the lie I stopped believing

people divide the human population into two groups. the criteria of division changes. they will say:

the people that like ‘the old man and the sea’ and those that don’t.’

‘people that can enjoy a drink, and those that don’t’.

but I know the true division. it is sad and sobering.

the difference between us all is between those that can place an exact time and date , when their childhood ended, and those that had it slowly trickle down, until they became adults.

I know where I stand. I can tell you when I stopped being an innocent child, started being a grownup.

it’s a sad story, as my group of people’s tale always is.

I

you see, friends, I used to love elephants. what isn’t to love about them?!

what negative thing could you possibly say about a massive animal, that is kind at heart, always careing, eating bananas joyously, reaching out with it’s trunk, for a gentle touch, flapping its ears, like philodendron leaves.

I remember how I particularly enjoyed walking round their enclusure in the zoo. my parents urging me to move on, and that my brother wanted to see the leopards.

leopards? who wants to see them, when you have elephants?! I would say , part angry , part incredulous.

you guys go on ahead, I'm staying here.

but then I grew up and learned the hard truths of life. Santa doesn’t exist, neither do witches and wizards.

and neither do elephants.

I know, you laugh. you say “what took you so long?”

if you can believe it, I held on to the dream all the way up to grade 7. I probably started to have doubts earlier, but it was a school trip that did it. we walked around, bearly restraining ourselves to NOT throw the potato chips to the monkeys and the hotdogs to the tigers.

and then we reached my favorite part.

excuse me a second, i need to take a drink. my mouth's getting dry just talking about it..

so there it was. i saw an “elephant” resting. it is said that elephants seldome lie down. but there is a reason why. as the elephant was at rest, i could see the trunk, from the underside. the glorious trunk thst so dextrously holds all kinds of things. and that my mom even allowed me to shake once.

it was draped in such away, that you could clearly see that it was an attachment. by some careless missallignment, I could see the seams withwhich it was connected. a closer look revealed similar high quality stitching behind the legs, and the ears.

dumbo was as real these ones were.

after concluding this inspection, my heart beating fast, i stood there, gaping. there was no magic anymore, only hard reality.

it's possibly for the best that i got this wake up when i did. age 13 , is the age of manhood. not a child forever again. I needed no rite of passage, just a school trip to the zoo.

oh, they took us back, and onviously this was the last school trip organized for the zoo. from then on, we went to grownup places, like the fire station, the power plant, the air force base.. places that we should hopefully catch a glimpse of a future career.

never the zoo again.

I now realize, that it must have been more for legal concerns: what if another kid discovers the truth and flakes out? we'll get sued!!

now, friends, I have a doughter. sooner or later I'm going to take her to the zoo. I have goosebumps. how will I tell her? how can I keep her innocent?