Page 25 - The Gluckman Occasional Number Four

He realized how ridiculous he must look to the audience: a huge,
hairy quadruped swaying back and forth while his trunk lashed out
in all directions and the orchestra ignored him.
Elephants do not
sweat; they can only
cool off by flapping
their ears. By the end
of the performance
Arturo’s ears were
fanning at a rapid rate.
He dreaded the
coming reaction to his
mix-up in the second
movement: would the
audience hiss and boo,
walk out on him, demand their money be refunded? To his
amazement, the applause was as loud as ever, with the usual cries of
“Bravo!” ringing through the hall. Arturo slowly turned and
acknowledged the tribute with a slight knee-bend, as was his custom.
The next day was yet another sell-out; it was as if his very serious
and unprofessional error had never occurred.

The incident started him thinking. Before, he was certain that his
meteoric rise to fame was the inevitable result of his genius being
given an opportunity to shine. Now he had doubts: why should he
receive the same enthusiastic praise following a clearly miserable
performance? Nothing in his young life had prepared him for such
a mysterious and frustrating phenomenon. After a few days of soul-
searching, his methodical mind came up with the answer: people had
been cheering him on not because he was a prodigious talent, not