Alternatives | Jude Higgins

This is not a story about a mother and daughter and their relationship, connections broken, or something sad between men and women. Nor is it a fairy story, or a story including trees, plants and death. It’s a tale about a boy who fell in love with a pigmy hippo at a zoo, travelled to Liberia as an adult to try and prevent the decimation of the pigmy hippo’s habitat, then came back to work in a zoo to help it breed in captivity. We pick up the story where Dave, the man, who loves rain and water on his skin, just like hippos he adores, is in a park when a rainstorm begins. Because the rain is so heavy he shelters under a beech tree where he meets Linda, a woman in a bright red pvc raincoat like the one Susie, his girlfriend wore the day he went to the zoo on a school trip and saw his first hippo emerging from its pond.

Rain continues through this part of the story long enough for us to find out that Linda, has lived in Africa, and is fond of pigmy hippos too. During the next few months, the wettest summer on record, we keep track of Dave and Linda as they go on long rainy walks, steam dry in front of Dave’s gas fire, and eventually move in together. Skipping a few months, we find that Linda becomes pregnant and gives birth the same day as Venus the pigmy hippo at the zoo gives birth to a new calf. They call their baby Mabel, the same name as the baby hippo.

In another story, this name connection might have caused problems down the line. Perhaps between Linda and Dave, perhaps between Mabel and her mother. Something does happen in this little family, but it doesn’t cause a rupture or a death, or involve another tree (one did sneak in earlier we noticed). We were wondering about Dave becoming an alcoholic or losing his job. But that would cause sadness and mean that connections were broken. Perhaps he could just decide he wanted to do something else with his life, the hippo phase being over. Linda’s not got to mind. But she’s super busy with her successful retro clothes business anyway and they have plenty of money. Also, they mustn’t live happily ever, like in a Disney fairy tale. And there’s to be no jealousy about Linda’s success. Maybe it’s something to do with the two Mabels. Something we’ll never discover unless we wait to see what happens next.

Jude Higgins is a writer, writing tutor and writing events organiser. Her chapbook The Chemist's House was published by V.press in 2017 and she has been widely published in magazines and anthologies. She founded Bath Flash Fiction Award and directs the short short fiction press, Ad Hoc Fiction and Flash Fiction Festivals, UK. @judehwriter, judehiggins.com