Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Pink Elephants - On being a kid

"It WILL work..
it HAS to work.."

Hissed the Ant General as he slammed his fist into his open
palms repeatedly..

The other Ants surrounded him, eyes wide with determination,
fear, anxiety, anticipation, all meddled into one comprehensive, wild look.
The way one looks just before a gasp, a shout, or a scream.

They had finally devised the ultimate plan!

After months of having their houses down-trodden, their
winter supplies of food and artillery crushed and
scattered, their friends and family squashed asunder, they
would take it no more.

The terror would have to end.
The Elephant was going to die.

Having set the plan and divided their tasks amongst
themselves,
Armed with heavy artillery, and the powerful will to fight,
to survive, they climbed into their positions, waiting for
their enemy to show..

Finally, though a little later than they expected, the
elephant comes strolling into the clearing..

MASSive TREMENdously MAGNANAMOUS in size, it's every step a
clap of thunder, it's every breath a whirling hurricane,
raising dust and destruction in it's every move..
Then suddenly, when the time was JUST right..

"CHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAARGGEEEE!!!"
Bellowed the Ant general with ALL his might, with ALL the
breath, ALL the energy he had to claim as his own..
And all the other ants, suddenly climbing out from hide
outs, jumping from tree branches, hopping off leaves,
crawling out of acorn shells and under blades of glass, came
storming out!!!

Screaming and roaring with all their might as they did!! As
if blending into one huge noisy storm, blocking out any
thoughts, or fears or ideas of possible consequences..
it didn't matter now. They were there to resist, they were
finally going to stop it.
To their deaths they leaped.

Once all broke out, the elephant twitched it's ears
slightly, eyes rolling upwards to the right, trunk frozen in
midway..
All the charging and screaming and running of the hundreds
and HUNDREDS of ants, a mere zanna to him.. a sound he
wasn't even sure he heard..

Sure enough though, he could feel trickles of tickle running
down his spine, up his leg, around his trunk..
tickly indeed at first.. Maybe a little dust? perhaps a few
drops of sweat trickling down his body?
In minutes however he realized it was more than that..
suddenly itchy.. suddenly little bursts of tiny pain all
over..
the slight tail lash no longer effective.. he starts to
wiggle his ears, shake his feet a little rub his trunk in
the dust..
what WAS this?! an allergy?? was it something he ate??!

The ants on the other hand were SWAAAAAAARMING all over him!
He was GIGANTIC!!
Why, you would start climbing, hiking, running on
EEEEEEEEENDLESS scaly grey.. they couldn't see beyond it..
The very top was an unachievable summit to those that
started at the bottom.. so they just gnawed on as far as
they got..
The bottom completely unreachable to those that landed on
his back.. unless they thought to jump to their doom..
The smallest flicks resulted in the smallest and biggest
ants falling over the place.. being scattered this way and
that; some falling to their deaths, some landing elsewhere and
gnawing again..
But all gnawed, all bit, all chewed relentlessly..
they were GOING to get him..
The WHOLE world of him.. All they could see, and all they
couldn't see.. if each ant could just gnaw, could just BITE
with ALL it's might! They were going to get him..

Finally realizing, it wasn't an allergy, and with the little
itchy burning tiny little bursts of pain growing closer and
closer to together, and lapsing in shorter and shorter
periods of time, the elephant started to realize he was
getting numb all over..

So taking a deep breath, raising his trunk into the air in
all it's magnificence...
(causing the ants to stop momentarily.. For one can barely
overlook such a phenomena.. even with as much gnawing and
survival crave as they were engaged in..)

And then suddenly.. the big bang.
The elephant closed his eyes, turned his head to one side..
Trunk frozen in the air.
Feet planted firmly on the ground.
And gave his body, one STRONG , FIRM shake.
Head and body all at one.. tail and ears flapping in unison..

With that, all the ants.. all of them, were thrown into the
abyss.. All flew into the air surrounding the elephant, some
not aware of what had hit them, others anticipating the
possible shake had held on to dear life.. hands, legs and
teeth included, only to be torn away from the elephant with
just as much ease as the others, by an unseen, undetected
force..
for it was not the repetitive shake that tore them away, it
the initiation of it.. the first flick..
this is one situation where you could really say
"Before you knew it.."
indeed no one had known.. For they had imagined.. possibly
expected, anticipated....even feared. But none was to know..

Then having fallen.. most of the ants had survived the
fall.. (Ants, like cats, have many many lives.. as long as
you don't ruthlessly squash them between your fingers, and
squeeze all 9 out of them, you never really bother to find out what happens to an ant after you flick it away..)

So anyways, having fallen, one by one , then haphazardly,
they started to rise from the ground, pushing themselves off
the ground, pulling themselves off each other, lifting their
helmets off their heads, their weapons from over their
heads..

They looked up at the elephant. Still there.. true,
suddenly pink and purple all over.. but still there in it's
magnanimous glory..

Silence prevailed. No one spoke.
And then suddenly...

a gasp.

Someone saw him.... more ants saw him..

THEY ALL SAW HIM!!

There, dangling from the elephants neck, was one..
lone.. yet resisting ant!!

He dangled by his arm, his legs swinging as he struggled for
a tighter grip..

The ants all watched in silence, eyes wide, in definate
terror this time.. but some.. with a glimmer of hope..
Then suddenly, a single, yet strong FULL voice, echoed
through the crowd..

"EKHNO2O YA FAT-HIII!!!!"

And all the ants rooooooared in unison!
YES! YES!! Ekhno2oo Ekhno2o!!

Stop here.

Now. Being as old as we are now, or maybe a few years back
kaman, this last part would be quite funny!
Really, now, some of you might know the nokta..it's short,
and it's ridiculous, and yet something about it is just
ticklingly hillarious. At least to me.
Imaging a tiny sticky little ant, dangling by an elephant's
neck!!

If you told it to a kid on the other hand, and just stopped
at the 'ekhno2o' part, then they would probably sit there,
same perplexed look of concentration on their face, waiting
for what was to come next..

"Tsk.." they would say in exasperation..
"THENNNN WHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAT?!"
after all, the ant could have a venomous bite, and kill the
elephant by biting at the neck.. it might strangle the
elephant from where it is, pinch a jugular vein, poke a hole
in one, jump into the elephants mouth and poison it, swim to
it's heart and stop it, or quite simply, encourage all the
other ants to get back on..
the elephant was pink and raw by now, it would only take a few more bites to kill it, or at least teach it a lesson..

Isn't it ironic, that the older you get, the more you know,
the narrower the world becomes?
i mean all the possibilities lessen because you realize
you "can't really do this.." "this isn't possible"..
Shake your head with a knowing smile "it just doesn't work
that way..i know. it just doesn't!"

So you read , and you watch, you listen, and your 'taught',
and u 'broaden ur horizons' , and sometimes, that results in
teh world growing smaller and smaller.. until you trap
yourself in it..

Just wanted to share the thought. I honestly don't know
where the story came from.

Now take a deep breath in.. (DEEP DEEP LUNG EXPANDING DEEP
DEEEP BACK STRAIGHTENING DEEP DEEP NECK STRETCHING DEEEP
DEEP SPREAD YOUR ARMS)
Now enjoy the possibilities.. :)