Brandon and the elephant, part two

I promised a continuation of yesterday's letter, so here it is! A week or so ago my husband found a metal playground elephant in our cellar coal bin while checking out a leaking pipe. Both of us figured Brandon had to be involved somehow, and it was a hilarious reminder of his presence in our house. Well, here's the story straight from the horse's (er, elephant's) mouth:

He starts out his letter: 'ello, Mumsy, Just received your most recent letter much to my amusement. I completely forgot about that elephant. Surprisingly (or not), it wasn't a plan of my hatching. It was more a "shake-n-bake" situation. As in "it's Shake-n-Bake, and I helped." I'll explain later.

And here it is: "Now onto lighter things, namely the elephant. In short, Ed and Dena (his sister and her boyfriend) found it, then asked me to help pinch it (that's officially the end of the short version). She originally asked to borrow my Jeep. 1. No one borrows my Jeep, and 2. I had a flat, so I asked what's up. Her answer was to the effect of "I need help lifting something". I couldn't resist. The three of us went down to Quality Hill (a local playground) in the Mitsubishi (Ed's car) where we went to the elephant's hiding place and carried it up a wet, slippery hill back to the car. Ed and I tried to cram it into the "trunk", kicking at it and slamming the hatch down on it in vain. Now, we're parked on the side of perhaps the least travelled road in all of Nanticoke and just as Ed and I start to struggle, cars start coming. Imagine, if you will, driving past us, who are pushing and kicking this big, lumpy object into the back of an import compact like a couple of Japanese mobsters transporting a body with Dena whisper/screaming "hurry up!" Obviously, we weren't caught (the denizens of Apollo Circle-the Nanticoke projects-left it very well alone) and the thing's been in the coal bin since June '05.

He doesn't even HAVE to be home to cause excitement and chaos! That's my boy.