We've placed the rhino on a flat-bed tram, and this tram glides along a set of rails that lead from behind a curtain out into the middle of the ring. The tram is hooked up to a huge spring, so before the show we push the rhino backwards about 20 feet and secure the tram with a latch. During Bravely's show, Electra releases the latch and the rhino, spring propelled, bursts forth from behind a curtain and screeches to a stop just in front of Snavely Bravely, and then backs up behind the curtain again, and then comes forward to peek out, and goes back, and forward just barely, and then stops. You can imagine the thrill of the crowd to see this huge rhinoceros charge at Bravely, and then retreat in fear, only to end up peering timidly through the curtain at our ferocious wild animal tamer. Grown men faint, and women scream.
Small children have nightmares for a week.
This, alas, is how it usually works, but the stunt didn't work this way on Saturday. On Saturday, the rhino charged right into Snavely and kept going, and then dragged Snavely backwards on its horn. So the rhino must have gone further than it did in practice. This is the third time Snavely's been to the hospital in as many months, and I'm not ready to believe in that kind of coincidence. I started snooping.