Freaks and Fortune

The great arena was made entirely out of a dull gray cement. It circled around a small ring at the bottom, filled with hard earth and referred to as "the pit". Rows and rows of concrete steps led down to the first row of seats. I traipsed behind Ravi, who was mumbling obscenities under his breath.

"He's worried about me, you know," he said moodily over his shoulder.
"Who, your father?"
"He thinks that I don't have any friends."
"Why does he think that?"
Ravi shrugged. "I don't know. Because it's true, I guess."

I kept silent. I couldn't really think of an answer to that.

"Well, I do have friends," he said, shaking his head. "Anthony is my friend. You know Anthony?"
I nodded.
"I just... Well, I don't know," he growled.

We were at the bottom of the stairs. Ravi hopped over the concrete wall and dropped the six or seven feet into the pit. I brought one leg over before he turned around to scold me.

"What do you think you're doing?" he sighed, squinting into the sun and looking up to the top of the arena. Looking for his father, I gathered.
"I... I'm coming into the pit?" I choked, more of a question than a statement.
"No. I'll bring the elephants out to you, okay?"
"Okay..."

He sped off, kicking up dirt with his bare feet. I heard a small snipped of his mutterings before he disappeared under an archway. "...over-bearing old man. Can't believe he's making me do this."

Less than a minute later, Ravi emerged from the tunnel of the opposite side of the arena riding an elegant female elephant. She had tiny daisies painted in dual stripes down her back. A long flowing swirl of gold paint crawled up her front legs and made an intricate pattern on the crown of her head.

She lumbered into the middle of the pit and Ravi made a sharp clicking noise. She stopped.

"This one's named Amara," he shouted to me from the ring.

There was a dense silence. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do here. Would he get mad at me if I asked to get a better look?

I frowned. "Can she come closer?"
He hesitated.
"Please?" I pressed.

Ravi allowed her a single step.

"There," he called.

And, with that, he turned Amara around and led her back into the tunnel. Ravi's father seemed to have the right idea about him. He certainly wasn't very good at making friends. Or, at least, he certainly wasn't very good at trying.

He came out again, this time with a different female called Bel. He stayed in the middle of the ring, said her name, and then turned around to put her back up. Next came Raja with the same procedure.

I could feel anger creeping up from the pit of my stomach. I felt used and indignant at being pushed upon him as punishment, of course, but mostly I just wished Ravi would cooperate! Why couldn't he accept his task and show me each elephant like a civil human being? I was actually quite interested in each one, having worked hard to keep their cages clean for so long.

It wasn't until he came out of the fourth time that things changed. Ravi came out, standing a bit more commandingly near the elephant's head. A different sort of energy was pouring from this one - a wild, youthful sort of vibe. I could tell Ravi was having a hard time establishing himself as the master.

"This one's name is Ban-" he began, but was cut off by the elephant's loud trumpeting. It lifted it's trunk and shouted for the whole circus to hear.

I quickly disguised my laughter as a cough.

Then, despite Ravi's quick clicking noises, the elephant began to advance towards me. Ravi looked panicked, unable to get the determined creature under his control.

"What are you... Damn it! Stop! Why don't you ever listen to me?!"

The elephant made it's way calmly towards me and promptly began patting me down with it's trunk. It sniffed my hair and I screeched with laughter.

"Bansi!" Ravi was scolding helplessly. "Leave her alone!"

Bansi's trunk slid up under my shirt and I laughed so hard I nearly had a heart attack. The end of his trunk was covered in coarse hairs that tickled my bare stomach. I stepped back while he searched my pockets until he found a folded up bag of half eaten popcorn.

I saw that Ravi, whose legs were now straddling Bansi's neck, was extremely embarrassed. His face was flushed into a form of darkened red, his coffee complexion diluting it. His bright hair seemed to glow above him, the red and gold being made to look all the brighter by his blush.

Bansi tugged the snack out of my back pocket and dumped the entire thing, paper bag and all, into his mouth.

"Sorry!" Ravi apologized from atop the elephant. "Bansi, back up! C'mon, back, you insolent little - "
"It's okay," I interrupted, patting Bansi's trunk heartily.

