The Iowa Review
Volume 1
Issue 3 Summer
1970
The Dodo Bird
Stanley Elkin
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Elkin, Stanley. "The Dodo Bird." The Iowa Review 1.3 (1970): 28-47. Web.
Available at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview/vol1/iss3/21
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Article 21
The
Dodo
From
Gibson
the Dick
Show:
War
of World
Broadcasts
Battle
Fabulous
Bird
Two?Mauritius
Stanley Elkin
on the low band.
talking low
"Dick Gibson
on Mauritius.
"Were
Ile
Formerly
France.
de
Indian
east
Ocean,
of Mada
gascar. Breasting the 20th parallel like a runner breaking the tape. Sister isles,
all volcanic?R?union
and the St. Brandon
(a French possession),
Rodrigues
group. (Who's St. Brandon, patron of what? Sounds English to me. How did he
get those spic brothers R?union and Rodrigues for sister isles? What miscegenous,
something
history went on here anyway? Who, wanting
nigger-in-the-woodpile
for nothing, looking for what trade routes, asking the way east from the way west
like those other old junkmen of science, the alchemists, lowering what boats of
or the sea-sickened say,
to
which mutineers
burying the beriberied, promising
return,
them
putting
ashore?as
the
Collins
government
and
some
me?on
open
ended will-call, found this place? Charted it on maps, informing the old cartogra
phers so they could erase their ancient lame finesse, Hie sunt leones? It is the
world,
as
real
And
Paris.
ah
returns,
significance
the
grazing
surfaces
of
the
place like that random spinning spotlight of the world, the sun, illuminating?the
light is terrible, I have no smoked glasses, though Collins, an officer does?the
as monks
an
landscape
not much
"There's
Hmn.
Hmn.
Well.
Oh.
initial
here.
Mnh
letter
in an
Lieutenant
hmn.
Say,
old
text.
)
I have
Wait,
my
agrees.
map.
I read
it. I see
how
that. Here's
Collins
let's
try
that we are the last island cluster of
from the Miller Cylindrical Projection
a
in
of
from the
the
the bomber hops?hop
short?as
Cancer,
Tropic
democracy
a
are
to
Antarctic
of
We
the
Border.
the
then,
Gateway
Tropic
bright
Capricorn
prize in the tactics, a key cog in the bitter battle to control the glaciers. Yes. The
glaciers. Am I getting warm?
"When I was a boy I imagined war as a cataclysm, an extended chaos. There
was
nothing in what I read of the daily, and I puzzled where soldiers slept, when
they ate. After a while I came to believe that wars had no silences save tho?e of
ambush.
acle.
There's
War
Just
our
some
seemed
a hint
of
humanity?to
the
eternal
undisrupted
on
feast
fire,
was
the
and
sourceless
more
exotic
commonplace
undying
than
the
and
make
like
a
fiercest
a
mystery
mir
nasty
massacre.
of
the
the mail goes through? The lottery isn't stopped? The restaurants
ordinary. What,
are full? Imagine. Now I perceive something of the thinness of
cataclysm and
know that more bombs fall in the sea than on the city, and I gauge the under
28
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flew
from
same
on
Lisbon
and
newsstands
to
flight
same
the
ask
terror hangs on. In neutral Lisbon
of my
a commercial
and uniformed Americans
formed Germans
the
But a piece
of the world.
lying delicacy
?we
Portuguese
uni
Angola?where
side by side and buy papers at
walk
of
questions
the
hotel
and
porter,
wait
each other at the gas pumps, and no one draws his gun and there is less
skullduggery than in Cleveland, my flesh crawled and I had bad dreams. Collins
flew in first class and I in economy and sitting beside me was a Japanese soldier
is the
who helped me recline my seat because the button was stuck. Neutrality
behind
miracle.
"Unless
us
here,
or
ing
British
These
neutral;
why
never
men,
as
the
swears
There's
or
Chinese,
report.
residents
proximity
what's
happen
of
There's
the
belongs
to the British.)
garrison
as much
of the
place,
Africans?called
and
French,
our
see,
you
understand
(Mauritius
seem
Indians,
hasn't:
don't
to
the war.
reinforced,
Dutch,
he
to me?I
nothing
since before
rotated
swears
orders?he
he
already
we
came.
soldiers, here
citizens
secret
has
Collins
has made
its
Creoles?
there are reports that the Japanese have put troops
who live here. Occasionally
ashore on one o? the nearby islands and then there is a flurry of activity as the
men
on
out
go
but
few,
at no
patrol.
greater
the garrison at Port Lewis,
gage them.
"It's
ture
of
some
There's
than
patrol
evidence
that
and
strength,
as
are
make
a
around,
Japanese
no move
to
threaten
city, the British don't try to en
the island's principal
a
no
much
culture,
pretty
planter
at its essences.
I
Mauritius
life.
guess
there
they
industry
would
and
use
a rattan
feel
to
its barks
and
leaves
tex
the
and
boles. Commerce blooms from its rangy stalks and thorny brush. There are goods
in its grasses. I smell high grade hemps and queer cocoas. I sniff deck tars, caulk
and bhang and cannabin. And
ing syrups, and narcotics in its fibers?hashish
there is something brackish and briny in the tangled mat of the growth, as
though the vegetation were merely the dried top of the sea.
"Collins and I, per our orders, protect the equipment. One of us is at the
transmitter at all times. Off duty I either drink with the British or roam about the
island,
I've
perhaps
exhausted
climb
Port
the
Lewis,
grassy
seen
slopes
its
single
of
the
vol?anos
museum?a
that
curious
acne
place
the
landscape.
in ad
which
dition to its limited collection of paintings, mostly by the planters themselves,
holds the world's largest collection of the skeletons and reconstructed corpora of
the
extinct
dodo
bird
which,
for
some
curious
reason,
once
thrived
on Mauritius
and R?union isles.
"Is this the sort of thing you want?"
"A tip of the Dick Gibson cap to the High Command. You knew what you
doing all right. Increased activities among the Japanese. A few small land
some of the
ing parties spotted by
planters. They disappear quickly into the
at the British garrison at present as there is no evidence
No
real
alarm
jungle.
that they are bringing any heavy equipment with them."
were
on R?union,
"Still more landings reported. They seem to be concentrated
or two have been seen on the beaches of Mauritius
one
itself.
Yesterday
though
29
Fiction
a
of
cache
esting
civilian
armament,
a
of
though
sort.
strange
Primitive.
for
Perhaps
jungle
The British Colonel here says the stuff looks almost like traps. One
warfare.
sidelight?some
clothes."
"A
the
of
task
Japanese
force
accompanying
Japanese
has
been
towards
steaming
spotted
are
soldiers
the
to
out
stay
are under
strict
Japanese as British about, though both forces have thus far
"Perhaps as many
managed
in
about
Mauritius,
two days off. The garrison has been placed on alert. All Asians
scrutiny. The build-up on both sides is terrific now."
inter
dressed
of each
other's
way."
is here."
"The Royal Air Force
"It's a collision course all right. Though still no major engagements yet. One
of the Japanese civilians attached to the Jap Army was captured and interro
turns
He
gated.
out
a scientist?an
to be
ornithologist."
"The report has come back. It's official. HIC SUNT DODOS!"
is an extinct species of ungainly,
flightless bird of the genus
its world was the island of
Its
incubation
and
later
(or
Didus).
