The Fear Elephant
Hansi was a little girl who was scared of almost everything. From the time that she woke up, until she went to sleep, she worried about how things could go wrong. She took a long time to do even a small task, because she was afraid of making any mistakes. She didn’t go out and play with her friends because she was afraid that she might fall and hurt herself. She was even scared to go to bed at night because she was afraid of the darkness.
Every day she found something new to worry and scare her. She became so afraid of everything that she preferred to sit in a corner doing nothing. “You have to be bold and take risks sometimes!” her father told her. “Things have to go wrong sometimes for you to learn through your mistakes,” her mother told her. But Hansi was too scared to do anything at all.
Hansi’s fear loomed around her like a small snail at first, creeping inside its shell every time something felt scary. Soon it grew bigger, like a rabbit that jumped into its burrow whenever it felt afraid of anything. But Hansi kept on getting afraid of everything, that her fear kept on getting bigger and bigger and soon it became as big as an elephant.
Hansi’s fear elephant stayed very close to her, shivering in fright. It always whispered things in her ears saying how scared it was of everything. “Oh…” groaned the fear elephant at night when she went to sleep, “did you see that shadow? Maybe it’s a monster. Maybe there are more of them hiding under our bed!” Hansi would tremble feeling really scared at everything the fear elephant said.
During the daytime, the fear elephant stopped Hansi from doing any school work. “Oh no… don’t make that sum! What if you get the wrong answer?” It whispered. “What if the teacher punishes you?” cried the fear elephant frightening Hansi so much that she didn’t make any of the sums.
“Hansi are you alright? Are you feeling sick?” Hansi’s teacher asked her, looking at her blank book. “Oh don’t tell her anything. She will send you to the sick-room and give you bitter
medicine!” wept the fear elephant. So Hansi kept quiet.
Soon Hansi’s parents were asked to come to school, as Hansi’s teacher was worried about her. “She doesn’t do any school work and she has stopped playing with her friends. Now she has stopped talking as well. She doesn’t seem too well, “ Hansi’s teacher told her parents. Hansi was taken home and her parents wanted to know what was wrong. But the fear elephant frightened her some more. “Don’t tell them anything, they might punish you!” the fear elephant told her, sounding very worried.
That evening Hansi heard her parents talking in the living room.
“Something’s wrong with her. We will have to show her to a Child Specialist,” they were saying.
“I’m scared to go to a Child Specialist,” Hansi told the fear elephant, “what will he do?” “Whatever it is, it can’t be something good,” replied the fear elephant. “Oh this is so terrifying!”
“You are not helping me! You are making me even more nervous,” complained Hansi.
“What do you expect from me?” asked the fear elephant, “I am made of fear. You are the one who created me.
I don’t like being here either. It’s so scary in here. I wish I could go away!”
“You should go!” said Hansi. “If you stay here we’ll both end up getting more and more frightened. Just look at how big you’ve grown!”
The fear elephant knew that Hansi was right. It was very big and it needed to go. “Make me smaller and I will vanish,” said the fear elephant. “Please send me away. I am too scared to stay here.”
Hansi decided to try her best to help the fear elephant to get small and vanish.
The next morning Hansi got up to go to school. “Don’t get out of bed. It’s too dangerous!” said the fear elephant.
“But I need to wash my face!” insisted Hansi.
“But what if you slip and fall in the bathroom?” asked the fear elephant shivering in fright.
“No, I will not fall,” said Hansi and got out of bed. The fear elephant got a little smaller.
After breakfast Hansi quickly took out her books and started to do the homework sums which she was too scared to do the other day. “Not so fast… Not so fast!” shouted the fear elephant. “What if you get them wrong and get punished?”
Hansi closed her ears. “That’s alright,” she said, “then I’ll learn how to do it right the next time.” The fear elephant got a little more smaller.
Throughout the day, the fear elephant tried to stop Hansi from doing things. But she didn’t listen to it. And every time she took a bold decision, the elephant got smaller. Hansi’s teacher and parents felt surprised to see her acting confidently for a change.
The next morning when Hansi got up, the fear elephant was the size of a rabbit. Hansi kept on ignoring the fear elephant’s advice. And every time she did so, the fear elephant kept on shrinking. By evening, the fear
elephant was as little as a snail.
“I am so scared,” said the fear
elephant, “what if I get big again?”
“No you won’t,” promised Hansi, “you will be happy to go back to wherever you came from because I am not afraid of anything anymore!”
And when she said that, the fear elephant smiled happily and vanished from her sight. So from that day on Hansi was not afraid of anything again.