Small as an Elephant

Jack breaks down into heaving sobs. Suddenly, he no longer cares about what happens to him, whether someone finds him, or whether he makes it home at all. He doesn’t even care if his mother ever comes back. He’s exhausted and feels like the burden has been too great; he wants someone to take care of him for once. As night falls, mosquitoes prey on him, and he eventually gets up and starts walking. Along the road, Jack starts waving at cars that pass by, but no one stops.

Jack hears music coming from a nearby church and decides to go inside and lie in the balcony to warm up. As he lays down, he takes out his toy elephant and stares at it, wondering what his mother might think of it. He remembers how his mother used to encourage his passion for elephants, always buying him things and surprising him, but lately it seems to annoy her. When Jack brought up seeing Lydia the elephant while in Maine, his mother refused, calling it cruel to keep an elephant in a zoo. Jack and his mother argued about it, and they called one another selfish. Jack told her that she should be on her medication, and Becky accused him of ruining the vacation. The next morning, she was gone.

The church choir starts to sing a song called “Morning Has Broken,” which reminds Jack of his mother, who loves the song and sings it when she’s at her best. Jack decides in that moment to go see Lydia the elephant on his own, not to spite his mother but to reset the vacation and start again, like the song implies.

While asleep in the church, Jack dreams of being an African elephant and seeing his mother in the audience for a moment before she fades away. When he awakens, his mind is immediately on getting to York to meet Lydia. He checks the church for food but finds none. He does find a hat in the lost and found, which he uses as a disguise. Jack walks until he reaches the town of Searsport and wanders the streets, taking in the sights. When he reaches a school, a girl a couple years older than Jack asks if he’s new. Jack lies and says he left his homework at home and heads for a nearby internet café, but the girl follows him there. She recognizes him as the missing boy from the news, and Jack runs away. He enters a bookstore and sneaks into a dark back room that was once a vault. The girl follows Jack and hollers into the vault, wondering if he’s inside. Jack pulls her in, not wanting to get caught, and begs her not to tell anyone she saw him. The girl explains that she can’t possibly keep the secret and that Jack’s safety is at stake if he stays on his own. The girl introduces herself as Sylvie Winters, and Jack asks her if his mother might go to prison for leaving him. Sylvie admits it’s a possibility and asks Jack where he was headed; he tells her he’s on his way to see an elephant. She then tells Jack that they’re trapped inside the vault until someone opens the door.

Two hours pass as Sylvie and Jack wait for someone to open the door. He tells her everything he knows about elephants and all the amazing things they’ve been discovered doing, and he tries to express the importance of going to see Lydia. He knows that at some point he’ll be found and that his life will change, and he wants to see the elephant before that happens. Sylvie seems to understand this, and when the bookstore owner finally opens the door, she tells Jack to hide and pretends to have locked herself in. Jack is shocked that Sylvie changed her mind and relieved that he’ll get his chance after all.