Raphus
ground
It was closely related in habit and aspect to a smaller bird, the soli
Mauritius.
taire, also extinct but once indigenous to the island of R?union
(which, perhaps
is closely approximate in shape and size to the island of Mauri
by coincidence,
tius ). It has been long held by ornithologists that the dodo?both
the dodo proper
"The dodo
and
the
solitaire
will
be
henceforward
subsumed
under
the
term
pseudo-generic
'dodo'?was related to the pigeon, but this is only an hypothesis
since the bird
has not been available for study since 1680, the year that the last known dodo
died. (Although this curious bird, the better known Mauritius dodo, was sent to
no
a foot
and
and
museums,
exists,
complete
specimen
today
leg
only
are
one
at Oxford.
even
in the
The
sees,
preserved
representations
are
Mauritius
Museum
of Art
little more
than
restorations,
itself,
cunning
merely
on the
dolls
of dodos.)
skeletal
frames
the
constructed
skeletons,
Nevertheless,
European
of a dodo
the scattered bones of which are to be found abundantly even today in the Mauri
tian fens and swamps, painstakingly
reassembled by Mauritian
dodo artisans?
an accurate picture of what the bird was like.
the best in the world?give
"He was a large bird, slightly bigger than the American turkey whom he in
no mean
way
In
resembles.
silhouette
question mark. For detail we may
been
made
tius was
this was
School'
assiduous
30
of
the
bird.
In
this
the
dodo
is not
refer to the many
respect
we
are
unlike
paintings
fortunate
extremely
a
scrunched
great
from life that have
for
since
Mauri
in the seventeenth century largely by the Dutch, and since
populated
the age not only of the dodo but of the famous, highly realistic 'Dutch
of
is a
art?Rembrandt
attention
to
the
good
rendering
example?a
of
perspective
school
and
of
painting
we
detail,
noted
may
for
depend
its
upon the accuracy of the dozens of sketches and oil representations of the dodo
bird, many of the best of which are still here in the Mauritius Museum of Art and
Dodo
Most
Reconstruction.
animal was possessed
horny hook in which
tion
Its
mark.
dodo
the
of
seem
artists
to be
in
that
agreement
the
of an enormous blackish bill which, together with the huge
it terminates, constituted the shepherd's crook of the ques
cheeks,
seem
bare,
partially
beaten
weather
oddly
and
muscular,
almost human in fact and not at all unlike the toothless cheeks of old men who
have worked out in the open all their lives. Black except for some whitish plum
age on his breast and tail and some yellowish white vaguely the tint of old piano
on his tail, he was somewhat formal in appearance, if a trifle
keys
stupid looking.
This formal aspect of the dodo is attributable also to his wing, foreshortened as a
in repose, flops out and down from his body like an un
birth defect, which,
starched pocket handkerchief.
"Dodos are said to have inhabited the Mauritian forests?this is the style of
to have laid a single
information, of certain kinds of fact; I find it relaxing?and
a setting of piled grass. Hogs,
they mounted
high in
large white egg which
on the dodo eggs and on the dodo young and, in
brought in by the settlers, fed
one
or
two
dodo
the
generations
were
birds
extinct.
Ah
Malthus,
off
in the war
you
geometer,
knew.
now
"By
have
you
the
the
reports,
action
paced
set
room,
pin
for pin like surveyor's stakes in alignment,
the lines drawn in a terrible cat's
cradle of possibility. This, what I do, is something else.
"The build-up was flawless. Men came from the sea, from the air. They
ran up the beach like barbarians. Paratroopers
peeled off the landing craft and
in
bloomed
the sky like flowers and grew into the ground. No more Lisbon to
are really
Portuguese Angola to Mauritius night coach fumblings. The trade routes
I celebrate
open.
(There's
in
blossoming
as
As
hadn't
good
so
near
troops
ate well
their
bones
sound:
and
pink
in
you
'Fresh
skins.
many,
it was
It
troops.'
them. And
air.
out of thin
populations
over
a
hike
rough
forty-year
You do better.
of a miracle.
because
their
shaved,
showered,
producing
it took him
and
fresh
reinforcements,
Deployment,
in the
cooks to feed them and clerks to count
And
teurized.)
of
Department
virginal
something
tapped,
same.
the
troops.
fight
sounds
un
pas
the Japs the
a
Moses,
and
road
piker,
if the
"But you know. And who am I, Dick Gibson, to be telling you High Com
manders on High all this? I'll tell you what happened. History is good experience
itinerant
the
for me,
my
room
I'd heard
gagement
?just
some
radio
is the
"Collins
to wake
man.
and
officer
me
but
this
must
time
me
command
I was
already
to
up.
rise.
I'd
Yesterday
awakened
came
he
before
to
dawn.
some noises and couldn't fall back to sleep. At first I thought the en
had begun, but when I went to the window I could see no fire flashes
trucks
and
black
shapes
moving
in
the
street.
I assumed
that
more
reinforcements were going toward the garrison. Then it occurred to me that they
at
might be Japanese and I called down in English. A British voice yelled up
me and I got back in bed.
in me?I mean my
"Then something which has always been undeveloped
was
sense of place?suddenly
almost
and
overpowering. Why here I
surged up
31
Fiction
am,
I
on
thought,
to have
merely
those whose
lar bowel
one
Mauritius,
seen
qualifies
or
three
of
a man
as
a
four
traveler,
on
fate it is to be troubled by laundry, by mail with
a
movements,
certain
time
about
ignorance
which
the
globe
a wanderer,
places
I mean
a
and
one
old news,
taste
gone
of
irregu
crochety
no languages and carry no
through nostalgia for things eaten long before. I have
I
It is no accident that one
did
I
this
wondered.
for
Isabel.
How
way
get
flags
on
finds himself sizing smooth pebbles
the cold coasts of Tierra del Fuego. To see
a desert is to scorn a city, and to lick a finger that has once been in the Weddell
Sea is to eschew the ordinary salts forever. What had earned me distance? In
America I had criss-crossed the country, leaping in and out of landscape, doing a
erratic
of wild,
journey
stitching.
The
is a measure
mile
of madness,
and
too,
a
map is hot pursuit. (This is still the war news.) Gradually the room grew light
and I could perceive the objects in it?the four-bladed fan that hung from the
a great
cane furniture like
the huge
spider, the
petrified vegetable,
ceiling like
as
the
the
white
of
wardrobe, big
mystery
mosquito netting. They
piano crating,
were the solid evidences of my own strangeness. Why am I far afield?
"I rang for my tea and pork chop?think of that, a pork chop for breakfast?
and the little half naked Creole brought it up on a tray. Still standing beside my
bed he kneaded the warm half-baked dough they use here as rolls and pinched
the last counter-clockwise
swirls into it. (How does he Uve? He is fourteen and
as well. My 15% service which must be divided
a
married
and
father
already
and hall porters and laundry people and maintenance
with the chambermaids
men cannot
since the war
keep them all. This hotel has been practically empty
on
What
here?)
strange arrangement goes
began.
"As I was finishing my breakfast Collins came for me and we went to the
garrison.
been
"pulling
It was
deserted.
The
troops
I'd
seen
were
not
reinforcements.
'Where could they have gone?' Collins said.
"I stood with all my weight on one hip, the open, deferential
waiting
"
for
someone
to make
else
'Something may
There's
gone.
edge
of
the
a decision
be up,' Collins
someone
probably
told us the garrison had
eastern
They'd
out.
island,
around.'
left to make
about
a half
stance of one
for him.
said. 'We ought
We
contact with
day's
trip
to find out where
a man
found
over
in
the
the Japanese
rough
infirmary.
they've
He
at the south
terrain.
'"Looks like the real thing,' Collins said. He did not seem very happy.
'What the hell is all this about anyway, Dick? How'd a couple of old radio men
like us get involved in all this?'
"In a way he was thinking the same thoughts I had earlier, but I only
shrugged.
"
'You believe all that shit about the dodo bird?' I didn't answer. 'Bird ex
tinct two hundred and fifty years suddenly shows up. Damned
island extinct
about the same time and all of a sudden it's a major theater of operations. It
must have something to do with that bird. That's what the talk is, but no one
knows. What do you make of it?'
"
"
"
1 don't
'You
know,
said
they've
'Representations,
32
Lieutenant.'
got
some
cunning
stuffed
dolls.'
dodos
at
the museum.'
"
over
'Let's
go
went
"We
"I knew
He
through.
and
at
look
to the museum.
the collection
wasn't
really
so
'No
excuse,
'No,
hell,
longer. "
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
You
by now
well
and
attention,
to take him
I started
and
barely
at
glanced
the
cases.
glass
Ha
the
a burr
ha.
you
of his
out
You
that
radio
me
spooked
general
see
to
were
you
anyway?'
paw.'
