The Elephant's Girl

by Celesta Rimington

  Fisher opens the paper and studies it. “You’ve been busy,” he says to his mom.

  “Oh, you have no idea,” Mrs. Leigh answers. She’s right. She’s the reason so many people know about me, and Nyah, and my plans for the Fenn fortune to fund research and education about elephants once the sanctuary is up and running. She’s the reason we’ve had so many donations.

  “She got me two more spots on the news, too,” I say. “And wait till you see the food she made for this afternoon.”

  Fisher’s eyes widen at the mention of food, but then he says, “Ooh! What time do we have to be there?” He means the courthouse. He didn’t forget.

  “We should leave in an hour,” Roger says.

  “Then…” Fisher gives me that sideways look with a smile that says he’s missed the zoo. “Do we have time to go see her?”

  “Of course,” Roger says.

  And Fisher and I, along with Roger and Camille, take off for Nyah’s habitat. Thomas and Mr. Leigh come along, because although Angus Fenn’s will left Nyah to me, while she’s in the zoo, we still have AZA rules.

  Thomas and Mr. Leigh let us in through the locked gate at the African Grasslands perimeter. Nyah sees me on the other side of the eucalyptus wood fence. She leaves the large truck tire she’s been playing with and saunters over to me. I’ve found the part of the fence where I think I was visiting Nyah with my parents. This is what it looked like in Nyah’s memory anyway. And Thomas says he remembers bringing a young couple to visit Nyah. They wanted to take her to a sanctuary. They said they were going to talk with the zoo manager and the board. But they never returned.

  Thomas and Mr. Leigh watch as Nyah reaches her trunk over the fence, and I hold out my hands to her. I hug her trunk with one arm and stroke it gently with my other hand. She lets out a gentle snort, sniffs me, and bobs her head slightly in what looks like a nod. I look into her eyes and feel the rumbling of her silent words.

  I see the images of Tendai and Gypsy and Star in my head.

  Although I can’t communicate the way she does in my thoughts, I know she understands me when I whisper, “We’ve found them, girl. We found your family for you.”

  Nyah’s trunk feels my head and drapes over my shoulder, snuffling and tickling my neck.

  “Thank you,” I tell her again, as I’ve said many times since the storm. Because of Nyah, I survived another twister. Because of her, I went to the woods and I found myself.

  Roger, who has been watching silently next to Thomas and Mr. Leigh, steps forward and hands me a small wrapped present. “I was going to wait until after we go to the courthouse, but I want to give it to you now,” he says. He’s not wearing his engineer overalls today, but is dressed in nice, freshly ironed pants, and he’s wearing a tie.

  I take the present and open it slowly. I recognize the blue corner of the book before I’ve fully unwrapped it.

  It’s a new copy of Island of the Blue Dolphins. My own copy.

  “Roger! Thank you!” I run my fingertips over the dolphins swimming in the ocean and the profile of Karana.

  “Look inside,” he says.

  I open the front cover, and on the title page, Roger has pasted another picture of us on the Lexington Zoo train. Beneath the picture, he’s written:

  This book belongs to:

  Lexington Willow Palmer Marsh

  In blue skies or wind,

  and whether you sail

  or ride the rails,

  you’ll always be my brave daughter.

  Love,

  Dad

  I wrap my arms around Roger, my dad, and hold him tight. And the wind, with a gentle breeze in my hair, says something so soft I can barely make it out.

  “Home.”

  “Yes,” I answer as Roger kisses the top of my head. “Home.”

  Author’s Note

  I never expected a book about a girl and an elephant to teach me so much. Although Lexington Willow’s ability to “see” Nyah’s thoughts and memories is fiction, the complexities of elephant communication are very real.

  When I first heard about seismic communication among elephants, I had to know more. Research shows that an elephant’s rumble is the ideal frequency to travel as a signal through the ground. Caitlin O’Connell, a renowned elephant expert and author, has carried out experiments showing that elephants can detect seismic signals, or vibrations that travel through the earth. They can even determine where the signal came from and respond to it. Katy Payne, an elephant communication expert and author of the book Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants, reported that she and other researchers sensed a silent thumping feeling from a nearby elephant herd communicating with infrasonic sound (sound too low for human ears to detect).

  This “secret language” of an intelligent species sparked my imagination and inspired me to add elements of magical realism to my novel—taking elephant communication even further. What if elephants really could communicate more clearly to humans? What would they tell us? And what are they trying to tell us now?

  As I researched elephants for this story, I learned things that forever changed my perspective about how these amazing and complex creatures are treated. What I discovered made me sad and angry. At times, I saw things that made me want to look away. Instead, I chose to face the truth and learn what could be done to help.

