Saturday 8 March 2008

My Elephant Fell Into Another Dimension

*contains grammatical errors I was too tired to fix*

I’ve been keeping it quiet, but lately all my time has been occupied with the wonderful experience of moving house.
That’s right there is nothing I love more than signing a lease for a place that you can barely afford and buying furniture for a home that you will never be able to call home.
It’s all quite pointless really. I might as well live in a really nice box but no doubt there would be some annoying person piping in telling me that if I were any kind of decent person I’d have that box promptly recycled.
“I’m not going to recycle my house, bitch!”
Fantasy over.
While I was packing, something very odd happen…and it begins and ends with an elephant.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it in any pictures of my previous rooms I might have taken and I’m pretty sure I’ve never mentioned it, but I own an elephant.
This elephant is very pale, the size of my thumb and made entirely out of plastic and probably came out of a party cracker.
I have carried this little elephant from room to room, house-to-house and bedside table to bedside table for as long as I can remember. I don’t know how I did it. It is so small, that it would have become lost during “Moving Time” very easily, but somehow it always stayed close…until the other day.
I was getting ready to sleep in my old place one last time, when somehow I knocked the Elephant off my bedside table and it quickly fell and seemed to disappear somewhere between my wicked Mary Popping style shoes and the bed frame.
I, a lover of my little plastic Elephant, quickly rolled over and leaned out of bed to see where it had gone.
I checked inside my shoes, it was not there.
I checked inside the sheets ruffled around my bed, it was not there.
I leaned over further, the blood promptly rushing into my head, and peered through the darkness of the world known as Under The Bed. I saw dust, a dead leaf (what?) and cobwebs from spiders that have never been polite enough to say hello, but no Elephant.
Instantly annoyed, and feeling slightly sick due to all the blood jiggling around near my Brain, I got out of bed and searched more thoroughly.
I turned each shoe over, not there.
I went through my sheets, like one searching for some kind of secretion with a blue light, nothing there.
I went and tore through the clothes lying near my bed, and the Elephant didn’t fall out of the material as I hoped.
I grabbed my iPod and used it’s white light as a torch to see if I could spot a little elephant lying about. I found a bottle of Fiji water and a Sock, but no bloody Elephant. I had now been searching for 15 minutes or so and I really had to sleep.
I decided to give up for tonight, remembering something my Mother said about waiting for things to find you…and I went to sleep.
The next day, I was very busy with packing, but I had a friend over to help. I had to rush to a meeting so I asked her to please, please, please look for it.
She nodded understandingly, though slightly perplexed and I knew she would look.
Later that day, sitting on my nice new hardwood floor, I asked her, “Were you able to find my Elephant?”
She said she tried, maybe even a little too hard. She lifted up the mattresses and she just couldn’t find it.
I sighed and sat quietly for a moment, quickly mourning the loss of my dear little plastic Elephant that had been so faithful to me all these years.
At this point, though more likely much earlier on, you may be wondering, “Why is this stupid plastic thing so dear to her?” I couldn’t give you a very good answer, apart from the fact that it’s been with me for most of my childhood and all of my teenage years and the Elephant has his trunk up, which is meant to represent good luck.

I hope my Elephant didn’t run away with any luck I may have.

I’m not extremely superstitious, after all, The Matrix taught me that I should control my own fate, but I can’t help following certain little things…and everybody could always use a little more luck. Well, except Osama bin Laden, he really needs to throw down his cards.

I just wonder why he decided to leave. Was it something I said? Was it because he sometimes remained tipped over for too long? Did he seem to realize that I didn’t really need him anymore?

Is he like Mary Poppins?

Did he envy my Shoes?

I suppose it is time to let Elephant travel on, at least I’ll know it will never forget me.

As for where it’s gone, I can only suppose that during its short fall it fell through a seam in time and space (it is small enough) and is now in another dimension. I believe this purely because it seemed to drop and then disappear, and I was watching it the whole time.

Maybe I should rename my Elephant, Meg Ryan?

I hope the little Dimension Girl my Meg Ryan has traveled to has picked it up and I hope she enjoys her little Meg Ryan, waving its trunk in there next to a picture of my Mum and Radio Clock, as much as I did.

Goodbye Elephant/Meg.

12 comments:

Chris in the Studio said...

The elephant has gone to another dimension but is still with you.
Sometimes in life we have to lighten our load so that we can keep up the pace. She evolved to the very thought in your head that became the wisdom that her dissapearance tought you. She is there and will always be there. And the plastic toy that housed the energy's physical form will find its way to the play room of another child who will nurture new magic from the aura of the residue of the
love you have left behind.

Chris in the Studio said...

and if you find it, give it to a child who needs it.

sdddlt said...

Awww, you poor little girl...
You just love all your little toys, don't you? But wait, I remember the blog about your tamagotchi. You let it die and threw it away! That was cruel.

Maybe your Elephant felt lonely because you didn't bring along Peggy Sue.

Anonymous said...

Do you have floor vents? for heating? It might have gone down one... also, things take what we in the U.S. like to call a 'Jersey Bounce' and end up in a whole other area than the one we might expect from our instinctive judgement of the knocking/dropping physics invloved. Check other areas of the room.

EarleWidrich said...

Sorry to hear about your elephant. When that's happened to me in the past, I've grabbed something of similar size and weight and dropped it in the same spot a few times to see where it might end up. That's helped me before find stuff like that. But since you've already moved (I think), I guess that doesn't help much.

Perhaps if that happens to you in the future, you can give it a try.

courtnay said...

That was brilliant. Aside from our future cooking show, you should write children's books. I wish I had my very own Meg Ryan.

JoMiMo555 said...

Aww, man...

I almost cried during this piece, because I went through the same exact thing, only mine was a tiny silver doggie.

I was taking down my childhood items off a shelf in a practically bare room , and my doggie fell and disappeared.

:(

Anonymous said...

You write quite well. This was very well thought out and really painted a complete picture of the entire thing. We have all had some nostalgic little thing, seemingly worthless, hard to explain to anyone else. Its terrible to lose it, but who knows. Maybe the elephant is simply in hiding among your many other belongings waiting to be unpacked in their new home.

adro44 said...

Y'know what's weird? Just recently a little plastic elephant woke me up after dropping on my head. Craziness.

Unknown said...

Sorry to hear of the fate of your beloved little pachyderm Caitlin. Meg the elephant is probably in trinket heaven now, but you are right, she will not forget you.

You have to respect the rifts that can occur in the space time continuum. Look at the positive side. It could have been much worse. I’m glad that you didn’t fall into that dimensional seam. You are still here and that’s a good thing.

Long live Meg the elephant, or may she rest in peace.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's signaling the beginning of a new chapter in your life...:)

Astrid said...

Losing that elephant will only take you to greater places and things. Meg Ryan was holding you back.

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