It was a funny place. And Willie always took whatever he was given. So he hoped he would have one. Any one. Everybody had one so of course Willie would come to have one, any wild animal will do, if it belongs to you.
And Willie did come to have one.
Which one.
There were elephants, an elephant in a rowing boat, Willie did not get that one.
And a tiger in a sail boat, Willie did not get that one. Willie got a lion, not a very little one, one who looked like Rose’s dog Love only the Lion was terrifying. Any lion is, even a quite small one and this was a pretty big one. Willie began to sing, it was exciting and Willie sang and sang he did not sing to the lion but he sang about lions being exciting, about cats and tigers and dogs and bears about windows and curtains and giraffes and chairs. The giraffe’s name was Lizzie, it really was.
Willie was so excited he almost stopped singing but as soon as he saw his own lion again he began singing again. Singing and singing. This was the song he sang.
Round is around.
Lions and tigers kangaroos and canaries abound
They are bound to be around.
Why
Because the world is round
And they are always there.
Any little dog is afraid of there.
Then he sang in a whisper
Suppose it should rain
Suppose it should never be the same
And then Willie’s voice rose
The lion is what I chose.
After a long moment he sat down to cry
He said there, here I am just like my cousin Rose.
Which was true
He was.
He almost was not Willie.
Oh will he again be Willie.
Not as long as he has a lion.
Not as long.
And it was getting worse and worse and then suddenly he said.
There were only two baskets of yellow peaches and I have them both.
He whispered very low.
And I have them both.
And Willie had, they were lovely round yellow peaches really round really yellow really peaches and there were only two baskets of them and Willie had them both.
And so he cheered up and decided to give the lion to his cousin Rose.
It is not easy to give a lion away
What did you say
I said it is not easy to give a lion away.
There is a lion its name is lion and lion lion is its name.
Rose began to cry.
Just try
Not to make Rose cry
Just try.
That is what Willie said to the lion
When he gave Rose the lion
His lion.
Oh yes his lion.
Well there was more to it than that.
When Rose knew about a lion his lion Willie’s lion she remembered her dog Love. He was clipped like a lion but it was not that. It was when Love was only three months old and had never seen a lion.
Love was not a barker, he neither barked nor bit and when he was three months old he never had barked.
They began to be worried lest he could not bark, like children who will not talk. Well anyway.
One day Rose and her father Bob and her mother Kate and her grandmother Lucy and her uncle William were out riding and little Love was with them. Love had a pink nose and bright blue eyes and lovely white hair. When he ate asparagus and he liked to eat asparagus his rosy nose turned red with pleasure, but he never barked, not even at a cat or at asparagus. And then that day suddenly that day he stood up he was astonished and he barked. What was he astonished at. There in the middle of the open country was a big truck and on the truck were cages and the sides were down and there they were lions tigers bears and monkeys and Love just could not stand it and he barked.
Rose was very young then quite young too young then to sing a song but she sang one all the same.
This was the song she sang.
How does Love know how wild they are
Wild and wild and wild they are
How does Love know who they are
When he never ever had seen them before.
And then she went on.
If a cat is in a cage
Does that make him rage.
If a dog is on a roof
Does that make him aloof
Or is there any proof
That he is a dog and on a roof.
And so
Oh
How could Love know
That wild animals were wild.
Wild animals yes wild.
Are they wild if they are wild,
If I am wild if you are wild
Are you wild oh are you wild
Rose began to cry.
She began to try
She began to deny
The wild animals could lie.
Lie quietly not die but just lie.
And then Rose once more began to sing.
I knew, she said, I knew I would sing
And this is everything.
I wish, she said, I wish I knew
Why wild animals are wild.
Why are they wild why why,
Why are they wild oh why,
And once more Rose began to cry.
Love was asleep he knew he could bark,
So why stay awake to hear Rose cry and sing
And sing and cry. Why.
That is what Love said.
Why.
And then later on when Love saw a wild animal he sometimes did anybody sometimes did, he did not bark he just turned his head away as much as to say, I did once but not again, wild animals are not interesting.
Love mostly barked in his sleep.
He dreamed.
And when he dreamed, he made a strangled bark,
Like anybody dreaming.
Love never said whether he liked to dream or not, but he did dream and when he dreamed he barked.
Rose was thinking all about everything when she heard that her cousin Willie had a lion.
