Tangled Yarns: Flashback

And as Lawrence considered the passing of friends, he remembered a time when he had been running across a paddock.

It was a forbidden place, because the neighbour's bull patrolled it, and even men of the district, experienced cattle men, were careful not to go too close. But boys are reckless. They place no value on their souls, and gamble with their lives without thought.

He had jumped over the rough, wooden railing of the gate and dropped into the grass. The sun had been shining and a song thrush was somewhere overhead, singing its heart out.

On the other side of the hill, a bull was grazing. Lawrence could see its back, like a large, black rock, above the grass. The bull had not seen him. Lawrence had walked, crouching low, until he was close enough to see the bull's head in detail. The wet, soft nose, the large, dark eyes, the hairs along the edge of its ears. This was close enough. It was closer than any of the other boys had come. Lawrence looked back over his shoulder and saw his three friends, perched like ungainly birds on the gate. He waved to them and grinned, young fool that he was. They waved back.

Then one of them shouted out.

"Hey!"

Lawrence signalled to him to shut up.

Arthur yelled louder.

"Hey bull! Hey! Hey! Hey!"

"Don't!" said Lawrence in a harsh whispery voice.

But the bull had lifted its head, flicked its ears this way and that. It saw the three boys on the gate, and it saw Lawrence, half buried in the damp, wet grass. Lawrence felt his heart beating far too fast. He kept completely still, but the bull's eye was focussing on him, and the tree-trunk legs were beginning to move.

Lawrence stumbled to his feet and began to run. The bull began to chase. Lawrence heard it gaining on him as it broke into a fluid, easy loping stride. He heard it breathing as he leaped and bounded through the grass. But the bull was faster.

The huge beast's hooves drummed on the ground, thumping like falling bricks. The grass swished aside like water beneath it. The boys on the gate were white now, frightened beyond speech, as they saw Lawrence losing