The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise (40 page)

“What’s that got to do with anything?” she asked.

He reminded her of the words of the expert pathologist, spoken at the inquest for all to hear, that some children suffered sudden cardiac death after emotional stress.

Hebe Jones rested her hand on his thigh. “Is that what you’ve been thinking all these years?” she asked, searching his face. She then reminded him that the pathologist had also said that some died in their sleep, when they woke up, or while exercising, and Milo had been up and down the wretched stairs all evening.

She then gazed ahead of her in silence. At last she spoke: “If anything weakened that poor boy’s heart it was the love he had for you.”

His tears fell and fell and fell. And when they both thought it was finally over, they fell some more.

AFTER THEY HAD FINISHED TALKING,
Hebe Jones unpacked her suitcase, checked on the daffodils blooming in her tubs on
the roof, and discovered her nightgown on her husband’s pillow. While it was still light, they descended the spiral steps and walked to the Tower wharf. Standing next to each other, they looked out across the stretch of the Thames where Henry III’s polar bear used to fish for salmon while tied to a rope. When finally she was ready, he slowly took off the lid and turned the urn on its side. They watched as the ashes fluttered away with the breeze and came to rest on the water’s silver surface. As they began their journey out to the sea, Hebe Jones reached for the hand she would hold forever. When they had disappeared from view, Balthazar Jones told her about the house he wanted to buy in Greece to escape the English rain when he retired, which would be on the coast so they could be with Milo forever.

Later that night, as they lay in the sanctuary of each other’s arms, the magnificent blue brow plume used by grey songbirds to decorate their courtship bowers hung on the wall above their bed. And such was their contentment, neither of them heard the creaks as Mrs. Cook returned from her travels, an odious black feather still caught in her ancient mouth.

Live animals given to Her Majesty the Queen and placed in the care of London Zoo have included a canary from Germany, following a state visit in 1965; jaguars and sloths from Brazil in 1968; two black beavers from Canada in 1970; two giant tortoises from the Seychelles in 1972; an elephant called Jumbo from the President of Cameroon in the same year to mark the Queen’s Silver Wedding Anniversary; and two more sloths, an armadillo, and an anteater from Brazil in 1976.

The animals most recently received from the Queen by the Zoological Society of London were six red kangaroos, kept at London Zoo, and two cranes sent to Whipsnade Zoo. They were presented by Melbourne Zoo in 1977 to mark Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee. One of the cranes is still alive.