payment page
Harry accepts that his death is fast approaching, and he wishes that he were in different company. However, he admits that he is the one to blame for finding himself in a loveless, dull marriage. He then states that he is bored with death. He compares the tedious process of dying with the other things in his life that he’s done for too long, and which inevitably become boring. Harry hears the hyena nearby and feels that death is coming. He tells his wife that the only thing he hasn’t lost is curiosity. She responds by telling Harry that he is the most complete person she knows. Harry reacts to this statement with scorn, making a mocking comment about women’s intuition; he feels that his wife understands very little about him.
Then, death arrives and “rests its head on the foot of the cot.” Harry tells his wife that death doesn’t appear in forms often seen in popular culture, such as a cloaked man carrying a scythe. Instead, Harry believes death appears in more natural forms, such as bicycle policemen or a hyena. As death moves closer, it loses its shape and becomes a mass that presses upon Harry so that he can no longer move, speak, or breathe. When Harry’s cot is lifted to go into the tent, the weight disappears and he feels relief.
The next morning, the rescue plane arrives. The pilot, a man Harry recognizes as Compton, walks over to Harry. Compton tells Harry that he only has room in the plane for one. He assures Harry that he’ll come back for his wife, whom Harry finally identifies as Helen. Compton tells Harry that they’ll need to stop and refuel at Arusha, so they need to get going. Harry is carried from the campsite to the plane and is positioned in one of the seats. His bad leg sticks straight out to the side of the seat. Compton starts the plane, and they wave to Helen and the guides as they lift off.
As the plane glides above the African landscape, Harry sees trees, game trails, and water. He observes zebras and wildebeests, mountains and forests. Ahead, new mountains loom dark. Instead of going to Arusha as Compton had originally stated, the plane turns left. It begins to climb higher, entering a storm so intense that Harry feels they’re flying through a waterfall. Then, they exit the storm, and Compton turns to smile at Harry and point at the view ahead: it’s the peak of Kilimanjaro, covered in snow and “unbelievably white.” When Harry sees the mountain, he knows where he is truly going.
A hyena makes an eerie, almost human cry. Helen hears it and stirs in her sleep. She is dreaming about her house on Long Island, New York, and about her daughter’s debutante debut. Then the hyena cries again, and she wakes up, feeling afraid. She turns on her flashlight and sees Harry slumped in his cot nearby, as his previous vision of Compton in the plane was not real. His bad leg is sticking out of the cot, and the bandages have come undone, revealing his terrible wound. Helen cannot stand to look at it. She calls for help from the guides and then tries to wake Harry, becoming increasingly desperate and frightened. Harry does not respond, and she realizes that she cannot hear him breathing. Beyond the campsite, the hyena makes the same strange, uncanny cry, but Helen doesn’t hear it because her heart is beating so loudly.
