Max Meets Tessie

My Aunt Kailea remembers a time when she was out walking with Gunther, her white Siberian tiger and finest of friends, near their favorite creek on the island of Mu where she was born. We are in her cozy house in Washington state where I have taken on the task of writing her memoir. From time to time, I will add my own comments in the narration of her story. Aunt K loves to close her eyes when she needs to summon up a long-ago memory. She is now in her 80s but looks and feels like she’s a woman 30 years younger. When she closes her eyes, she takes me along with her on a journey that most would find magical and mystical. But later in my life I traveled to Mu and took my Aunt with me. I actually met the characters she talks about. Well not Gunther.  But I did mee his sister, Amber and her other Spirit Guide Dahlia, a bottle nose dolphin.   But for now, we are getting into a story about Gunther and their encounter with a certain elephant.   We are just touching the surface of what is underneath this amazing life of hers. And I am proud she has asked me to assist her. Walking along with them was her best friend, Malaya from her adopted tribe. Kailea, holding on to Gunther’s tail, as per their usual posture while walking near creeks (or oceans), spots a cave. She continues telling me about their adventure.

           “We wanted to go explore this cave, but Gunther wasn’t having it. He happened to know who lived in that cave and he didn’t want us going near it. But we just couldn’t help ourselves. He stood up on his hind legs and placed both paws on my shoulders. We were face to face. It was as though he was looking into the depths of my soul. Malaya was in awe. But of course, neither one of us feared him. Respected him, yes. Feared, no. We had grown up around him so we knew hm quite well. He was assigned to me at birth as my Spirit Guide. But he was also the island’s security guard. And at 400 lbs., no one crossed him. Ever.

           Aunt K continued, “He placed his head on mine, an endearment that I treasure to this day. He was kind but forthright and highly protective. He had spots that only Malaya and I could see. They went soft pink. A sign of his love for me. I kissed his soft furry cheek and thanked him. We didn’t go into the cave that day. But not a few days later we came across the cave again. Gunther was not with us but apparently, he could see us, though we didn’t know that at the time.  We were too inquisitive to NOT want to explore this cave. After all there were no signs saying KEEP OUT or NO TRESPASSING. Malaya got out her flashlight and in we went.

            “Gunther had been sitting up on his ledge overlooking the north part of the island. We didn’t see him, but he could see us. 

           “Unknown to us, Gunther decided to go down to the cave, perch on a big boulder nearby and wait for the call. Somehow, he knew we would need him before we even knew.  We treasured him dearly.

           “Gunther wasn’t there thirty minutes before he got the call. He heard a SCREAM. And that was enough. He took off for the cave. Meanwhile we were still in exploration mode. We’d come across a rather large object and realized it was a giant tusk. We’d never seen one before, well at least not on the ground. We wondered where the owner of this tusk had gone off to. We knew there had to be a story behind this.  And in that instant, we heard a very loud ROAR coming from the back of the cave. It was so loud it shook the cave. Rocks tumbled. We bolted for the entry to the cave, but before we got there, I took stumbled on a rock and twisted my ankle.  Malaya rushed toward me, but she fell also. Though she was able to quickly get up. The roar of the elephant kept getting closer and closer to where we were.

           “RUN Malaya. Don’t worry about me. Go get help. Hurry. I asked her to call out for Gunther as well. My ankle started bleeding. Malaya had a small cloth inside her fanny pack. She wrapped it for me and then ran for help.

           “On her way to the front of the cave, she saw Gunther running towards her. She stopped to tell him where I was and then kept running.  It was still dark. In her haste she kept her flashlight down and her head down to see where she was running and ran SMACK into what or whom, she didn’t know. Not until he wrapped his arms around her did she realize she had run in to her uncle – their tribe’s medicine man.

           “Whoa - there little one - whoa - I’m not going to hurt you. I can see you are frightened. Let’s go see what you are frightened of.” When Malaya heard his voice, she realized who he was and was very grateful he was there as was I. 

