#Inntales-8
DUMA
The rising sun cast it’s warm glow over rolling green pastures. A young boy was playing with a juvenile elephant.
‘Enzo, come have your breakfast,’ called out his mother, Maya.
N-n-not before I let Duma s-s-spray me s-soo I can get my face washed,’ replied Enzo. Maya cast her eyes on her bright eight- year- old, Enzo. The apple of her eye who was born a scrawny, baby boy, a month too soon. He hardly cried, hardly walked or forcibly walked later on and never spoke a word till the age of five! She couldn’t enrol him in the village school so she kept him by her side while she took care of the elephants at Zuoni Elephant Sanctuary. Four years ago, a mystery person had left at the sanctuary, a baby elephant, shivering bitterly in the cold, thankfully not injured. Finding no mother elephant in sight, Maya took the baby under her wing. She was adept at handling all kinds of injured elephants as her father was in- charge of the sanctuary. She had schooled here and fallen in love with a village boy. They were caught red- handed and her father banished the lad, Reike from his property and from his daughter’s life! Reike committed suicide by drinking rat poison a month later. He died without knowing he and Maya had created a life!
Presently, Maya looked fondly at Duma. Duma’s entry into Enzo’s life made all the difference. Duma and four- year -old Enzo formed a bond like no other. Slowly, Enzo came out of his shell- it was a miracle! He started forming two syllable words, rolling the words in his mouth and then spitting them out. ‘M-mama,’ he spouted out at age five and Maya was over the moon. Baby Duma nuzzled Enzo and his little trunk rearranged the tuft of hair on Enzo’s head.
Snapping back to the present once more, she gave Duma a playful pat on the head. The rascal rewarded her by spraying her dress with water, drenching her!
‘Naughty Duma’, she chided the big baby. He trumpeted in return, pretending to be sorry at her scolding. ‘Does Duma want his breakfast?,’ she teased the rascal.
‘N-no, m-mama, I want to feed Duma,’ Enzo declared, rushing in, half eaten flat bread still in his mouth. ‘ Both of you, behave!,’ she lovingly chided. ‘Enzo, it’s time to go to school,’ she added in a much sterner tone.
Suddenly, Duma started moving towards the periphery of the property. The intelligent rascal had heard the watermelon vendor, Zeiko, approaching. Duma started behaving like an overgrown puppy. ‘Y-yes, yes, we k-know you love w-watermelons and Zeiko!,’ Enzo laughed.
Zeiko was a poor farmer who would diligently come from far away, to deliver a load of watermelons to the sanctuary. Enzo and Duma both seemed to love him a lot. Zeiko reciprocated the love.
Maya’s thoughts slipped back to the past. All seemed well now but it hadn’t been so eight years ago! She was all of sixteen when she found out she was pregnant, just a month after Reike died!
She vowed to never love anyone again but decided to give birth to their child. Her father, aghast with her choices, but ultimately sorry for being harsh on Reike, accepted her decision. Being young and depressed all through her pregnancy, Enzo was born a month premature. It was an uphill battle raising him as Maya had lost her own mother to a bout of Typhoid when she was just twelve. Maya snapped back to the present. Duma was their lucky charm!
Zeiko watched his ‘nephew’ Enzo, frolick with Duma. Zeiko was Reike’s much older step- brother whom Maya had never met nor had she seen a photograph of! Zeiko returned to the watermelon plantation to help his ailing father when Reike killed himself. He started delivering watermelons to the sanctuary and found Maya pregnant. He rightly guessed it would be his step- brother’s child. One fateful night, four years ago, a rustic bomb hidden on the watermelon plantation on their property killed a female elephant. The bombs were planted to dissuade rampaging elephant herds from destroying the farms. Zeiko was distressed to find a baby elephant rush towards it’s bleeding, now cold mother! He gathered up the calf and quietly left it by night at the Zuoni Sanctuary. Thereafter, he visited the sanctuary with produce more often. He secretly enjoyed watching Enzo grow up. He was devastated to learn that Enzo was a slow baby but elated to learn that Duma, brought about a complete change in Enzo! The eight- year -old was thriving and save for the slight stammer, Enzo was just a regular little lad in the spitting image of his father, Reike. Zeiko decided to never tell Maya that he was Reike’s step brother. He was afraid and more so angry with Maya’s father. His one wish had been that he could show his ailing father his grandson, but that too did not happen as his father passed away in a bout of pneumonia, soon after Zeiko took over the reins of the farm.
Zeiko patted Enzo’s head. ‘ Goodbye Enzo, I will come by next week with a gift for your ninth birthday ,’ said Zeiko. Maya smiled. Sometimes miracles appear in the guise of a shivering baby elephant calf. Zeiko smiled. God works in mysterious ways- He takes and He gives, in HIS TIME!
-895 words, Picture credit- Unsplash- Glen Carrie.
#Inntales-8, Natasha Sequeira- Duma
August 2, 2026.
