It’s Kudzoo. Ivan’s favorite.
an idea
“I’m going in,” says Masika, one of the younger aunts.
“Might make things worse,” Akello cautions. “Displace the mud, pull her down toward the bottom.”
“I could go in,” I suggest, the words popping out before I can swallow them.
“It’s more mud than water, Bob.” Akello shakes her head. “You’ll get as stuck as Kudzoo.”
I don’t exactly argue the point.
“I’ve got an idea,” comes a small voice.
All the aunties turn to Ruby, and she looks startled to have their complete attention.
“A couple of us get on the other side of the moat,” Ruby says. “Grab trunks. We’ll make like a, whaddya call it—”
“A sling!” I exclaim. “A hammock, like the gorillas have.”
“I don’t know, Ruby.” Akello sounds doubtful.
Kudzoo grabs for Masika’s trunk with both hands. “Wait,” Masika says. “Think I’ve got her this time.”
Masika lifts her trunk with deliberate slowness, carefully trying to support the baby gorilla, but once again, Kudzoo can’t hold on. She lets out a despairing cry.
Down she goes, lower this time, her nose and eyes just visible.
“Okay,” Akello says, with a nod at Ruby. “Let’s give Ruby’s idea a try. Masika, Laheli, Elodie, cross over to the far side. Zaina, Ruby, and I will take this side.
All three elephants move with surprising quickness to the spot where I crossed. They gallop back until they’re facing us.
It’s strange to see them on the other side of the moat. With the wall destroyed, they’re technically in Ivan and Kinyani’s domain.
“Move down a bit,” Akello instructs. “That way.” She motions with her head. “We want to scoop her out, not push her down.”
Three on one side, three on the other, the elephants reach out for each other’s trunks, creating a kind of cradle.
“Okay, now,” says Akello, “lower carefully!”
Down they go into the muddy water. Ruby nearly loses her footing, so I grab her tail with my teeth.
It doesn’t really help, and she yelps, “Ouch!” but my heart’s in the right place.
Kudzoo thrashes her tiny arms. “Stay calm,” I call. Easy for me to say.
She looks over at me, and I’ll never forget the fear in her dark eyes.
Then she vanishes below the surface.
team elephant
“Hurry!” Ruby cries.
The elephants bend lower, moving like a giant elephant shovel.
“Where is she?” Masika asks.
“Lower,” says Akello. “Lower, sisters!”
“There!” Ruby yells. “No . . . wait! There!”
“Up!” Akello commands, and the interlocked trunks rise from the muddy water to reveal a tiny, trembling baby gorilla, sitting in their makeshift sling.
“Kudzoo,” says Akello, “stay calm, baby. We’re gonna toss you to safety, okay?”
Kudzoo gives a little nod.
“On my count,” says Akello, “start swinging. One, two, three!”
Up and over go the trunks, and up and over goes Kudzoo. She lands with a little plop on the gorilla side of the moat, right next to Masika’s rear legs.
“Good work, everyone!” says Akello. “And good thinking, Ruby!”
“Th-thanks, elephants!” says Kudzoo, wiping mud from her eyes. “That was fun. Can we do it again?”
Akello takes a deep breath. “Maybe later, sweetheart.”
Quickly I make my way back over the moat. “Kudzoo,” I say, “follow me. Let’s go find your ape peeps.”
“Can I go with Bob?” Ruby asks Akello.
Akello touches Ruby’s back with her trunk. “I’d much rather have you stay here, dear. And it’s ‘may I.’”
“But Uncle Ivan!” Ruby pleads.
“I’ll keep an eye on her,” I tell Akello.
“I’m going,” Ruby says in her most determined voice. “Maybe I can help. I helped just now.”
Akello hesitates but finally gives a slow nod. Probably she figures there’s no arguing with Ruby.
She’s right on that one.
Ruby crosses the moat and joins Kudzoo and me. “Be careful,” Akello warns. “There’s more of this storm coming.”
“I got her, Akello,” I say.
“You’d better have her,” she warns.
“I think I flew, Bob,” says Kudzoo as we weave our way through the wasteland that was Gorilla World.
“Yeah, me too,” I say. “It’s that kinda day.”
what’s out there
A handful of humans—firefighters and police, mostly—have begun to roam the grounds, checking out the damage. We pass a park employee with a weapon slung over his shoulder and a net in one hand.
“Tranq gun,” he tells a passing police officer. “We don’t know what’s out there.”
She nods. “How fast do they work?”
“On something like a big cat?” He shakes his head. “Not fast enough.”
I look over at Ruby. “Stay close, kid.”
As we near the gorilla villa—what’s left of it, anyways—a screech hits my ears that makes the wailing police sirens sound like mewling kittens.
It’s Kinyani.
She’s frantically knuckle running back and forth near the collapsed gorilla villa. Chunks of cement, shredded wooden beams, and bent metal lie everywhere. A cluster of gorilla females and juveniles huddle not far from some rescue workers.
“There’s Mama!” Kudzoo cries, dashing toward a gorilla named Jodi.
I’m so horrified by the destruction that I’ve almost forgotten my muddy little charge.
I really shouldn’t be trusted as an ape-sitter.
Kudzoo darts over to her mother’s waiting embrace. Jodi nuzzles her and strokes her and says soothing, motherly gorilla things. “Thank you,” Jodi mouths to me.
“Don’t thank me,” I say, looking over at Ruby. “Thank this little gal. She figured out how to save Kudzoo.”
“Thank you—Ruby, isn’t it? Ivan’s friend?”
Ruby gives a shy nod. “We all helped.”
“I provided moral support,” I add.
“I flew, Mama,” says Kudzoo.
“Of course you did, dear,” says Jodi.
Kinyani’s fresh wails focus my mind. “I gotta go,” I say. “Ruby, you should stay here.” I’m going for a no-nonsense voice, the one Julia uses on me when she calls me “Robert.” “Lemme see what’s what. I’ll be right back.”
“No way, Uncle Bob,” Ruby replies, just as firmly.
I give up. But I’m afraid of what she might see. Of what we both might see.
“Any sign of Ivan?” I ask Jodi.
She shakes her head, a grim look clouding her eyes.
With Ruby by my side, we approach the pile of wreckage that used to be the gorilla villa.
At the same moment, Ruby and I gasp.