© The National Gallery, London |
A Bullet in the Head
It was my mistress’ birthday when it all happened. She had been invited to see something extraordinary - or so they said - so we took a carriage and drove steadily up to a large building. I remember it had dark windows and large concrete slabs all along the walls. For someone like me it seemed cold and uninviting, more for the aristocracy than the public.
Yet my mistress hushed me and her daughter Amelia all the way up the steps and through the double doors. We went on along a dim corridor stuffed with paintings. Amelia kept asking questions about them even her mother couldn’t answer. So we were both relieved when my mistress Annie stopped outside two heavy oak doors and said, ‘We’re here.’
We went through to a large room and found a group of people - most of them wearing masks - chatting among themselves in low whispers. We sat on one of the benches behind them and Annie started to make a polite conversation with someone she’d probably never met in her life. Meanwhile I attended to Amelia, the child was so keen to see what the surprise was that she couldn’t sit still for a minute. She wasn’t the only one though, because I caught a few words from the rest:
‘Oh yes an amazing thing.’
‘First one ever in Austria.’
‘Comes somewhere from Africa.’
Well I thought whatever it is it must be worthwhile seeing, so I sat in amongst the crowd and let my curiosity take over. The tension in the air grew. The atmosphere became very still and people began to talk less and fidget more. Until someone finally came in and broke the silence with such a dramatic voice that it made a few people jump straight out of their daydreams.
‘Ladies and Gentleman what you’ve all been waiting for has arrived!’ Everyone held their breath and clung to their seats. Then it came, it came on all fours slowly and reluctantly.
‘This, my friends, is a rhinoceros. The first ever rhinoceros in Austria all the way from Africa,’ said the man and everyone gasped as if it was a priceless jewel. I however wanted to laugh, the thing looked as though you’d taken the body of a fat pig, stuck on a horse’s head to it, put some plates of armour on it and painted it all grey. The man said it was supposed to have a horn sticking out of its head but they’d cut it off for safety. Ha! Safety, never stopped what happened after.
My mistress being the birthday girl had the so-called privilege of stroking it. The man took her hand and led her down some way off the rhinoceros so as to give her a quick lecture on how to approach it at first with caution then more confidently. She went up to the rhinoceros and was about to stroke its head, when it flicked it back so quickly that she jumped. The man then raised his whip and came quickly to her.
I guess that must have triggered it because all of a sudden it was out of control. It charged at Annie like a bull and she didn’t stand a chance. The speed of what seemed like a possessed animal was so great that it’s hard to put it in words but what it did to Annie is even harder.
With its rock solid head it lunged at her with all its might and threw her back at least three feet. He head hit the floor with a crack and a flower of blood bloomed. Her body twitched once in a horrific manner then she lay still as a statue, the colour draining from her face never to wake again.
The rhinoceros turned round and met its fate. The man who had spoken of its might and beauty only moments before took out its gun and shot a bullet through its head. The sound of it so crisp and sharp has remained in my mind ever after, while the memory lives on forever like the immortal. I guess the lesson I learned that day is that nature can never be tamed on the inside even if it looks calm on the outside. |
|
|