I don't
something?
when
it's over?'
know
into
back
it sure
Boy,
bridge.
on
have
did
this war
think
can
last much
'Not me.'
'No
sir?'
'Television.'
'Oh.'
'That's
where
will
the money
be.
had
Radio's
it.'
to radio.'
'I'll stick
'Will you?'
sir.'
'Yes
'Well
It's
a matter
it's all
been
pretty
of what
good
comfortable
you're
I said.
to me,'
our
about
Something
the
voices,
sound
our
of
I
doing,
guess.'
of years in the respites be
to cry. A chill went through
"Soldiers had been talking this way for hundreds
fore big battles. I don't think he saw me but I began
me.
is about.'
fuss
you know that? You had to go haywire.'
under
What
took
going
sir.'
'Yes,
the
sir.'
water
connected.
highly
"
T once
"
'Yeah.
all
treated.
pretty
paying
'We could still be in London,
"
"
see what
them,
Collins
told
friendship,
dropped-guard
me
that something terrible was going to happen. As he spoke hopefully and con
fidently about the future, I expected Collins to die, to be hit by a grenade, his
head torn off. I thought that it would not be long before I would see him dead at
my feet, his neck broken. I wanted to tell him to hush but of course I couldn't.
"Then something odd did happen. We were in the picture gallery. (All about
us were
the
Dutchmen
dark
ruddy
oils
of
and
breathless
perhaps by its ordeal,
fruit
gnarled
early
still-lifes
several
vines
that
the
of Mauritian
melons
cuchacha
of
settlers?pictures
the chase,
from
like hatred adjusting
something
other
gaze;
paintings,
island's
halved
fruits,
the
the
trellis
the
excited
maddened
itself to the stupidity of its
tables
feasts,
moonlight,
the vol?anos,
of
the
hunts,
cornered,
as
white
cones
dodo
dodo
with
the
wreaths
of
spread
tangled
the dodo
birds
pre
pared for cooking, split, the guts, like long, partially inflated balloons, tossed into
a
slopbucket, their long necks limp, the beaks open in death and their bare, old
I had thought that we were alone, but sud
men's cheeks flecked with blood.)
a
I
heard
low bark of heartbreak, of grief. We both turned. It was the
denly
in the middle
see
us.
drew
placed
"
of picture
a
was
There
was
galleries
strange
rapt
on
sitting
one
of
for meditative
on
expression
his
me
service
under
Fiction
that
revolver?since
arrest
The
he
always
scientists
wore
time
in
one?and
appeared
benches
those
purposes.
his
he
was
they
put
he did not
weeping.
I shook my head. Collins
Broadcasting
pointed
that
Probably
and
face,
'How did he get loose?' the lieutenant whispered.
up,' he commanded.
33
He
civilian.
Japanese
captured
House
it at
when
the man.
he'd
'Hands
not to have heard him and Collins
acknowledge
lins. He
seemed
us.
and
'Hands
up
tired. Wearily
very
"
'I said hands up.' Still the fellow did not
up to him.
the rest of the way
went
At
stop
crying.'
he raised
the
last
to Col
turned
Japanese
arms.
his
'What are you doing here?' Collins demanded. The Japanese just stared at
him. He looked like someone in touch with something really important suddenly
forced to deal with the ordinary. I didn't know what was on his mind but I
was
the lieutenant and that ? didn't have to ask the questions.
glad I wasn't
'Come
You
fellow.
on,
to
have
don't
our
speak
to
language
our
get
He
meaning.'
waved the pistol at him. He shook it in his face. 'Move out smartly. I said move!'
The man merely looked away from Collins again and stared across the room at a
a dodo bird in the forest. He rubbed his eyes. 'And you can cut
large painting of
out
that
Geneva
said
Collins
sniffling,'
and
you're
conventions.
soldiers
a
prisoner
our
You're
have
those rights include. We'll
to hurt
You
you.
to come
have
"'I am not afraid,'
first,
can
you
no means
I have
subject
of
barbarians.
to look them up, but meanwhile
along
one
us
with
the
under
you
sure
of what
not going
we're
though.'
in here?
alone
As
you. But
go with
'And I will
said calmly.
moment
American
We're
rights
granted
we
aren't
exactly
and
you
can
is
this
see,
there you could observe me. Obvi
If you stood by that archway
the last gallery.
ously,
me
to
prisoner
the Japanese
give
please
first
not
'We're
gently.
of war,
escape.'
"I must confess something. I was very excited at the prospect of taking a
me. 'Don't do it, Lieutenant,
prisoner. I felt something like an instinct move in
it's a trick,'
I said.
I had remembered
"The man looked at me contemptuously.
something I
knew would be true about my life?that I would have melodramatic
dealings.
a trick, it had seemed
Although I regretted what I'd told Collins about its being
the only thing an enlisted man could have said.
"
lutely
armed.'
no way
"
out
He
for me.'
Japanese
his
patted
said,
pockets
'How come you talk such good English?'
in me.
disappointed
arm.
into my
selves
"
'I am a scientist,'
lish is the official
"
"
the
Lieutenant,'
'Please,
I didn't
him.
explained
coolly
I felt
and
can
see
that
his
opened
I said threateningly.
my
looking
at
the
abso
'I am
He
sear
stripes
sergeant's
is
there
palms.
lieutenant.
un
seemed
them
'Eng
language of ornithology.'
I said.
'Hmph,'
'Please, Lieutenant,
at me?'are
he
blame
'you
and
I will
go with
you now. My meditations'?he
looked
over.'
"He rose, his eyes downcast, his body just visibly stiffening as we went by
in which
the dodo
each of the paintings. In the gallery with the environments
birds were displayed he would not look up, and once, his hand accidentally
one of the glass cases, he jumped back as if stung. 'Pretty odd
brushing against
behavior
for
a
so-called
scientist,
wouldn't
you
say,
Lieutenant?'
I
whispered
in
Collins's ear, regretting my style even as I spoke. My stripes lashed me. They
drove me to feats of clown and squire. It was all I could do to keep from
ripping them off.
34
more
"Once
outside
the museum
the
seemed
comfortable.
Japanese
in a taxi back
to the
and
let ourselves
into
the
garrison
guardhouse.
"
our
'How did you
the lieutenant
asked
escape?'
prisoner.
"
'I didn't.
I was
abandoned.
about me.'
They
forgot
"
at
'What were
the
museum?'
you doing
"
'I'm an
ornithologist.'
"
'You're
the one who
discovered
the dodo.'
"
him.'
'No. I identified
him
over
"I went
to now.
'Listen,
appreciate
"
yet.
"
"
"
lets on.'
"
buta?'
"
"
Lieutenant,'
me
a few minutes
a
the
call
century,
the
one
before
at
more
this
in the north
one
expected
not
but
Japan
the curator's
ceeded
to
and
predecessor
35
sent
he
bode
than
said.
era
show
examine
could
for
are
that
dreamed
to
Japan
a threat
Sho
Emperor
put
of
Raphidae
was
for
Japan?this
of Mauritius?was
The bird was
even
was
development
was
bird
wing
the
Indian
Shikoku?your
the
genus
the rest of the world.
its
it with
a
Shikoku
Lieutenant;
either,
not
in
Europe?did
the animals
than
less
The
curiosity.
the
with
to
how
know
birds.
was
to
have
he heard about
it in order
like
of?or
was
the
this
recognized
came
idiom??it
to
need
the
to examine
perhaps,
peacock,
a
even
but
parrot,
when
it
it
closely.
