Seventh

From The Spiders' Nest:

This deer, a small thing, appeared out of nowhere. It was going apace, but in some confused fashion. From about right angles to it, also out of my line of vision, came a dog, haring along, low to the ground, single-minded. It would catch the deer, it would catch the deer, it would catch the deer. There was no panic. Even the deer was businesslike.

The field was unusually large and flanked by woods on one side. This was a strange part of the city, where you were far enough away from businesses and shops and so on. Far enough away that you could walk off and into wilderness, or so it felt. Wilderness in sight of a petrol station. Wilderness with the whiff of concrete, where the earth had been made dead by the tramping of trucks, the shifting of rocks, the razing of old houses.

Across this land a dog chased a deer. The dog’s pair of owners had been walking down the path that ran between the woods and the field. They clearly didn’t want their dog charging off after innocent deer. One of them took off after the mutt. She was miles behind, even from the start. She screamed hysterically but lagged behind, even when she really threw herself into the chase. The dog didn’t heed a single one of her words. It kept on running, its body pitched deep into the grass. The deer stayed sprinting ahead, head up, neck straight, body etching confusing sideways shifts from time to time. The three of them all ran in the same direction but at different speeds and with different styles.

About half a dozen of us watched, all inert questions, amused quizzically, or fearful without knowing what we had to be fearful of, while these two beasts just got on with it.

The dog made some incredible pace, but never seemed to get within a certain distance of the deer. It was always out ahead and kept its own pace very well. It made evasive manoeuvres, shifting to the left, dummying to the right, hitting out at an angle, before cutting back again. Finally, the deer made a decisive left turn and headed across the field, along the line of the horizon, as everyone looked on. I stopped watching at this point and turned off down the road.