One Last Promise

7-year-old Howdy Spires needs a friend and finds a lost elephant. Frightened, he runs for cover. The elephant doesn't. Howdy talks to it. Are you lost? Will you be my friend? The elephant pulls up a tuft of grass, tossing it at Howdy. He giggles, and the friendship begins. They swim the river, play bagpipes, conduct a dead-bug funeral, sleep in the barn. He names the elephant Mimi. Uncle Tony finds the elephant, calls the police, and leg irons go on Mimi . Howdy defends the elephant with a slingshot, but the old elephant is old and dies through the night. A night he never forgot. --Howdy grows up, goes to college. Time passes. Now 81, he is dying but Mimi will come to get him when it's his time. He knows this . It was her last promise.