  At the age of fourteen, Juliette West became so concerned about elephant exploitation that she raised enough money to travel to Thailand on a mission to help. In Southeast Asia, many elephants are trained using violent methods to get them to do tricks, paint pictures, and give tourist rides up and down mountains with heavy wooden saddles strapped to their backs. In Thailand, Juliette worked with Lek Chailert, founder of the Save Elephant Foundation, to use the money she raised to rescue a sick and aging elephant and send her to the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for exploited Asian elephants.

  Juliette’s efforts were documented in the award-winning film How I Became an Elephant. But she didn’t stop there. She founded a nonprofit organization called JulietteSpeaks and travels to schools and conferences to encourage other young people to learn all they can and find ways to help elephants, too.

  One person, one girl, one boy, can make a difference.

  As I developed the idea for Lex’s friendship with Nyah, I knew elephants were sometimes mistreated or living in inhumane conditions in the United States, and I was especially concerned about the treatment of elephants in circuses. I chose to write about Nyah, who came from a circus, where she had been forced to perform for audiences and live in confined spaces. But I also wanted Nyah’s circus to have been run by people with a conscience, who came to understand her need for space and family and freedom. I wanted to show the evolution of her “rescue.” Part of my research came from the documentary One Lucky Elephant, which shows a circus producer’s relationship with an African elephant in his care, and his journey to find this elephant a safe and appropriate home away from circus life. This true story shows that not all circus stories are horrible, but they will always be complicated.

  After the circus, Nyah went to live in a zoo, which also is a complicated situation for creatures as large and intelligent as elephants. Still, zoos are not the same as circuses, and not all zoos are equal. I mention the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) in the book and have made Nyah’s zoo—like many zoos—accredited through the AZA. This means that it meets specific high standards and provides excellent care and environments for the elephants. AZA zoos also support elephant conservation projects, and many assist with research for a vaccine to prevent an incurable disease that kills young elephants both in human care and in the wild. Zoos often work to preserve threatened and endangered species through breeding programs, too. Check the AZA website to find out whether a zoo you are thinking of visiting is accredited. If not, decide whether you wa
nt to support it with a visit.

  Elephants are complex creatures, especially in their social interactions and communications. Observing their behavior in person—hearing them, smelling them, sensing their infrasonic rumbling—can teach us their importance and make us feel connected to them in a way that watching them on a screen cannot. This can inspire more people to get involved in conservation efforts. I know this has been true for me. But not everyone agrees that our desire to observe elephants in person at zoos is more important than their need to be in the wild. I chose to end Nyah’s story with the promise of being reunited with her “family” in a sanctuary. But as Lex discovered, these questions and answers are complicated.

  Since The Elephant’s Girl uses magical realism in its storytelling, I was able to make some plot choices that would not likely happen the way I’ve described them. A zoo with AZA accreditation would most likely not have two twelve-year-old children involved in elephant care and training—though elephant training is open for the public to observe. And most Nebraska winters would be too harsh and extreme for an elephant sanctuary, which usually provides an outdoor environment more closely matched to an elephant’s natural habitat. Still, I chose to set this story in Nebraska because it has a history of frequent tornadoes, an AZA-accredited zoo where I once worked as a teenager—Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium—and a city named Lexington, which makes a great name for Nyah’s girl.

  On behalf of Nyah, and all elephants, I hope The Elephant’s Girl inspires you to learn more about these intelligent and majestic animals and to get involved in helping them, so that elephants will share our Earth for a long, long time.

  * * *

  —

  Here are some books to get you started:

  Downer, Ann. Elephant Talk: The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2011.

  Laidlaw, Rob. Elephant Journey: The True Story of Three Zoo Elephants and Their Rescue from Captivity. Toronto: Pajama Press, 2015.

  O’Connell, Caitlin. A Baby Elephant in the Wild. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.

  O’Connell, Caitlin, and Donna M. Jackson. The Elephant Scientist. Scientists in the Field. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Children, 2011.

  Ruurs, Margriet. The Elephant Keeper: Caring for Orphaned Elephants in Zambia. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2017.

  * * *

  —

  These websites can help you learn more about elephant research, organizations that help elephants, and how you can adopt an elephant. Don’t worry—if you adopt an elephant, they won’t come to live with you! Donated money helps provide food, medicine, and care for elephants in orphanages and sanctuaries.

  Elephant Listening Project at the Cornell Lab: birds.cornell.edu/​brp/​elephant

  Elephant Nature Park: elephantnaturepark.org

  Elephant Voices: elephantvoices.org

  International Elephant Foundation: elephantconservation.org

  JulietteSpeaks: juliettespeaks.org

  Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS): pawsweb.org

  Save Elephant Foundation: saveelephant.org

  Sheldrick Wildlife Trust: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org

  Wildlife SOS: wildlifesos.org

  World Wildlife Fund: worldwildlife.org

  Acknowledgments

  I’m eternally grateful to my brilliant superhero agent, Danielle Burby of Nelson Literary Agency. Your unflagging enthusiasm for this story is the reason readers can hold it in their hands today. Thank you for phone conversations that leave me smiling and for your vision. It’s a gift to have found both a champion agent and a friend in the same person. I promise to write more casts of characters you’ll love and worlds you’ll want to live in.

