204
DORIS LESSING
The fine sand fell continuously in avalanches, and in a moment the
exquisitely regular pit was ruined.
"You clumsy idiot," said Paul. He sounded, as always in these
moments with Jimmy, pained and irritated. He really could not
understand how anybody could be so .awkward. He grabbed the
stem from Jimmy, poked it delicately at the bottom of another sand–
pit, and in a second had fished out the insect which made it-a tiny
ant-eater, but
a
big specimen of its kind, about the size of a large
match head. This insect, toppling off Paul's grass stem onto a fresh
patch of white sand, instantly jerked itself into frantic motion, and
in
a
moment had vanished beneath the sand which heaved and sifted
over it.
"There," said Paul roughly to Jimmy, handing back his stem.
Paul looked embarrassed at his own crossness; Jimmy, silent and
rather pale, said nothing. He took the stem and watched the heaving
of the minute patch of sand.
Meanwhile we had been too absorbed to notice that two new
pigeons had arrived in the trees opposite. They now began to coo,
apparently without any intention of co-ordination, for the two
streams of soft sound continued, sometimes together, sometimes not.
"They are very pretty," said Maryrose, protesting, her eyes still
shut.
"Nevertheless, like your butterflies, they are doomed." And Paul
raised
his
rifle and shot. A bird fell off a branch, this time like a stone.
The other bird, startled, looked around, its sharp head turning this
way and that, an eye cocked up sky-wards for a possible hawk that
had swooped and taken off its comrade, then cocked earth-wards
where it apparently failed to identify the bloody object lying in the
grass. For after a moment of intense waiting silence, during which
the bolt of the rifle snapped, it began again to coo. And immediately
Paul raised
his
gun and shot and it, too, fell straight to the ground.
And now none of us looked at Jimmy, who had not glanced up from
his
observation of
his
insect. There was already a shallow, beautifully
regular pit in the sand, at the bottom of which the invisible insect
worked in tiny heaves. Apparently Jimmy had not noticed the
shooting of the two pigeons. And Paul did not look at him. He
merely waited, whistling very softly, frowning. And in a moment,
without looking at us or at Paul, Jimmy began to flush, and then he
