Tiger by the Tail (10 page)

I got up from my bed and moved across the room. There was no noise except for the creaking of the floor under my steps. Going down the stairs I could hear the
TV. The door to my mother’s office was closed, which meant she was in there working or hiding away so she didn’t have to deal with it right now. There was a chance she’d stay in there all day, only coming out for coffee. I moved across the kitchen, grabbed my coat off the hook and left the house.

As soon as I got out of sight of the house I started walking in the tall weeds that grew in the ditch. I knew she didn’t know I was gone yet, but I wanted to make sure she couldn’t find me if she came looking. I wasn’t going to be found until I was good and ready to be found.

Soon I climbed out of the ditch and went into the grove of trees. I moved aimlessly at first, just trying to get away. I had to make a big curve around to get to Mr. McCurdy’s without walking too close to our house. There was a fallen log up ahead, blocking the path, and I started to run faster to gain enough speed to leap over it. I jumped, but one foot caught on the very top of the fallen tree and I tripped, landing face first into the soft dirt on the other side. I stood up and dusted myself off. My left elbow hurt. I sat down on the log and rolled up my sleeve to check the damage. It looked fine.

As I sat there my mother’s words came rolling back. My tongue felt thick and my bottom jaw was beginning to tremble. “I’m not going to cry,” I said softly to myself. “I’m not going to cry.” Before the last word was out of
my mouth, the tears exploded.

I got up and started to walk again. I moved through the trees until I reached one of our fields. We’d rented it out to a neighbouring farmer and he was growing corn. I moved between the rows, careful not to trample the waist-high plants. It would have been easier, and faster, to double back and go along the road, but there was no telling if my mother was out looking for me. I guess I’d have to stick to the cross-country route, even though I’d never been on a shortcut in my life that didn’t get me lost.

My father always tried to bring us along on “shortcuts.” We’d drive and drive, all the time Mom telling him that he was lost. He would say he knew exactly where he was going. She’d keep on trying to get him to stop for directions and he’d refuse. Mom said that something about him wouldn’t allow him to ever admit he was lost or wrong, or to ask for directions.

I came to the fence marking the division between our place and Mr. McCurdy’s. It wasn’t really a fence, but more like a pile of rocks that had been taken out of the fields each spring over the last hundred years and just piled there to get them out of the way of the planting. I climbed awkwardly over the loose stones, a couple of the smaller ones moving underfoot. I was now on Mr. McCurdy’s property.

I only had a rough idea of which way to head so I was
relieved when, in the distance, I saw the weather vane at the top of his barn. I just aimed as best I could toward it, skirting around a pond and a thick patch of trees, but keeping it in sight. Since I was coming in from the back I’d have to pass by the barn. Part of me wanted to pop into the stable to say hello to Buddha, but the thought of the big snake lurking in there somewhere kept me going up to the house.

I walked up the gravel path and circled around the house. The chair was still sitting beside the door and I half-expected Mr. McCurdy to be sitting in it. I pulled open the screen and knocked on the big wooden door. I heard sounds from inside. I imagined Laura scampering up the hall to see who was there. Then I heard Mr. McCurdy’s voice, talking to his animals, and the door popped open.

“Sarah! Come on in, it’s good to see …” His smile faded to a look of concern. “What’s wrong, Sarah? You’ve been crying.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” I started to say and then burst into tears. Mr. McCurdy put his arm around me and ushered me into the house. We walked down the hall and he sat me down at the kitchen table.

“How about a cup of tea? My mama always said bad things seem a little bit better over a hot cup.”

“Yes, please.”

As Mr. McCurdy walked across the kitchen to put
the kettle on I felt something warm settle onto my lap. I looked down and there was Laura, looking up at me.

“Hi, Laura.” I put a hand down to pet her on the top of the head. She responded by lifting her head and putting her front paws on the chair so her head was level with mine. She pushed her nose right up against mine, opened her mouth, and licked me.

