212
DORIS LESSING
"Well then?"
"It's not the point."
"It's my point. That
is
why I dwell on the simple savagery of the
Matabele and the Mashona. The other
is
simply too hideous to
contemplate. It
is
the reality for our time, socialist or capitalist-well,
Comrade Willi?"
Willi hesitated, then said: "There will be certain outward simi–
larities but ..." He was interrupted by Paul and myself, then Jimmy,
in a fit of laughter.
Maryrose said to Willi: "They're not laughing Oat what you say,
but because you always say what they expect."
"I am aware of that," said Willi.
"No," said Paul, "you are wrong Maryrose. I'm also laughing at
what he's saying. Because I'm horribly afraid it's not true. God
forbid, I should be dogmatic about it, but I'm afraid that- as for
myself, from time to time I shall fly out from England to inspect my
overseas investments and peradventure I shall fly over this area, and
I shall look down on smoking factories and housing estates and I shall
remember these pleasant, peaceful pastoral days and ..." A pigeon
landed on the trees opposite. Another and another. Paul shot. A
bird fell. He shot, the second fell. The third burst out of a bunch of
leaves skywards as if it had been shot from a catapult. Jimmy got
up, walked over, brought back two bloodied birds, flung them down
with the others and said: "Seven. For God's sake, isn't it enough?"
"Yes," said Paul, laying aside his rifle. "And now let's make
tracks fast for the pub. We shall just have time to wash the blood off
before it opens."
"Look," said Jimmy. A small beetle about twice the size of the
largest ant-eater, was approaching through the towering grass stems.
"No good," said Paul, "that
is
not a natural victim."
"Maybe not," said Jimmy. He twitched the beetle into the largest
pit. There was a convulsion. The glossy brown jaws snapped on the
beetle, the beetle jumped up, dragging the ant-eater half-way up the
sides of the pit. The pit collapsed in a wave of white sand, and for a
couple of inches all around the suffocating silent battle, the sand
heaved and eddied.
"If
we had ears that could hear," said Paul, "the air would be
