The symphony of life
Wayne Edmiston, now living on the Central Coast, has deep Chico roots. He graduated from Chico State College in 1971. An endowment fund to support developing the Meriam Library Special Collections and University Archives was created in the ’70s by his great-aunt Ellen Deering. Ellsworth Deering, his great-uncle, was inducted into Chico State’s Sports Hall of Fame in the ’80s.
An ordained New Thought minister with Centers for Spiritual Living, the long-time teacher has published a whimsical short story for children about the creation of music, the meaning of love, and the world’s curious interconnections.
“Ellie And Her Elephant” ($7.99 in paperback from Wedmiston Publishing; also for Amazon Kindle) emphasizes interactivity, pausing frequently to ask readers a question.
The story begins with the Easley family in small-town Halcyon, California, as news comes that the small zoo’s elephant is about to give birth. Nine-year-old Ellie Easley’s submitted name is drawn in the subsequent name-the-baby contest. The name had to begin with “El,” and wouldn’t you know it — Ellie won for “Ellie.”
Ellie’s father wows local children with piano playing, telling them a tale of music’s origin. Uncounted years ago, the animals in the African forest started making noises. That woke a big lion.
“‘I was purring and happy, now you’ve made me so angry I could cuss you out. I’d rather be purring than cussing because of the noise you’re making!’ This roaring became known throughout the jungle as a ‘re-purrcussion’ (repercussion).”
An elephant named Ellie learns to trumpet. When Ellie dies, she becomes “part of the symphony of life in another time and place.” Is her earthly music gone? No; the ivory humans find much later comes to reside in the very piano Ellie’s father is playing. Ellie
moves her wheelchair to the keyboard and it is “like an electric current — warm and comforting to the touch.”
As the years pass, Ellie becomes a skilled musician and, with help from her physical therapist, prepares an extraordinary surprise for her father when she plays at the big concert. And Ellie the elephant becomes a mother.
“What did Ellie the elephant give to the world?” Edmiston asks; “what do we have that we can give?”