Fear No Evil. John Davis Gordon

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СКАЧАТЬ no attention to her, just stood there, in his own private world of the animals, and he was smiling and talking to them softly; she could not catch the words but they were loving, and the look on his face was? … It was a beautiful private world she had glimpsed, of love and understanding between a man and animals, which she felt she had no right to enter, an inter-feeling she would never achieve with animals no matter how hard she tried. It had been an intrusion on her part when she finally tried to talk to him. He had been vaguely aloof, almost abrupt, as if he couldn’t waste his precious moments.

      She could not remember now what she had said as openers—doubtless something corny—but she remembered he had said: ‘It’s not that animals are like us—it’s us who’re like them. If you put it the other way around you’re denying the theory of evolution. We’re all part of the same animal kingdom … every Behaviorist from Flaubert to Desmond Morris agrees there’s hardly an aspect of animal behavior that isn’t relevant to ours.’

      And with that he had excused himself, leaving her feeling foolish. And she had been astonished at the articulate wisdom falling from the lips of a circus hand.

      Which, afterward, she had resented. After all, she was the veterinary surgeon around here, it was her domain. But she had never forgotten the look on his face, the sweet vision she had glimpsed behind those eyes.

      But, by God, she resented it now, with anger and fear in her heart, sitting like a fool again in her rented car in the middle of the wilderness in the middle of the night. Why was she always such a … sucker? For the … grand emotional gesture?

      She lit another cigarette, and longed for daylight.

      At three o’clock she was suddenly awake with a start, realizing she had been asleep. Her eyes darted about in the silent moonlight. Then they widened, and her stomach contracted.

      A mass of moving blackness was coming out of the black forest onto the open grassy sag.

      A man was jogging in the lead, and behind him were the big cats, ears back, tails low, then the elephants, then the gorillas, then the enormous bears, and behind them all was a huge man loping along with a dog. She gasped and wanted to run. All she knew was the raw human fright of wild animals coming at her. She cringed and stared. Then came the astonishment; such a disparate mixture of animals all following one man! She sat rigid at the spectacle of the magnetism some rare people have … then David Jordan glimpsed her car on the edge of the forest, and he stopped.

      She collected her wits, and rolled down her window frantically. ‘Mr Jordan!’

      He turned and started running for the forest, and the animals whirled around and followed him. She scrambled out of her car.

      ‘I’m the zoo vet—Dr. Johnson—I’m alone!’

      He disappeared like a shadow into the forest, the animals crashing through the undergrowth after him. She yelled, ‘Wait—’ and stumbled into the open. ‘Mr Jordan! Look, I’m alone—I’m unarmed!’

      She waited for his response, heart pounding, frightened. Then his hoarse voice came out of the black forest.

      ‘What do you want?’

      She was so relieved she was almost crying. ‘Please—I’ve got to talk to you!’

      ‘What about?’

      ‘About the animals! This is a terrible thing you’re doing. You’ve got to give them back, for their own good!’

      ‘They’re not going back.’

      She cried desperately across the moonlight: ‘You’ve got to listen to me! They’re going to be shot. I’ve seen the gun-crazy hillbillies in Erwin! I’ve seen them, I tell you—buying guns! And at the roadblocks. And the police are after you, and they’re not much better. You’re going to be surrounded!’

      Davey crouched in the dark forest, his sweat glistening. ‘Where are they?’

      ‘I don’t know exactly. Last night they were at the last highway back there!’

      ‘They’re crazy if they shoot, that won’t get the animals back.’

      ‘Even the police will shoot! They’re frightened, don’t you understand? They aren’t used to wild animals here!’

      ‘Tell them they’re not wild animals—they won’t hurt anybody.’

      Suddenly, a man called out behind her. ‘Okay, nobody else here.’

      She spun around with a gasp, and stared up at the biggest man she had ever seen. ‘Who’re you?’

      ‘I won’t hurt you, ma’am.’

      Davey stepped out of the forest, the big cats slinking behind him. She stepped back toward her car.

      ‘Please tell them everything will be all right if they don’t interfere,’ Davey called.

      She cried, ‘What are you trying to prove?’

      ‘Just tell them to leave us alone.’

      She cried, ‘This isn’t where these animals belong. They can’t fend for themselves!’

      ‘They’ll learn.’

      ‘The police art after you, I tell you. And the hunters—you know what they’re like. You’ll be shot to ribbons!’

      He broke into a jog, and the animals started after him. She stared in amazement all over again, then shouted desperately, ‘Listen, I’m a vet; I know what I’m talking about. Don’t you remember me—Dr. Johnson?’

      He did not answer.

      She cried: ‘Where are you taking them?’

      But he did not answer. He jogged across the sag, the animals lumbering behind him.

      She yelled: ‘I’ve got meat for the cats.’

      Davey ignored her. She turned desperately to me big Indian. ‘Where are you going with them?

      Big Charlie’s eyes were on the column of animals. He turned to follow them, but she grabbed his arm. ‘Where? …’

      He looked down at her. ‘To the Garden of Eden.’

      Her fingernails dug into his arm. ‘There is no such place! They’re going to die!’

      He looked at her, then gently pulled his arm away.

      ‘Wait!’ She turned, flung open the back door of the car and grabbed her doctor’s bag. ‘Carry that!’

      ‘You can’t come with us, ma’am.’

      ‘The hell I can’t! Those are my animals, and I’ve got to look after them.’

      She seized her new knapsack and sleeping bag. Charlie was staring at her, clutching her doctor’s bag. She hauled the big bag of meat off the back seat.

      ‘You can’t come with us.’

      ‘It’s СКАЧАТЬ