           “Malaya relayed their adventure. Meanwhile Gunther had rushed to Kailea’s side. Max saw the elephant as he shined a flashlight on her. He had a sixth sense about situations of this nature. He got very quiet and just listened to what the elephant was trying to tell him. He discovered that she was in the process of going through grief and was in a lot of emotional as well as physical pain. We were not in any danger, though until Max figured out the issue, I was so frightened that I just wanted to get out of there. He assured us we were okay. That she wasn’t going to hurt us.

           Just then Gunther’s stripes went green. Gunther sensed Max’s healing presence inside the cave. Then his stripes went pink. With no words, he had conveyed to me that he had forgiven me.  I kept my arms wrapped around him all the way to the entrance of the cave and all the way home. As far as I knew only Malaya and I could see his stripes.  

“Malaya ran ahead to meet up with Kailea and Gunther to help get her home. Max stayed in the cave with the elephant. What he found there - at the very back of the cave, was a very mean, very vindictive, female elephant - rubbing up against the back of the cave to scrape off salt. She needed salt and this was one way of getting it. She was in her 40s. Every bone in her giant body ached and she doesn’t remember the last time she got a good night’s rest. But she was so angry, she was ready to trample on anyone or anything that came near her. Her name was Tessie.

“Max inched his way over to Tessi. With a great deal of time and patience, he was able to communicate with her. Was this some sort of Elephant Whisperer? I could not help but wonder.

“Tessie was so mean spirited and so ugly inside that he could hardly come near her, but ever so slowly he was able to do so. And then he touched her side. The touch frightened her at first, but she stood stock still.

     “I’m not here to hurt you Tessie girl. What is it? What has gotten you so worked up? And why, for heaven’s sake are you inside this dark, musty, smelly ole cave? Shouldn’t you be out roaming the island and grazing and frolicking in the ponds and creeks? 

“Max placed his hands alongside her cheek, head, forehead, ears. Then behind the ears and rubbed. She seemed to like that. He kept a light hand smoothly, gently, steadily, rubbing her to calm her nerves. And he was doing so in concentric circles. A touch he’d learned to do as a young boy - that his dad and his dad before that, had taught him. It was a way to calm the soul of an animal. And it worked nearly every time. After a few minutes, she sat back, then brought herself forward, in a semi-sitting position. She had calmed down considerably. 

Tessie began to emanate, from her soul to his - without words - what had happened to her and how it had placed permanent scars on her spirit, soul, mind and body.

Tessie began to tell Max the background story of how they arrived on this island and what happened to her herd: There used to be a small elephant herd here - about a decade ago. They were quite rare to be living on the island. But thousands upon thousands of years ago, before the continental drift took place, her herd had come from a completely different area, now separated by a continent and an ocean. But when the drift took place and the plates began to uproot their land, the herd had split up. Some went in one direction, others a different direction. Each ending up thousands of miles from one another, never seeing one another again. Her small herd was the only one left on this island until  ten years ago - all of her herd got taken away - not by poachers - but by zookeepers whose only goal was to trap them and take them to various zoos around the world. 

“The tusk you see at the entry to this cave is all that’s left of my mate,” Tessie began. “They shot a neutralizing dart at him. It startled him so much that he ran into the cave, stumbled, fell and broke one of his tusks off on the edge of the cave wall. This is where it fell. They went ahead and took him anyway. I headed to the back of the cave where they could not see me, but I could see them.  His tusk remains right there. And I remain RIGHT HERE. I go out at night to eat tree bark, tree leaves, bushes. But I’ve not been that hungry lately, so I don’t go out much at all really.  When I need water, I wait till late at night and I then go out to the river and drink. But I don’t play in the water anymore nor do I do any heavy lifting or any exercising.” 

“This elephant had been in THIS cave for ten years, eating as little as possible, carving out the back of the cave to get salt, not sleeping from nightmares of that day’s events and her body is aching - no doubt too she is aging. But even more so I think she has a broken heart. She is in grief for her mate. She is mourning him. Max received all this by just keeping his hands on her and allowing her spirit and heart to talk to his. 

“How did you get your name?” Max asked. 

“That was the name of my great grandmother.” Tessie was timid but opening up to him slowly.

 “Tessie, how would you like it if I could find a herd for you, that maybe you are related to somehow? I could get you back to a herd.” Tessie let out a soft sigh that said “Yes,” but she was cautious and anxious. 