“Laura really does like you, Sarah. She doesn’t usually take to new people.”

“Neither do I,” I replied as I scratched Laura behind the ear.

“Tell me what happened. Why were you crying?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Don’t be telling any lies, either to me or to yourself,” he replied.

“What do you mean?”

“You want to talk.”

“What makes you think I want to talk?” I questioned.

“Either you came to talk or I’m just so darn good looking you can’t keep your eyes off me. I looked in the mirror this morning and I think I’m forty years past good looking.” He chuckled as he sat down at one of the other chairs that circled the table.

I nodded my head in agreement. “I want to talk.”

“That’s better. Now tell me what happened.”

“My mother found out about yesterday.”

“She really must be mad at you.”

“Really mad.”

“And is that why you were crying?”

“Yes. I think … not really,” I admitted.

Mr. McCurdy got up and walked over to the stove. He turned off the kettle just as a little trickle of steam was starting to escape from the spout.

“I just forgot that I’m out of tea. But don’t you worry. We’ll just go out and get some more. I was figuring that we could go and borrow some from my neighbour.”

Instantly I understood what he meant. “I don’t want to talk to her right now,” I protested.

“No choice. Don’t make me use the tranquilizer gun again,” he said, fixing me with a steely gaze. “Come on, Sarah, I played a part in all of this so let me play a part in fixing it.”

“But, I don’t want …”

“Do you think we should bring Calvin along?” Mr. McCurdy interrupted. His face was completely solemn and then he broke out into a laughing fit. “Can you imagine the look on your mother’s face when we come waltzing in with Calvin?”

I could just picture the chimp walking in, heading over to the fridge and rummaging around for a Coke while my mother climbed on top of the table. For somebody who’d been raised on a farm she was particularly afraid of animals, especially big ones. Between her fears and Dad’s
allergies, we’d never had a pet, not even a goldfish.

“If I was going back, I’d love to bring Calvin along, but there’s no point in trying to talk right now. You don’t know my mother. When she gets mad like this the best thing to do is just to leave her alone for a while. Later, maybe tomorrow, she’ll be ready to talk.”

“I can’t force you, I guess. Besides, Calvin’s still asleep and he’s not much fun first thing in the morning. Your mama probably thinks the worst of me now, without bringing along a smelly, grumpy old ape. Come on, let’s get moving,” Mr. McCurdy announced.

“But I said I’m not going to talk to her,” I restated more forcefully.

“I know, I know. Remember, I’m old, but I’m not deaf. When you talk to her is something you have to decide for yourself. But, I’ve got to get into town to pick up a few things and I can’t leave you here by yourself. I really am out of tea. I’ll drop you off on my way in.”

“It’s not on your way. My house is in the other direction,” I said apprehensively, wondering if he was trying to talk me into something.

“I know which way town is, but I’ll drop you off anyway. Your mom must be worried and I think you should at least be where she can see you even if she can’t talk to you.”

I gave him an uncertain look.

“Don’t worry, Sarah, I’m not trying to fool you. I’ll let you
off at the end of the drive and turn right around. Okay?”

I nodded in agreement.

“You can sit up front if you promise not to play with the radio, or throw up,” Mr. McCurdy offered.

“I promise.”

We went to the garage and climbed into the car. He started it up and backed it out of the garage. He put it into gear and we started to move when I looked up and saw three police cars coming up the drive. My heart rose up into my throat. They came to a stop, blocking our way. The doors on all the cars opened and half a dozen police officers walked toward us.

In a rush the feelings I’d felt yesterday, and had temporarily forgotten, came flowing back. I looked away from the approaching officers to Mr. McCurdy. He didn’t look scared. He looked almost amused.

“I hope they haven’t come for tea,” Mr. McCurdy said, “because I’m all out.”

The officers came up the driveway in a column. Leading the way was an older man in a fancy uniform. I had a sinking feeling that this was the “chief.” They filed around to the driver’s side.

