Wednesday, August 19, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Commentary...
Man killed
in highway
rollover
Intimate is the African Night — Part 3
By Chris Morin
Columnist
The camera9s fall, towards
the lioness9s head instantly
created empty space between
her eyes and mine, causing
the raw magnitude of the
moment to somehow leap up
yet another level.
Her head snapped an inch
to the side in response to the
camera bouncing at the end
of its strap, which encircled
my neck. Absentmindedly,
maybe out of habit, I had
slung it over my head before
standing up and that might
very well have saved my life.
The little twists and turns
of the swaying camera just
three feet above her noggin
ratcheted up the raw tension
even more. She immediately
refocused and this time her
eyes seared deeper into mine,
which helplessly locked into
hers.
Those bottomless feline
eyes seemed to emit a soft
greenish light, like the sea
might hold at a faraway
island paradise. Dreadfully
enthralling, they induced my
awareness, mind, and very
soul to fall off the cliff of my
own existence and down into
hers. She owned me.
The lioness seemed to
contemplate if I might be
something to spontane-
ously take, possess, and then
devour so as to become a per-
manent part of her.
My breathing shut down.
I presume my heart con-
tinued to beat, but for all I
know, the blood could have
drained from it. Purely, this
was Mowgli in The Jungle
Book being hypnotized by
the great snake Kaa, helpless
to do anything about it.
A lifetime of two or three
seconds passed. I hadn9t
moved a speck since letting
go of the camera. Gradually,
she unbolted our stare by
turning her head away to
see what else the pride was
considering, and gradually
moved a leg and paw out to
resume her previous path.
Like a victim whose spell
by the conjurer had just been
broken, I turned away as fast
as I could while she serenely
continued on her way.
The urgent need to
let the guide know of the
PHOTO PROVIDED
The Pride of Nine taking an afternoon nap.
predicament made me pro-
claim, <Umpff! Dwaq!
Zhhnn!= In a few brief
moments, I had gone from a
cartoon character in a Disney
movie into a real life night-
mare, the one where you
need to call out for help but
can9t speak.
<This is nuts! Get hold of
yourself!= flashed through
my mind. A deep breath, a
second, and then I forcefully
opened a clenched jaw and
offered a halting and sput-
tered, <l i o n! L i o n. Lion!=
Tuke and Henry turned; I ges-
tured madly towards the rear.
They spotted her as
she appeared from behind
the back of the jeep. Tuke
screeched, <oh-oh!= flipped
back around and turned on
the engine in one single
motion. A second later he
clutched into first and off we
flew into the night.
Tuke drove hard for a half
a mile before stopping and
talking to us, debriefing. I
didn9t hear a word he said.
I can9t imagine Kathleen or
Tony did either. I have no
idea what they felt, but I was
absolutely beside myself.
The next several min-
utes were some of the most
glorious of my life. I was
alive dammit. <Fantastic
to be alive and human.
I9m human!= I soundlessly
rejoiced while my eyes
watered and my ears rang.
The adrenal glands were
pumping out utter joy juices,
nothing else. <I9m alive, I9m
still human.= But there was
an additional reason for the
joy, separate from having
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survived.
My mind comprehended
something else entirely. For a
few seconds back there, I had
unwittingly become a part of
the alpha mammal of Africa.
That lioness had fully
taken over my fate. If she9d
wanted to latch onto my
throat in order to yank me
down to the ground, that9s
exactly what would have
happened. In that position,
nothing could have stopped
or even impeded her from
doing so.
If she had pounced, the
ensuing drama 4 a guide try-
ing to wheel around a vehicle
with a huge turning radius,
a spotter possibly attempt-
ing a hasty shot, all the while
eight other lions rapidly
close ranks on a jeepload of
screaming tourists 4 is not a
pandemonium scenario that
offers the potential for hope.
No, I was hers and she
knew it. It9s what the top
predator does4initially take
in the prey through the eyes,
9
make it a part of them, decide
if this one is worth the effort
of the kill, and, if it is, thus
make it panthera leo via con-
sumed sustenance.
I9ll guess that all of this
rarely occurs from a station-
ary position of just four feet
and the prey goes unscathed.
The fact that she ulti-
mately rejected a carnivorous
union with me didn9t damage
my ego in the slightest. In
fact, it reacquainted me with
the profound appreciation
I have for being human, for
being alive, but now infused
with a glimmer for being lion.
A Springfield man died and
two teenagers were injured in
a single-vehicle rollover acci-
dent on Hwy. 242 on Sunday.
Oregon State Police (OSP)
reported that on August 16, at
approximately 11:27 a.m. OSP
Troopers and emergency per-
sonnel responded to a single-
vehicle crash on Hwy. 242 near
the intersection of Crossroads
Road, approximately two
miles west of Sisters.
Preliminary investigation
revealed a Chevrolet pickup
truck operated by Liciano
Ramirez-Guillen, age 57, of
Springfield, was eastbound
when it drove off the roadway
and rolled.
Ramirez-Guillen sustained
fatal injuries. There were two
passengers; a 13-year-old was
transported by Life Flight to
St. Charles Hospital in Bend
with serious injuries and a
15-year-old was transported
by ground ambulance to St.
Charles in Bend for injuries.
OSP was assisted by
Deschutes County Sheriff9s
Office, Sisters-Camp Sherman
Fire Department, and ODOT.
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