  Thank you to Kristin Nelson and everyone at Nelson Literary who works tirelessly on behalf of the NLA clients and their books. You’re kind, conscientious professionals and true advocates.

  A truly delighted thank-you to Emily Easton, my editor and the publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers, for loving Lex and Nyah as much as I do. Thank you for your passion, for understanding “the beating heart of this story,” and for knowing how to strengthen it. Thank you to Ramona Kaulitzki for the gorgeous cover art that captures Lex’s strength and Nyah’s beauty and makes me want to hold them close. And thank you to Bob Bianchini for finding and working on the cover with Ramona. Thank you also to Samantha Gentry, Claire Nist, and all the talented people at Crown and Penguin Random House who worked tirelessly to bring this book to readers.

  To my mom, who made library visits a priority of my childhood and who challenged me to read 100 books. You gave me Narnia and Green Gables and books that expanded my understanding of the world. Thank you for handing me books over and over again and for encouraging me when I wanted to write my own stories.

  To my insightful and unfailingly loyal critique partners: Kate Coursey and Melanie Jex. I know you will always ask me the hard questions. You make me a better writer, and more importantly, a better person. I can trust you with my most vulnerable words. I’m blessed to be surrounded by such selfless, talented, and strong women.

  Thank you to the people who told me I was a writer many years before I wrote this book—Rogene Boyd, Ardath Junge, Terry Foster, Kendra Rollins, Kirsten Honaker-Carter, and Christina Hilton Hall. Thank you to all my English teachers at Mission Junior High and Bellevue East High School in Nebraska. Dedicated teachers make all the difference.

  I owe a debt of gratitude to the Utah writing community; the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference, where I met my critique partners; and the Storymakers conference, where I met my agent. Thank you to all the writers who have sacrificed their time to teach or give critiques at those conferences. A special thanks to Rick Walton, Carol Lynch Williams, Ann Dee Ellis, Courtney Alameda, Ilima Todd, Amy White, Rebecca Leach, Rachel Coleman, Olivia Carter, Brook Andreoli, Meagan Brooks, Chersti Nieveen, Steven Bohls, and Nan Marie Swapp.

  Holly Black, thank you for teaching at the WIFYR conference, for the generous gift of your time and talents, and for showing me that even fictional worlds require research and even magic has rules.

  To June, Tyson, and Amy Williamson, thank you for sharing your perspectives on family, food, and culture.

  A big hats-off thank-you to Eric Peterson of Utah’s Hogle Zoo, a veteran elephant trainer and advocate for worldwide elephant welfare in zoos and in the wild. Thank you for sharing with me your heartfelt experiences with these gentle giants and your belief in their irreplaceable importance in our world.

  Thank you to Lawrence Anthony, a conservationist who put his life at risk to protect a dangerous herd of African elephants on a game reserve. He wrote about his experiences in his book The Elephant Whisperer. Mr. Anthony has moved on from this life, but his work remains to inspire and teach us all.

  To my husband, Paul, my expert on steam trains and antique train restoration—you didn’t know when you married this dancer that she would one day take up writing again and that it would shape and change our lives. Thank you for being my steadfast supporter, for listening to me go on for hours about plot and characters and story structure, and for always providing a safe place to land when I fall. It’s your opinion that matters most.

  To my daughter, Victoria, and my son, Maxwell—you inspire me and give me reasons to write. Thank you for being my first readers and for begging me to finish this book. Thank you for your patience when I’ve been unavailable and unmoving from my desk to meet a deadline. Always remember that you can change the world by doing what you love. Just be sure to change it for the better.

  My thanks would not be complete without acknowledging my God, who answers my prayers in unexpected ways and teaches me that light will always chase away the storms.

  And to Roald Dahl, Mildred D. Taylor, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Ellen Raskin, Scott
O’Dell, Irene Hunt, and Frances Hodgson Burnett: my child-reader heart thanks you. Your books were my friends and taught me empathy. Your books made me want to write in the first place.

  About the Author

  Celesta Rimington holds a degree in social psychology from Brigham Young University and has a background in the performing arts. She has lived in nearly every region of the United States, and although she can’t actually talk to the wind, she’s had several close encounters with tornadoes. Celesta is an elephant advocate, an enthusiastic supporter of the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) wildlife sanctuaries, and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She now lives in the Rocky Mountains with her husband and children, where they have a miniature railroad with a rideable steam train. Follow her online at celestarimington.com.

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