“Tell the others we need them. We are going to the city and we have to protect this little bird here,” he said, leaning down and touching Bessie with his nose ring.
His warm wet breath enveloped the budgie, insulating her.
“And you,” said the bull to the buzzard. “Keep the falcons away.”
The buzzard liked the bull, who tolerated him landing in the forest clearings to remove the rodents that had died of old age. He let out a piercing shriek and banked up and over the top of the trees.
Before the procession of circus animals left the wood, Edward placed a chain of daisies around his neck. He embedded a stick of green holly in Bear’s thick fur, so it appeared like a crown upon the anteater’s head, the red berries dazzling as jewels in the sunshine. Doris found a pit of drying clay and tossed lumps of it on to her back and shoulders, the dust turning her into a ghostly, white elephant.
Edward collected a range of sticks and selected the best two, of equal length and weight. He threw them into the air, watching them spin, knowing he couldn’t afford to drop one, not today. Once they were out there, upon the bridge, there would be no fresh sticks to replace any he lost. He tucked the sticks under his arm and climbed up on to the elephant.
The Zoo
The bull led them, picking the best path winding out of the trees. A red deer stag watched them walk by, Bear ambling behind the bull, Doris behind the anteater, with Edward and Bessie upon her head. The stag snorted and tossed his fresh velvet antlers in celebration. Already, word had spread through the woods about these fantastic new creatures and their plan to save their friend. As the animals passed the stag hiding in the shadows, he felt pleased they might come and live among his kind.
They weaved and wandered until they reached the opening in the trees. Ahead appeared the tall brick tower supporting one side of the giant iron bridge suspended over the gorge. The huge red bull gave way, stepping aside into a patch of nettles.
“Good luck,” he said. “I hope I see you again.”
Bear nodded his thanks. He looked back at his troupe. Each of them nodded, their mouths open, tongues hanging in expectation. The giant anteater stepped on to the track. He walked forward a few paces until he was in the middle of the road. He could be seen by any human or horse that might pass along the way. He could probably be seen by the guard in his office and by anyone standing at the far end of the bridge, on the track that veered off up to the University College buildings and Lord Morgan’s laboratory.
Pushing against the last of the branches, Doris then walked out into the open air. Elephants can choose to move quietly when they want to, but as she stepped out, she flapped her ears and bucked her head, forcing Edward to hold on tight and Bessie to take flight. The bull felt a surge of pride at the their bravado and bravery. Doris then turned and faced the bridge. She lifted a front leg and emitted a long deep rumble, announcing to all the direction of her travel.
Stepping out in front of an audience came easily to the animals. They had been trained and poked, prodded and whipped so often by the Ring Master that they knew how to get attention and how to put on a show. But this was different. This was an open-air performance. No one was paying to watch. There was no script, no supporting acts and no interval. This was their own show, a unique performance to be staged only once and they had to impress like never before. If the show failed, it was entirely their own fault.
Suddenly Bear heard the sound of a horse’s hooves trotting behind. His stomach dropped as a shire horse walked alongside the circus animals. A large black horse, with long white socks, it clopped on past as if everything in the world was normal. As the horse moved past Bear, the anteater realised that a young lad was leading it by the mouth. But the boy stood no taller than the horse’s shoulder and its sheer size had blocked any view the human had of the circus animals.
Then Bear saw another two horses crossing the bridge, heading straight for him. Their heads down, they pulled at an empty hearse, its dark wheels bouncing on the wooden boards.
At first, he was pleased. They hadn’t yet been spotted. No humans were running towards them brandishing pitch forks and nets, no guns were being loaded. But then he thought again. This wouldn’t do. If they carried on this way, they would eventually be noticed and the human that spied them might wonder why such a strange bunch of animals was out for an afternoon stroll.
So Bear took the biggest gamble of his life. He stood up on his back legs, planting his long, strong tail into the dusty road. He raised his scarred snout and pointed it to the blue sky. He pulled his huge talons over his head and waved them.
Behind him Edward jumped on to Doris’s curved spine as she followed the anteater’s cue. She sat back upon her hips and pushed up, raising her heavy torso and front legs off the ground. Standing eleven feet tall, she opened her ears and chest and sucked in the air. Curling back her trunk until it touched her forehead, she trumpeted louder than ever before.
The shire horse in front bucked, so startled was he by the sound. The horses pulling the hearse instinctively stopped dead in their tracks. A quarter of the way across the bridge, they raised their heads to see the giant anteater and elephant waving at them from behind the shire horse that was now dragging its lad on to the wooden boards.
Thinking the bridge horn had accidentally sounded, a guard emerged from the station, blinking into the light. He placed his hands on his hips and pushed his cap back on his head, as the circus troupe stepped off the valley’s edge and began to cross the gorge. As Bear and Doris hit the wooden boards, Edward pulled out his sticks from under his arm. Like a drummer boy he held them aloft. But instead of beating them down upon Doris’s broad back, he spun one in his hand, catching it after a single revolution. He spun the other. Pleased with himself, he threw one in the air and caught it. He threw the other and caught that too. Then he threw them both at once, and caught a stick in each hand. He started to juggle as Doris moved forward.
