My Religious Background

www.mormon.org is where you may go if you want to find out about my background religiously.
Jesus Christ is alive and he is my Saviour.  I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

The Elephant And The Girl by Joanne Morris Okano

Dedicated to Emma, Anna, Nadia, and Genya of St. Petersburg, Russia.  Many thanks to Kam.

     Ilya the elephant was born in Russia  The zoo where the elephant was born couldn't afford to feed him and his mother, even though the Russian people, who were very poor, very kindly brought them things to eat.  So the elephants were sold to London Zoo.  Ilya was a good boy and ate all his food.
     One night Ilya's mother died, during a lightening storm which caused power outages and the loss of land lines all over London and the surrounding countryside for miles.
     A careless new zoo worker forgot to close the elephants' cage after zoo workers took out the mother elephant's body.
     "Clang!"  went the door shut in the wind and opened again.
     Ilya was very lonely.  He didn't understand what was happening and tried to follow his mother.  He walked out of the cage and trotted down the road until he reached the Common, where people used to graze their animals in medieval times.
     In the countryside lived a fine family.  The father's name was Frederick, the mother's name was Dalia, and they had a little girl - oops, a big girl, named Daphne.  Their family lived in an old house that was part of an officers' mess for the Royal Air Force during World War II.  It had been bombed in the war and was now two homes.
     When the zookeeper found the elephant was missing, it was announced on the radio.  It didn't take too long before the elephant was found, you think. Who could miss an elephant in their garden?
     Well, this was a big garden and Dalia was rather short-sighted.
     "There's something moving about in the bushes," pointed out Dalia to her husband, a kind man, as she peered through the French windows.
     "Mmm, what's that, dear?" asked her loving husband, looking up nonchalantly from his newspaper.  He couldn't see Ilya, because Dalia was standing in the way.  By the time she moved, the elephant was gone.
     Being a kind husband, Frederick took notice of his wife's suspicions and gallantly went out into the garden to investigate.  The footprints were unmistakeable.
     Baby elephant.
     "Harrumph.  What?  That can't be an elephant, but it looks like one,"  said Frederick, and tramped back into the house to break the news to his wife.
     "Who could have lost an elephant?" she asked vaguely.
     "I will catch it," said Frederick, resolutely.  He put on his wellies and his Tilly hat and headed off with his fishing net to catch the baby elephant.  Into the bushes Frederick went, pushing back the undergrowth.
     "Come with me, little one," he said in a surprised tone, when he had come to the baby elephant.  He led Ilya gently by the trunk to the 1920s garage and closed the French windows behind him.  (The Jaguar was parked outside.)
     "There.  Done!"  Frederick said to his wife, brushing the elephant dust off his hands, when he had gone inside.
      "Well done, dear," she said admiringly.
     "Now we'd better get it some food, or it's going to perish.  And then we'd better telephone the police," said Frederick.
     "Yes, dear," said Dalia, blissed out at her husband's bravery.
     Together they fetched a small bowl of peanuts and some water, not knowing what else or how much elephants ate.
     Frederick was about to take out the food and water himself, but before he reached the kitchen door, his wife gazed adoringly at him and said,
     "I'll do it, dear."  Dalia took ti out to the garage and gingerly let herself in.

     "Hello, little one," she said, put the food and water bowls down on the ground and slipped out again, closing the door behind her.
     Now, as stated before, Ilya was a good boy and ate all his food!  He walked out through the French windows at the back of the garage and sauntered through the garden, eating plants and leaves.  He drank the water in the bird fountain, and ate the rhododendrons.  He drank the water in the fishpond.
     Frederick tried to phone the police, but although the power had come on again, the landline was still down because of the lightening storm the night before, and the cell phone had run out of juice.
      Now, Frederick had a cold coming on, so Dalia lovingly made him some Chicken Noodle Soup.  Then she took their 10-year-old daughter Daphne to the Open Day at Daphne's school.
     Dalia left the side door of the house unlocked and shouted, " Goodbye!"
     Dalia and Daphne drove away in the Jaguar, and Ilya emerged out of the bushes and let himself into the kitchen, along with the neighbour's cat, Pushkin.
     "Now, let's see what's going on in the world today," said Frederick to himself, getting back to his newspaper.  He stood up perusing The Times.
     Ilya found the pot of Chicken Noodle Soup and slurped up some of the noodles with his trunk.  "Slurp!"  He accidentally knocked the pot lid, which was resting on the counter, onto the kitchen floor.  The cat Pushkin jumped out of the way.  Hearing a lot of commotion, Frederick turned around and saw Pushkin, whom Frederick assumed to be the guilty party in the upset of the potlid.  Two vases also lay on the ground, smashed, Frederick noticed.
     "Well, well, my little friend, I think I'd better return you to your master," said Frederick, and then still reading his newspaper, Frederick walked over, picked up Pushkin, strolled out and called to the neighbour over the fence, "Richard!"
     "Good Morning, Frederick!"  answered Richard, marching up to the fence.  "How may I be of service?"
     "Pushkin got into my house, and was disrupting my home.  You know, an Englishman's home is his castle and all that."
     "Oh, yes," said Richard, taking the cat, and a bit puzzled.

