of the

desert opened before us. He stopped. He pissed and defecated again. Not one of us had

ever seen such frequency. Slowly, then, with utter presence, he proceeded up the rise

and as he paused to spray himself with dust, he caught the exact and fleeting angle of

the ruby light of the setting sun.

Then he went on, his footsteps, mysteriously filling with a sourceless light.