Perhaps
enjoyed
to mimic
human
be made
speech.
court
in
as
an
omen.
cassowary?both
saw
he
the animal?I
so
could
his
aside
notable
a
our
bird that had alighted
How
some
that
courage
qualities
a
or
extremely
disappointed.
state? Nevertheless,
setting
something
its
it for
to pass
instill
the strange wingless
a
of his had once done
Fiction
the
of
dynasty
Naturally
not
barbarians
ever
Mali,
for
term?he
was
to pass?you
something
unheard
well
the
during
in
One
by warlords.
particular,
plagued
a man
man
of mild
the Emperor
himself,
a fierce
was
were
in contrast,
Samurai
Zamue,
peace.
events
victories
the
island
from
left a trail of bloody
to
in the south.
Kyushu
Ryusho
and when
in Shikoku
parrot
ago,
inclined
time
it came
'Now
a bird
he
'keep talking.'
on the island
in
of
Japan,
this?a
of
specimen
single
is unknown,
it
there
dodos.
How
got
centuries
the
three
before
discovery
a Shikokuan,
was
Zamue,
ners
and ways
whose
paths
in the course
had
of
who
had
years
representations.
Zoo?we
Shikoku
the
'Now
Emperor,
more
knows
gook
appeared
from
from
long
it, and was
counselor,
this
eyes.
ago?'
Mauritian
a zoo
of Yezo
"
I think
there.
She had no dealings with
Ceramics
of
to talk.'
lamely,
suddenly
derives
thirteenth
classify "
of
it,' I said
'That's
curator
going
I hissed.
an insular nation.
had
his
of years
hundreds
'Many
the man
said.
flightless.
than
the
Sergeant.'
are out
rolled
hundreds
"Chicago"
what
you
Didus,
buddies
scientist
The
I'd said up
things
on here
than we
the
more
him.'
with
him
of getting
ways
of war,
prisoner
sir, but our
'?there
word
some
alone
all
from
took
that do?'
good would
I know
" 'Many
'Talk,'
"
smarting
'I think
there's
Give
'I think
'Yes
he
still
I said,
'Why?What
'He's
I was
to Collins.
We
of
Ryusho
foolish
prejudices,
the
Mali
properties
recalled
for his country
rare
He
in
use
looking
he pro
the
of
how
through
a
an
ordinary crow. Ryusho closeted himself with the bird and examined it. He tried
to train it to say "Courage," thinking that perhaps the hard "k" sound might be
to
natural
it, but,
he
alas,
the
that
discovered
quickly
bird
had
no
at
voice
all.
if something cheering might not be done
It was mute as a turtle. He wondered
with the feathers, but there was little inspiration or hope to be had from that
was
quarter because of the lusterless black and dingy yellow with which the bird
com
was
and
bird
covered. Ryusho Mali
disconsolate
away from him,
put the
that it be sent back to the zoo in Shikoku to be stared at by the multi
manding
tudes for the pointless novelty itwas.
"
'The
Shobuta?whose
Emperor
very
name
means
himself
compassion?was
an animal fancier, no hunter but a lover of beasts.
saw that they
(Perhaps he
had qualities which he himself lacked. It is often the way. We have an expres
sion:
"The
is
grass
on
greener
always
the
side
other
of
fence."
the
At
any
rate
it is well known that fish and birds are the most fascinating animals to man
for that the one can live in the sea and the other in the air.) It was Shobuta
who had decreed that there be a 200?for the 200 distinct animal types; the "z"
in the word
is a
"zoo"
of
corruption
the
"2"?and
every
day
visit
he would
there,
himself with the mysteries of creation.
consoling
"
I've said, the
'No sooner was the bird returned to its pen in the 200?as
curator did not know how to classify it and ordered that it should be put in
with the hogs?'
"
"
'But
I said.
hogs?'
said. 'Exactly. No sooner was the bird returned to
'Yes,' the ornithologist
the 200 than the Emperor, who had been away at his summer palace when the
saw the bird and was furious?as much as it was pos
bird was first discovered,
it had been
sible within the terms of his sweet nature for him to be furious?that
put in with the animals. He had recognized it immediately for what it was. Oh,
I don't mean he knew that it was raphidae didus, but he saw that it was a bird.
He
as
was,
I say,
furious.
exact
His
were:
words
"What
iniquity
is this?
To
break
to
off the wings of a bird"?for that is what he thought had happened?"merely
I will not have this! A nation
indulge the crowd's appetite for the grotesque!
which
stoops to the barbarity of a Zamue the samurai does not deserve to be
sustained.
are
What,
Japan?to
gild
not
wings
marvelous
enough?
the lily. It is to situations
We
have
an
in
expression
like this that such an expression
ap
plies." "
'It was
the
first
time
anyone
had
ever
seen
the
Emperor
so
angry,
and
was explained to him that no one had
though it
tampered with the bird, he
would not believe the demurrers. He ordered the bird released and brought it
back with him to the palace. There he annointed
the nub of its wings with
man
balms
and
I
said
before
that
admires and loves those
unguents.
precious
not
which
he
does
he
himself
but
loves
also to recognize in the
possess,
qualities
other those which he does. Both things are true. Perhaps the Emperor's heart
had responded to something like his own winglessness
in the bird's. At any rate
it is known that he cherished the bird as he had cherished nothing before it, and
that he kept it with him always.
"
'Now
36
something
must
be
said
of
the warrior
Zamue.
Remarkable
as
it may
seem
one
for
was
so
was
is he
fact
he had no
successful,
so much
warlord,
He
followers.
or
not
none.
The
assassin.
He
himself
permitted
as
Samurai,
even
was
he
a man
of a thousand disguises and wreaked his havoc through the art of
murder?which
he had perfected. He had murdered men by drowning them and
murdered
them with poisons. He'd done murders with knives and murders with
He
clubs.
murdered
them
awake
and
he murdered
them
he murdered
and
asleep,
the sick as well
as the well. He had great
them by lifting
strength and murdered
heavy objects and then letting them fall on the tops of their heads. He shoved
men off cliffs and lured them from the sea to the rocks with false
signal lights.
He murdered by loosing beasts and by cruel degrees of torture. He pushed them
against walls and squeezed them to death. He murdered with gunpowder and
their
murdered with strangling, by forcing sand up their noses and holding
mouths. He murdered them by repeatedly kicking them hard.
"
'He preempted whole kingdoms by killing the leaders, and had worked
his wicked way up the chain of proprietorship
till all that stood between him
self
and
the
Shobuta
sandal?we
"sandal"
say
Him
the Tender.
had
he
not
and
saved
for
"crown"
as
last
one
in
Japan?was
reserves
the
life
the
of
mor
sweetest
sel of a feast.
"'Shobuta knew Zamue was coming. He doubled his guards, tripled them,
but in his heart of hearts he had no faith that this would keep off the assassin's
as
Zamue,
depredations.
were
excellent?better
has
than
been
was
said,
a master
of
his
own
one
excellent?that
of
The
disguise.
men
was
chances
Zamue.
He
increased the
reasoned that by increasing their number he correspondingly
chances of Zamue's being amongst them. He reduced the guard by a third, by a
half, by three quarters. In the end he relieved all but his most trusted attendant
and made him his entire guard. (I know what you're thinking.)
"
was
'Zamue
a
a fate?in
fatality,
our
country
we
a
have
"What
saying:
will
be will be"?and all that the Emperor could do in these last days was care for the
to
"I will be your wings," Shobuta whispered
bird, minister to its winglessness.
it,
and
carried
stances,
"
the
he
would
"We
all
soared,"
'In
dodo
tell
come
this wise
it,
everywhere.
and
then
you
"Surely
add,
thinking
are
so
not
of
perhaps
as
high
his
once
you
circum
own
down."
the
continued
Emperor
for weeks,
Each
for months.
he lay his head on his pillow he could not but question
as
night
if he should ever see the
morning."
'It is well known that birds tuck their heads under their wings when they
but
what of wingless birds? Shobuta took the poor dodo to his bed with
sleep,
him. "I told you I would be your wings," he reminded it softly, and touching his
right hand to his right shoulder, Shobuta the Tender raised his elbow. The bird,
with
an
instinct,
uncanny
nuzzled
up
to Shobuta's
armpit,
and
the
Emperor
put
the "V" of his doubled arm gently down over the dodo's head. In this wise they
remained all night.
