is disgraceful, but to be drunk on water is noble and ecstatic basked in bliss and plenitude for several minutes. I had water rations to last me days. Never had simple arithmetic brought such a smile to my face. It was Richard Parker who calmed me down.
It is the 12th - - Page irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness. I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized this necessity. It was not a question of him or me, but of him and me.
We were, literally and figuratively, in the same boat. We would live – or we would die – together. He might be killed in an accident, or he could die shortly of natural causes, but it would be foolish to count on such an eventuality. More likely the worst would happen: the simple passage of time, in which his animal toughness would easily outlast my human frailty.
Only if I tamed him could I possibly trick him into dying first, if we had to come to that sorry business. But there’s more to it. I will come clean. I will tell you a secret: a part of me was glad about Richard Parker.
A part of me did not want Richard Parker to die at all, because if he died I would be left alone with despair , a foe even more formidable than a tiger. If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker. He kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances. He pushed me to go on living.
I hated him for it, yet at the same time I was grateful. I am grateful. It’s the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I wouldn’t be alive today to tell you my story. I left Richard Parker in a jungle and waited for a ship.
It pained me to see the animal without even