51 The Saddest Day

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Stephen Whiteside
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51 The Saddest Day

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Fri Dec 02, 2011 3:32 pm

51 The Saddest Day

© Stephen Whiteside 02.12.2011

Magnifico did not sleep well that night. Indeed, for much of it he did not sleep at all but rather, lay in quiet desperation, struggling to come to terms with the likelihood that this was the last night he would ever spend with Horatio.

When dawn came, he was resolved, but miserable.

Horatio, I can’t go on. I’m turning back. You take the raft. You will need it more than I will.

Horatio said nothing for a long time. He sensed that this was coming.

Then: No, you take the raft, Magnifico. At least your course is charted. Who knows where I am headed now?

The landscape here was very different to the lush vegetation upriver. Long stretches of barren sand swept down to the water’s edge. The vegetation was set well back, and it was low and scrubby. No water. No shelter. No food. Hostile territory. A desert, really.

Still, Horatio was unmoved.

The peanut cow was not upriver, therefore it must be downriver. And if the river comes to an end, well then, it is beyond the river. There is no other way.

There is another way, Horatio. The peanut cow may not exist.

But Horatio refused to countenance such a possibility.

What was the source of the unshakeable faith that drove Horatio? And why a peanut cow? But they’d been through all that before. There was no point in digging up old wounds.

All right then, Horatio. I’ll take the raft. The worst thing would be for it to be wasted.

This had to be the saddest day of Horatio’s life. Why couldn’t he just be reasonable and re-trace his steps? He asked himself this question just as stridently as Magnifico asked it of him. But he could not answer it. This is how it had to be.

Well, Magnifico. There’s no point in dilly-dallying. No point in wasting the sun-light. You have a long journey ahead of you.

And what of you, Horatio? How long is your journey to be?

That is a good question, Magnifico. It may indeed be much longer. Yet it may also be much shorter. Who knows? I might find a peanut cow around the next point there. Should I run after you and fetch you if I do?



Magnifico raised a wry smile.

I guess so.

And so they stood a little longer, neither able to break away from the other. Till, at last, a step or two forward, a brief, clumsy embrace, and it was done. There was no way they could satisfactorily part now, so why pretend otherwise?

Horatio helped Magnifico drag the raft back into the shallows. Another brief embrace, and Magnifico was aboard, paddle in hand, beginning his long, slow journey against the current.

Horatio stood and watched. Magnifico turned briefly once or twice and waved. Horatio waved back. At last Magnifico and the raft disappeared behind the long, low contour of a dune.

Horatio turned, and wearily resumed his journey.
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
http://www.stephenwhiteside.com.au

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