'"The great feast days approached and Shobuta thought that Zamue was
soon
to make
his
move.
(In
our
country,
as
in most,
there
is
the
old
saying:
"Strike before the feast days if you would have victory.") Each day now he
into
peered outside the door of the imperial apartments and glared accusingly
37
Fiction
the
cur
face
of his most
also
to
the
at
afternoon
greatest
scholar
same
time
we
but
a
ambivalent
of
these
"
have
small
his
the
answered
would
the
the
always
Sometimes
is
every
it per
gauging
a master
was
Zamue
of
to
the doors
before
when
the
rule
the basic
of
against
he would
and
sometimes
permitted,
not.'
Emperor??'
lieutenant?
long,
and,
the man
moment
but
the
of
eyes
In
'Lieutenant?'
How?"
"When,
softly
what
this was.
of nerves."
That's
that
for
course,
out
oc
to you
occurred
remained
step
precise
whisper
"battle
is
Emperor.
the
didn't
'Discharge
own,
expression
of
to the
" 'Why
at
he would,
apartments,
imperial
met
"trusted
lieutenant"
country
never
time?)
Shobuta
has
what
never
He
the circle of his tour brought
until
the
my
man
not
(Should
his
of
the
exactly
fectly, waiting
lieutenant.
trusted
guard
proffer
The
duty,
one
a
Sergeant,
disguise,
master. With his great strength and fabulous muscle control he could alter his
size and the actual features of his face. If only he had used his powers for good
-But
"
'The feast days came and the feast days went and still Zamue had not put
in his appearance. "So," the Emperor thought, "he did not abide by the venerable
saying. How clever the fellow is! How clever and how wicked!" Yet troubled as
I forgot to mention
he was?Oh.
something. The Emperor had little feeling for
his personal safety, but very delicate negotiations were going on in Japan at this
time, negotiations which the Emperor himself was behind and that required his
leadership if they were to succeed. Also, he was disturbed by what would happen
to
the
dodo
troubled
serious
than
he
the
was
dodo's
unflagging
the Tender
give
new
ones
the
dodo
for
the
especial
he
had
pleasure
If
God,
to
outside
was
"
confront
a moment
his
dodo
discarded.
and
had
say,
was
he
dodo
the
not
appeared
did
permitted
tire
of
a
bird
particular
it from his repertoire and learned
noted
He
the
to
court
which
musicians
that brief moment
lieutenant
was
the bird
the
removed
along the lines of these. Only during
went
With
No.
to
started
that anything more
took up singing and sang for the voiceless
immediately
one
him.
concerned
I
it. As
for
let on to the dodo bird
spirits.
apparently
care
to
there
longer
winglessness
song Shobuta
two
no
he never
to seem gay. He
careful
always
with
when
as Shobuta was,
his
to
songs
compose
ones
the day when
during
surface
anxiety
share.
to
appeared
new
and
this,
he
thank
in this wise till the next feast days and still nothing
'Things continued
one
when
he had just completed a new song that the dodo
happened. Then,
day
had never heard before, Shobuta began walking
to the hallway at the other end
entrance
of which stood the huge double-thick
doors to the imperial apart
ivory
ments,
first,
of
course,
setting
down
the
bird
and
making
his
customary
admoni
tion that the dodo was not to follow.
"
'The Emperor went down the long hallway, his tender anger building as
he thought of the duplicities and treasons of him who had so long kept him wait
that he had
ing for what he still thought of as his fatality. Only the knowledge
the
delicate
which
had
feared
be pre
he
would
recently completed
negotiations
maturely
the
By
cut
time
off
he
when
arrived
Zamue
at
the
struck,
enormous
softened
doors
his
it was
heart
all
toward
this
his
tender,
malefactor.
gentle
man
could do to fix his features in a scowl. Though he was now quite empty of hos
tility, he felt he owed it to his enemy to present a face that showed resistance
38
?since
he
knew,
that
see,
you
the
the tender Shobuta did not have
"
was
'What
his
then
surprise
a Zamue
of
cruelty
when
he
on
thrived
such
and
things
even Zamue.
it in him to disappoint
the
opened
door
saw
and
his
"trusted lieutenant" laying dead at his feet, his neck broken and his chest struck
quite through with a sword! His first words were typically Shobutian. "Hurrah!"
he
"The
exclaimed,
"lieutenant"
was
bird
come
had
to
this!"
seeing
spared
a dreadful
such
end.
Then
He
he
kneeled
to
began
down
that his
grieve
over
the man's
prostrate body, and his eyes misted over with tears. Only when they had at last
cleared did he see that he was not alone there. He found himself staring at a pair
of the largest feet he had ever seen. Horned they were, and scaly. He looked at
the greyish shins, hard as broadswords, and up the cutting edge of the thighs, and
all the way up the rest of the long, thick body until he was staring directly into
the
face
warrior
of?the
the
Zamue,
assassin
said.
Emperor
" '
"It is I. I come
undisguised."
"
'It was
the
real
face
of Zamue,
was
in the fierce
that
his
collapsed
pile
Zamue!
"But?"the
look.
means
thought, he
the Emperor
Aiiiee,
the
relaxed
muscles
powerful
It could
be no
natural
aspect.
to kill me with
for
once,
one
else.
I must
his ugliness.
not
"
'Zamue reached down and pulled the Emperor to his feet, and was just
to
kill him by biting his jugular when suddenly he released him and began
about
to laugh uncontrollably.
"Ho haw hoo hoo haw ho ha!" laughed the assassin, pointing to something
behind the Emperor's back. Shobuta had forgotten to close the door behind him,
and when he turned he saw that what Zamue had been laughing at was the
down the corridor toward them. Shobuta?he
wingless, ungainly dodo waddling
did
not
the
close
bird
the
see what
to
seen
more
waddle
to
than
graceless
to
appeared
seemed
stumble,
drop
to one
to
fall,
knee.
ever.
The
pitch,
Zamue
him.
to be
haste
to buckle.
thought
he
"No,
He
Look.
bird continued
In his
to
no
has
to come
never
wings.
point
seen
A
he
bird
toward them, his
with
reunited
one
At
had
to him?immediately
let him
come,"
to do
about
restrained
so ridiculous.
anything
no ho haw hoo hoo
wings!"
was
Zamue
Zamue
but
doors,
never
"I have
roared.
with
want
to
made
his
friend
bird
the
anything
he
actually
so comi
cal than this fat bird, bigger than a turkey, with his glazed, bulging eyes that
made him seem so stupid. "Hoo haw haw hoo. Just look at that booby, will you?
If you want to know I think it's drunk."
"
'Then,
his
against
was
just when
Zamue
knees,
the
bird
had
recovered
our
reached
himself.
He
Emperor
drew
the
and
sword
was
from
nuzzling
where
it
in the lieutenant's chest, and raised it high above his head.
"Say your farewells to your clumsy friend, Shobuta, for now I am going to
in two," Zamue shouted. Saying this, and seeking additional leverage,
you
split
he raised himself up on the powerful balls of his enormous feet and made to
chop
sheathed
with
his
sword
on
the
Emperor's
crown?we
say
"crown"
when
we
are
re
suddenly the bird appeared to drift up into the air.
ferring to the head?when
The wingless bird had flown! Not flown, not flying, but floated, floating?rising
?risen!
"
'Zamue's
39
Fiction
eyes
widened
in
horror.
"Yeeeeeghch,"
he
screamed,
and
still
stretching
for leverage with
ance
the
and
of
weight
the sword above his head, his fright and his
his
weapon
him
toppled
backwards.
Shobuta,
imbal
moving
quickly and almost without thinking, recovered the sword and plunged it into the
assassin's heart. The giant writhed and thrashed. His throes were terrible, but it
was
all
In minutes
him.
with
up
he
was
dead.
