The Elephant Tree - fifteen

The government choppers have just made a low sweep of the area looking for the subversive bastards out to kill the president. The wind that was created by there windmill blades created a dirt storm and blew the blow-up doll off the back of the elephant. The doll was punctured and fell to the ground giving the appearance of a girl being shot by a machine gun. The crowd panicked and ran for cover.  Someone screamed that the government choppers were shooting at everyone.

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The blow-up doll flew off the elephant like she had been shot. When it was punctured it fell right at the feet of Stumpy, the writer who was dressed to look like a clown.

The choppers had raised so much dirt and debris that the small crowd that had gathered was not sure what was going on.

The sucked in their breath and put their hands over their faces. The government choppers immediately pulled away and disappeared over the horizon.

The turmoil of the big choppers flipped the news chopper, Sky 86, sideways and caused it to make a hard forced landing.

Stumpy, seeing the government choppers immediately pulling back realized what was happening.  He knelt over the blow-up doll and told the crowd to stay back.

"Those lousy bastards just shot an innocent girl. Stay back she needs air."

Ichaposi, the circus farmer and the naïve undertaker went to see if they could help repair the doll.

"Quick," the writer said. "Hide her and keep the crowd back."

"What going on," the elephant said?

"Did they kill the doll," donkey wanted to know?

"Those guys in the chopper think they have killed somebody," Stumpy said. "They will not come back and the government will deny that they were ever here.  We need to make them think they are right."

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The well endowed ghost writer followed the elephant, the donkey and the naive undertaker's tracks to the barn. When she got to the barn she heard the commotion of the low sweep by the government choppers and then heard them fly away.

The town's people had panicked and were run running away from town looking for places to hide. Some of them went by her screaming, "The government is shooting people. You need to hide."

Being a reporter and a writer, she didn't run a way. She ran towards where the people were running from.

She saw the elephant and a zebra and a few people gathered around a figure lying on the ground.

A few people were hiding behind a tree and she asked them what had happened.

"Those government helicopters flew over and started shooting up the circus parade. They had no right to do that. The circus people didn't do anything."

As she approached the group she saw that one of the clowns was taking pictures and the other was writing like crazy in a note book.

"Ichaposi?…Stumpy?...What is going on?…Why are you dressed like clowns?"

"Did the government choppers really shoot people?"

"They killed the doll," the donkey said. "Do I still need to be painted like a zebra?"


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