The Elephant, the Monkey and the Ant

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Stephen Whiteside
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The Elephant, the Monkey and the Ant

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Mon Jun 20, 2011 10:17 pm

The Elephant, the Monkey and the Ant

© Stephen Whiteside 02.01.2011


The elephant, the monkey and the ant were walking down the jungle track together. They hadn’t gone very far when the ant started to struggle to keep up.

“Hey, slow down, you guys! I know I’ve got more legs than you, but they’re only short! I can’t keep up!”

“That’s OK,” said the monkey. “Walk up my arm, and you can sit on my head.”



“Gee, thanks,” said the ant. “That’ll be a lot easier!”

So the elephant and the monkey continued walking down the jungle track, with the ant on the monkey’s head. But they didn’t get much further before the monkey began to get a bit tired, too.

“Hey, slow down, elephant! Your legs are much longer than mine! I can’t keep up!”

“That’s OK,” said the elephant. “Climb up my trunk, and you can sit on my head.”

“Gee, thanks,” said the monkey. “That’ll be a lot easier!”

So the elephant continued walking down the jungle track, with the monkey on his head, and the ant on the monkey’s head.

They hadn’t gone much further before they started to feel hungry.

“I’d love some tender bamboo shoots!” said the elephant.

“I’d kill for a banana!” said the monkey.

“Yeah, I’m hungry, too!” said the ant.

Being surrounded by jungle, it was easy for the elephant. He simply walked over to a bamboo tree, tore off some shoots with his trunk, and put them in his mouth. After several minutes of this, he felt much better, and started walking again.

“Well, it’s all very well for some!” said the monkey. “You might be feeling OK now, but I’m still quite hungry!”

“Me too!” said the ant.

“Well, what do you expect me to do about it?” said the elephant.

“Well, maybe you could help me find a banana!” said the monkey.

“A banana would be fine for me, too,” said the ant.

“Well, I’m not going that way,” said the elephant.

“In that case,” said the monkey. “Here’s where we part company.”



“Fair enough,” said the elephant.

“I’m coming with you,” said the ant to the monkey.

So the monkey went one way, with the ant still on his head, and the elephant went the other.

A little while later, the elephant started to feel a bit lonely. The monkey and the ant did not feel lonely, because they had each other, but they were feeling even more hungry now, because they could not find any bananas.

They were starting to feel thirsty, too.

“Let’s see if we can find a river,” said the ant.

“Good idea,” said the monkey. So they started to follow the path downhill. Whenever the path parted, they took the track that seemed to take them down lower. The seconds turned to minutes, and the minutes turned to hours. They begin to feel very thirsty and hungry indeed.

Suddenly they found themselves beside the bank of a swift flowing stream. The ant quickly ran down the monkey’s head, neck, shoulder and arm, right down to the ground, then to the edge of the water, where he drank greedily to quench his thirst. The monkey also drank deeply.

Once they felt sufficiently refreshed, they looked up for the first time, and started to take stock of their surroundings. Imagine their surprise when, on the opposite bank, they saw their old friend, the elephant, also having a drink.

At first they didn’t know whether to talk to him or not, they felt so angry. The ant was pretty sure the elephant had not noticed him, but the monkey was less sure that he also had not been noticed.

Looking up, the elephant saw the monkey, and turned bright red. (Actually, elephants don’t really turn bright red because their skins are too thick, but he turned bright red on the inside!) “Oh, my goodness,” he thought. “There is my old friend the monkey. I wonder if the ant is still with him. I suppose he is. I hope they found something to eat. I was a bit mean to them, really.”

The elephant knew that the monkey had to have noticed him. He could not simply run away, or he would feel even worse if they ever met again.

“Hello, monkey!” trumpeted the elephant. “Did you find any bananas?”

“No, we didn’t,” replied the monkey rather grumpily.

The elephant didn’t know what to say. An uneasy silence hung between them. The ant tried to think of something helpful to shout out, but did not believe he would be able to make himself heard above the rushing of the water. Besides, he was very hungry and, in spite of his drink, was still feeling weak.

“I can move a lot faster than you,” cried the elephant. “Would you like me to help you to find some bananas?”

“That would be great,” replied the monkey. The ant also shouted something similar, but nobody heard him. “I don’t think I can swim to you, though.” said the monkey. “The stream is flowing too swiftly.”