Interestingly
for
and
it,
seemed
instant
of
"
"
finished,'
news
'The
vacuum
the
It had
now
said
Collins
story,'
the
ground,
flown
as
it was
after
squatting
one
but
it had
been
of Zamue's
created
in
others
end
the
by
the
spread
death
of
corner.
It
the
before.'
empire,
vicious
many
and
were
paths
then
another."
to
shreds
Tender
by
became
he
too, was
forces.
contending
Shobuta
the
Shobuta. He met
command.
this
And
Jealous.
was
force
now
a
to
began
have
an
been
for
the empire was being
man.
From
was
the
Shobuta
insurrection,
the
of
Reports
there,
all the force at
and with
forthrightly
considerable.
once,
and for all
for Shobuta
changed
there
Wherever
each challenge
men
But?the
peace.
Japanese
as it must
have
Terrible
was
He
at
all
and
the
throughout
the assassin,
a terrible
disappointment
whose
empire
one
thing,
"First
expression:
his
a
moment?in
awhile.
him, Shobuta knew that he could no longer sit idly by while
torn
looked about
in
said.
Japanese
for power. This was
struggle
those
a
the
about to kill
still another
build a final
'Keep talking,' I said.
"
in
stupid
need?and
friend's
on
away,
as ever.
yards
ever,
quite
'It isn't
"
as
clumsy
its dear
'That's
some
it
found
are
evil
enough?so
some men?he
had actually lied to Shobuta just before he had been
him. He said he had come undisguised,
but his features changed
as
and
death
relaxed
his
muscles
flowed like currents to
them
time,
tidal wave of horror beneath his skin. Only now was he undisguised.
"
'In the excitement Shobuta had lost track of the bird. Now he
miracu
bird's
lous flight had traveled the length and breadth of the empire, and bit by bit the
strange powers of the bird to fly were transferred to and identified with the
Shobuta
Emperor.
and
there
had
were
many,
become
irresistible,
fell
before
back
long almost every pocket
of resistance
its own
man,
accord.
Shobuta's
enemies,
a belief
encourage
he thought
once
he
"
Only
the
when
as
grain
had either been
the
Emperor?you
there were
do his work
no
the
counselors?he
Emperor's
it?and
that
crippled?ha
the
presented
the cunning Ryusho Mali
real
when
he
and
ha?bird would
miracle
was
the
Shobuta
most
for him, and to inherit a docile
for
long before
met
on
the
"character
that
example,
field
he
himself?did
of
combat,
of
all
of
to
way
Japan
declare
bird. He let it be
fabrication of the
the
bird
had ever
the Emperor
have any bearing
so-called
Before
powerful
he
warrior,
pretended
new
In this
powers.
assholes?"
say "locked
more
seditionists?save
proof,
enemies,
wind.
or dissolved
defeated
that he disbelieved
the Emperor's story about the wingless
known that he thought the bird was a hoax, a desperate
with
the
before
Korogachi,
shogun
still
to be encountered.
A
had
wily
in the
the
among
people
Emperor's
to let the Emperor
and
'Only
one
His
rosichicho?invincible.
him
had
been
laid eyes on
no
man-to-man,
on the outcome. He put it out that
change"
of
the
Emperor,
and
de
clared that he had no more faith in Shobuta the Jealous than he had had in
Shobuta the Tender. "If you want my honest opinion," Korogachi
liked to say,
"the man should be known as Shobuta the Showboat!"
40
"
him
'When Shobuta
was
he
He
for
kept
on
insisted
and
safekeeping
the shogun had been
out
setting
that the bird be brought
demanded
been
the Jealous heard what
and
furious,
once
at
to him
confrontation.
it had
from the temple where
ever
observance
religious
saying about
their
for
since
the
its
of
day
fabulous flight. "We shall just take the wondrous bird with us this time since
Mister Korogachi proclaims not to believe
in its powers! Perhaps it will show
can
it
it may fly in his face and peck out
what
knows
but
what
do.
Who
again
Mister
eyes?"
" Korogachi's
In this wise, feeling himself invincible, and now singing martial airs to it
where before he had sung lullaby s and poems and love songs, Shobuta set off
with his army, the bird waddling along beside him.
"
'I shall not dwell much longer on this history. Shobuta's forces were met
an
enormous
army. The holocaust raged for three days and three nights. The
by
of
noise
was
battle
The
fantastic.
clank
armor
of
was
to now
added
not
only
the screams of the dying but by the bangs and booms of the gunpowder,
had only recently been invented. The sound was simply terrific.
"
'There
a
is
leg
injured
is, as you know,
everywhere
or lost an arm
grows
a
in nature
law
of
a man
Often
stronger.
compensation.
no
with
by
which
When
can
arms
paint the most amazing pictures with the brush between his toes. He who has not
the sense of sight is frequently preternaturally blessed with the sense of touch
or
In
smell.
the
bird
a
by
compensated
Shobuta
the Tender
had
date the soft nuances
been particularly well
bird.
lous
else.
The
some
For
of
be
may
winglessness
that
Historians
speculate
to accommo
well
suited
reason,
hearing.
particularly
of the gentle love song. We scientists think it may have
to mesh with the sensitive hearing of the miracu
adapted
fervent
the
same.
acuity
voice?one
particular
a
lovely
martial,
were
too,
So,
it is the
world
for
harsh
stridencies
noises
of
were
of
patriotic
petition
awful
battle.
They
that
were
something
more
than
the sensitive auditory threshhold of the bird could accommodate.
It went mad.
There is no other word for it. It dashed its poor head to pieces on the shield of
a just-fallen soldier. Perhaps, in its confusion, it identified the shield with the
noise
of
the
shield.
we
the
battle,
Or
all
have
perhaps
along
its voicelessness.
winglessness
earth.
" Perhaps
and
paid
it
sought
the
both
to
stop
historians
too much
attention
voicelessness
Perhaps
is one.
Perhaps
even
extinction
there
are
is a choice
the
sound
its own
by breaking
scientists
are
to its
winglessness
is a choice?the
choice
of
and
birds
of
the
who
reject
the
wrong.
and not
silence.
air
and
ears
upon
Perhaps
enough
to
Perhaps
the
choose
sorts.
'When Shobuta the Tender saw what had happened, his poor heart cracked
and tumbled. He suddenly remembered
the gentle days when he had been
closeted with the lovely bird in his apartments. He lay down his sword and
gathered the bird up in his arms. "Come," he whispered, his voice broken on his
"I
emotions,
shall
once
more
be
your
wings."
He
began
then
croon
to
the
bird's
favorite song. No longer conscious of where he was, he drifted through the field
of death among the fallen bodies of his foes and followers. It was such a touch
ing sight that Korogachi, seeing it, began himself to weep. Distracted, blinded by
his tears, and following now only the sound of the Emperor's voice, he did not
notice
one
of
the
deaf Samurai who,
41
Fiction
Emperor's
warriors
creeping
since he had not heard
up
behind
him.
It was
the sound of battle,
Earaki,
had not now
a
that it had
heard
saw
as
ceased.
only
the opportunity
Seizing
the momentary
of
lapse
the
shogun
he at the moment
of what
he
Korogachi,
from
struck
be
hind and felled the shogun for his Emperor.
"
'Once
bird
the
again
had
"
"
are
'We
for
here
'You're
the
Japan.'
before either Collins or I could speak.
I said.
bird,'
the war.
losing
saved
It was a while
"The scientist finished.
a miracle?'
Only
His
voice
trailed
off.
"I nodded. His story had unsergeanted me, pulled the chevrons
(like so
many staples in my flesh) from my arms. We'd been through it. If ever we met
afterwards?I
looked
to
scientist
the
from
Collins'
lieutenant.
the
'He
shone.
eyes
knows where it is' he said suddenly.
"
'Sir?' I said. I was fearful. I knew enough to be fearful.
"
'He knows where it is. Don't you see? They've already got it. Or maybe
on the island.
they haven't but they're close to getting it. At any rate it's still
That's
he
why
us.
told
So we
can
to
word
get
the
not
troops
to
Can
shoot.
you
think what it would mean if we could capture that bird?' The Japanese smiled.