“You better move those cars. You’re blocking my way and I’ve got someplace to go,” Mr. McCurdy said.

“What did you say?” the older man thundered.

“I said you’re blocking my way. Are you deaf?”

“Am I what?”

“DEAF!” Mr. McCurdy yelled.

“Don’t you know who you’re talking to? I’m the Chief of Police!” he bellowed.

“Good. Now I know who’s blocking my driveway. Get those cars out of my way,” Mr. McCurdy answered.

The chief looked like he was going to scream. His nose was so big and red I thought it might explode. I looked away but noticed a couple of the officers grinning.

“Out of the car this instant!” the chief roared.

“Why?” Mr. McCurdy asked. “I’m pretty comfy right here.”

The redness from his nose spread across his whole face and down his neck until it disappeared beneath his uniform. He turned to face the officers. “Get him out
of the car, by force!”

Nobody moved.

At that instant another police car rolled up the driveway. It pulled off the drive so it could pass the parked cars and it came to an abrupt stop. The door opened and I recognized the captain. Quickly he walked over to the chief’s side.

“I want this man dragged out of his car!” the chief ordered.

“Can’t do that, sir,” the captain replied calmly.

“Why not?”

“He’s in his car on his property and he’s done nothing wrong.”

“What do you mean nothing wrong? He claimed he knew me. He said he was a tiger expert! He let an animal go that is a danger to public safety! What do you mean he did nothing wrong?”

As the chief yelled, he moved closer and closer to the captain until they were nose to nose. The captain didn’t budge an inch. His expression didn’t even change although I could see little bits of spit flying out of the chief’s mouth and bouncing off the captain’s face.

“As I said earlier, sir, Mr. McCurdy has not violated any sections of the Criminal Code,” the captain said as he wiped his face with the back of his sleeve. “Can you tell me under what section you propose that I arrest him?”

The chief kicked his foot into the gravel, a spray of stones hitting the side of the car.

“Hey! Watch the paint job or I’ll have
you
arrested,” Mr. McCurdy barked.

All of the officers, including the captain, smiled, and two started to chuckle. The chief turned around and faced them and they all became silent and sober.

“That’s enough from you! Fan out men, and let’s find the tiger!” the chief ordered.

Nobody moved again. The captain walked up to him. “We can’t, sir.” I noticed how he spoke the word “sir.” I think he felt the same way about taking orders from the chief as I did taking orders from Erin.

“Why can’t we?” he demanded.

“No search warrant or grounds for a search,” he replied. “Can we talk in the car, sir?”

“Talk?” he asked in a confused voice.

“Yes, sir. Talk, sir. Please come with me,” the captain said calmly and then turned on his heels and walked back to one of the squad cars. The chief followed. They both took a seat in the front seat of the car.

Of course I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I watched in fascination. It started out with the chief waving his arms about and yelling. Slowly he seemed to settle down and then began to simply nod his head in agreement with whatever the captain was saying. The captain got out of the car, leaving the chief sitting in the
front passenger seat. The captain then motioned for the other officers and they gathered around. They huddled around him and then, after a few seconds, scattered and moved back to their cars. One officer got in behind the wheel of the chief’s car. All of the cars, except for the one that the captain had driven up in, turned around and bounced down the driveway, leaving behind a cloud of dust.

The captain watched the other cars leave while he sat on the hood of his car, along with one other officer. The other guy was the first policeman we’d met yesterday, Officer Sinopoli. As the last car vanished down the driveway, the two of them strolled over to us.

“That chief of yours is a strange old bird, isn’t he?” Mr. McCurdy said.

The captain and Officer Sinopoli exchanged a look.

“The chief has his own way of doing things. He’s been with the force for over forty-five years. He’ll be retiring next year,” the captain answered. “Can we go inside and talk, instead of standing in the driveway?”

“Sounds more like you want to visit than talk. But I think we can do that, as long as you don’t want a cup of tea — we’re out of that.”

