The Life She Was Given

A week later, the Barlow Brothers’ Circus sets up outside Des Moines during a heat wave. During a sideshow party Lilly and Cole attend together, two zebras get loose and run wildly into the tent. Lilly easily calms one of the stallions down and leads him back to the menagerie, leaving Cole and the acrobats shocked at her ability to control the animal.

Later that night, she meets Cole by a pond where the elephants swim in the heat. Cole tells Lilly that she has “a way with all animals, especially after what [she] did with that zebra” (176). Overcome with happiness watching the wild animals playfully swimming, Lilly realizes that she has romantic feelings toward Cole. Basking in the elephants’ freedom and joy, “Lilly [feels] like one of the luckiest people on earth […] she never dreamt it was possible to feel this happy” (177). Cole persuades Lilly to come into the pond, and the two swim with the elephants, with Pepper lifting Lilly into the air with her trunk and placing her on her back. Cole asks Lilly to give the elephants commands to see if they will perform tricks at her request; he is in awe of Lilly’s connection to the animals and of how easily they follow her gentle orders.