wild animals

my walk home from the u-bahn takes a shortcut along a playground. in the morning, the root-broken path is shaded by a canopy of spiky pines. in the evenings, the light of the steetlamps filters down white through long needles. being especially tired tonight, i was especially zoned out on the home stretch. i was preparing a few phrases to describe my day to my host mother and sister, who would probably still be up. i wanted to ask about antonia´s first day of the 6th grade.

i looked up before the noise had really registered: a snort. a snort? there, along my side of the low fence, a family of boar froze, streaked with the shadows. the small ones were about 5 meters away, herding together. i felt a shock over my skin; the largest one was still trotting towards me. the mother, at four meters, three.

i clapped, loud. one of the piglets lunged sideways and shook the fence. the mother stopped and snorted again. the other large boar was still approaching from my left. i clapped again. hey! i couldn´t see any tusks, but the closer beast came up to my thigh. it would knock me down on the charge like any other animal. i was thinking about my friend emanuele´s garden in montegemoli, how boar had rooted it up and broken his tomato trellises. last year a 6-year-old boy was killed. i clapped again and we all held still.

i backed away, and the two adults watched me, scraping their hooves onto the broken asphalt. putting a little distance between myself and the young, everyone breathed easier, and i quickly counted their ridged backs. nine, tramping into the suburbs for the choice grass. rules of the wild still apply.

i fly back to the US on friday.