On her left Barbary sheep looked down on her from a high concrete cliff ledge. To her right was a huge park meadow. Dogs and their owners used this grassy place, the dogs running joyously wild, leash-trained city dogs enjoying their moment of release. She walked on slowly, aware that the rest of the afternoon was hers. She had been set free in this park, granted this time alone.
As she continued on down the path, she passed the elephant house. Standing on a concrete ramp, swaying, was an old lizard-coloured elephant, its trunk reaching into the air as though to pluck out invisible buns. The elephant turned in her direction, looking at her across the moat. Its ears came up like kites, then fell slap against its gray lizard cheeks. Ponderously lifting and shifting its prehistoric legs, it moved with a prisoner’s aimless deliberation back into the elephant house.
Quotation from: The Temptation of Eileen Hughes by Brian Moore.