The guard just watched as the animals proceeded across the bridge. As they passed him, he stepped back, leaning against the rails. He was amazed at the sight, by Bear’s huge claws and long tongue that flicked out. By the powdered elephant and the acrobatic monkey on her back. He then looked past Doris, to see what else might be following. At first there was nothing, until out of the sunshine appeared a dazzling budgerigar, which flew circles around Doris, passing through her legs and up over her head, before looping again. As Bessie flew, a large buzzard appeared overhead, casting a graceful shadow upon the river below the bridge. A robin showed up on the railing, hopping on to the guard’s shoulder. A flock of pigeons gathered around his feet, while a family of wrens and four magpies swooped down and around the shire horse, calming it, beguiling the lad.
As the troupe pranced across the bridge, the horses at the far end started to walk backwards. They had taken it upon themselves to give way to the approaching carnival. A man appeared, wrestling with their reins, trying to whip the horses forward. But skilfully they pushed the hearse back off the bridge, leaving the exit open. As the animals stepped off the bridge, birds flapping all about them, the horses doffed their heads, while the owner of the hearse watched, mouth open.
On they went until they reached the fork in the path that led to University College. In the excitement Bear realised he didn’t know which way to go. He couldn’t see the foxes either. Perhaps it was all a trap? Maybe the bull and vixen had lied to him? They had never wanted to share their home with strangers. Instead of sticking together, they had convinced the circus animals to walk out of the woods, into the city and the clutches of the humans once more.
Edward stopped juggling.
“Where now?” he asked the anteater.
“I don’t know,” said Bear.
“It’s ok,” said Bessie.
She landed in front of the anteater.
“I can see them up the road
. There are two foxes waiting for us. They are sitting on top of an old cart of rubbish. Follow me.”
Just as the animals had planned, Bessie now led the way. Gaining in confidence, she flew with the wild birds, the buzzard overseeing their progress away from the gorge. As she flew over the cart, a lean fox jumped off it.
“I’ve been told to help you,” he said. “You must be important. My cousin rarely crosses the bridge but he ran here so fast he was lost for breath. He left while you were getting ready and said you’d be along soon after. You’re looking for the zoo?”
This fox had a shinier coat than the foxes in the woods and spoke with a sharper accent.
“Yes we are,” said Bear. “Can you take us there?”
“Normally it’s easy. We’d head that way,” said the fox, nodding down the road that led to the port.
“But something is happening today,” said the second fox, an older dog with silver hair around his eyes. “There are lots more humans out and the road has been closed to the horses. It’s the first time that road has ever been closed.”
“So how do we reach the zoo?” asked Doris.
“We have to walk up the high street,” said the older fox.
“Can we do that?” asked Edward.
“We’ll have to,” said the older fox. “There’s no other way.”
“We’ve done it before,” said the younger fox. “But that was at dusk. All the shops were shut. Most of the humans had gone home. And we weren’t so obvious.”
“They’ve come this far,” answered his older relative. “Besides, it’ll be nice to show those butcher boys something.”
“Who are the butcher boys?” asked Bear, now concerned.
“They sound worse than they are,” the silver-haired fox answered. “Come on, this way.”
He twisted his lithe back and set off along the path to Lord Morgan’s college, his orange fur and the white tip of his tail bouncing in the sun as the younger fox walked with the anteater. Apart from the animals, the path to the college was empty.
“It’s quiet,” said Bear.
He hadn’t seen many cities. But even the country lanes he was used to travelling in his circus cage were often busier than this.
“Like we said, something is up today,” said the fox alongside. “The humans have been tidying their bins. Hosing the roads. There’s been hardly any pickings since early yesterday and at this time of day this road is usually full of young humans on their bicycles, satchels swinging from their backs. We have to be careful down here in case they run us over.”
“This way,” shouted the older fox ahead.
He turned down another path which none of the circus animals had seen when trying to rescue Edward. They followed him but there was no one about to show off to. As Edward rode on Doris’s back he could see over the hedges they passed. Behind were large buildings full of engineering equipment, huge black cogs and wheels attached to pulleys and chains. Mechanical presses sat inside vast lifeless rooms, alongside sterile benches and hot ovens connected to silver chimneys that belched smoke out of the roof.
The birds flew on, led by Bessie, as the path curved and dipped back on itself. Bear hadn’t lost his inner compass, the sense of direction that helped anteaters meander vast distances in search of food. He knew they were turning back on themselves.
“Does this lead to the end of that road that was closed?” he asked the fox.
“Yes, it’ll bring us out at the bottom of the high street. Then we climb up again, past all the shops. Once we reach the top of the hill, it’ll open out on to the downs,” said the fox. “We know the downs very well. They are our summer home.”
“Where will the zoo be?” asked Doris, using her big ears to listen in.
“The zoo faces the downs. Once we reach the top of the hill, you’ll be there.”
The procession plodded on, a show without an audience. Even Bessie began to hope that something or someone would come out to watch.
Suddenly the birds were met by a huddle of pigeons taking flight from the ground.
