The elephant dragged its feet, following behind the child experiencing the wet sand of a beach for the first time. Its right leg was longer than its left, the result of being constantly tugged along with the 3-year-old wherever he went. The elephant was much loved around its trunk and ears, its belly crisscrossed with patches from old flannel shirts, worn jeans, tattered baby blankets. If not for its owner, the elephant thinks it wouldn’t even be an elephant anymore.

"Come along, Dylan," the man said as he scooped his son up into his arms. They were halfway back on the walk to their house when Dylan started squirming furiously to be let down.

"Ey-fant," he said over and over again, while running on his almost-steady toddler feet, back the way they'd come.