Monodonmonoceros
Reading time: 2 minutes
A short story written in situation at the large mammals gallery, Natural History Museum, London.
Physeter macrocephalus
Monodon monoceros
Cephalorhynchus commersonii
Stenella longirostris
Feresa attenuata
Balaenoptera acutorostrata
The joysticks are embedded in a large, granite grey box. Steel bars with black plastic knobs, which look like they’d fit snuggly inside the fist. Satisfying. Children approach, hands hover, can’t reach, get frustrated, move on. Can you clunk it side to side? Can you jerk it in and out?
A man and daughter draw close; he puts his hands under her armpits and lifts her: she grabs with a pudgy hand; I hold my breath; she pushes; it makes a mechanical stamping noise, metal sliding on metal.
And
No visible results: no lights flash, no doors open, nor does any confetti drop from the ceiling.
But
Deep underground, an alarm flashes, and a hinged plastic flap releases a handful of nuggets. A h h h h h h y o o o o o o o o o o o o o e l l l e e e e e y a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a aa a a a – dark mass slides against glass – eyes roll – it moans, whistles, grunts – dorsal fin bubbles – a row of identical teeth – a tusk – camouflaged against the murk, makes lethargic motions with gummy fins – clicks, pops and creaks drowned out by the squeaking shoes and daddddiiieees and shrieks from the room above.
Words and illustration © Laura Robertson, 2019. Full text.
Developed from a Writing Situation Brief by Sally O’Reilly, MA Writing, Royal College of Art.
Excerpted from the brief: ‘Choose a location you are interested in, and in which you will be able to spend some time perceiving, thinking and writing. Try to think of this location that you are in not simply as a space, but as a dynamic situation.’