Ghost Pachyderm (T) (H) (SF)

Ten years since a circus elephant is killed after going on a rampage, weird things are occurring on a stretch of beach in North Carolina.  Strange noises are heard emanating from a cave, evening strollers say they’ve seen a large animal roaming the shore, and campers describe being terrorized by an unseen entity tearing through their campgrounds.  It all leads to the unbelievable assertion that the spirit of the dead pachyderm is now haunting the living, and seeks some kind of redemption.  It gets even more surreal when research into the tragic event reveals a connection to another elephant similarly put to death more than 70 years before.  A science fiction tale based on actual events, “Ghost Pachyderm” poses the question as to whether man can ever believe that animals possess souls, and whether he can ever really care. Writer: Eric Nemoto. Pages: 84.