The Elephant Who Learned How to Climb

No one ever asked him what he wanted to be. Ever since his first steps, his father showed him off to his friends and boasted, “Look at his strong legs, he’ll surely be a Climber!”. The Climber. The one that his parents couldn’t be, despite their burning desires.

So when he was supposed to play with his other friends from the jungle, the little elephant was snatched away from the playground and enrolled to a “jumping school”. Specialized teachers like kangaroos and grasshoppers had been enlisted to clear the basics of these little admitted kids. It was their sole responsibility to train them so that they could be ready for the next step, climbing.

The elephant tried hard. Really hard. Animals laughed as he tried to jump with his round belly, balancing himself with his long snout. Tears got mixed with the dirt as he fell on his face everyday. His sobs were masked by the laughter of his classmates. Still he didn’t give up. He did not want to see his parents upset. In a few years he learnt to leap over small shrubs and bushes, which was enough to get him enrolled into the climbing classes. But maybe it was not worth his bleeding tusks.

Climbing classes included more specialized teachers like the bear and the cheetah. They were considered the best, since they had once taught even a goat to reach the top branch of the famous Old Oak at the end of the jungle. Their other accomplished students, the orangutan and the raccoon, had their pictures carved on every tree bark in the jungle. The elephant parents were pleased to see that they had brought their son to the right place. But no one asked him if he wanted to learn it.

Soon the judgement day arrived. The day had come when all the students were to be tested of their climbing skills. The most consistent climber in the history of the jungle, the Gecko read out the rule: whoever keeps his paw on the highest branch of the Old Oak shall be proclaimed a proper climber. The whole jungle had arrived to see their new generation take over their places in the jungle. The elephant parents had come to cheer for their son, who they believed would surely be called a Climber in a matter of hours. What they did not know was how many nights their beloved son hadn’t slept. How many days that their depressed son had spent listening to others that he could never be a Climber.

The test started. The first ones to reach the top were the squirrels, followed by the snakes and the raccoons. The whole jungle applauded as slowly all the participants reached the top of the Old Oak and kept their paws on the highest branch. Within a few moments, every participant completed their quest, except for the elephant who silently stood beside the tree with his head bowed down as his tears watered the roots of the Oak.
“Get up son! You can do it! “, his father cried. But soon his shouts were drowned out by the sobs of his mother, as well as the degrading chants of the others, some of whom were ecstatic, as if they had been waiting almost their whole life for this moment. It soon became a circus for the audience, which also included the animals who had failed to climb earlier. The mocking shrieks slowly crossed the elephant’s threshold as he could not bear it anymore. He raised his head up and gave out a deafening trumpet. The loudest trumpet the jungle had ever heard.

The cries stopped. The rivers stood still. The birds stopped chirping. Gasping ferociously, the elephant went back a few steps and then with all the strength he had, ran forward with his tusks up. The ground rumbled as if the earth was quaking . His tusks impaled the Oak as he uprooted it out of the earth and threw it away. The petrified crowd watched on as the huge majestic creature walked towards the tree with red angry eyes and hot tears, as if he had all the time in the world, and stepped on the top of the once highest branch of the Old Oak…

“Here Mom. Here Dad. Am I a Climber now?”