5

Bonny sits in the doorway of the hut Herr Hagenbeck told him was theirs until they built another. Out of the wind, it is still cool. He buttons his woollen jacket. Does he think of his nephew, sitting on the sun-warmed rise, overlooking the water? Of what he might make of all of this? I do not know. I doubt Little Bonny will believe it when he hears one day that his uncle has ridden through a crowded city on the back of a giant creature with enormous, flapping ears like the fins of a large eagle ray, and a long nose that it uses to steal oranges and to trumpet loudly.

Bonny stares at the prowling tigers in the iron cage as he finally peels the orange Dorondera gave him. He eats it slowly, watching as the tigers use their feet and giant teeth to tear the meat off bones that have been thrown in to them.

Children call to Bonny from windows in the neighbouring buildings, but Bonny doesn’t take his eyes off the tigers, as if fearing they might break out of their cage and come for him. I would have also been fearful of such beasts if I were in human form.

‘Beeral, why didn’t Mr Müller warn us of these monsters? Why didn’t you?’ Bonny asks.

He shifts his gaze to the strange chattering creatures that use their long arms to swing between branches in their metal cages. Little Bonny will surely doubt his uncle when he tells the boy of those. The boy has never heard creation stories about these animals, so may not believe they exist.

A growl from a tall iron cage adjoining the tigers’ enclosure alerts Bonny that the two enormous white monsters have woken. One makes three thunderous paces to the cage front, stands on its hind legs and shakes the bars. Herr Hagenbeck tells Bonny that the beasts are called ‘polar bears’ and come from a land that is so cold that the ground and even the seas freeze. To fish, people must cut holes in the thick ice. They must wear many skins to stay warm. Some of those people – ‘Eskimos’ – also visited this garden.

Herr Hagenbeck then asks Jurano and Bonny to build a shelter like they use at home on K’gari, but the sticks he gives them are thin and crooked and very poor. The leaves he suggests for the roofing are useless for keeping out rain and wind. Bonny does his best, watching the animals as he works, the task slow given the materials, but Herr Hagenbeck says it does not matter how long it takes. He says the people who will be arriving soon will enjoy watching them make the dwelling. Through a combination of German, some English and hand signals, Bonny appears to understand what is being asked of him.

He pauses to stretch out his arms and back, and to again watch the white bear that is standing once more on two feet, holding the bars. Bonny takes in the length of its sharp claws and the size of its huge feet. When the creature drops again to the ground, the entire structure shudders and rumbles like thunder, and there are long silver scratches down the bars where the black paint has been gouged away. The bear paces and sniffs, its black nose protruding through the bars. Behind it, the second monster growls so loudly that all the other animals in the zoo fall silent.

It is some time before the birds housed in the tall aviaries along the garden perimeter again start to sing. Gathered from all corners of the globe, although not from K’gari, Bonny has never seen such birds. Some are in pairs, others in groups of three or four, and many are alone. Those are the most beautiful of the birds, their feathers all the colours of the rainbow to attract a mate, yet their songs go unanswered.

Bonny turns back to his work building the shelter, his spear on the ground, always an arm’s length away.