If the world is round would a lion fall off.
Rose certainly made a noise when no one was found
Rose oh Rose look down at the ground
And what do you see
You see that the world is not round.
That is what Rose said when she knew that it was true that a lion is not blue.
Of course she knew that a lion is not blue but blue is her favorite color.
Her name is Rose and blue is her favorite color. But of course a lion is not blue. Rose knew that of course a lion is not blue but blue was her favorite color.
The lion had a name, his color was not blue but he had a name too just as any one has a name and his name was Billie. Willie was a boy and Billie was a lion.
That is what happened.
Of course Rose could not keep a lion in school, she could not have kept him even if he had been blue which was her favorite color but she certainly could not keep him when he was yellow brown which is the natural color for a lion to be even if the lion has a name as well as a mane and that name is Billie.
In fact you might say really say that Rose had never had him, the lion had never come in, of course not if a lamb can not come into a school how certainly not can a lion.
So outside the school was a man with a drum, he was on a bicycle and the drum was on a bicycle and he was drumming and when Rose heard him drumming she went to the door and the man was calling out either or either or, either there is a lion here or there is no lion here, either or, either or.
Rose began to sing she just could not help herself, tears were in her eyes, she just could not help herself and she began to sing, she just could not help herself.
The drumming went on, either or, cried the man, neither nor, cried Rose he is neither here nor there, no lion is here no lion is there, neither nor, cried Rose he is neither here nor there. The man began to drum and the drumming went further and further away and the drum was round and the wheels of the bicycle were round and they went around and around and as they went around and around the man whose mouth was round kept saying either or, either or, until there was no more no more drumming no more bicycle no more man any more.
So Rose was left at the door and she knew no more about the lion about Billie the lion than she had known before and slowly she began to sing.
Billie is going back to Willie,
Willie is getting back to Billie,
No lion is blue
So there is no lion for me
There is a lion for you
Oh Willie Willie yes there is a lion for you, a brown lion for you a real lion for you neither will you nor will you ever know how little I wanted to take away the lion from you dear Willie sweet Willie take back oh take back your lion to you, because, and she began to whisper to herself as if she herself was Willie, because if a lion could be blue I would like a lion to come from you either from you or to you dear Willie sweet Willie there is no blue no lion in blue no blue in lion, neither nor, wailed Rose neither nor, and as she said neither nor, there there was a door, and filled with sobs Rose went through the door and never any more never any more would she remember that it had been a lion that she saw, either or.
Once upon a time Willie was always there of course he was that was where Willie was and the lion he had almost forgotten that there had been a lion and he had almost forgotten that it had a name and Willie was getting very interested in knowing whether a lizard could or could not be a twin and just then he heard a bell ring and it was the lion Billie the lion back again and Willie just could not help it he just had to begin to sing and he sang a song called
Bringing Billie back again.
Bringing Billie back.
How could Billie come back.
How if there was no h in how. That is what Willie said, how could Billie come back, how, how.
And Billie was back, was Billie a lion when he was back, No said Willie, Billie was not a lion when he was back, was he a kitten when Billie was back, no said Willie Billie was not a kitten when he was back, was he a rat when he was back, no said Willie he was not a rat. Well what said Willie what was Billie when he was back, he was a twin said Willie that is what Billie was when he got back.
And Willie began to laugh and by the time he stopped laughing he had begun again to laugh. That was Willie not Billie, Billie never had had to laugh not Billie because Billie was a lion and a lion had never had to laugh.
So that was all there was about Billie the lion and he was never there any more anywhere neither here nor there neither there nor here, Billie the lion never was anywhere. The end of Billie the lion.
When mountains are really true they are blue.
Rose knew they were blue and blue was her favorite color. She knew they were blue and they were far away or near just as the rain came or went away. The rain came or the rain went away any day.
And so Rose would look and see and deary me the mountains would be blue.
And then one day she saw a mountain near and then it was all clear.
This was the way Rose knew what to say.
Listen.
Mountains are high, up there is a sky, rain is near, mountains are clear mountains are blue that is true and one mountain two mountains three mountains or four when there are mountains there always are more.
Even from the door.
So Rose would say when every day she came that way.
Rose was at school there.
There the mountains were and they were blue, oh dear blue blue just blue, dear blue sweet blue yes blue.
And then Rose began to think. It was funny about Rose she always could just begin to think.
1 comment