Emma

Word count 1637

                         Emma

The steady drum beats of heavy footsteps echoed in the rainforest as a giant elephant approached Vida Neva. He was on his way to destroy, pollute, and put an end to life, as they knew it unless something could be done. If only they could stop him. But how? He was taller and stronger than all of the villagers combined.

The ants called a meeting to develop a battle plan.

“Does anyone have any suggestions?” Asks the elder.

The crowd was silent, each member searched each other for ideas, but no one spoke.

Then a group of scared villagers cried out, “Run, runn; we’re all going to be killed…run” 

 “No, stop!” 

The crowd was hushed. They turned to look at a child ant in the rear of the assembly. 

 “ I know how we can stop him.” 

“And how is that, Emma?”  

“Step on him. That’s all we have to do. Step on him.” she answered.

The crowd laughed. 

 Jose went to his daughter’s side. “It's ok honey, pay them no attention,” Jose said.

“What. Who said that?” Asked the elder, a frown on his face as he searched the group. 

The crowd pointed at Emma and Jose.

Another villager shouted, “We can’t stop on him; he’s too big! Let's move back deeper into the jungle before we're all killed”

“ No, this is a fight we can’t hide from, ” said the elder nodding his head,  

 “The elephant won’t be satisfied until he’s destroyed everything and make slaves of all of us. I saw, this before in Tula , Africa.” 

“No… stop. We won’t run! This is a fight we can win…we can win if we stick together. We will be free when we choose to be. Stand up to him. ” Jose shouted.

“ Yessss we can do it. We will stand together and fight him with an army of fire ants.  

We will chase him away”, said the elder raising his clenched fist in the air. 

The crowd roared and raised their clenched fists as a sign of unity and defiance. 

The next day, poised in their positions, the villagers awaited the signal. The ground began to rumble and shake. That was the signal. 

“ The end is near, the end is nearing, we have to run, ” shouted some villagers. 

From the sidelines, children ants called out, “ You can do it, dad. You can do it!”

Little Emma cried out, “Dad. Don't forget dad… step on him…step on him!”

Jose turned, smiled, and winked in her direction.

“He's coming, he's coming!” Shouted the elder.

The ant ran into their formation. Then they started to fight for the rear of the line. The smallest of them was pushed to the front: Jose.

“Jose, demand that he not poison our water, pollute our air nor destroy our land. Tell him we will fight for our land!” said the elder. 

“Who, me. Why me?” Jose asked.

The ants behind him sang out, “Because you’re in front”

“Ooook…” Jose said in a slow quivered voice.

He waited nervously; he was in the path of the elephant. Then the ground trembled. Jose scanned the jungle; he heard trees snap, followed by an elephant’s blare. The blast pierced the jungle and all of a sudden there was a dead silence. Everyone waited, no one spoke, and they held their breath, searching the jungle. They waited and waited and waited.  Then as if by magic the elephant appeared, rushing at Jose. 

“Stop! Stop! Stop!” he shouted. 

He closed his eyes, and began to pray, expecting to be squashed. 

But nothing happened!  

Jose opened his eyes and saw the toenails of the elephant, and the tip of its trunk sweep the ground in front of him. 

 Wow, I stopped a charging elephant, he thought.

With renewed courage, Jose raised his head upward and yelled, “Hey, you can’t destroy our land.” 

“ Who are you?”

“ We are going to stop you,” Jose answered. 

He looked at the size of the towering elephant and thought perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to fight. He was a lot larger than he expected. 

Jose took a deep breath and said, “ Well… maybe we shouldn’t fight. Let’s not fight. OK? There is a better way.  Let’s be good neighbors and protect the land as equals. The water’s safe to drink, and there is enough land to feed all. ”

“I don't care. I want all the oil, all the gold, all the coal and I want it, ALL!” Bellowed the elephant. “Out of my way, puny ant!”

“But you can't do that” Jose said, “ It will destroy the land! Our food…our water. ”

“And how are you going to stop me? I am bigger than you. Ho, ho, ho.” He laughed.

“It's true you are large, but we are many”, Jose turned to point at the villagers, trying to convince the elephant not to fight. The villagers were backing away set to run into the jungle.

 “…Ho, ho, ho.” Chortled the elephant.

Jose knew he was in trouble. 

“Looks like it's just you and I, doesn't it… little ant?” Mocked the elephant.

Out of the leaves stepped little Emma. She began to scold the elephant for being selfish. The elephant charged. With one swipe of his trunk, Jose was tossed high into the air. 

The villagers watched horror-struck in disbelieve as Jose tumble in the air. They turned to their elder for advice.

“ Ruuun ~Ruuun~, Ruun~” he shouted as he pushed other villagers out of the way on his race for the jungle. 

Jose landed on the elephant's neck.

Now Emma was angry, and with her eyebrows knitted, she marched up to the elephant. “Hey, that's my dad, and he's going to stop you. So go away before you get hurt!” she warned.

The other ants watched in horror as little Emma stared down the elephant. Jose, from atop the beast, tried to get his daughter's attention, waving her off, to run.  

Emma saw her dad signaling from the corner of her eye and waved back.

 “Hi, dad!” 

 Then she turned to the elephant and said, “Now we've got you right where we want you. Ok, dad, step on him!”

“Run, Emma, run!” Jose screamed.

The elephant blew his trunk and raised his ears as he whipped around trying to see whom she was talking to. Jose was tossed in the air again. As he came down, he missed the elephant’s neck and was swept into the elephant's ear as the ear flaps closed.

Emma kept on yelling, “Step on him, step on him, step on him!”

The elephant kept on whipping his head right, left, right, looking for who was going to step on him. Jose kept on bouncing around against the elephant's eardrum. The elephant kept hearing thunderous pounds, huge footsteps coming his way. He turned faster, faster, and faster searching for the noise. With each turn, Jose bounced harder and harder against the elephant's eardrum.

“Step on him, step on him!” Emma kept shouting. 

Then Lulu, Emma’s schoolmate, joined in and waved the crowd forward from under the leaves.

They rushed shouting,  “ Step on him, step on him, step on him” 

The elephant saw an unending wave of ants charging. He blew this trunk, he blew his trunk, he blew his trunk, but they kept coming. He reared back on two feet throwing Jose to the other side of the elephant’s ear. Then the elephant came down with a crash sending shock waves. The impact knocked the rushing ants down. 

 Jose was slammed into the elephant’s eardrum. The impact sent a jolt of pain. 

The elephant reeled and screamed in pain.

 “Get up, get up, c’on, c’on, get up, go, go, go-go” shouted the elder waving the crowd forward.  

The elephant’s fear increased with each shout. 

“ Step on him, step on him, step on him ” 

The elephant turned and raced into the jungle with his trunk swinging and his ears spread high. He cried, “I’m sorry, don’t hurt me, I’m sorry, don’t hurt me .” 

Jose was sucked out of the ear, caught by a breeze, and thrown to the ground. The elephant’s foot just missed him. Emma raced to her dad and held him. 

“I knew we could do it, I just knew it, if we stuck together!” she said. 

Jose, with a broken leg and bent antenna, nodded at his daughter.

The ant colony rushed to Emma and Jose. They lifted them on their shoulders and paraded through the village singing, “ United, together…we can never be defeated. Ants, united can never be defeated. United together… we can never be defeated.

                      The End