A Life Saver You'll Never Forget
It had come to this.
Again, the month of July was about to end. Again, the circus was coming to town.
Again, Jack felt sick to his stomach.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like the circus. He liked going to the circus almost as much as his dad enjoyed taking him when he was little.
He loved the cotton candy, the side shows, and the trapeze artists. Most of all, however, he and his Dad – and even his granddad enjoyed the elephants.
Oh, what a spectacle those elephants were! Jack loved watching the elephants squirting water from their trunk into their mouths. How they lifted their trunks, looked at you in a friendly fashion, and just about invited you to jump on their backs. So, they weighed a ton or two (or four or five or six). They were big and beautiful.
But Jack could never jump on an elephant back.
Nor would he go to see the circus anymore.
Not since his grandfather was stomped to death by an elephant, when he was only 10.
Not since his father was stomped to death by still another elephant ten years later to the day. It was all a bizarre accident, his mother explained. Elephants typically don’t stomp people. Something scared the elephants, his mother said.
Exactly 10 years had passed since that July day that had claimed both his grandfather and his father ten years apart. Would it be his turn this time?
Jack wasn’t about to let his elephant fright keep him from his appointed rounds. He had to do something. He knew his own kids were itching to go to the circus this year.
He finally got an idea.
As the circus parade passed within a block of his house, Jack went to the library and got a National Geographic DVD on elephants. He hooked up his X10 video sender to the DVD and hung a screen from a telephone pole along the parade route. As the parade passed by, the lead elephant saw Jack and something seemed to overcome him with rage. The elephant was now aiming directly at Jack!
Jack was ready, however, with the remote to the video sender. As he invoked the sender, suddenly the lead elephant was diverted and stepped away from Jack, his attention fixed on the lovely female elephant on the screen. Other elephants also headed toward the screen.
Jack was finally safe. As the elephants gawked at the tree, Jack took his kids in hand and headed for the circus.
Not this year, guys!” he yelled out in joy.