Elephant Gerald

The River Beast, Part II 

 

A simple morning of fishing turned into a disaster. John Cole Crane was sniffing for fish before stepping into the river when something caught his legs, and he disappeared like a rabbit down a watery hole.

Elephant Gerald didn’t see what happened. He was too busy looking for his lucky lure at the time. Billie Goat Holiday didn’t see what happened. She was off pouting that Gerald didn’t even notice her new play dress; and what’s worse, she was going to have her ears clipped by her mama when she got home for wearing it. Django Rhinoceros didn’t see a thing either, but because he fancied Billie so much, he wanted to impress her.

“Billie, did you see me trying to save John from that awful alligator?” said Django.

“Alligator? You sure you saw an alligator, Django?” Billie asked in alarm.

“I couldn’t quite make it out, but it had a long bumpy tail…and…and eyes on the top of its head. If it wasn’t a gator, it was some big river beast!” Django was trying to sound convincing.

Django almost never lied, but when he did he got real nervous. And when he got real nervous, he would sway back and forth like when he was playing his guitar.

Now Gerald was even more frightened. John didn’t just get caught up in the current, there was a river beast trying to eat him for breakfast! He looked at the crane’s head bobbing in and out of the water with his wings flapping to keep him afloat.

“C’mon you guys, let’s get ahead of him and find something he can grab on to,” yelled Gerald.

Django suddenly realized it really could be an alligator and raced to catch up to Gerald.

“Squaaaaawwwkkkkkk,” John screeched. “Big Ike’s got me! Or a python! Or a gator! He’s swallowin’ my leeeeeeeeeggggsssss Geraaaallllddd!” And down he went again.

Back where they started, Billie was pacing back and forth, so nervous she couldn’t stop bleating. “Oh why did I…baaaaa-aaaaa… wear my new dress? If I go with them, I’ll get muddy and…baaaa-aaaaa… mama is gonna’ tan my hide. If I stay, what would Gerald ever think of me?” Then Billie thought of John being eaten by a ferocious river beast in the depths of the muddy river, with nothing left but feathers floating on the water.

“Oh pshaw, my mama’s gonna be madder than a wet hen for me wearin’ this dress today anyway! I’m a-comin’ Johnny…baaaaa-aaaaa! I’m gonna’ help save you even if I have to jump in and tear that gator’s mouth open myself!”

John didn’t hear a word Billie said. As he was struggling to keep afloat and get his two legs out of the large mouth that was pulling him down river, he was thinking how strangely smooth the inside of an alligator’s toothy mouth was. Or maybe it was indeed a very, very large Big Ike.

By the time Billie caught up to Gerald and Django, Gerald had come up with a plan to save John Cole Crane from the clutches of the river beast. Just up ahead there was a sharp bend in the river. Right at that point a big old Tupelo tree was bent over the river like an old man with a cane. Spanish moss was hanging down touching the water. Gerald was relieved that Billie had finally caught up to them.

“Where you been?” Gerald asked her. “Good thing you got that old dress on, you’re a mess!”

Billie looked down and saw her new dress had two rips and was mud-splattered all over the bottom. “That’s right, Gerald, it’s just an’ old dress!” she said, and stomped her hoof.

“Forget the dress,” said Django. “Why are we stopping? We just got ahead of John.”

Indeed, they had run so fast they were now in front of the crane, and he was quickly heading right toward them.

“Hurry! Let’s get to that tree down there,” Gerald said. “We’re going to have him grab onto that branch!” He ran so fast, he tripped on a root sticking out of the ground, nearly landing in the water himself.

“Gerald, you can’t be falling in the water too,” Billie said. “Now get up and tell me exactly how we are going to get him to grab onto that branch?”

“She’s right, Gerald,” said Django. “I don’t think John’s gonna’ be able to reach it from the water.”

The three of them looked up at the old granddad of a Tupelo tree. Gerald realized it was much larger than it looked from far away.

“I don’t know,” Gerald said nervously. “But I do know this…Johnny bird is heading down river fast, and if we don’t catch him here, that beast in the river is sure to swallow him whole.”

Come back next Sunday for the conclusion of "The River Beast" and find out what creature has a hold on John Cole Crane in the muddy bayou river.