A Hollow Roll

My belly pushed... pushed forward past the pantry door. On the cool floor tiles sat a brown cardboard core from an empty paper towel roll. A long... long dark tunnel, hollow inside. I stopped. Froze... stiffened, holding my plush trunk mid-air. Was it a stretched loop... a corridor into static? One second... two seconds ticked. No hum shook the tiles. Slowly, I nudged the edge with my tusks. Clatter... roll. It zoomed sideways, tumbling safely until it bumped... bumped against a cereal box. Just empty card, dry and light.