“Then I’ll come to you,” replied the elephant. “It will be easy for me.”

With that, the elephant casually and confidently entered the water. But it turned out not to be easy after all. The stream was much deeper than it looked, and the elephant lost its footing, and was swept downstream.

The monkey and the ant saw the terrified expression in its eyes, and ran along the bank beside it. The ant soon found he could not keep up, though, and stopped, panting, on a little rock.

The monkey sprang from stone to stone, easily keeping pace with the elephant, but unable to help him. Eventually, the elephant came to rest against the opposite bank, right below a big banana tree. The monkey quickly caught up to the elephant, and checked that he was OK. Fortunately the elephant did not have any broken bones or torn skin. (He suffered from nightmares for many months afterwards, but that’s another story!)

After he had recovered his breath, the monkey set to eating as many bananas as he could. He gobbled up banana after banana until he felt very sleepy. The elephant was also very tired after his terrifying ordeal, and pretty soon the elephant and the monkey fell into a deep sleep, side by side.

Several hours later, the monkey woke with a start. “What about poor ant?” he thought. “Elephant! Elephant!” He started pounding his little fists on the thick hide of the elephant.

“What is it?” asked the elephant sleepily.

“Ant! Ant! We have to find ant!”

“So we do,” replied elephant. “We must find ant. But not right now. I’m still very tired.”



"No, we must go straight away,” replied monkey. “It may already be too late!”

“Well, you go then, if you think it’s so urgent. I’ll wait here for you to both come back.”



“Oh no you don’t, elephant!” insisted the monkey. “We’ve already been separated once before. It was only luck that brought us back together. I’m not risking it again!”

“Oh, all right, then!” said the elephant grumpily.

And so the two headed back along the bank.

Meanwhile, the ant had not known what to do. He had quickly found himself unable to keep up with either elephant or monkey and had stopped, exhausted. He now felt better, and was no longer thirsty, but he was still very hungry, and was feeling quite weak.

He climbed down off his rock, and tried to walk further down the bank, but he started to feel confused. He didn’t know it, but he was walking in little circles in the mud, getting nowhere at all. Eventually, he collapsed exhausted on his back, his legs sticking up into the air.

That was how they found him. You might think it rather amazing that an elephant and a monkey could track down an ant lying, belly up, in the mud, but they did.

At first, the monkey thought the ant was dead. He lay down on the mud, putting his ear as close as possible to the ant.

“No, he’s still breathing,” said the monkey. “I can feel his breath against my whiskers.”

“You must have very sensitive whiskers,” said the elephant.

“Yes, I suppose I must,” said the monkey. The monkey gently scooped up the mud around the ant, with the ant lying in the middle of it, and placed it on a large flat rock nearby so that nobody else would step on him. He leant two green leaves together above the ant to protect him from the sun.

The monkey and the elephant waited beside the ant for several hours, but he did not stir. The monkey was starting to get very worried.

“I’ve got an idea!” he thought. He carefully broke off a piece from a banana that he had brought with him, and placed it very close to the ant. Sure enough, the ant soon began to show some signs of life!

“Banana!” he whispered softly.

“Hooray!” shouted the monkey. “You’ve woken up!”



“What happened?” asked the ant. The monkey quickly told the ant how he had found the elephant, and some bananas, and how they had then found the ant lying in the mud, and had placed him on this large flat rock, and had put a piece of banana beside him, hoping that the smell of it would wake him up...and it had!

The ant was very pleased, but still exhausted. Still, he began to nibble on the banana, and soon he felt a lot better.

“It’s good to see you again, elephant,” said the ant when he was feeling much better.

“Yes, yes, good to see you, too, ant,” said the elephant. “I’m hungry!”
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
http://www.stephenwhiteside.com.au

Heather

Re: The Elephant, the Monkey and the Ant

Post by Heather » Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:53 pm

Well I'll say it if no one else will.. What were you thinking Stephen? :lol:

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Bob Pacey
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Re: The Elephant, the Monkey and the Ant

Post by Bob Pacey » Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:16 pm

I was waiting for Steveo the Dr Devo to post a moral to the story and did not want to look dumber then I usually do.

Bob

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Stephen Whiteside
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Re: The Elephant, the Monkey and the Ant

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Tue Jun 28, 2011 9:04 pm

Hmmm... It works for me. Kind of.
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
http://www.stephenwhiteside.com.au

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