Elephant!--Linden

I am going a little bit out of order here. I am now going to talk about my experience when I was at Machaba safari on the last night. That was one of my many experiences at that place. That night, we were eating dinner out at the dining area at the big, long table with a beautiful tablecloth and table setting. Christian, Sean, and Albert heard something rustling in the trees. Sean told our family that there was an elephant right by her tent!Of course, I did not believe them because we did not hear anything, and it sounded much like a joke. Once we had a wonderful dinner and a scrumptious dessert, we headed down the short dark trail along with all three of them to our tent. At that time, I was still not a believer that there was an elephant. As soon as I saw the look on Albert's face who was ahead of us, I knew it was not a joke. There was an elephant right in front of our tent in the darkness so that you could only see the shadow. It was a big grey shadow with a trunk hanging down from the giant head and ears. It was swinging back and forth and then it was shown between the two front legs of the ginormous body. The elephant now was staring right at us. Of course, Sean was standing right out in the open with no fear at all of the six-ton beast. Christian was standing by us, who were behind Sean, smarter, and Albert was behind a tree even smarter. Asher, Dad, Mom, and I were completely in shock staring at the body that took up about a fourth of our little area in front of our tent.Once the elephant started walking closer step by step, we all made the executive decision to go back to the campfire and wait for the elephant to leave except for Dad that stayed for a bit longer with Christian.Dad came about 3 minutes later.We all moved chairs closer to the fire and huddled around it for about fifteen minutes.By that time, it was about 10:00 and Asher and I were supposed to be getting ready for bed if not already in bed.We actually had an excuse not to this time.At that time, the parents went to the wifi umbrella to do parent stuff while Asher and I were still at the fire.Soon, we got escorted by our little posse down to our tent once again, hoping that the elephant would be gone, but no.It was not.A little farther away, but still grazing.While we stopped and stared at the elephant, it moved its way closer, stopping at a big tree right next to our tent.Like 3 feet from it!Then, I heard the loud sound of violent rustling of the gigantic tree while twigs snapped, and I heard plops on the ground.I knew the elephant had shaken the tree, but why?Christian told us that it was so it could eat the pods that dropped.Once the rustling stopped, the giant tilted his head down and picked up the pods with the trunk that was as long as the legs.They were shoveled into the mouth and crunched up very loudly.Albert told us seconds after that he could safely get us into the tent, so we hesitantly excepted.Once we were inside the wall that was about a millimeter thick, the rest left, and it was just an 11 year old and 14 year old alone with an elephant 7 feet away.Great.We tore off our shoes and preceded to the adult bed to lay down on it and be face to face with the animal.The elephant did not care about us in the slightest.He would give us one glance then look away and start shaking the tree again.When he shook it with all of his elephant force, I could hear plops of the pods go onto the tent.Oh no!I thought.If he tried to get them, he would tear the tent!But when he grabbed them, the tent was still very much intact.Since it was so late, after five minutes of watching the once in a lifetime opportunity, Asher and I brushed our teeth and got ready for bed.We were very cautious not to make any loud sounds and that included not using our electric tooth brushes.We decided that it was okay to turn on just the bathroom light, but everything else was only partly illuminated by the strong moonlight that made even the sky bright in the dark.After getting brushed and flossed and everything, Mom and Dad got escorted back to our tent house and in the door while Mom had scuba eyes and hugged both of her children.We had a quick reunion and then all turned our heads to giant head still peering in the screen window.Dad gave out a small chuckle and we all joined in.We all were thinking about how crazy we were and how in the world we got here.We all stared out the many windows at the elephant who would move around the tent for better food.Soon, he made his way over to the left side of the tent next to a big tree.By that time, Asher and Mom had peeled off doing their own things, but Dad and I remained.Then, there was a loud scratching sound that made me get goosebumps.The elephant was scratching himself on the tree!The tree was already bent about ¼ of the way up towards the tent and with 5 tons pushing on it, I was convinced it was going to fall right on us.Luckily, it did not.The animal kept moving back and forth to get better angles to scratch.The sound was like sandpaper but so much more powerful.The elephant kept moving slowly forward, making his way towards the back side of the tent.He especially liked the booty scratches.While that was happening, Dad was yell whispering to Asher and Mom to get their butts over there, but only Mom listened.The elephant made his way to the back of the tent where we could not see but could still hear.For a fast second, there was peace, but then, the trees breaking was right next to us, sounding like it was going to break through the thin wall!But it was on the back of the tent, outside the bathroom.All of us peered our way through the screen there, and soon, the shadow appeared.Closer and closer until something was going to break if the shadow came any closer.Two big eyes peered over the outdoor shower wall into the indoor shower room where four humans were squeezed into.The shadow of the head disappeared while it went down to get more leaves to eat.It felt that it was pressing on the tent!Mom left and the elephant peered over again with a big mouthful.Soon, an intense ripping sound came out of nowhere and the tarp that separated my 125 pound body and the 12,000 pound body was damaged.At that second, Dad shoved his way between us while the elephant relaxed again.We all made our way out of the bathroom while Asher and I giggled.Mom was completely freaked out and told us harshly that it was not funny, that the elephant could have killed us, but one look from the rest of us subsided that lecture to laughter.