     Frederick strode back inside, only to see smashed plates and bowls on the floor.  He looked into one corner of the kitchen to see the baby elephant with a plate held in its trunk.  The elephant noticed him and then dropped the plate, and looked down as it shattered, surprised by the noise.
      "Oh, no, no, no, little one!" said Frederick.  "Now what do I do?" he muttered.
     The doorbell rang.
     "Stay there!"  said Frederick to Ilya.
     A lady had come to visit Frederick and Dalia, his sister Agnes to be exact.
     "Hello," she said, wearing her most beautiful hat.  She didn't know the elephant was there and Frederick didn't tell her about him.  Agnes was very het up and said,
     "You didn't remember to send Mother's birthday card.  You know how important it is to her, now that she's in the nursing home."
     "I did...I mean I tried to, but it got lost in the post and was returned to me," he replied, brandishing the card which he produced from the mantelpiece.
     Unbeknown to Agnes, Ilya the elephant came up behind her and removed her hat.
     "Eeek!"  she screamed, when she turned around and saw him behind her, eating her hat.
     She stormed out.  Frederick led the elephant back outside and penned him up in the garage again, this time with a bucket of water and several armfuls of greenery...and the doors locked of course.

     The cell phone battery was recharged and Frederick phoned the Holy Brotherhood, as he liked to call the police, after the monks in medieval Spain who used to perform policing duties on horseback.
     Daphne and Dalia waltzed in from the Open House.  Daphne was right into a book she was reading and dashed up to her room to read, without wasting any time.  It had started to rain and she loved the rain, for she felt so cozy inside the house, snuggled with a book.  Her mother still hadn't told Daphne about the elephant.  Daphne hadn't given her a chance.  She had been too busy telling her mother the plot of the book she was reading, which in case you were wondering, was Children Of The New Forest by Captain Frederick Marryat.
     Meanwhile, Frederick her father was busily cleaning up after the elephant's antics inside the house.
     "Just broken china,"  he told his wife.
     Soon the police arrived on horseback with the zookeeper in a big van.  The zookeeper caught the elephant, led it up a ramp into the van and drove away.
     The elephant was so sad.  He thought he had found some friends, you see.  He sniffled and blew his trunk on the zookeeper's handkerchief.
     Frederick and Dalia cried, too, for they loved the elephant.
     "Animal rescue has improved our marriage, I would say, wouldn't you?"  asked Frederick, as he wiped away the tears.
     "Yes, dear,"  said Dalia.
     "Tickety-boo,"  said Frederick.  "Let's get on with our day."
     Now this was a special day.  It was Daphne's tenth birthday and her Nana's too.
Daphne's parents had decided that for a special birthday treat, they would take her and her Nana up to London on the train for a visit to the ballet, which was in town. 
     "What's happening, Mummy?" asked Daphne, rushing to the door as the van and the horses moved off around the corner.
     "Oh, just an elephant,"  said Dalia, dreamily.  "Come on, let's pick up Nana and take her to the station."

     So Daphne, Nana and Daphne's parents went to see the ballet.  Daphne purchased a programme and read it.  That was one of her favourite parts.  She enjoyed the ballet and had ice cream at the interval from the ice cream lady standing with a tray of ice cream by the stage.  Daphne thrilled to the finale of the ballet.  A standing ovation was given by the audience at the end of the performance.  Daphne turned to her parents and said,  "I'd like to be a ballet dancer.  May I take lessons?"
     They told her that would be fine.  Then Dalia said,  "While we're up in London, let's go to the zoo and introduce you to the elephant."
     They took the Tube and marched right up to the elephant's cage.
     "Hello, Ilya!"  said Dalia.  "This is Nana, and this is our dear daughter Daphne."  All the time they were getting strange glances from nearby onlookers.
     Ilya touched Daphne's hair with his trunk and trumpeted with joy.  He loved children.  He was feeling rather tired from his early morning wanderings and went to the back of his cage and lay down.
     The zookeeper was happening by and asked if Daphne wanted to feed Ilya.
     "Would you like to feed Ilya a cabbage or two?"  They eat lots, you know,"  asked the kindly zookeeper.
     "Ooh, yes, please!"  exulted Daphne.
     "One moment!"  said the zookeeper and left to grab some food.
     Daphne turned and said to Ilya, "I'm going to feed you".
     Ilya, gaining interest, walked over.  Just at that moment, the zookeeper hurried back with a wheelbarrow full of cabbages and lettuces.
     Daphne gasped!  "That's a lot of cabbages!"
     "Well, I told you they eat a lot," said the zookeeper.
     Daphne fed Ilya through the cage bars.  He gobbled up her offerings faster than she could give them to him.
     The zookeeper came over to Daphne's parents and said,
     "Hey, aren't you the pair whose garden Ilya wandered into, earlier today?"
     "Could we borrow him from time to time?"  asked Frederick.
     "Why yes, then he'll be happy!"  said the zookeeper.  He shook their hands and sauntered off.

