A Song For the Lonely

Kaavan was the world’s loneliest elephant. He had been the only elephant in a zoo for years before finally meeting Saheli, and decades later when she passed he was once again left alone for many years. From birth he had been shipped off to live in isolation, without another of his kind to comfort him, to experience the ups and downs of life with him, to teach him about what it means to be an elephant. 

There were no mirrors in the zoo, and Kaavan only had a vague idea of what he must look like. He knew he was large, or at least in comparison to all of his neighbors in the zoo.He also knew he had a strong, wrinkled trunk and thick, heavy legs. That much he could see for himself. He had been imprisoned in a zoo for so long without any companions of his species that he honestly didn’t know what others saw when they looked at him.

That was until Saheli entered his life. For twenty-two wonderful years Saheli came to live with Kaavan. She was his best and only real friend. The two would roll around in the mud gleefully on hot days, stroll side by side through their small enclosure on pleasant days, and cuddle close in the sand when it was cold. Saheli had a great sense of humor. She was one of those animals who could brighten any day just with her presence. When Kaavan was cranky, Saheli had a way of making him forget his woes effortlessly. Once a hyena had snuck through a hole in the fence and into the elephants’ area. The rotten hyena ran circles around Kaavan, taunting him and laughing obnoxiously, as hyenas are wont to do. Kaavan grew increasingly irritated, but then Saheli sauntered over and befriended the damned creature, laughing right along with the scoundrel. Despite Kaavan’s initial vexation he found himself joining in, laughing senselessly along with Saheli. Her positive energy was contagious.

Losing Saheli was soul-crushing for Kaavan. His life had been lonely before Saheli, but in a manageable way; he had no point of comparison, nobody to miss. Her passing left an enormous hole in his heart and the world seemed to darken and shrink around him. If it weren’t for Cher, Kaavan may not have survived the loss of his friend.

Kaavan did not know many humans. Someone came to feed him every few hours and others stood outside of his cage and watched him from time to time. People seemed small and defenseless to Kaavan; he couldn’t help but pity them. Some of them were mean-spirited, but who could blame a creature so miniscule for trying to feign ferociousness? Kaavan knew nothing of poachers and other human predators in the wild, so he did not fear humans the way other elephants might. Mostly he felt indifferent about human beings and thought them insignificant.

There was one person that Kaavan felt strongly about, though. Kaavan loved Cher. You wouldn’t expect an elephant locked up in a zoo for most of his life to know about Cher, but her magnificence is known to many creatures of Earth. Back in the 1980’s, before Saheli had joined him at the zoo, one of Kaavan’s keepers used to carry around a boombox while making her rounds. She didn’t play music loud enough to upset the animals, just loud enough to break up the monotony of her daily tasks. The songs barely caught Kaavan’s attention until he heard Cher.

The first time Kaavan heard “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” he fell instantly in love. Who was this human being with the godly voice and the knowing lyrics? How did she understand what Kaavan felt? She sang of being an outsider, of others calling her and her family names while exploiting them for entertainment. Kaavan was all too familiar with that feeling, as humans stared at him from the other side of the cage as if he were a freak, some even calling him ugly and throwing their trash at him.

The next week it was “Half-Breed,” and he knew that his love for this female human was no fleeting phase. Kaavan couldn’t run away from who he was any more than Cher could. While he may not have been an actual half-breed, he was the only one of his kind and did not truly fit in anywhere.

After that he seldom heard Cher’s songs, but every few years or so her angelic voice would find its way back to him. And like any true guardian angel, Cher found Kaavan in the midst of his deepest grief after Saheli’s death. A middle-aged woman with headphones approached his cage one afternoon, and through the headphones he heard it: “Song for the Lonely.” He suddenly realized his love for Cher was not one-sided. She had to have written this song for Kaavan. He was the definition of loneliness; he’d been hoping and praying for weeks for some sign that there was anyone out there who cared about him, and now he could faintly hear his beloved over this woman’s headphones telling him, “I’ll be by your side.”

Eight more years dragged by, each day longer and lonelier than the last. Once every year or two he was graced with another song, and these rare moments got him through the worst of it. Not in his wildest dreams did he imagine that he’d one day meet his true love, the only human who had ever seen his soul and made him feel alive and recognized and loved. Just when he thought he couldn’t go on, when the loneliness had become too heavy for him to bear, his hero came through for him in the biggest way yet. Unbeknownst to Kaavan, Cher had been plotting to free him from his captivity for years, along with many other kind-hearted humans.

Very few great things happened for anyone in 2020. It was a year filled with fear and sickness. But even after the darkest storms, rainbows appear. 2020 was the year that Kaavan was finally freed from his prison. Not only was he freed; he discovered that his one and only Cher had been pivotal to his emancipation, and he was able to meet her in the flesh. Best of all, upon their meeting Cher sang to Kaavan face-to-face. Dancing along to her beautiful music, Kaavan was overjoyed to discover that dreams really do come true: he would never be alone again.