'You see?' Collins said, pointing at him and talking fast. 'He wants us to try. They
haven t got it. They haven't got it because he's the expert, and he know its ways
and its lairs. The bastard is challenging us to try. He's teasing us to try. That's
it. Then he was going after it, but
what he was doing in the museum?studying
that's when we showed up. Right? Am I right, you?'
"
'All correct,'
scientist
the
said.
was
He
still
smiling.
"'All correct,' Collins laughed. 'You bet all correct. He couldn't tell the
British because there were too many of them, but there are only two of us. So he
wants us to try. We bring him along so he can find it for us, then they grab it
back.
That's
"
'But
"
'All correct,
'Well
'A
How
bring
would
sense
beauty,'
till we get to the area?'
"long
'About nine hours,' he said. I'm
me
here
after
had
were
there
a million
to
around
Japs
captured.'
and was
to
the
can
'We
Japanese.
a
find
Jeep.
to
judging by the time it took the patrol
toward
moving
the
The
door.
was
Japanese
'But there will be all those JapsY I said.
to me.
turned
"Collins
our
I was
risen,
right behind him.
see. Even
if
said.
Collins
Sergeant,'
I said,
'it's a
trap.'
said. He
turned
Collins
then,'
"Collins
That's
only
about."
make
that he could get it back,' I said.
guarantee
"
"
it's all
what
it, that's
that
if they get
chance,
you
can't
'They
shoot.
We'll
stay
out
of
their
You'll
way.
first they still can't shoot. He won't
the dodo
let them.
see.'
"Collins got on the radio and told the story to the British. He asked them
to hold their fire, to give us twenty-four hours to try to get the dodo. He wanted
Sansoni?that
was
the
'It's
area.
been
better,
Lieutenant
Something
cast
adrift
name?to
scientist's
he could tell the British. He
that
brave
men.
"We found a Jeep. Though
42
dont
they
could go wrong.'
among
give
know,'
Collins
It
is
him
the
where
position
we'd
drew his gun. The Japanese
refused. Collins
he
nodded,
always
the
said.
'They'd
and put
case
be
be
grinned.
drawn
the gun back.
with
I am not a good driver, Collins
so
to
the
I had
squires.
had me drive and
told me
Sansoni
and
after
we
were
They
go. To
left the
avoid
the
secondary
or
thirty
to do
orders
us to stop. Collins
drew his gun again
soldiers
the
recognized
the soldiers giggled.
inform
the
tion,
no
spoke
Collins
little
fantastic.
the
and
knees.
on. We
Here
and
there
was
Collins
so much
the
of
I honked
way.
'Dont
"
'He's
"
a
and
Japanese
'They're to
orientaliza
inter
be
two stand to lose
that you
it was
almost
space
between
forest
now,
soldiers
It's
trees
the
that
along
no
haven
'they
t
soldiers took
crawling
was
there
Japa
between
Jeep
on
their
hands
hoarsely,
to drive. The
of
simply turn and
squeezing
crawling
he
said
true,'
impossible
the
clusters
great
passed
them up they would
see
excited.
very
Sergeant.
Sansoni
Sansoni
'Now,'
in
could
Sansoni
again,'
it? Lieutenant,
right,
'Further,'
so.
were
we
that
do
to madden
"
or
The
head.
English
We
won't
coming.
first
signaled
road
any
longer
the horn.
"
want
calmly
interesting
we
now
picked
headlights
us
found it yet.' Now
up
in
to them' he told us.
we're
minutes
few
Every
wave
and
trees.
they
said.
our
troops. When
smile
but
and it
our
contest.'
"It was
nese
saw
it at Sansoni's
"
I said. 'Why were they
giggling?'
" 'Bully,'
'Oh well,' Sansoni said patiently,
'they expect
our
we
course,
them
is an
think??that
you
to
roads,
across
cutting
in the afternoon,
of
and pointed
he
were
before
shooting,
the main
off
stayed
and
o'clock,
the situation
explained
don't
with.'
"
'Excellent,'
eleven
the walkie-talkie?that
"walkie-talkie,"
fered
scientist,
I've
on
others
and
as well
left Port Lewis
ten
under
we
British
roads
fields. W7e had
about
dark,
already
Japanese.
had
and through
plantations
was
to
where
awhile
Calm
said,
said
please
down.'
'just
a
'We're
fiercely.
do
something
little
We
further.'
there.
almost
this man
about
drove
of
Do
you
yours.'
half
another
mile
said.
'Lieutenant?'
"
'Do what
"The
and
were
out
in a
very
alone
'The
That
he
says, Sergeant.
out of
of us
got
in the forest. We
bowl-shaped
was
dark?there
something
of
three
the
case,'
in
he
grass
was
as there had been
nor
rotten,
life
nor
it. Then
the museum.
said.
glass
was
like this
place.'
"
Sansoni
said.
'Shh/
"The
walked
clearing,
perhaps
no moon?and
I'd
familiar about
pictures
here.'
Stop
the car. We
strange,
and
to the trees we
had
as
if we
death.
It was
they
it is necessary
leathery,
was
lieutenant
built
that we
there
was
just passed.
smelled
for
across.
feet
the
place
that it was
I realized
The
'Now
seen
never
the
up
passed
the woods
through
two hundred
environment
'The
had
it was
Though
there
before,
the landscape
having
for the
do
soldiers
Japanese
a bit
came
and
not
a fierce
It was
the molecules
the
same
reconstructed
was
of many
thoughts.
dodo.
talk.'
smell
to
the
ground,
an odor neither
themselves,
ripe
things
outside time and form. I turned to see if there were any Japanese behind us and
when I looked back again I had lost Sansoni. I moved
toward the lieutenant to
tell him the scientist had escaped, but he shushed me before I could speak. He
was down on his hands and knees in the dark. Collins and
pointed to Sansoni. He
43
Fiction
I both halted. Then
voice.
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
I knew
seen
'He's
the
'We know
carols
of
soft
Shobuta.
lieutenant was whispering
also.
dodo.'
tjiat.'
an
'He's
to croon strange songs in a high
suddenly began
thirteenth-century
I whispered.
'Lieutenant,'
ornithologist.'
that.'
'We know
'Even if he only saw it through field glasses?'
"'Yes.
"
the
'What is it?' The
"'What?'
"
?he'd
"
Sansoni
were
they
have
What
made?observations.'
of
it?'
'He know its lairs, he knows its habits.'
'Yes. We
know
that.'
"
'He can do its signals.' I shuddered.
"
'Will you be quiet?'
"
'He'll find it.'
"The lieutenant shook me off. He moved
toward Sansoni. Quietly he went
down on his hands and knees. In the dark I lost them both. I was not alone
us. I could hear their leathery move
though. The Japanese had caught up with
ments
all
and
is
There
'foreign
soil'
sank
of
something
embassies.
in
those
and
knees.
There
dry
grasses,
queer,
some petty
cats and birds observing
the
crossed
fingers
in
awful
I hate
hands
my
around
crawling
as
on
down
could have been
mechanical
neutrality
I
Japanese,
as Indians. We
game.
me.
around
Americans
spurious
time-out
children
of
white
peace?in
flags,
we
were,
soundless
detail
of a
in a murderous
sanctuary,
the
arrangements.
flared suddenly in the darkness, its light rolling across the face of
the Japanese on the plane with me, the one who'd helped me with my seat. He
and blew out the match. Someone laughed. It sounded like Sansoni.
grinned
"
"A match
'Lieutenant?'
was and
"Perhaps they've already killed him, I thought. I stopped where I
waited
till I could no longer hear the soldiers. I crawled to a tree and leaned
was thorny and I moved away, back into the leathery low
against it. The bark
tide
of
the
grass.
