The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

The story begins with the female narrator sitting alone and looking at a lone oak tree in her garden. She remarks that she often speaks to this tree. One day, she sees an ugly little green monster burrow out from the earth near her oak tree. The woman retreats to the back room of her house in horror as the monster approaches her door, knocks, and finally breaks in. The monster finds the woman, who realizes that it can read her mind. Telepathically, the monster professes his love for the woman, saying he has come from deep within the earth to win her hand. The woman, however, rejects the monster, and uses his ability to read her mind against him: She imagines all kinds of cruel tortures for the monster, until the monster withers away and dies, turning into nothing more than a shadow.