In the early 1940s, Claudia, an English war correspondent posted in Cairo, falls in love with Tom. He has a couple of days leave and they go to the zoo in Cairo.
The hippo share a small lake with flamingos and assorted duck; a keeper stands alongside with a bucketful of potatoes - five piastres buys a couple of potatoes which you then hurl into the pink maw of the hippo. The adult hippos wallow with their mouths permanently agape while two young ones, who have not yet got the idea, cruise fretfully up and down, occasionally struck by inaccurate potatoes.
'Like an exotic form of hoop-la,' says Tom. 'Do you want a go?'
Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively
Sunday, August 2, 2009
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