Mr. McCurdy turned the car off and we climbed out. We started walking to the house, the two officers trailing a dozen paces behind.

“What about Laura and Calvin?” I asked quietly.

“What about them?”

“Shouldn’t you put them away, or warn the policemen about them being in the house?”

“They’ve already met Calvin, remember?”

“Yeah, but they don’t know about Laura and besides they don’t know that Calvin wanders free around your house,” I reasoned.

“Good thinking, Sarah, but one of the only reasons I’m inviting them up to the house is to see their faces when Laura strolls over.” He chuckled.

Arriving at the house, Mr. McCurdy opened the screen door, pushed open the inside door and then made a gesture for the two officers to enter. “Please,” he said, and the two entered before us. Single file they moved up the narrow hallway.

“What the heck!” I heard the officer shout and knew he’d spotted Laura. There was a scrambling of feet as he quickly backed up and bumped into the captain, nearly causing both of them to tumble over.

“Didn’t think that two grown men, especially two police officers, would be scared of a little house cat,” Mr. McCurdy stated as he gently squeezed by the two men. “Hi, Laura,” he said, and the cheetah ran over and rubbed against him, rising up onto her back legs.

I moved past the two officers as well. I looked back. “She’s very gentle.” I had to fight to keep the smile off my face.

“Come on in, boys, take a load off your feet,” Mr. McCurdy said, pulling out a chair from the table.

Both men moved cautiously across the floor, keeping one eye on Laura, who had retreated to her favourite place on the couch at the far side of the kitchen. They settled into two chairs. Mr. McCurdy occupied the third. In a burst of bravery I walked across the kitchen and sat down on the couch, beside Laura. I scratched behind her ears and she stretched out, and then snuggled her head into my lap. I looked over. All eyes were on me. Mr. McCurdy looked pleased while the two officers looked on with their mouths hanging open.

“Well, boys, what can I do for you?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

“I want to start by telling you what you did was wrong,” the captain said.

“What’s so wrong with going to pick up my lost cat?”

“Please, let’s not play games. People could have gotten hurt.”

“That’s what I was trying to make sure didn’t happen.”

“You should have been more honest with me about who you were and what was happening.”

“Me, not honest? What did I say that wasn’t honest?” Mr. McCurdy asked, looking completely innocent.

“You said you were from an animal institute.”

“That’s what I call my farm here, ‘The Animal Institute’.”

“How about you saying you were a ‘professor’?” the Captain asked.

“That’s my nickname. Lots of people have nicknames. Do you have one?”

“Yes, I have two … Captain and Sir.”

“Aren’t you going to question what I said about being a tiger expert?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

“No. That’s one fact nobody could argue with, but you still should have been more truthful.”

“Let me ask you a question, and I want an honest answer. If I was to have told you the truth would you have let me take my tiger home?”

The Captain didn’t answer right away. “No, I probably wouldn’t have.”

“There you go. Sometimes you have to bend the truth a little to do the right thing,” Mr. McCurdy crowed.

“I’m not happy with what went on.”

“Would it make you happier if I put the tiger back?” Mr. McCurdy asked sarcastically.

“Of course not. That’s what I really want to talk about. I want to know how it got away and to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

“It happened because of some fool teenagers. And the way to stop it from happening again is for you to do your job and arrest those kids,” Mr. McCurdy said angrily.

“Do you know the names of those who are responsible?” the captain asked.

“Of course not.”

“Can you at least give us a description?” Officer Sinopoli asked.

“Baseball caps, jeans, smart alecks … like every teenager I’ve ever met. Teenagers are nothing but trouble. They …” He stopped abruptly and looked at me. “My apologies, Sarah, not all teenagers.”

“How do you even know anybody freed the tiger? Maybe it got loose on its own,” the captain questioned.

“It’s one smart tiger, but I don’t think he knows how to use a hacksaw.”

“Hacksaw?” Officer Sinopoli questioned.

