'Hup, two, three, four'

Writing The Journey exercise, week ONE. Prompt: Childhood. I wanted to capture the innocence of a young child and go off on little tangents, whilst still having a physical journey take place.

Today we are going to see the elephants. I have waited all week for today, and finally it’s here. Mum said it’s going to be a long journey, about two hours by car to get to Chiang Mai. But I don’t mind, we were on the aeroplane for a lot longer. Whenever we go on a day trip I always fall asleep. Mum says it’s the heat that ‘zaps it out of you’ and that’s what happens when you’re a child. I remember hearing Dad telling Mum that I was a ‘trooper’ for managing to stay asleep through the bumpy car rides, so sometimes I pretend to be asleep even when I’m not. I try not to scrunch my eyes up as that is a giveaway of fake sleeping. I’ve already picked out a name for my elephant.  I’ll call him Dumbo. Dad says I can ride the biggest elephant they have if I’d like.

The car pulled up and Mum gently shook me. I jumped out of the car expecting to see the elephants, but they weren’t here. ‘Mum, Mum, Mum, where are the elephants?’
‘We aren’t there yet hunny bun, we’ll be there shortly,’ she said as she patted my head.
‘But you said it was a two hour car drive.’ Mum stopped paying me attention and gave the driver some money. The money here is much more colourful than our money. It comes in greens, blues, and reds and has pictures of elephants on. Our money has pictures of old people. Dad picked me up and put me on his shoulders as we started going down a muddy path to the river. There were lots of rocks in the mud so it made it hard to walk. Mum kept telling Dad to put me down before he dropped me. But I didn’t want to be put down because I had the best view, so I tightened my hold on Dad with my legs.

We got to the bottom where there were some old, long boats waiting for us. The smell of the river made me feel a bit sick.  One of the men who live here put a plank from the mud to the boat so we didn’t get our feet wet. Mum made a little scream as the boat wobbled which Dad thought was really funny, so I started laughing too. This made Mum cross. This wasn’t like any other boat I had been on, this one had tiny blue seats made out of wood, with nails sticking out a little bit and the paint peeling off. We had to sit towards the back of the boat because it filled up quickly. The engine was really noisy so I put my fingers in my ears to block it out. That’s what Dad does when Mum is shouting at him. But it doesn’t work very well because I could still here the engine. I didn’t like this boat. The water was really high and it nearly came up to the edge of the boat. I’ve seen this when I’m in the bath and my toy boats are sinking, if too much water comes in, the boat will sink all the way to bottom and make a clunk sound. I got a bit scared and hugged Mum.

We weren’t in the boat for very long. I counted to sixty, eight times. Which means the boat took eight minutes to get to the other side. I think we could have walked it quicker. We were the last people to get out of the boat, which I didn’t like as the smoke from the engine kept making me cough. Dad bumped his head on the roof, which made Mum laugh, but I didn’t want to make Dad cross so I pretended I didn’t see. When it was my turn to get out I didn’t want to walk down the plank again, so I tried to jump. As soon as I jumped I got scared again because the water was really brown and I thought there might be snakes in it. But Dad caught me and I clung on tightly.

When we finally got to the top of the stairs, which were made of more mud with bits of wood, I could see the elephants. I tried to run off to see them but Dad grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let go. I tried to fight him off, but he is stronger than me, and I always lose. So I sulked instead. This side of the river was very different from the other side. It was like being in a jungle, the floor is covered with green plants and there are lots of tall trees too. It smells better on this side. There’s a small path that we have to follow, in single file, so Dad went behind me and Mum was in front. The jungle is very noisy too; all around me I could hear this loud noise. ‘Dad, what is that noise?’
‘Crickets’ he replied and pushed me on.
I didn’t know that crickets could make this noise, I sometimes watch it with Dad on a Sunday on the TV, but I haven’t heard them make this noise before. Maybe it is a secret noise to tell the team that they are going to hit the ball really far. I tried to run off again, but Dad had his hands on my shoulders, making sure I couldn’t go anywhere. I tried to wriggle out but he just pushed down harder.

I heard Mum gasp, and quickly pushed past to see the elephants.

I thought they’d be running around chasing each other, splashing water and blowing their trumpets. But they had big chains around their feet which looked really sore. They clinked as the elephants tried to shake them off, but the trees were stronger than them.  ‘Oh, my, look Bill. Look how malnourished they are. Go feed them some pineapple or something,’ said Mum, with her hands to her face. When Mum has her hands to her face it means she isn’t happy. But I didn’t know why. The elephants had funny shaped heads, they were big at the top and then went in and then back out, like a monkey nut. They looked hungry; I think this is what malnourished means.

Whenever Mum cries, I cry.