“Don’t worry,” shouted Bessie. “We’re not after your crumbs.”
“There’s food everywhere,” answered a young cock. “All along the high street.”
Bessie had reached the end of the road. Flying with the pigeon flock, she felt brave enough to bank around a large building. As she cornered, she saw it was built of pink limestone. The pigeons then split and Bessie had to quickly decide what to do. She followed the young cock, who headed for a line of string being hung from a window. Bessie grabbed at the string and landed upon it, bobbing up and down, as the pigeon alighted on a ledge inches behind.
“See. Look down there. It’s full of food.”
From her vantage point Bessie could see a high street stretching out, climbing into the distance. It was a riot of noise and colour. Little flags hung from string tied between buildings and lamp posts, creating waves of bunting flowing up the hill. On bicycles boys freewheeled down the hill, sticking out their legs, screaming as they dodged women walking with baskets of bread and flowers. Older men sat on chairs outside shops. Some wore aprons and bowler hats, others their best suits. Most were drinking from tankards or hip flasks, laughing and joking, slapping their thighs and each other on the back. So many humans filled the street that Bessie couldn’t see a place to land. She couldn’t now hear her friends, or the birds that had been her escort, the air full of chat and music blown out of big brass instruments played by a Naval Lads Brigade dressed in matching blue and white uniforms.
Doris felt the vibrations of the throng then heard the sounds. As the foxes and anteater neared the pink building, she alerted them by calling loudly from her trunk. She timed it so well, the brass band answered. The foxes naturally moved towards the gutters, but on Bear walked, lifting his head, ready to eye whatever faced him. Edward jumped to his feet and did a somersault, kicking some of the clay dust off Doris’s back.
They turned the corner and moved into the middle of the road. Bear paused, Doris towering over him. Together they and the pin monkey stood at the bottom of a high street hosting Bristol’s largest ever party. The animals had been granted their audience, ten times bigger than had ever fitted within the canvass of Whyte and Wingate’s Big Top.
The foxes cowered, as a drunken troop of army boys staggered past, black boots clipping their whiskers. A corporal bounced into Doris’s shoulder and straight back off her, into the arms of two sappers struggling to hold cigarettes in their mouths. The soldier didn’t notice he had collided with an Indian elephant. Doris naturally stepped over Bear, using her four legs as columns to protect the anteater. Then she remembered her circus training. The best way to control a crowd, she knew, was to entertain it. So she grabbed at the drunken corporal, plucking him from the arms of his fellow soldiers. She lifted him high above her head, as his beer money fell from his chest pocket. She stepped forward and trumpeted, the air in her trunk squeezing the human. As the man screamed, Doris bellowed and jigged as she waved the soldier above the heads of some orphan children who had once seen her perform through a hole in the side of the Big Top.
Bear stepped out from under Doris’s belly. He’d never learned any tricks, beyond running round and round the circus, his head bobbing. So he made it up. He wandered to the left of the street and back to the right, raising his paw at each turn, like a dog begging for a pat. The first human he confronted was a child who burst into tears. Behind the infant an old man looked on amazed. Another, sitting on a stool, offered out his aged palm, as if to shake Bear’s steely talons. The child started to laugh as Bear wafted his paw in return, before heading across Doris to entertain those humans at the other kerb.
Doris placed her drunken soldier at the side of the street, inserting him between a red postbox and a fat lady eating plums. He giggled like the young child. Edward
stood and waved his sticks at the humans below him. At first they didn’t see the monkey travelling up high on the white elephant. So Edward climbed down Doris and on to the shoulder of the fat lady. He stole one of her fruits and as the woman shrieked in horror he grinned and gave the plum back, forcing it into her lips. Her red cheeks broke into a fascinated smile. Edward jumped from the woman on to the postbox. The woman pointed and waved at him then tapped her friend on the shoulder, showing her the monkey. Edward leaped on to a line of college students and used their heads as stepping stones, moving up the hill alongside the elephant and anteater. Once a number of humans were in his thrall he switched back to Doris, scuttling up her to begin his act. He stood tall on his back legs and tossed his sticks into the air, juggling them better than any clown.
From her vantage point, Bessie could see the crowd thinning in front of Doris, the humans stepping back, hitting each other’s elbows, making way for the animals. Some had their hands over their mouths, a few pointed. But each and every human smiled as the procession of animals danced their way up the hill. The budgie couldn’t find the nerve to fly down and bob in front of the animals. But no one seemed to notice that the animals were alone, without a master. Just two wily foxes guided them, one at each side of the road, darting in and around the humans’ ankles, out of sight.
By the time Bear reached the top of the hill, the crowd behind was singing and cheering. Edward caught a dirty coin tossed his way by a well-dressed gentleman twirling a cane, who was heading down past the animals to the party on the high street. Bear left the road and scampered on to the huge field of grass that opened before him, populated by a few families picnicking in the sun. Doris followed, and Bessie, who had watched their progress all the way up the slope, leaped from her line. A squadron of birds fell into formation, escorting her flying low over the crowd’s heads as she caught up with her friends, alighting on the downs.