Rainsford stepped into the Hampstead Club, to all outward
appearance, the same swaggering rascal he’d always been, face tanned, moustache
neatly waxed as if it had been painted under his nose, elegant ivory cane
making the fifth beat of the five-part rhythm of his stride – click, slap,
click, slap, tick - trademark red carnation is his buttonhole, but Reginald saw
a look, so subtle, only a bartender would notice, of fear. Something told Reginald, Rainsford was in a
predicament of no common order.
Outside rain fell, and luminous headlights playing over
shiny London
streets. The other customer, a
gargantuan gentleman, had occupied three stools by himself at the end of the
bar since before Reginald’s shift, a fedora bigger than a sombrero pulled down,
his trench coat collar turned up, concealing his face save for one sad eye in a
swirl of wrinkles. He showed no
inclination to touch the club soda before him, and Reginald’s inquiry, “Would
you care for anything?” received a huff of negation in reply.
“Gimlet, Mr. Rainsford?” Reginald offered.
Rainsford started as if he’d been addressed by one of the
stuffed heads staring from the walls,
before recovering himself, “Yes, yes, yes.
Gimlet, old man. Why not?” Putting aside his beloved ivory walking stick
with an uncharacteristic shudder, Rainsford leaned forward as Reginald poured
gin and Roses into a shaker, his tone quiet and confidential. “Say, Reginald, old chap, do you know a word
njohera?”
“I can’t say I –” Reginald began, pouring the chilled
mixture in a frosted glass, but before he got further, a voice at the end of
the bar spoke.
“It’s Kikuyu,” the voice supplied, as soft and carrying as
Serengeti thunder. “There’s no exact
translation, of course, but it means something like... ‘revenge.’” Rainsford’s eyes were horrorstruck, and a
ghastly sheen covered his face. The
other customer stood from his stool, his manhole-sized fedora sliding to the
floor, and in the moment of strange lucidity that breaks on us just before
madness, Reginald realized it was an African, because its ears, opening like
enormous wings were too big to be an Asian.
Later, speaking to disbelieving police, this was all
Reginald could recall, this, and the elephant’s parting words , his long gray
trunk unfurling from within his trench coat to the ivory cane, retrieving what
had once been his and now was his again: “Elephants never forget,” he said,
“and now you know why.”
She
lived neither in slovenly Ashford Park where people leave their cars in the street nor
snobbish Shirley Hills, but good sensible
Brookhaven. A credit to her husband,
witnesses agree, Junior League, altar guild at First Presbyterian. But one afternoon, her white gloves were
dirty and she chose to put on the black ones to do the shopping. Why she didn’t wait until Thursday, who can
say, but she made her choice and had to live by the consequences.
Once
she pulled on those slimming black gloves that reached to her elbows, she had a
moment of doubt. “I’m really
overdressed,” she thought. “I’m not
Jackie Kennedy.” Then she could have
turned back, then it was still not too late.
But did she heed that inner voice that is a woman’s best guide? No.
What
ensued can only be described as an orgy of dissipation. She did not know clearly what she wanted to
buy. She failed to shop early in the day
or early in the week. She left the cart
in the line while she went to get more items.
She pinched the fruit and poked the vegetables. She did not ask for new products when she
didn’t see them. She wheeled the cart
out and abandoned it a couple of blocks down the street where she was parked.
At home, she removed the long black
gloves and instantly was seized by paroxysms of remorse and hot
self-crimination. But the damage was
done.
Now nobody talks to her.
