The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

Note: Although the term “dwarf” is used in medical jargon and often used in everyday speech, people with this condition often prefer the term “little person.” The term should be used with caution when discussing this story.

The narrator dreams of a dancing dwarf whose preternatural skill he admires. He goes to his place of business, a factory that manufactures elephants, where he tells a colleague about his dream. The colleague eventually remembers that he has heard about a dancing dwarf once before from an elderly man who works at the factory. The narrator approaches the old man at a bar and asks him about the dwarf. At the narrator’s insistence, the old man recounts how the dwarf, who came from the north, made a name for himself as a gifted dancer, and eventually even danced for the king before the revolution that unseated him. After the revolution, the dwarf disappeared. The old man also mentions rumors that the dwarf possesses a sinister power and may have even caused the revolution.

Soon after, the narrator finds out about a beautiful new worker at the factory and goes to great trouble to meet her, but the woman shows no interest in the narrator.