Wash

“No, that would not be wise,” Anto advised from his place atop the other elephant. “It’s only curious right now. If you swim off in a hurry, you’ll be inviting it to have a taste. It’d snap you in two before you could even set one foot on land. Just stay calm. We’ll be out of the water any minute, and a croc can’t outrun one of these big beauties.” He patted his elephant’s side, trying to downplay the situation so I wouldn’t do anything stupid, like make a mad dash to shore.

He had a point. There was no need to panic, at least not yet. I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart. The croc swam a little further away, then stopped, as if to watch us from a distance, but I still didn’t feel much safer knowing that we were sharing the river with that thing and probably several of its terrifying and hungry relatives.

Jake pointed, his voice calm, as if he was trying to put my mind at ease. “We can’t let our guard down, but look! It’s over there, minding its own business.”

“Or it’s stalking us!” I retorted.

Of course Jake was smart enough to know that; he just didn’t want to freak me out.

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll be out of the water any minute,” he said.

A splash and a blur of brown caught my attention. Ripples shot across the slow current as the croc slithered through in the water, slowly swimming past us until it was only about fifteen feet away. My stomach clenched when the creature’s long snout and eyes barely broke the surface of the river. It was so close to us that I could see the thin membrane slide over its eyes as it blinked. When the thing slowly disappeared into the river again, it was beyond creepy.

A few moments later, Jake pointed at more huge ripples in the river, and I gulped as the croc’s body slightly rose out of the water. “It’s getting closer!”

Finally, the ground began to level out, and I felt a glimmer of hope. With each step the elephant took, we rose higher out of the treacherous water. I scanned the surface as the water receded to my waist, then my knees, and finally my ankles. Relief swept through me. I’d come face to face with a croc and lived to tell about it.

I scanned the water one last time. “It’s gone.”

We all seemed calmer as we moved closer to the riverbank, assuming that if the croc had really wanted to make a meal out of us, he’d already be picking what was left of us out of his nasty old teeth.

As my elephant walked, the water behind her began to churn. A crashing splash erupted, and streams of water rose into the air and slapped against us. The croc leapt out, snapping its bone-crushing jaws together and missing Anto’s elephant by mere inches.

Too frightened to even scream, I held on tightly as the elephant reared up. Digging my feet into the animal’s sides, my hair swayed around me, whipping into my face, while I clung to the saddle like a cowboy atop a wild bull in a rodeo. My hands slipped around Jake again, and I held on to him tightly as the creature bucked again. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, and we were all catapulted into the air, finally landing with a giant splash.

Groaning, I scrambled up, spitting out dirty water as my heartbeat spiked. I was in the river up to my waist—the same river where the crocodile was swimming around. The elephant continued to buck like a spooked horse, and I moved back, knowing that getting turned into a pancake by an elephant wasn’t going to help me one bit.

I looked for our guide. When I saw him, I hurried over and found him dazed but alive, and I started pulling him toward the shore. “C’mon, Anto!” I said. I glanced over my shoulder. I pushed my wet hair out of my eyes and blinked as I wiped the water from my lashes. “Get to the riverbank, Jake!” I yelled. I knew if we could just get out of the water, it would increase our odds of survival; in the water, the croc had home-field advantage. I craned my neck to peer behind me, just in time to see the croc gliding in the water next to my elephant, its eyes open wide and fixing on me, its cruel jaws snapping in my direction. I gasped and yelled, “RUN!”

“It’s coming! We can’t all make it to shore in time!” Jake yelled. “Get outta here. I’ll hold it off.”

I yanked his arm. “No, Jake! Get your butt on land!”

“Just get him out of the water!” he yelled, pointing at the barely conscious Anto.

“I’m not going without you!” I demanded. “Now come on!”

“Get to safety!” Jake glanced over his shoulder, and his lips pressed into grim lines. “I promise I’ll be right behind you. Now go!”

“No! I’m not leaving you.” As much as I despised what Jake had done for me, I couldn’t just let him get eaten alive. He had always been there for me—well, except when he’d deserted me at the altar—and I couldn’t just abandon him to die in an African river.

The croc lunged at Jake, snapping its hungry jaws. Its dinosaur-like powerful tail whipped around in the air, sending thousands of droplets spraying everywhere. For a second, all I could do was hold my breath and watch in horror. Jake grunted and lurched backward. Sure, he resembled Superman with that dark hair and blue eyes of his, but there was no way he could take on thousands of pounds of pure muscle and bad attitude.

“Jake, get outta there!” I desperately yelled.

He took a step back, but in the process, he accidentally lodged his foot on something. I couldn’t see whether it was a rock or a fallen tree in the river bottom. I only hoped another animal hadn’t grabbed his foot under the water. Whatever it was, it caused him to lose his footing and fall backward with a splash. As if the dinner bell had been rung, the croc powered toward him with its mouth slightly open, practically smiling, ready to move in to kill its prey.

Think fast, I told myself. What can I do? Hit it with a branch? Right. It’ll probably feel like a feather on that thing’s thick skin. Maybe I can hit it with a rock. Nope. That’ll feel like nothing more than a pesky fly. And then I saw it. Mud! Maybe I can blind it someho

w!

Before I could change my mind, I grabbed a giant handful of muddy sand and flicked it at the croc’s eyes. My heart pounded as I watched the creature’s reaction. Water splashed everywhere as it threw a tantrum, blinking its yellow eyes over and over again. The croc went for Jake’s throat and missed only by inches as he twisted to the left like lightning. Then, rearing up, the elephant smashed its feet like a hammer right down on the croc’s head.

The reptile lay motionless, seeming disoriented from the heavy blow. I flinched as the armored beast suddenly moved, gliding slowly toward the deeper part of the river. It slipped silently into the glittering water and sank like a submarine. Bubbles rose to the surface, and then all was still.

I clutched my chest while I caught my breath. Tears welled, threatening to spill down my cheeks. Jake was safe, and I was glad for that. Still holding my breath, I quickly scoped out the area. I waited a moment before I dared to start breathing again. Then I grabbed Jake’s and Anto’s hands and pulled them eagerly to shore. I sloshed through the water, mud, and sand until my feet reached dry land, and a wave of relief swept through me. Water dripped from my hair and poured from my clothes.

I glanced over at Jake. There was no way I was going to let him off scot-free after he’d tried to play action hero. Hugging and punching him at the same time, I cried, “What were you thinking?”