Ravi seemed to be debating with himself whether or not to let me in on a secret. He bit his lip and finally burst out with, "Bansi means flute in Hindi."

I looked up at him curiously.
"It's because he trumpets a lot," he explained sheepishly, furrowing his brow and quickly surveying my expression.

Then, as if on cue, Bansi reared up and trumpeted on a shrill note. Ravi winced and scrambled to stay seated on the elephant's nect, but then laughed awkwardly once Bansi settled. I smiled a bit.

Next, he showed me Panchali, whose name meant "Princess."

"It's because she's the smallest girl," he told me as I fed apple slices into her mouth. "She's the spoiled one."

Then there was Tarika, who was named after the Hindi word for "star," and Dharma who was the smallest boy.

Ravi let Dharma out by hand, clicking his tongue sharply to him at they went. Dharma followed obediently. He was painted with blue, yellow, red, and green leaves all falling down from his ears to his forehead to the tip of his trunk.

And last, but certainly not least, was the oldest out of the three males. His skin was loose and soft. White, gold, and red lines wove in and out of each other all across the elephant's body. It matched his Acrobat's hair perfectly. Ravi seemed to hold himself in a sort of dignified manner when he brought out this elephant, as if trying to impress the creature.

"Okay... Okay, you can come into the ring!" he shouted from atop the elephant.
"Really?" I asked, maybe a little too eagerly.
Ravi hesitated. "Yeah... Yeah, whatever. Just don't come too close."

I dropped down agilely into the ring and slowly approached Ravi and the elephant. He stepped in front of me, holding out a hand. As if the elephant needed protecting from me.

"His name is Ravi," Ravi said.
"What, the elephant's?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"They named an elephant after you!" I exclaimed. "That's really cool! I was just named after my aunt."
"Uh..."
"Wait... No..." I breathed.

For the second time in my life, I saw Ravi blush.

"Ravi is sixty-eight years old," he said, covering his face to hide his embarrassment.
"Your own father named you after an elephant?" I blanched, trying my hardest not to laugh.
"He's been in the family for two generations!" he protested. "It's... He's sort of a big deal. My father is absolutely taken with him, as was his father. Well... As I am, too. I guess."
"Yeah... Yeah. Still weird, though."
"Yeah, still weird."

Something changed between us just then. It was quite subtle, I suppose - Ravi's spine relaxed a notch, I stopped biting my lip so much. A certain degree of comfort settled between us.

"Is Ravi the elephant that you do your routine with?" I asked, attempting casualty.
Ravi looked slightly taken aback. "Uh... Yes. Would you - I mean, would you..."
"Can you show me your routine?"

Suddenly, unexpectedly, he smiled broadly - giving me the full effect of his teeth so brilliantly white I could hardly believe they were real. For a split second, I couldn't believe what was happening. This surly boy, so eccentric and closed off was smiling at me. I felt an odd sense of pride and accomplishment.

"Okay... Okay, alright," he mumbled, angling his head down to hide his smile.

The routine was quite complicated, I learned. Ravi kept having to stop and explain certain parts that I was missing ("Here's where the band comes out and plays, so just imagine that - a sitar and suff, alright?" or "I switch elephants at this point, so pretend that I've just jumped over onto Dharma, 'kay?") so that I could get the full effect of the process.

The routine itself was filled with flips and handstands, elegant jumps and twists - all from atop the elephant. I would try to laugh and clap when appropriate and scream during all the harrowing, dangerous stunts. The elephant would trumpet in exactly the right places, adding to the magic of the routine.

Eventually, it started to grow dark and I realized that I still hadn't finished mucking out the elephant cages.

"Hey... I better go!" I shouted up to him.

Startled, he stopped mid-flip. He landed on his feet and wobbled only slightly as the elephant beneath him took an involuntary step backwards.

He slid off of the elephant and reluctantly approached me, scuffing his feet along the ground awkwardly.

"Uh," he began. "Thanks - I guess?"
"No, thank you!" I insisted. "This was really fun."

There was a moment of stunned silence that stretched out for an eternity. For a split second, I thought he was going to reach out to hug me.

"Aw, shit," he suddenly sighed. "Just go back to work and leave me alone, okay?"
"Bye, Ravi," I laughed.
"Bye."