But this morning Maobi was very very weak. Pudiogou led him to the large Flamboyant tree in the hotel garden, where he left him to rest in the shade while he went to look after Max for a moment, who had been much neglected the last couple of days.
But Maobi was too exhausted and sick. He collapsed under the Flamboyant tree and never got up again. We sent for Theophile for more painkilling injections, but alas, when he arrived Maobi was gone. Theophile thought he had died of colic from eating too much fresh grass. I stood next to him when he died. He just breathed slower and slower, until finally there was no breath left. Death must have many faces, but it seems not really to matter at the end somehow whether the dying creature is is a horse or a human being-the mystery of life leaving the body must be the same. One moment life is there and the next it is gone. THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF DEATH IN THE MIND OF SOMEBODY LIVING.