Mitzi and the Lion

by R J Dent

Mitzi felt attracted to the lion right from the start.

She bought her ticket at the entrance and drove her red mini into the safari park. She turned right and followed the road, dutifully paying attention to the DRIVE SLOWLY signs. A herd of zebra looked up at her car as it passed, then went back to its grazing. 

Thought they’d be used to cars by now, Mitzi thought. She drove on and saw a herd of antelope. Unlike the zebras, they were too far away to be bothered by the car and they didn’t bother raising their heads as it passed. Mitzi did see a few ears twitch though, so they were obviously aware of her presence.

After passing the water hole and seeing two hippos, four elephants and too many monkeys to count, Mitzi reached the end of the road and turned left. She braked and waited whilst a safari park keeper opened a chain link gate to let her into the second part of the park – the lion enclosure. She drove through and saw a sign that warned visitors to DRIVE WITH DOORS LOCKED AND WINDOWS CLOSED AT ALL TIMES! and another one of those DRIVE SLOWLY signs. A few metres on she saw another one that warned her not to stop except in an emergency. AT NO TIME – another warned – MUST VISITORS LEAVE THEIR CARS! 

Mitzi sighed. 

So many signs. 

She idly wondered why she had bothered to come back. She had visited the safari park the previous week and had thought it incredibly dull. Well, most of it, for she supposed that there was some sort of feeling one got when one drove through a park full of predators and prey, although had she been pressed to give the feeling a name, she wouldn’t have been able to. The nearest she could have got, had she wanted to give it any thought at all, would have been a tenuous feeling of trepidation, but it would have been at one remove because of the sturdy metal car she was inside.

The flash of tawny hide made her slow down a little and she saw a lioness carry a cub from the shelter of one bush and deposit it at the base of another. Mitzi turned her head to watch the lioness go back for another cub, then they were lost from sight as the road dipped.