There was once a girl in the tiniest small town you can imagine. For the purpose of this story we can call her Fanny. 

We first meet Fanny in kindergarten. She is not like the other girls, playing with dolls and being all the mothers want their little girls to be–a gentle, well-behaved being. Instead, Fanny is a bully. She doesn’t play with other girls, but spends her time in kindergarten with the boys, wrecking a little chaos. Sometimes, she is put in the corner of the kids’ room, facing the wall. She must kneel there with hands up for half an hour, as a punishment for bad behavior, her best boy-friend winking to her from the opposite corner of the room, both giggling. 

From a good source we know that Fanny doesn’t have problems at home. So, the bad behaviours she possibly copies from elsewhere.

Fanny is capricious. She doesn’t want to eat at kindergarten because she doesn’t like the food. The teachers are helpless, they can’t let a child be hungry all day, but they can’t force her to eat either. When a mother comes to pick up her daughter from kindergarten she always carries fresh buns. Before Fanny reaches home she eats one to three buns, depending on the day. This small detail can be crucial later on to understand the other part of this story.

Fanny beats the other girls at the kindergarten, but there is one (let’s call her Ana), that is being beaten the most. According to Fanny, Ana smells bad and is way too calm to accept it. Ana’s life in kindergarten is not easy. She doesn’t do anything on purpose, she is just the way she is, and she tries to avoid Fanny as much as possible. The curious case is that none of the boys beat Ana, only Fanny. Then one day, for scared but determined Ana it is enough. She tells her father. Ana’s father comes calm while all the children are getting ready to leave and tells the teacher: “Ana told me that some Fanny is beating her”. Fanny doesn’t remember what happens next. She only remembers, until today and very vividly, Ana’s father saying this and then blank. 

Our memory works in mysterious ways. Sometimes we don’t remember things being said yesterday, but we remember those from 30 years ago.

The next thing Fanny remembers is that she and Ana are best friends. They are still in kindergarten. Spend time outside kindergarten too. They grow together. In school, they are in the same class and they are deskmates. Fanny has top grades, Ana mediocre. They are both beautiful girls. They are the same height but not the weight. Ana is and has always been skinny and fragile. Fanny, with puberty knocking, starts gaining weight. This is where her life at school is not being easy anymore, just like Ana’s life at kindergarten once. A bully becomes bullied. The other kids laugh at Fanny, calling her “elephant”. They say: “An elephant doesn’t fit in our company”. Everyone laughs except Ana. Ana is a good friend and she doesn’t see a reason why “an elephant” can’t fit in company. 

Fanny likes to eat. Her soft spot is still fresh buns and she eats them plenty. We wouldn’t say that she eats more than the other kids. But for some reason she is still bigger than them and they cannot accept it. “An elephant” grows, still being laughed at, but still being top in class. 

Sometimes, not always, the trouble doesn’t stop you from getting good grades. 

Meanwhile, all the girls have their boyfriends, but Fanny is still “too big” to deserve love. Ana doesn’t have a boyfriend either, so it is ok. They are together. They are best friends, even though they go to different high schools later on, they choose different universities. And they are both still very beautiful, Ana still skinny, a top model shape, Fanny a bit curvy, but loving her body.

On one of many nights out, the girls share a drink. They laugh at the past, they smile at the future. Fanny randomly comes back to where it all started. She bullied her own friend. Ana is in shock. She doesn’t remember a thing. Fanny is in shock too, Ana’s father’s voice still ringing in her ears. Vividly. They both laugh. Now it is funny, but then it was not. Fanny remembers “an elephant”. Ana does too. But now an elephant doesn’t seem so traumatic, it is almost sympathetic. 

They sometimes meet the colleagues from kindergarten or school, shortly, in a bus, or on the street. Being bullied and called “an elephant” is a reason big enough to not to talk to certain people, but Fanny is nice. She doesn’t hold a grudge. She is smart. And Ana is too.

Ewelina Chańska