I looked away for a second. I needed to swallow, to breathe, to do something with the helplessness building in my chest.
When I looked back, she had stepped away.
She paused, facing him.
Then she turned toward the others.
I wanted her to leave so we could reach him. Now that she was leaving, I could hardly bear it.
We stayed still until the herd had moved a safe distance.
Ben reached for the shovel.
“Now.”
We crossed the clearing with the equipment between us.
Up close, the calf was smaller than I had expected. Mud clung around his eyes. His breathing came fast, and when my shadow fell over him, he tried to struggle.
I knelt beyond the unstable edge.
“Easy, little guy.”
His trunk lifted once toward me.
Then his body slipped lower, his eye closed, and the mud began creeping over the place where he had been breathing.