     Their first field trip was on a December day, to have the exhilarating experience of seeing the antiques at London's Bermondsey Market.  They set off on a frosty morning in the wee hours, for the market ran from 6am to lunchtime.  It was still dark out.  The family of three drove to London Zoo and picked up Ilya.  For want of space in the car, they let him ride on the roofrack.  They arrived at Bermondsey Market and ate breakfast together in a cozy little cafe.
     They pored through the bric-a-brac in the antique market, fascinated, not minding the musty smells and the dust.  Finally, the family and their friend Ilya came to their find of the day, an old metal sign from Liverpool Street Station, from the Victorian era.  Suddenly, they could hear the trains.  They imagined they boarded one.  They felt the wind in their hair and saw the steam puff, the wheels turn as the train chugged slowly out of the station.

     Again, a little while later, the family borrowed Ilya, to spend the day in their garden the following spring.  The daffodils and crocuses were blooming.  There was a little stone bench in a rose garden.  The four of them closed their eyes as they sat there, and heard the whispered words of a woman's prayer, "May Britain win the war".
     Suddenly, the roses bloomed and they could see the house as it used to be, as one giant building, used by the officers of the Royal Air Force in World War II.  The officers' mess was a little distance from the airport.  The four saw people in R.A.F. uniforms milling about in the garden, playing croquet and chatting.  The air raid siren went off.  The officers on duty, the commanding officers and ground officers jumped into their vehicles and drove to Biggin Hill airport.  Daphne, Frederick and Dalia ran for it.  Ilya just stood there and gawped, until Daphne grabbed him by the trunk and dragged him into the garage, just as enemy planes flew overhead.

     Daphne practiced her ballet every day and years passed.  She became a ballerina.

     Daphne danced the part of Rupinder in the story of the friendship of Princess Jazbreet And Her Servant.

     Rupinder was a little servant girl who lives in the poor part of town.  Every day she goes to work in the grand country home of Princess Jazbreet, sweeping and washing the floors.  They become friends and play together.
     One day Princess Jazbreet goes away to the big city to a palace and forgets about little Rupinder.  Jazbreet goes to parties, dinners and has new embroidered clothes made for her.  She is introduced to Prince Kulwinder and they fall in love.
     After a time, she goes back to her country home.  How ashamed she feels when she finds that Rupinder has been coming to her house every day, hoping to see her, while Jazbreet had forgotten her friend.
     Although it is forbidden by her father,  the King, Jazbreet goes to Rupinder's home, where Rupinder's mother makes Jazbreet chapattis.  In this humble home, Jazbreet feels love as she has never before felt.
     Her father, the King, is angry when he finds out, but Jazbreet knows she did the right thing, by being a true friend.  He throws her out for disobeying him, but Rupinder takes her in to live in their little home.  Rupinder loses her job, and the friends live in poverty.
     One day as Jazbreet is walking outside the house, she hears the sounds of elephants and voices coming.  It is Prince Kulwinder riding an elephant (played by Ilya).  Kulwinder recognizes her and they smile.  Rupinder tells him the story.
     Prince Kulwinder, Princess Jazbreet and Prince Kulwinder's entourage go to the country home of Jazbreet's father.  The King has been missing his lovely daughter and regretting the hasty decision he made to throw her out.  He welcomes them in joyously and announces their engagement.  The kingdom rejoices and Rupinder and her mother come to live at the palace, where they are warmly received.  Rupinder gets lessons with the royal tutor and gets her old job back.  True friendship wins out in the end.

     The ballet ended and Ilya kissed Daphne.  They are true friends forever.
    
     Years later, Ilya found himself up in Heaven with his mother and his father.  All three of them trotted along the sand together at the beach as the waves went in and out with the tide.  They shared a joke.  And only their footprints remained you think, but no, they remained because people never die and nor do elephants, in Heaven!  Do you want to know what the joke was?  I'll tell you now.
     "My, my, how you've changed," said one, the mother.
      "I'll say I have," said Ilya, who was now bigger than she was.
      "But I like you better this way."  And then she cried with happiness, don't you think?
                                                                    THE END





























  

the black beret starts out.

Thrills. I joined the local chapter of the Federation of Canadian Artists. (Fraser Valley Chapter).  Now I can be an artist for real.  I do illustrations for my picturebook manuscripts, also paintings of scripture stories and I paint Venice.  I am 48 and I like to yodel.