I rooted
about
in
it for
awhile
and
suddenly
came
on
some
a comfortable spongy ring. I lay my head in its center and closed my
thing soft,
warm and featherish brushed my face. I didn't have to see
and
eyes,
something
it to know it was the dodo bird. I'd invaded its nest. I felt the bird's body
stiffen and move backwards. No, stay, I thought, I'm no hog. Then I grabbed
its legs and pulled it tome for a hostage.
I traveled with it many hours. Several times we
"In the dark, directionless,
I
it under my shirt, next to my skin, and made,
but
had
hidden
passed Japanese,
one
on the
on my hands and knees, the exaggerated,
exploratory pats of
ground
a bed. Over the old
we went, a
for
under
rough ground
searching
something
and the
trade route of the extinct, and I thought of dinosaurs and mammoths
sabre-toothed
tiger,
and
here
was
I, Dick
Gibson,
with
that
other
loser,
the
dodo. Back, I thought, cursing it, back to history, you. And even though I still
hadn't gotten a good look at it I could tell from its shape against my skin what
44
it was?and
its
from
silence
as a terrorized
cussive
and
useless,
resisting
me.
It
It scratched
heart.
that
wing
pissed
on me
whipped
and
shit
at me
on me
per
and
I gagged, and my own vomit covered the bird's stench and saved me from the
Japanese. When the sun comes up I will be killed, I thought.
"Then I heard Sansoni's voice. He was perhaps a hundred yards off, but I
could hear him talking to Collins, or to me, perhaps, if Collins was already dead.
"
in
'It's useless
the
was
he
dark,'
'Most
saying.
likely
it's
asleep.
We
shall
have to wait and look for its nest in the morning. I'll tell them.' He spoke briefly
in Japanese, and I heard the men
laugh. For all I knew he had told them to kill
us. I froze where I was, and
was mute, I reached inside
forgetting that the bird
and
its
it
shirt
beak
and
shut.
held
This
my
only made it thrash the
grabbed
more. I think it bit me. Quietly as I could I removed the bird and set it down on
to it, and shoved it away. I heard the soldiers tak
the ground. 'Go,' I whispered
off
their
after
their heavy breathing.
and
awhile
ing
packs,
"The bird wouldn't
leave me. I don't know why. So I sat with it in my lap
and waited till morning, and all that night I could think of no plan.
"Just after dawn I heard the others getting up and Sansoni organizing them,
was a heavy mist. I couldn't see them very
telling them what to look for. There
well. I saw where the bird had bit me and thought of the dodo's extinct germs
working inmy blood.
"I stood up. The bird was inmy arms.
"
'The
I said.
is over,'
search
T have
it. It's mine.'
"A Japanese came out of the fog and smiled and called out to the others. I
two hundred feet
could hear the word go round the forest. They were maybe
me
I
had thought him
when
Collins
the
from
vanguard. Though
pushed through
dead I was not surprised to see him. Iwas very detached.
"
'You found it?' he yelled.
"I held it up.
"
" 'They'll
"The
it. Run.
take
can't
" 'They
'Run!'
shoot.
were
Japanese
on. Get
Go
You
said
coming
so
going.'
yourself.'
me.
towards
were
They
twenty-five
yards
off
now.
"
'They're
to take
going
the
bird,"
Collins
screamed.
were fifty feet off.
"They
"
'Kill it,' he yelled.
"
'What?'
"
'Kill the damn thing. They mustn't have it. Kill it!'
"
'What good will that do?'
"
'That's
an
order,
Sergeant.'
Collins
was
pointing
his
pistol
at me.
'Kill
it,
or I'll kill you.'
"
'It bit me,' I said lazily.
"'Kill it.' The Japanese stopped where
they were. They were
staring at
Collins and at me. 'Kill it, god damn you. Kill it!'
"
'I have no gun.' I had yelled this. The loudness of my voice surprised me.
"Sansoni had begun to plead with me. 'If you let it live we'll treat you as a
prisoner.
45
My
Fiction
word.
Geneva
conventions.
My
word
on
that,
Sergeant.'
"
it,' Collins
'Kill
excited.
very
throat.'
screamed.
he
'Here,'
I
the
up
shoot
He
you.'
reached
threw it toward me. He was
knife.
its
Wring
Cut
neck.
its
"
said.
Sansoni
we
All
want
said.
Collins
'Good,'
a bird.
it.'
'?two?'
on
hands
their
get
what
it. Remember
a bird.'
It's only
Everybody.
down.
looked
a bird,'
I swear
you.
shouted,
I turned it in my hand and examined
'Ml it!'
"I took the knife and slit its throat.
the blade to their own throats.
pressed
"
'Ah,' Collins sighed.
Its
was
blood
I said.
'Don't
see?
you
It's
I heard
me.
over
all
the bird against my breast,
ing. Holding
allow
for.'
" fighting
'It's
only
"
"I
shoot
Til
yelled.
'One?'
Collins
mustn't
'They
We'll
off.
you
dodo.'
Collins
feet.
let
'We'll
is the
"I bent down and picked up the knife.
it. I opened it up.
"
we're
I'll
promise
black. He
'Pick
shouted.
dear
'Please,
my
Sergeant,'
to return
to the
both
garrison.
"
to three,
'I'll count
Sergeant,'
at my
landed
"The knife
had
you
it, or
'Kill
out something
and pulled
into his pocket
Then
the
as if I'd
It was
them gasp.
were
Japanese
weep
'It's only
toward them.
I started walking
a bird.'
just
"Then the bird was in the air! They fell away from me. Collins was shrieking.
They all were. The bird was in the air and the soldiers screamed. Some tried not
to look at me but couldn't turn away their heads. The bird came down against my
and
breast
rose
then
time.
this
again?higher
third time. The Japanese were
them and they hid from me.
And
then,
"
the miracle,'
'It's
to have
them
Oh
it's
Jesus,
"Now
for
turned
I saw
the
bird
fell,
last
time.
the
that
threw
were
they
sudden
the
of
course,
I reached
their
I never
symbol.
want
. . .
thought
on
up
too.
arms
my
nest
its
two
it
and
and
sides,
hear
It was
the
They
garrison.
enormous.
On
Rosichicho,
the
into
clearing
British
a
I heard
charged
last Japanese. They have been
I
in
aisle
of
them
passed
my
crying. The
murmuring.
we
against
When
a sort
making
them
When
invincible.
are
there.
fell in beside me. He was
I could
Casualties
settled
it
placed
the
them out
as well.
side
I,
rosichicho.
I were
and
lined
fire.
gun
them all?every
islands,
am
had
weapons.
I was
saying.
burst
of machine
other
their
I didn't
the miracle!
it's
God,
out
to
it
I carried
Invincible,
"Oh. By now
Collins
sunk.
Japanese
down
forest and killed
on
them
through them. Collins
the forest. I walked
soldiers
want
the miracle.'
the
breast
'Oh my
to have
said.
Collins
I didn't
it.
a
rose
toward
I moved
grief and ecstasy.
keening with
it
again,
falling
I think
assigned
together what's
I've pieced
It was
to Mauritius.
the
happened
here. Why
it?
wasn't
equipment,
It was
a test of the equipment. Am I getting warm? You wanted to check its range, and
in the event these broad
you picked a place where not much was happening
casts
were
intercepted.
on the plane
on
Then
46
us.
That's
they
sent
They
from Lisbon
were
meant
discovered
they
men
out more
because
when
to be
that attracted
meaningless.
the enemy. They
the
they
dodo.
figured
And
we
sent
knew
It was
sent men
for
the
about
our
presence
to check up
ornithologist.
too.
the bird,
we
Then
built
But
ingless.
well.
"Collins
of
course,
am
our
up
that's
is dead.
to match
forces
very
hard.
You
is.
Everyone
'Dead
foul
47
Everything
shot."
Fiction
is
Meaning
as
a dodo.'
We
all meant
everywhere,
have
that
to be mean
Mauritius
as
expression.
I,
rosichicho.
"Only don't bet on it. I tossed
wrists.
it was
But
theirs.
know?
with
my
wrists.
the bird.
Like
someone
I flung him up myself. With
at
the
free-throw
line
taking
my
a