     “And how would you like it if I found a way to get you out and keep you out of this deep depression and grief you are in?”

     Another motion of her head shaking up and down “yes.”

     “Because you see, dear one - grief - for a time is okay. But for a very long time, is not healthy. It is one thing to experience grief and of course it comes in stages. But it is clearly another thing all together to let it go on for ten years. Grief, then, over powers you and takes on a life of its own. And you see the results. Your bones ache, don’t they? 

     Somewhat abashed, Tessie began to rock from side to side on her feet - “Yes.”

     “And grief, if allowed, will rule even our appetites. We then begin to lose weight. Girl, you need to put some weight back on you! You are feeling like you are the last of your kind, right? Alone, frightened. Angry - for what they did to your herd. Andy by proxy where that has left you? You are no longer able to be among your family and friends. You are cut off. That’s a very lonely and frightening feeling, isn’t it?”

She shook her head up and down. Tears forming in her big eyes. She had thought of that.

     “Grief, anger, anxiety, despair, quickly turns one to hate, to yell, to be unforgiving and eventually it turns in on itself - making us want to never see another soul, animal, or human ever again. Because we don’t want to weigh others’ down with our despondency and burdens, so we then stop communicating with anyone else. But I’m here to tell you, my darling Tessie girl, that you are not weighing me down one bit. You are telling me about your story in such a way that will allow me to help you - if you want that help.”

Tessie’s grief had turned so far inward that she barely had faith in anyone to help her. But, okay, she’d allow him to help. She gave him a wink that said “Okay, I’ll try, but my body is incapable of much movement now. I’m getting old and all my body aches. In fact, I’m going to need help just to stand back up.”

      “I will help you with that.” After she got settled back on her feet, she turned one of her giant ears toward him - as he had more to tell her.

     “So, I have a game plan. I am going to go round up some food for you. The kind you SHOULD be eating like plants, shrubs, fruits and tree bark - that is healthy for you and will bring your weight back - if you promise to keep eating it even if you don’t feel like it.  I will make some phone calls. It may mean a complete move for you, to a new country. You will always have your memories of this place, your mate and your herd. Elephants have long memories - right - so I’ve no doubt you will keep this time and this place with you forever. However - wouldn’t it be grand to be in a new place, creating new memories with a new herd, doing something completely different? I can promise you no zoo will be wanting to take you away. The place I am thinking about is a game preserve. All who live there are nurtured by each other and a human staff is there to look out after you. You will still be able to hunt for food on your own. The staff there are mindful of outsiders and have lookouts posted everywhere to spot anyone approaching the preserve. At night invisible fences go up - so anyone wanting or thinking they can pull one over on them by trying to get into the area undetected, will run into this fence. You will be safe from circus contenders, poachers or any other would-be criminal wanting to exploit or kidnap you or remove you for whatever their sordid reasons might be. 

“And … who knows you might make new memories - happy ones. And while it’s now too late for you to have babies of your own, I’m certain there will be young ones wanting an aunt they can talk to - for secrets to share for your ears only. I know this may sound too good to be true, but I’m telling you, I can and will do this for you if you will let me. There will be a transition time. And it won’t be easy. I’m not promising you a rose garden here, but there will be others around you to help you through that transition.”

Tessie listened. Her heart nearly burst with Love for Medicine Man Max. Back on her feet now - her BIG ears flapped in a “Yes” to him.

     “All right then.  I will be back in the morning with something good for you to eat. My grandmother’s recipe!   I will see you tomorrow and we will discuss how we are going to get you out of here. 

With that, Tessie closed her eyes and allowed him to place his forehead on hers.

     “All right dear girl - sleep now and dream of good things to come. I will be back in the morning to bring you food and I will make some calls to my friends. We will come up with a way to give you back your life. But you need to help yourself too. You need to remember that you are loved no matter how much your outward circumstances look or feel. You ARE LOVED and YOU DO MATTER. I love you and you matter to me and while I know that’s not enough for you, it’s a start, right?”

Tessi’s trunk curled around his neck. Ears flapped. Tears now falling. “Yes.”