Can a badly abused elephant halfway across the world help a woman win back her cheating husband? In this funny, heartwarming story, the author of the beloved novel Horseplay presents another smart, memorable heroine and the animals--and men--she loves.

Neelie Sterling never did listen well to the conversation around her. Always preoccupied with an inner monologue, she sometimes missed things. She was happy when Matt, her veterinarian husband, told her he was getting a collie; she liked dogs. He had said colleague, to help with his busy practice. The problems start when the pretty blonde "collie" calls Neelie to say that she is pregnant with Matt's child. Sent into a tailspin, Neelie throws herself into her horse training business until she discovers that Matt is part of a group planning to leave for Zimbabwe to rescue a badly injured elephant. Thinking she could win Matt's heart again, Neelie manages to get included.

The trip is dangerous, exhilarating, and revealing. Neelie learns about herself as a wife and a woman. Back at home, she discovers secrets everywhere--with her parents, with Matt, even in training an elephant. Fighting to keep her life from unraveling as she struggles to gain the elephant's trust, she ultimately learns that healing can be mutual.

WHEN MATT first mentioned her, two years ago, I thought he said he was getting a collie. And I thought, Great, I love dogs.

I get like that--a little vacant, listening with half an ear. I hear a snatch of conversation and convert it into something else. I misunderstand things. Sometimes I'm not listening at all. I can't help myself. I have a chronic preoccupation with an inner dialogue that leaves little room for the outside world. I practically go deaf when I get nervous. I've been this way for a long time, and maybe that was some of our problem.

"The frog is woebegone," he would say.

"Frog?" I would ask.

And he would put his hands on his hips and give me that look, before repeating himself. "I said, I won't be gone for long."

So she called me, my husband's colleague--that's what the collie turned out to be. She called to tell me she was pregnant.

Even though I had a radio blasting--I always keep a radio playing nearby--I heard that well enough. There is no mistaking when someone tells you that she and your husband are pregnant.

"Neelie?" she started, then continued in musical tones. "I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you, but Matt couldn't bring himself to do it and you need to know. Matt and I are pregnant. About three months now."

Isn't that just too cute? Matt and I are pregnant, the way couples announce it nowadays. When I was a kid, the wife got pregnant and the husband got a big pat on the back. Now they are pregnant together. So inclusive. Except for me, of course. Matt's wife.

They had been in love for about a year and a half, she said. Maybe two, she couldn't be sure. Which meant it started just a few months after he told me he was taking in a collie to help him with his lions. Lions. I seem to remember that I heard "lions." Which is not so far--fetched; Matt, after all, is a veterinarian, and he sometimes helps out at a wild--animal sanctuary about ten miles from us.

He was taking in a colleague to help him with his clients.

And his love life. She apparently was taking care of his love life as well.

Her name was Holly, and she was a small--animal specialist, and she was recuperating from a divorce, looking to relocate from Colorado, and wanting to join a practice in New York, in the small town where her parents lived. Where we lived. I found all of that out at the welcoming dinner I cooked for her in our home. She looked like she had just breezed in from a day on the Aspen slopes. Blond hair, lean workout body, crisp blue eyes. Big--Sky blue eyes, although I know Big--Sky is really Montana. She mentioned that she liked crafting. I was surprised, because she looked so outdoorsy.

"I'd never take you to do crafting," I said.

"Rafting," Matt said, exchanging glances with her.

"White--water rafting," she said, tossing her blonde, Colorado--outdoor--sun--bleached hair, her Big--Sky eyes now looking vastly amused at me. Of course. Who does white--water crafting? In my defense, I was whipping the cream for a lovely chocolate--cream pie, which is my signature dessert. Which she declined, because she DIDN'T LIKE CHOCOLATE.

I mean, come on.

I guess she wanted to keep that lean, sinewy--cat, predatory figure, because she was certainly still on the prowl. I just didn't know it.

I had a slice of pie, and Matt asked for a very thin slice, which he never did, he loves my pie, and maybe I should have sniffed out something suspicious right then and there.

They worked well together. Matt always said that. She just seemed to anticipate what needed to be done next, and had it finished before he asked. She was full...

 

"A joyful frolic, full of . . . wry truths about grown-up romance."

 

"A rollicking fun read."

 

"A laugh a minute."

 

"I have not laughed so much at a book since Bridget Jones's Diary."

 

JUDY REENE SINGER is a dressage competitor, horse trainer, and all-around animal lover. She is a frequent contributor to international animal rescues and is currently foster mother to two elephant babies. Judy has written about the equestrian world for more than a decade, and was named top feature writer by The Chronicle of the Horse in 1996. She holds degrees in English and psychology, shares her home with cats and dogs, horses, and an African gray parrot, and enjoys making her friends and family fat with baked goodies.

Copy:	not allowed
Print:	not allowed

Still Life with Elephant by Judy Reene Singer
Continue Browsing		View Wish List