Vicious Circle Read Online Free PDF Page A

Hector. Tell me the end of it.’
    ‘Then suddenly the lion’s whole body stiffened and he arched his back. With his jaws open wide he vomited a copious gout of his heart blood over me, drenching my head and my entire upper body before my companions could drag him off me and stab him a hundred times over with their own blades.’
    ‘It terrifies me to think about how differently it could have ended,’ she said. ‘How we might never have met each other and shared all that we have now. Now, tell me what your father said when you returned to the ranch that day,’ she demanded of him.
    ‘I rode back to the big old thatched-roof ranch house, but it was afternoon before I reached it. My family were seated at the lunch table on the front stoep. I tethered my horse at the hitching rail and climbed the steps slowly. My euphoria evaporated as I saw my family’s faces. I realized then that I had not bothered to wash. The lion’s blood had dried thickly in my hair and on my skin. My face was a mask of dried blood. It had rubbed off on my clothing, and was black on my hands and under my fingernails.
    ‘My little brother Teddy broke the horrified silence. He giggled like a schoolgirl. Teddy was a giggler. At that my mother burst into tears and hid her face in her hands; she knew what my father would have to say.
    ‘He rose to his feet, all six foot two of him, and his face was dark and twisted with rage. He choked incoherently on it. Then slowly his expression cleared and he said ominously, “You have been with those black savages, your bosom chums, have you not, boy?”
    ‘“Yes, sir,” I admitted. My father was always “sir”; never “Dad”, and especially never “Daddy”.
    ‘“Yes, sir,” I repeated, and suddenly his expression changed.
    ‘“You have been for your lion, just like a bloody Maasai Morani. That’s it. Isn’t it?”
    ‘“Yes, sir,” I admitted, and my mother burst into fresh gales of tears. My father went on staring at me with that odd expression for a long while and I stood to attention in front of him. Then he spoke again.
    ‘“Did you stand or did you break?”
    ‘“I stood, sir.” Again his long silence, before he spoke again. “Go to your rondavel and get yourself cleaned up. Then I will see you in my study.” This summons was usually the equivalent of a death sentence or a least a hundred lashes.’
    ‘Then what happened?’ Hazel demanded, although she knew full well.
    ‘When I knocked at the door of his study a short while later, I was wearing my school blazer and tie with a clean white shirt. My shoes were polished and my damp hair was slicked down.
    ‘“Come in!” he bellowed. I marched in and stood in front of his desk.
    ‘“You are a bloody savage,” he said firmly. “An utterly uncivilized savage. I see only one hope for you.”
    ‘“Yes, sir.” Inwardly I quailed; I thought I knew what was coming.
    ‘“Sit down, Hector.” He indicated the armchair facing his desk. That rocked me. I had never sat in that chair, and I could not remember when last he called me Hector, and not boy.
    ‘When I was seated bolt upright facing him he went on, “You will never make a rancher, Hector, will you?”
    ‘“I doubt it, sir.”
    ‘“The ranch should have been yours, as the eldest son. But now I am going to leave it to Teddy.”
    ‘“I wish Teddy joy of it, sir,” I said, and he actually smiled, but fleetingly.
    ‘“Of course he will not have it too long,” the old man said, and the smile was gone again. “In a very few years we will all be booted out of here by the former owners from whom we stole it in the first place. Africa always wins in the end.” I was silent. There was no reply I could think of.
    ‘“But you, young Hector. What shall we do with you?” Again I had no answer, and I kept my mouth shut. I had long ago learned that was the safest option. He went on speaking. “You will always be a savage at heart, Hector. But that is no serious drawback.