“Somebody cut through a heavy chain,” Mr. McCurdy replied.

“Regardless. You have to either safeguard the tiger so this doesn’t happen again, or find another place for the tiger to live,” the captain stated firmly.

“Someplace else? He’s been with me since he was a kitten.”

“Maybe you could let it go back into the wild,” Officer Sinopoli suggested.

“Wild? Buddha’s never been in the wild. He and his parents and their parents were all raised in captivity,” Mr. McCurdy explained.

“It’s not fair to the animal or to the community if that tiger gets out again. The next time things won’t necessarily work out so well. Somebody might die.
Think about him going to a zoo or a game park or something,” the captain reasoned.

“Why don’t you just do your job and stop those boys from bothering Mr. McCurdy and his animals!” I snapped.

Everyone looked at me in shock and I must admit even I was shocked by my outburst. “You should put an officer up here to make sure those teenagers don’t come back and bother Mr. McCurdy!”

“Sarah,” the captain said quietly, “you have to understand we can’t do that. You can’t expect me to post an officer up here every night, forever, can you?”

“I … I guess not,” I answered meekly. “But what about for tonight, or the next few nights?”

“A few nights? What good would that do?” the captain asked.

“He’s right, Sarah, there’s no guarantee they’ll be back tonight. I get kids up here some nights and then they don’t come back for weeks,” Mr. McCurdy explained.

The captain looked at Mr. McCurdy, long and hard. “I can’t guarantee that nobody will come and bother your tiger, and it sounds like neither can you. If that’s the case you have to find someplace else for the tiger to live.”

“Are you giving me an order?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

“No. You know that I have no authority to order you to do anything like that.”

“Then I guess you’ll want to be going now,” Mr. McCurdy said.

The captain motioned for Sinopoli to get up and they started down the hallway.

The captain turned around. “You know that this isn’t the end of it.”

“Sounds like a threat,” Mr. McCurdy said.

“I’m sorry if it sounded that way. I have to admire the way you handled yourself the other day, even if you did make me look like a fool, but I know that things aren’t going to end here. Take good care of that tiger, and yourself, and remember what I said about finding another place for it to live.”

Mr. McCurdy rose from his seat and walked over to the captain. They shook hands and the captain left.Mr. McCurdy turned back to me. His face was long and thoughtful.

“What he said is probably right. Maybe I have to think of somewhere else for Buddha to live.”

“You just have to guard him, make sure that they don’t let him out again,” I said.

“It’s like the captain said, there isn’t any way to be there all the time. Heck, I’m so tuckered out now I think I need to take a nap.”

“If you took a nap, do you think that you could stay up for one more night?” I asked.

“One more night?” Mr. McCurdy looked at me and
smiled. “Sarah, do you have a plan?”

I smiled and nodded. “Do you want me to tell you what I have in mind?”

“Nope. If you think it’ll work, Sarah, that’s good enough for me.”

•

I stayed around at Mr. McCurdy’s farm for the rest of the morning and afternoon. I watched the animals while he went to town to get some things we’d need and then let him have a short nap. At first he told me he didn’t need a nap, but I told him it was important he was wide awake tonight and he finally agreed. Afterward Mr. McCurdy dropped me off at my place.

I walked up the driveway and went into the house. Supper was waiting for me on the table when I got in. My mother was polite and friendly, but she was definitely cold. She acted like nothing that happened had happened. She didn’t even ask me where I’d been all day. I looked up from my food a couple of times and saw her looking at me and then she’d quickly look away or make small talk. I noticed that she pushed her food around the plate but didn’t eat. I wanted to say something, to try and make up, but I knew there wasn’t any point. Nick tried to kid around a couple of times, but his jokes fell flat and nobody laughed.

I think everybody felt relieved when I excused myself. First I had to make a phone call. The call went well. It was the first thing that had gone well for as long as I could remember. I wasn’t sleepy but I knew I had to at least close my eyes and get some rest before the plan was put into action.