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By: Roy Shepherd
 Sooty looked through her cage and beyond through the shed window. She could
see the snow falling heavily and it was bitter cold - even for February. It was
just coming light and she knew O'Reilly would soon bring her some breakfast.
Sooty was a five-year-old black panther. O'Reilly had won her in a card game
when she was six months old, and brought her back to his small holding a mile
out of Belfast. The shed door opened and in walked O'Reilly, rubbing his hands
together in an attempt to warm them. "Morning girl, bloody cold out there." Sooty walked to the front of
the cage. O'Reilly opened it and gave her a hug, warming his hands in her thick
coat as he did so. Sooty put her left front paw on his shoulder and licked his
face. She loved O'Reilly, he looked after her well - besides she hadn't known
anything else. O'Reilly gave her some breakfast, fresh meat and biscuits and
changed her bedding and water. He then brushed her coat, she lay there purring
as he did so. She loved him brushing her; he loved to brush and stroke her. She
was his best friend. Sure he had other animals, a few pigs, two ponies, a cow,
some sheep, and a few hens, but no, Sooty was his favourite, she was special.
After a while he stood up.
"Sorry Soots, I'll have to go, I've a bomb to make today. I'll see you
at dinner time." With that he left, closing the door behind him.
Although it was legal to own wild animals in Ireland, the police wouldn't be
too pleased if they saw her wandering loose around the place. Consequently he
always kept her in the shed for he never knew when the police would come
calling. They were always coming round trying to pin something on him, they had
their suspicions - but could prove nothing.
O'Reilly, like his father before him, was a member of the IRA. His father had
taught him to hate the British. Bloody bastards should keep out of our affairs,
he'd told him. While most fathers were teaching their sons to fish or play
football, O'Reilly's father was teaching him how to handle guns, how to
dismantle and reassemble them and how to kill. He'd shown him how to handle
explosives and make timing devices. One of his father's favourite pastimes was
making booby trap bombs. "Send a few Brits to hell will this one",
he'd say with a grin. However this was to be his own downfall, for while he was
working on one, he boobed, and blew himself up. That was twenty years ago.
O'Reilly was eighteen at the time and reckoned his father would be down in hell,
a semi-automatic rifle in his hand. Watching. Waiting - for them Brits. O'Reilly
had planted his first bomb at thirteen. Shot dead his first British solder at
fourteen - blown his face off. He'd been disgusted with himself for throwing up.
O'Reilly's bomb factory was a shed next to the one Sooty was in. He went to
work on the bomb. It had to be powerful enough to blow up a Jag, along with the
occupants - of course. It had to be light enough to be fixed to the underside of
the vehicle with magnets.
He attached four strong magnets to the bottom of a small box measuring nine
by six by two inches deep. He then drilled a small hole in one end. Next he
fitted a detonator, the type that goes off when you pull the pin out. He
attached one end of a length of string to the pin and passed the other end
through the hole. All that remained to do now was to pack the box with semtex
and screw down the lid. The way it works is simple, the bomber clamps the bomb
to the underside of the car with the magnets and then ties the string to the
prop shaft. When the car moves off the string wraps round the rotating prop
shaft and pulls the pin out of the detonator - bingo. O'Reilly examined the
finished job, feeling satisfied - he enjoyed his work. Then it slipped out of
his hand. He made a grab for it. Missed, but caught hold of the string.
Sooty had just gone into her cage for a drink when there was a huge
explosion. The shed walls collapsed, the roof fell on top of the cage. Sooty was
dazed and shocked but the strong cage had saved her from any real harm. As the
dust settled she could see daylight. She went out into the snow and found
O'Reilly lying on his back, his body all twisted, his eyes closed. She licked
his face, his chest heaved and his eyes opened. He stroked her face.
"Thank God, you're o'right. You're free now." His eyes closed again
- forever. Sooty's vision was blurred with her tears. She put her head on his
chest and lay there until it went dark.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
It had been four weeks now. Four weeks since she had fled that awful scene.
