How elephants die.
Did you see death, Dick?
Learn how we go!
An elephant, 60 years old and recorded as Marita, died at night. She had long not led the family, transferring the powers of the leader to her third daughter, the mighty Margo, and herself passed on to the role of a grandmother, dragging behind the flock the broken body, and watching that the young man is not too distracted from the babysitters. And it would have lasted a few more years if the boys from the neighboring Masai village had not had time to become men. And for the Masai, becoming a man means doing a feat. For example, to kill someone. And the boys, taking the heavy, in their own height, spies, in the darkness came to the elephant herd.
It has not been so long ago. In recent years, the Masai have been satisfied with bloodless feats, such as transporting a herd of cows through the river into the floodwater or picking out the prey from a lion. The elephants were discouraged from the fact that humans represented a danger, and did not react to a dozen armed teenagers in combat color. Only Marita understood what was happening, and with an unexpected roar that meant something like, “Run, you fools!” she covered the flock with her wide side. She was seconded by the clutch of our jeep, which crashed to the scene through a bush.
But we were late. The elephants went to the other bank of the river, to the reserve, and the Masai escaped in the bush. We got four bloody spies, one of which was broken by a hood from the wound. In the morning we found a herd in the depths of the reserve. The elephants went far into the mud and walked, excitedly talking to each other. Marita was not with them.
For a week we searched for Marita all over the reserve. It turned out to be in vain: the wounded Marita decided not to burden the family and hid among the frogs of one of the islands. There she was killed by sepsis from inflamed wounds. The body was found by Mara, her last daughter, who understood her mother’s logic better than others. He found and brought the others.
A powerful elephant column moved to the place of Marita's last rest, breaking the water stream. Two huge elephants lifted up the deceased and supported her with their shoulders. The family built up in half a circle and spoke mourning speeches, loudly trumpeting and gesturing with hobots. The honorary guard of the body of the deceased was changed four times, while the family dug a grave - shallow, 70 centimeters in a hole. The body of Marita was moved there and thrown from above with a hammer and specially delivered from the shore by branches. The elephants did not disperse immediately, leaving the cave in small groups, and the latter left the heavily grown Mara. No, we were the last to leave, who visited Marita after Maria and smoked her last tube on her grave - she liked the smell of cherry tobacco for some reason.
NN, a former senior engineer of the “Igreek” department of the famous “kissing” NII, died far from his homeland. When he was 72, the Russian medicine rejected him, motivating that his efforts were needed by young people, and he had already lived his life. His family moved him to Israel, whose doctors do not consider age as a reason for refusing to treat cancer, and there he lived for another fifteen long years, surviving much of most friends and colleagues. He was visited by various people, including those who never shine on TV screens, but is often mentioned in special reports, but he refused to cooperate. He was visited by children, his grown-up grandchildren were regularly called, his wife was lovingly drunk, and I, as I could, painted his life with conversations on professional topics, although I was quite far from the control systems, and he - from the oil company and the exchange. When cancer eventually took its own, he sat down on Skype and personally said goodbye to each member of his large family, finding a few fun words for each. By testament, I got the key from a bank cell. No, there was no package of banknotes – there was a package of papers with records. Here, I sit, I understand - who if not me?