The Last Bookshelf

In a clearing past the jungle on the shores of Madagascar, the Indian Ocean, find upright elephant, “Sleepy”.
He fed on the leaves of a Baobab tree.
Little did he know the value of this one tree.
For the story about to unfold holds magic..

Pretty soon the moon came out to eat.
The waves crashed a clumsy beat.
And Sleepy took a seat. . which shook the beach.
There were poachers all around. One was even hiding in the tall Mahajero grass with an obvious red bandana.
They were after that prized, precious wood.
Poacher Dan motioned silence among the crafty field assassins. He snuck up on Sleepy, and, assured he was asleep �" cut the Baobab Tree in half in one swift slice.

Sleepy snored a sweet song which climaxed in bubbling from his nose as he exhaled.
The remaining jungle jacklights gathered around poacher Dan for a good look at their successful hunt.
They loaded up their caravan and were off to the nearest town to trade the Baobab for a bounteous silver Wompa (silver coin) each.
Once the tree was loaded it was sent to the frightening tree butchers aka the sawmill...where it is rumored that one brave tree escaped the treacherous blades.

Nevertheless, as the tree was on it’s way to the sawmill that night bumping and bouncing around it fell off the truck and rolled and rolled and continued rolling until it came to the door of a rustic old cabin made of nothing but Baobab trees. The tree would have shuddered if it were able to see its family being used as a miserable human outhouse. However, the next morning an old man came outside to light his pipe when he noticed this lovely, rare, fresh-cut tree at his feet. “Ahhhh” he said to his wife. “I have just the use for it!”.
The old man’s wife rolled her eyes and cursed him as she was sure he’d build her a 3^rd kitchen or another Jewelry box for her meager jewels. This was not the case. The old man began work right away on a new project he was certain would satisfy the 4 wise ghosts he’d met at the abandoned elementary school down the road.
He’d never told his wife about the 4 wise ghosts for she would have left him.
So, after a puff of his pipe and a swig of his coffee, the old man began work on what was to be ‘The Last Bookshelf’. You see, one evening while working custodial duties in the abandoned school library in the haunted section, the old man was advised by the skinniest ghost to “construct a shelf which we will then use to house the one book which will bring the school back to it’s glory”. “It will definitely change the world of the children forever” chimed in the ghost with the reddest eyes. “Without question, the power of the book will heal” said the 3^rd ghost who had a cough.
The old man was so intrigued by such words, and of course, by having been given such an opportunity, that he rushed home to tell his wife who would not listen because she was “making your favorite dinner �" eggplant casserole!”.
The old man knew he needed a special kind of wood to build this shelf.
Now with his Baobab mysteriously at hand, he carved and he whacked and he shaped and he polished and by nightfall he had what he felt was a bookshelf to satisfy even the prosperous elder ghosts of West Gizamalonket. He felt proud to be able to help the forgotten children. Cure their illnesses. Restore their school.
The old man wiped his head and yawned with exhaustion at his day’s work.
The next morning the old man awoke horrified to find “The Last Bookshelf” was gone!
He swore up and down and stayed up for 3 nights watching over his property from his front porch. Finally, on the 3^rd night, having sworn he’d reached hallucination from fatigue, the old man watched an elephant sneak behind a patch of Mon-gum berries. “YOU!” cried the old man. “You ate my bookshelf!”
It was Sleepy.
Sleepy blushed. “I have always wanted to learn the piano ..kind sir..
and since I no longer have my favorite leaves to eat off my favorite tree .. I wondered perhaps if you could build it for me?”
The old man broke into tears.
“You mean to tell me, friendly leaf-eater, that that shelf was once a tree that was once a growing specimen on your beach cafeteria?”
Sleepy sighed with his trunk held low.
“I must go home now kind human”.