She had run through the fields, over streams and across country lanes. She had
run into the woods and hid, alone and afraid. She had found a cave - her lair.
She soon found she could climb trees with ease. From the tops of the tallest she
could see the city of men - Belfast. At night it gave off an eerie glow. All too
often she would hear a distant thud and then see a column of smoke, spiralling
upwards. She would shiver inwardly, for it reminded her of how O'Reilly had
died. She'd think about him, how he used to stroke and brush her - she missed
him dearly. She'd had to learn to hunt in order to survive. At first she would
take rabbits, then she found an easier and more filling prey - sheep.
Paddy's fields backed on to the woods and he was worried about the number of
sheep he was losing. He'd found one badly mauled and he could see by the huge
wounds that it was no dog. Pound to a penny it's that bloody panther of
O'Reilly's. It'll be living wild in the woods. We'll have to flush her out and
kill her, he'd said.
It was dawn when she heard the clanging and banging. She ran from her lair
and up a tall tree. From her vantage point she could see a large group of men,
some banging tins, others were carrying rifles. She'd seen O'Reilly use guns,
she'd seen him shoot at tin cans and she'd witnessed him put a sick cow down.
She knew to keep out of the way of men - with guns. She ran from the men, the
men with guns that wanted to kill her. When she could no longer hear them she
stopped. However it wasn't long before she heard them again and had to move on.
Soon she was on the edge of the wood. Beyond lay snow covered open fields;
behind were the men with their guns - she was afraid. As the men came into view
through the trees, she bolted across the fields. She heard the crack of gunfire,
she could see the bullet thudding into the snow, all around her. Her black body
was an easy target in the white snow, but by now she was nudging thirty M.P.H.
and was soon out of range.
She ran all day, avoiding men and manmade structures. By nightfall she'd
reached the coast and wrested among the rocks. She was cold, hungry, and had a
feeling of hopelessness - she fell into a restless sleep.
It was around midnight when she was awakened by the sound of men. Driven by
hunger she investigated. She got very close but the men couldn't see her in the
dark. They were loading boxes from a van onto a small boat. The smell from the
boxes comforted her, it reminded her of O'Reilly - the smell of semtex. She
watched and waited. When the boat was loaded the men lit up cigarettes and stood
around muttering. She seized her opportunity and ran silently up the plank and
onto the boat - she hid among the boxes. Soon the boat was skimming over the
water, its twin engines propelling it at over forty knots.
Sooty was beginning to feel sick when the boat slowed and then stopped in a
deserted cove - deserted apart from a Land Rover. Two men got out and helped the
men on the boat to load the boxes into the Land Rover. Sooty picked her moment
and leapt from the boat. She quickly and silently made her way to the vehicle
and jumped in the back. She heard the boat's engines start up and could see it
roar away into the darkness. The Land Rover set off and drove through the night.
It was just coming light when it turned onto a dirt road - on the edge of Epping
forest, near London. A few minutes later they came to a stop alongside a cabin,
which was almost concealed with the undergrowth.
As the back door opened she vaulted out, knocking over the man that had
opened it - then she was gone. She left behind the smell of semtex for she knew
she would never find another O'Reilly. She ran deep into the forest only
stopping to eat a rabbit she had pounced on, then she stopped - stopped by a
slow flowing stream and took a drink. She could see her reflection in the water,
then there was another - the same as her's. She turned to see a mirror image of
herself, another of her kind - a male panther.
It was love at first sight, they licked each other. Their legs and paws
became entangled in each other as they rolled and played in the grass. He took
her back to his lair deep in the heart of the forest - safe away from men. By
summer she'd had three cubs and they lived happily in their domain.
The End
As for men, well, they lived in
their concrete jungle - with
their bombs and their guns.
Their hatred for one another.
Their unruly offspring.
Their corrupt politicians.
Their pagan God's.
Unaware of the danger that
was growing, multiplying - in the forest.
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