Pionka’s view, this tiger was an Amba, and so may have existed beyond
mortal containment. Whether there was additional cleansing required,
Pionka declined to say. In any case, he suffered a serious illness
afterward that lasted a number of years, but he appears to have recovered.
Trush is a man for whom law and order represent not just a job
description but a personal code of conduct. As a backcountry lawman,
facts and logic—the observable and the provable—form the bedrock of
his thought processes. However, his personal experience, along with his
exposure to native beliefs, has opened his mind to the supernatural
capabilities of the tiger. “I’ve often heard from hunters and villagers that
strange things happen in the presence of a tiger,” he said. “It can be
compared to a snake looking at a rabbit and hypnotizing him: it has some
inexplicable influence on objects and humans and, in his presence,
magical phenomena can occur.”
Trush sees his own survival as all the more extraordinary because of
this, and he considers December 21, 1997, to be his “second birthday.”
For years afterward, members of his squad, including Pionka, would
phone him on the anniversary to acknowledge his survival and rebirth.
“Sometime after all this happened,” said Trush, “I met Andrei Oximenko
[the man who nearly walked into the tiger on the last day], and I said to
him that he was born under a lucky star. He admitted it, and said, ‘Yes, I
heard your truck and turned off the road. Thank you for showing up at the
right time.’ I said, ‘You probably have a guardian angel, just as I do.’
“There was a period after these events when I had unpleasant
sensations if I went to the forest alone, or saw a tiger track,” Trush
explained. “And now, when I see tiger tracks, I still feel fearful and
cautious. I don’t believe anyone who says, ‘I’m not afraid of tigers.’ A
man must have a sense of fear; it’s only normal. Since then, I have
encountered tigers in the forest, but I have never lost self-control. Maybe
more encounters lie ahead, God forbid.”
ron
(Ron)
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