by Lynne Kelly
When I reach the spot in the road where I last saw my mother, I stop. I look down the road that took me away, just as Amma did the day I left.
Baba said that a story is no good if you hear only the ending. You have to know how you got there. I still cannot say I will ever be thankful for much of what has happened to me, but everything I’ve ever done has brought me here.
A wagging tail catches my eye. I can’t believe it.
“Raj?” I say. He trots over to me. I crouch down to pet him and laugh as he licks my face. He is fatter than I remember. So someone has been feeding him all this time.
The evening is cold, and the village stove pours smoke into the desert sky. I start to run to the courtyard, then stop when I see her carrying a basket of laundry to our house. Chanda pauses at our front door and drops the basket when she notices me.
Her smile is the same as our mother’s. She looks tall. And healthy. I am so relieved to see her, I need all the strength I have left to keep from crumbling to the ground.
I wondered what I would say when I saw her again—if I saw her again—and if she would even recognize me, but we run to each other and crash into a hug as if no time or distance ever separated us. The pain of our separation fades as the scents of spices and bread dough in her clothes welcome me home.
We laugh when my stomach growls. I take my sister’s hand and run toward the smell of baking rotis. Dinner is best when I pour the buttermilk while the roti is still hot.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
India has laws to protect elephants like Nandita and children like Hastin, but as everywhere in the world, there are people who ignore the law.
Since 1973, elephant capture in India has been illegal, except to relocate an elephant that has encroached upon land inhabited by people. For many years, circuses and zoos could legally obtain elephants that had been bred in captivity, but in 2009, a new law banned the use of elephants in Indian zoos and circuses. Many elephants already in zoos or circuses were transferred to national parks and animal sanctuaries. Concerns about the elephant population suffering because of poaching, habitat loss, and human-elephant conflicts led to later amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act, providing greater safeguards for elephants. Despite stricter regulations, forest departments in India continue to receive reports about illegal poaching and elephant trapping. Conservationists and animal welfare groups like the SPCA work to improve the lives of captive elephants in India and protect those in the wild.
Although child labor laws forbid the hiring of children, families who live in poverty often send their children to work in homes as servants or in factories. The children work long hours for very little pay and are sometimes abused by their employers. Laws banning child labor have been around since 1986, and in recent years new laws have been enacted to expand restrictions on hiring children. But millions of children still work under appalling conditions, and people who violate the law are seldom prosecuted.
Circuses were exempt from child labor laws until a 2010 amendment to the Child Labor Act banned circus owners from hiring children under the age of fourteen. Many owners ignored the ban, but in 2011 the Supreme Court in India ordered the government to enforce the ban by raiding circuses and rescuing child employees.
Advocacy groups in India are fighting vigilantly to end corruption so existing laws that protect the country’s animals and children can be enforced.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I feel like thanking everyone I’ve ever met or spoken to, but since acknowledgment pages tend to be more specific than that, special elephant-sized thanks go out to these people:
My agent, Joanna Stampfel-Volpe, equal parts cheerleader and ninja. Gina Loverde, who while interning at the agency was the first reader for Chained and the one to tell Joanna, “You have to read this.” And the whole team at Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation: Nancy Coffey, Sara Kendall, Kathleen Ortiz, and Pouya Shahbazian.
Editor Margaret Ferguson, for believing in the story and working countless hours to make it better. Assistant editor Susan Dobinick, copy editor Alicia Hudnett, and the marketing, publicity, sales, and design departments at Macmillan. Most people have no idea how much time and how many people it takes to bring a book to life. Thank you all for your dedication.
The Highlights Foundation for awarding the scholarship that allowed me to attend the Chautauqua Institute in 2008, where I learned how to be a better writer and met people I still call friends.
The community of writers I’ve met in person and online, for celebrating the good times, offering support through the not-so-good times, and keeping me entertained through it all.
Online critique group members who helped make the early chapters presentable: Gail Greenberg, Donna Grahmann, Kathy Hammer, Alicia Richardson, Charles Trevino, and Lisa Willis.
Those who critiqued the whole manuscript and celebrated with lunch and/or cake: Meet, Eat, & Critique members Mary David, Stephanie Green, Charles Trevino (who told me at the beginning, “This isn’t a picture book, it’s a novel”), and Brian C. Williams; Will Write For Cake members Laura Edge, Doris Fisher, Miriam King, Christina Mandelski, Monica Vavra, and Tammy Waldrop. I swear I’m not hanging out with you people just for the food.
The debut authors in the Apocalypsies and the Class of 2k12 have made this journey a fun one to travel. Thank you for all the support and camaraderie as we flail along the road to publication together.
Stephanie Sheffield, who gave birth to Hastin by suggesting “How about adding a boy to take care of the elephant?” back when I thought I was only writing a little elephant book.
My family—those who were the first readers of Hastin’s story, showed patience and understanding when I spent days in front of the computer in a Snuggie, and/or gave support and encouragement along the way.
Dr. Lynette Hart of the University of California at Davis for reviewing the manuscript and providing feedback about elephant behavior. Thank you for making sure those elephants were behaving themselves.
From the Houston Zoo: Daryl Hoffman, Curator of Large Mammals, Elephant Manager Martina Stevens, and all the elephant keepers, for information about elephant care and behavior during and after the zoo’s Elephant Open House events.
Yale University’s 2007 Burmese language study group led by Dr. U Khin Maung Gyi for coming up with name suggestions for Ne Min and his elephant. Viola L. Wu continued to answer my later questions about Burma and Burmese culture.
Journalist/researcher Surekha Sule for the information about rural housing in India, so I’d know what Hastin’s house would look like.
Varsha Bajaj, Nandini Bajpai, Anjali Banerjee, and Mitali Perkins answered questions about India and Indian culture. Rani Iyer gave invaluable feedback after reading the full manuscript.
This book wouldn’t be what it is without Uma Krishnaswami, who was as interested as I was in telling Hastin’s story authentically. Thank you for all the hours spent reading the manuscript, the insightful comments about cultural accuracy and my writing, and answers to endless follow-up questions. I wish I could bottle your patience and wisdom and keep it at my desk. The story of Ganesh on page 147 is based on Uma Krishnaswami’s retelling in The Broken Tusk.
The things I got right in this book are thanks to those who helped me along the way. Of course it would be impossible for anyone to teach me everything I needed to know, so if I got anything wrong it’s because I didn’t ask the right questions.
Thanks, everyone, for helping me get here.
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010
Text copyright © 2012 by Lynne Kelly
All rights reserved
First hardcover edition, 2012
eBook edition, May 2012
mackids.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Kelly, Lynne, 1969–
Chained / Lynne Kelly. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: To wor
k off a family debt, ten-year-old Hastin leaves his desert village in India to work as a circus elephant keeper but many challenges await him, including trying to keep Nandita, a sweet elephant, safe from the cruel circus owner.
ISBN 978-0-374-31237-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-374-31250-3 (e-book)
[1. Conduct of life—Fiction. 2. Elephants—Fiction. 3. Animals—Treatment—Fiction. 4. Circus—Fiction. 5. Child labor—Fiction. 6. India—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.K29639Ch 2012
[Fic]—dc23
2011031767
eISBN 9780374312503