John S White

One Fell Swoop! John S White

A novel based on the amazingly true story of two runaway elephants in Oklahoma. In the summer of 1975, Lily and Isa, baby elephants barely two years old, bolted from the hands of circus trainers into the impenetrable hardwood forest of remote Southeastern Oklahoma, leading a beleaguered sheriff's posse, colorful locals bent on collecting rewards and a big game hunter on a desperate month long search. Born into captivity, taught to perform tricks and forced into assisting with rigorous construction tasks, Lily and Isa's sudden freedom seemed doomed on an hour to hour basis. They came face to face with fierce animals, outran packs of bloodhounds, outsmarted hard charging horsemen and outlasted head on clashes with planes, trains and automobiles. The deeper into the woods they wondered, the greater the peril. Dehydration, starvation, heat exhaustion and gushing wounds mounted with each passing day. Their owners thought they would surely give up and wait to be rescued. Did they? Was it worth what they had to endure to be free? The clock was ticking. Tame elephants stand zero chance of adapting well enough to survive in the wild. A work of fiction inspired by true events, White's lively and amusing debut novel leaves it to the reader to decide if Lily and Isa were truly lost and needed to be rescued or did they escape in pursuit of a better life?