I see my future carved in a stone rhinoceros by Eleanor Luke
The tour guide promises she will stick to the shade. I pull my Lisboa cap snugly over my eyes. George is embarrassed by this cap. But I think it gives me a Kardashian air. I have the butt to match.
Since I saw that message from Beth on George’s phone, I wear this cap all the time.
The heat’s made George go a shade of crustacean pink. I wonder whether Beth would find him attractive now. A sheen of sweat over his top lip. A damp patch in the small of his back.
As we walk past the Jeronimos Monastery, beneath the glare of ancient cardinals carved in the façade, I’m seized by a desire to speak the truth.
‘Why does Beth think I should consider myself lucky?’ I ask.
George shoots me a glare as stony as the monastery. But he doesn’t reply.
We reach the Belém Tower where the guide tells us a story about a 16th century Indian king who gifted the king of Portugal a rhinoceros. After a long sea voyage, it was shackled for weeks until the king made it fight his pet elephant. When he grew tired of the rhinoceros, he gave it away to the Pope. But it perished in a shipwreck on the way to Rome.
‘Cast away when it was no longer useful!’ I blurt.
I stare at George, willing him to tell me I’m wrong. But all he does is sigh.
He leaves me squinting at the tower, searching for the tiny rhinoceros apparently carved at the foot of a turret. I think I glimpse it. Small and grey. Eroded by time and tide. Almost unrecognisable, its horn now a smooth bump on its nose.
The group is moving on. George too.
But I start walking in the opposite direction.
Eleanor Luke lives in Spain with her husband, kids and a small menagerie. Words in FreeFlashFiction, FlashFlood, Retreat West, Five on the Fifth, Roi Fainéant. Top ten Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2022. When not writing, Eleanor can be found eavesdropping on other people’s conversations and falling off bikes. BlueSky: @eleanor-luke.bsky.social.
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