“Hey, can you take this picture for me?” the man asked as he began to position the beast’s body against his. There was blood spreading across its body as time continued.
“Uh yes I will do,” the other man responded in broken English.
Their gear and small jeep was only a few hundred feet away. The African sun beat down on the men gathered around the lion’s body. People murmured how much of a beauty she was and how lucky the owner of the bullet was.
“Yeah, I’m gonna put this right on my wall, next to Jeffy,” Jeffy being an exotic snow leopard he shot back in Nepal.
The man with broken English just looked at the ground as he held the iPhone up and pressed the button as the rest of the men all gathered around as if it were a social gathering. They had smiles as big as the moon. Some men began lighting cigars and making a toast with their water bottles.
The man with broken English was the tour guide and was paid a very handsome amount for showing them good spots for lion hunting. However, this particular lion was his favorite. He had become his friend. He remembered watching him grow with its family, his brothers and sisters all frantically jumping and playing around their mother lioness. That was years ago. And now he stood, looking at middle-aged men all celebrating the lion's death. And then he stared at the giant weapon they used to slay the beast. No honor. He then broke his eye conversation with the ground and looked into the sky. He sighed. Money has corrupted me.
The men began packing up their equipment after they were done taking photos and uploading them to social media. A few minutes had passed when the shooter began exclaiming how his phone was being “blown up.” The man with broken English knew nothing of this term but became very curious as he drove the jeep back to town. The shooter began to swear profusely. The others knew what was going on, but not the man with broken English. He was very confused. The sun still beat down on all of them, but the shooter looked as if he was sweating for different reasons. The shooter became quiet. And after an eternity of silence and pressing the screen of his phone viciously, he broke the silent air.
“Why the f*** do these people care?”
The man with broken English smiled. People really do care, he thought.
