Read Online Fury and the Power by John Farris - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: John Farris
Tags: Horror
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eighty strong, a phalanx moving rrrather rapidly through a confined area by Lake Kioko. It happened tha' a male lion found h'self trapped by thir approach, wi' no room tae get oot o' thir way. The lead elephant, oor gentlemanly Boris K., was quite astonished when the frightened lion leapt tae his shoulder and clung thir by the claws of a forepaw whilst rakin' oot the elephant's right eye wi' his oother claws. Whereupon oor enraged patriarch reached across the lion's boody wi' his trunk, plooked him ri' off, then held him by the tail and beat him 'gainst the rrrocky ground 'til the lion was nae but pulp."
"'Masterful! Towering! Ineluctable!"' Etan said, raising his camera to eye level again.
"He goes off like that" Pegeen explained, "quoting reviewers' blurbs from adverts for the new Hollywood films in the Times that particularly annoyed him."
"'Colossally talented! Wildly ambitious! Courageously moving!'"
"Etan, darling?"
"'Wonderfully playful, with delectable acting!"'
Toward Kilimanjaro there were a couple of striped hot-air balloons, red, yellow, and orange, like fishermen's bobs dappling the surface of a mirage. A popular type of safari in the national parks, Pert said.
"I hope no one minds awfully" Pegeen said, "but I must take a shit."
"Ye ha' aboot thray minutes," Pert advised her. "Please not tae dally. And carry a stick tae stir up the booshes befair ye drop yer knickers; some o' oor local vipers ha' vile dispositions."
"Oh," Pegeen said. She clenched her teeth and stayed in the Rover. Pert grinned at Eden. She had a dead-white spot near one corner of her mouth, the rest of her face hard varnish, like the wood of a coffin in which a perennial handsomeness was interred. Pert indicated that they should put on their headphones.
Eden could hear the elephants already, raucous in their dealings with one another. Calves stumbled about or fed even as their mothers walked. Cattle egrets like white feathers from an exploded pillow floated in the nimbus of red dust raised by the elephants; much higher, there were eagles.
In the air now a power of movement, a gamey effluence, stench of urine. Elephants, obviously, peed a lot.
"The first time," Pert said, "I laid eyes on an elephant group o' this size, I was properly humbled. I knew wi'out a doobt tha' they belonged hir and we did not. Much o' Efrika simply is not suited tae human habitation, except at the tribal, nomadic level. Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, was an exception. And Sooth Efrika, o' course, until 'instant democracy' happened in 1991. Democracy in the hands o' those wi' no desire tae employ it has been an abomination, an invitation tae despots and thir tyranny, which arrived bang on schedule. Thir once were tens o' thoosands o' prosperous farmers in those two coontries alone, most o' them white. Sooth Efrika raised food enough tae feed an entire continent. Today tha' gooverment's treatment o' the white farmers is destroyin' the coontry's agricultural base. Sooth Efrika has been forced to import basic foodstuffs, unheard of a decade ago. Thir farmers are the highest-at-risk-o'-murder group in the world. Upward o' six thoosand incidents o' black-on-white violence has decimated the farming community. I'm speakin' a gangs o' young thugs armed wi' Russian Kalashnikovs and usin' military amboosh tactics, rrroamin' the coontryside. Sooth Efrikan gun laws limit its civilian farmers tae ownership o' small arms, which are no defense against automatic weapons. A yoong nephew o' mine, married tae a lass o' Boer-Voortrekker descent and managin' a big farm she inherited, was strangled recently wi' barbwire. His wife and twin ten-year-old datters wir gang-raped. The goovemment seldom prosecutes e'en the bluediest ootrage. A policy o' dnvin' off the white commercial farmers whilst the incidence o' HIV-positive cases in the population soars past fifty paircent is suicidal at best. 'Strange things are many in this world, and strangest o' all is man.' I often think whilst starin'
"'Masterful! Towering! Ineluctable!"' Etan said, raising his camera to eye level again.
"He goes off like that" Pegeen explained, "quoting reviewers' blurbs from adverts for the new Hollywood films in the Times that particularly annoyed him."
"'Colossally talented! Wildly ambitious! Courageously moving!'"
"Etan, darling?"
"'Wonderfully playful, with delectable acting!"'
Toward Kilimanjaro there were a couple of striped hot-air balloons, red, yellow, and orange, like fishermen's bobs dappling the surface of a mirage. A popular type of safari in the national parks, Pert said.
"I hope no one minds awfully" Pegeen said, "but I must take a shit."
"Ye ha' aboot thray minutes," Pert advised her. "Please not tae dally. And carry a stick tae stir up the booshes befair ye drop yer knickers; some o' oor local vipers ha' vile dispositions."
"Oh," Pegeen said. She clenched her teeth and stayed in the Rover. Pert grinned at Eden. She had a dead-white spot near one corner of her mouth, the rest of her face hard varnish, like the wood of a coffin in which a perennial handsomeness was interred. Pert indicated that they should put on their headphones.
Eden could hear the elephants already, raucous in their dealings with one another. Calves stumbled about or fed even as their mothers walked. Cattle egrets like white feathers from an exploded pillow floated in the nimbus of red dust raised by the elephants; much higher, there were eagles.
In the air now a power of movement, a gamey effluence, stench of urine. Elephants, obviously, peed a lot.
"The first time," Pert said, "I laid eyes on an elephant group o' this size, I was properly humbled. I knew wi'out a doobt tha' they belonged hir and we did not. Much o' Efrika simply is not suited tae human habitation, except at the tribal, nomadic level. Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, was an exception. And Sooth Efrika, o' course, until 'instant democracy' happened in 1991. Democracy in the hands o' those wi' no desire tae employ it has been an abomination, an invitation tae despots and thir tyranny, which arrived bang on schedule. Thir once were tens o' thoosands o' prosperous farmers in those two coontries alone, most o' them white. Sooth Efrika raised food enough tae feed an entire continent. Today tha' gooverment's treatment o' the white farmers is destroyin' the coontry's agricultural base. Sooth Efrika has been forced to import basic foodstuffs, unheard of a decade ago. Thir farmers are the highest-at-risk-o'-murder group in the world. Upward o' six thoosand incidents o' black-on-white violence has decimated the farming community. I'm speakin' a gangs o' young thugs armed wi' Russian Kalashnikovs and usin' military amboosh tactics, rrroamin' the coontryside. Sooth Efrikan gun laws limit its civilian farmers tae ownership o' small arms, which are no defense against automatic weapons. A yoong nephew o' mine, married tae a lass o' Boer-Voortrekker descent and managin' a big farm she inherited, was strangled recently wi' barbwire. His wife and twin ten-year-old datters wir gang-raped. The goovemment seldom prosecutes e'en the bluediest ootrage. A policy o' dnvin' off the white commercial farmers whilst the incidence o' HIV-positive cases in the population soars past fifty paircent is suicidal at best. 'Strange things are many in this world, and strangest o' all is man.' I often think whilst starin'
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