White rhinos have possibly the most complex social structure of any rhino species. Temporary associations of up to 14 individuals have been observed and smaller associations, particularly of several females and calves, are common. Whenever one sees a white rhino in the wild, one cannot escape the impression of size, of incredible benign strength and of a strange inner passiveness.

                        (from the publication Rhino Road by Martin Booth & WWF)

Once in the Masaii Mara there were three teenage rhinos who were hanging out under a baobab tree. It was hot, the rains hadn't come yet, and they were tired and thirsty after the layover flight from L.A.

Sally was from Providence, RI. It was her first time in Africa. She flew in with her friend Mel, from Vancouver, and Tony went to pick them up at the airport. It's funny because Mel had just had her horn fixed up by a plastic surgeon in L.A. and it was all taped up and shit. The hyenas laughed at her in between waiting for kills. Sally would turn to Mel and say fuck 'em Mel they're little shits, but sometimes she had to turn her top lip down the way rhinos do when they don't want you to see them smile, 'cause she thought the horn was kind of funny-looking too.

The two of them had come to check out the baobab tree where Tony liked to hang out. Sally was happy to be out here, away from L.A. where she and Mel had had to stay a few days for the nose job, and it was the first time she’d been back to the city since the Delsay murders back in ’95, when her family moved away to try to forget all that madness and start a new life on the East coast. It was good to be back with her old friends once again, even if they’d kind of had a bad start to their trip at the airport, when Manny called Tony by his old nickname, Donny—but that was all Tony and Manny.

Tony was like a rock sometimes. You couldn't get him to move or to change his mind about some things, unless you sort of tricked him into it, like the way you do with kids sometimes when they get stuck on a feeling. That and Tony was real touchy about his name being pronounced right, ever since that damn idiot Donny from RhinoShow on Tuesday nights. Manny had made him real self-conscious about it a while back when Donny from RhinoShow announced on TV that he was gay.

Tony had been living in the neighborhood the baobab tree was in for a couple of years now. It's alright, he'd say if you asked him. There were a couple shady watering holes where the hyenas would gather after a good feed, and a decent place near the plains where you could get a drink without all those wild dogs and shit around all the time.

Today he was being like a rock again. Like the way a rock is just silent and gray 'cause it's just a rock. They were sitting under the baobab tree, which is kind of on top of a little hill, so you can see around you a bit. It's a nice spot. Sally looked up at Mel and her taped-up horn and tried not to smile. Tony was just leaning against the tree and looking down at the plains. The sun was hot but there was shade from the baobab tree. They sat there for a while silently, moving every now and then to follow the shade, ‘cause a rhino might look mighty tough but really they’re quite sensitive to sunburn.

After a few moves Tony shook his head and said, “What the fuck Sally, why'd that fucking prick call me that? He knows it's not my name.” Sally kicked the dust around a little bit and looked at Mel, but she had narrowed her eyes and was squinting away at the plains like as if all of a sudden the wild dogs interested her.

“I don't know Tony. Why don't you just forget about it huh? It's a hot day and everybody's cranky. Let's just forget about it huh.”

“That's not it, Sal. That's not how things work here. You guys are gone all soft in L.A. maybe, but here there's a way things work, and that fucking prick Manny just fucked up big time,” Tony snarled.

Mel sighed and looked at Sally, who was making eyes at her, like big open help-me eyes. She rubbed her horn. Manny used to go to school with them when they were kids at St-Edwards a while back, when they all lived in LA together for a few years. They were all fine, you know, nothing close or anything, just young rhinos bashing around. Manny had gotten a job at the airport in the plains a couple years ago, and he moved off to the short grass savannahs around the same time Tony found his place near the baobab tree. So of course it was here they had seen him after the long flight. He was walking around outside the terminal pushing the trolleys or something, with the white shirt and all--though he wasn't one to tuck it in. Mel had seen him first and she kind of squeaked, not very rhino, but then again it had been a long time since she'd seen him. She and Sally had stopped to say hi and they started chatting a bit. Tony had been busy trying to remember where he'd parked and hadn't noticed them stop. He was still shuffling around when Manny had noticed him and put his head sideways a bit, shouting down after him, “Hey Donny! What's up Donny? Aren't you gonna stop and say hi to me now anymore Donny boy?”

Well it's a bit much to get into here, but something happened once a while back where Manny had said something to Tony, who thought it was something to do with old Donny from RhinoShow, but really it wasn't that at all. Nobody really remembered what it was anymore anyways, just that it was one of those things that kind of set Tony off. And Manny knew it too. He knew Tony was like a rock about some things. Sally had shot Manny one of her fuck-you looks but it was all over already. Tony stopped and looked out into the street like he was still looking for the car, but his left foot had started kind of twitching a bit the way he does it. When he turned around you could almost see smoke coming out his big grey ears. Manny was smiling.

“That's not my name Manny.”

He had said it real tight, like in the movies. Real tight and under his breath like, with his mouth half open and all in a straight tone. Like Clint Eastwood in a rhino suit.

“That's not my fucking name Manny.”

His eyes were kind of doing the big thing, you know, like lifting his head a bit and staring down his nose. Manny was still smiling. He'd had it with Tony, and today he’d been bent on making him move. Tony's a nice guy and all most times, but he never gave him much of a chance back when they were all living in L.A. and he’d caught him wallowing in the mud with his older sister Clara right after her European tour. They were just cooling off and talking about Copenhagen or something, but Tony flipped out and things have been kind of screwy since then. Manny's a dick anyways, ask anyone.

“Donny is not MY MOTHERFUCKING NAME!”

Tony had said that real loud. Like people were stopping and staring loud. Someone passing by even took a picture of his eyes all goggly. He separated his swear real good into different parts, so it made it seem all tough and like he meant it.

Under the baobab tree and the heat Mel shook the afternoon memory from her head. Sally still had her big help-me eyes on. This was better than the ride out here at least. That was mostly silence, but not the good kind. More like a heavy, stewy kind with bad thoughts boiling deep. Like now all of a sudden this rock had had it and was up and rolling.

She rubbed her horn again. They all figured Manny wouldn’t be back for a while after what had happened afterwards. It got kind of bad and they had had to leave the airport in a hurry. Tony was staring out again, locked in his thoughts, and Sally was just standing there. Mel sighed and looked in her bag and pulled out the bottle of Johnnie Red from the duty free.

“Tony hey, let's leave it at what it is alright hey? We're lucky they let us go. This is the place we wanted to come see and we're here now, us three and Johnnie, just like old times hey,” Mel said softly.

The cap was already unscrewed from when they were at the airport. Mel wasn't one for new places and people and had needed a little hand of the familiar. She held the half-empty bottle out to Tony, and Sally reached over smiling again.

-Let's go Tony. Mel's right. He's a douche and everybody knows it. He got what was coming to him. I'm happy. We're here and that's over and I'm happy.

They moved some more to get back in the shade. Tony was alright. She'd seen worse things happen and she knew he'd forget about it soon. They were three rhinos in Africa under the baobab tree, with the plains stretched out around them and the sun beating down a heavy number, Mel with her big horn for a better look and Sally smiling again after those early years. No matter what had happened, it was better than L.A. Hell, anything beat L.A.