Tiger by the Tail (12 page)

“SARAH!” Mr. McCurdy called. “Come on over here.”

What was he doing? Why did he want me to come? This wasn’t part of our plan. My first reaction was total shock, but I knew I had to move anyway. I pulled myself up from the straw. My legs were numb and I stumbled slightly, regaining my balance as I moved forward. I brushed away the bits of straw clinging to my clothes. I shielded my eyes as I stepped out of the darkness and into the circle of light.

“Sarah!” I heard Erin gasp.

“Hi, Erin.”

“He got you too,” she said with concern in her voice.

“No talking!” Mr. McCurdy barked and Erin was silenced. “Get on over here, Sarah. You’re big enough to feed a tiger.”

“But … I … I …” I mumbled.

Why hadn’t he called for Nick, he was the one who always offered Buddha a handful of food. I always thought how easy it would be for Buddha to take off a couple of fingers along with the meat.

Mr. McCurdy leaned close. “Don’t worry, Sarah, just do it,” he whispered.

I still hesitated.

“Quit lollygagging, Sarah, and get on over here,” Mr. McCurdy barked.

As I moved forward I was aware that every single eye was riveted on me. My legs were still a little rubbery and I was afraid I might trip.

“The rest of you, get up close to the bars. I want you to get a good show,” Mr. McCurdy ordered.

In stunned silence the group, five boys and three girls, rose and spread out in front of the cage. Mr. McCurdy moved to the pen door. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. He leaned the gun against the bars while he unlocked, and then removed, the thick chain that replaced the one cut off the other night. Buddha rubbed right against the bars of the door. His weight
pushed it slightly outward. Mr. McCurdy pulled the latch up and slipped the bolt out of the clasp.

“Okay, Sarah, into the cage, and take this.” He reached into the outside pocket of his jacket and pulled something out. It was a pork chop.

“Into the cage?” I said in astonishment.

“That’s what I said.”

I swallowed hard, took the chunk of meat and stepped over to the door. Mr. McCurdy eased open the door slightly to allow me to squeeze through.

“Slide in, and remember, don’t turn your back on him.”

“I’ll remember.”

Buddha was right against the door. He was trying to squeeze out of the same small gap that I was trying to push in through. I held the pork chop in front of me, using it almost like a small shield.

“Hungry, Buddha?” I asked in a quavering voice, waving the piece of meat in front of his nose. He “puffed” and then opened his mouth slightly. His tongue flicked out and he licked the pork chop.

“Toss it in and I’ll give you another one,” Mr. McCurdy ordered.

I threw the meat over Buddha’s head and into the far side of the pen. It bounced off the back wall and landed on the floor. Buddha followed its flight with his eyes and then in one bounce he leaped across the width of
the pen, pouncing on the meat. As he jumped, I slipped in through the opening and Mr. McCurdy closed and latched the door securely.

I was alone in a cage with a three-hundred-and-sixty-kilogram tiger, in a barn, in the middle of the night. Buddha turned and looked at me. The pork chop was gone. I remembered what Mr. McCurdy said about how tigers don’t chew their food. They just eat big chunks, bones and all.

“Here, Sarah, feed him this,” Mr. McCurdy said.

I turned, expecting him to pass me another pork chop. Instead he was holding a chicken, a whole dead chicken, complete with feathers and feet and head and beak. He pushed it through the bars and held it out for me. I looked at him in shock, not moving.

“Take the chicken, and turn around and watch Buddha!” he thundered.

I grabbed the bird. As I turned back around the chicken swung out in front of me, almost hitting Buddha squarely in the face as he had bounded toward me.

“Talk to him, Sarah,” Mr. McCurdy said. “Talk to him.”

“Ahh … hi, Buddha. Are you still hungry? Do you want a chicken?”

Buddha took a few more steps and then stopped and sat down. He reached out an enormous tawny paw and tapped the chicken, causing it to swing. As it swung back
and forth in my hand, Buddha moved his head from side to side, almost like he was hypnotized by the motion. I lifted it up and tossed the bird into the air, aiming it for the far side of the pen. Like lightning, Buddha stretched up with one of his paws and batted the bird, mid-flight, directing it right into his mouth. I heard his mouth close with a sickening crunch. He looked at me with most of the chicken in his mouth. Only the feet and head dangled out of opposite sides. It looked like Buddha was smiling. He lazily strolled into the back corner of the cage. He flopped to the floor and then spit out the chicken. He grabbed it between his paws, and using his mouth, began to pluck the feathers off the bird.

“What’s he doing?” I asked in amazement.

“Getting rid of the feathers. He likes chicken, but he doesn’t like to eat feathers. Why don’t you come on out of the cage now, Sarah.”

I backed away, keeping my eyes on Buddha. The door opened and I squeezed out. I had been in the cage with the tiger, by myself, and lived to tell about it. It felt good — no, make that great — to have done it.

I looked up at the faces of the kids who surrounded me. Each had the same stunned look of total disbelief.

“Okay, kids, we have to come to some deal before you leave here tonight.”

“You mean we can leave?” Erin questioned. I had to give her credit. She was the only one of this group who
had actually managed to put two words together.

“Of course you can leave, right after we talk. What did you think I was going to do, kill you and feed you to my tiger?” Mr. McCurdy chuckled.

“I know that’s what they thought, judging by their looks,” Nick piped in. Sometime while I was in the cage he’d come out of the darkness and was standing among the teenagers.

“That won’t be happening, at least not tonight. What could happen is I could call the police and have all of you arrested and charged, especially you,” Mr. McCurdy said, pointing to the boy who’d been holding the hacksaw. “Or we can make a deal.”

“My mom’ll kill me if the police bring me home,” Erin said.

“Please don’t call the police. I promise that we’ll never come back again,” the boy pleaded and the rest nodded their heads frantically in agreement.

“No deal!” Mr. McCurdy stated loudly, and all the heads stopped moving in mid-nod. “The deal is this, take it or leave it. I’m not calling the police and you’re all welcome to come back to my farm, but you have to come back as friends, just like Sarah and Nicholas. Come back to see my animals and not to hurt them.”

They all looked even more stunned. Finally Erin spoke.

“You mean you want us to come back?”

“Yep, just not in the middle of the night. And you can bring back other friends as long as they promise to respect my rules and my animals. Is it a deal?”

“We’re welcome back?” questioned the boy.

Mr. McCurdy nodded.

“And we’re free to leave now?” asked another.

“Yep.”

“And you’re not going to call the police?” Erin asked.

“No police …” Mr. McCurdy started to answer.

“Everybody freeze! This is the police!”

Spinning around I saw two figures move forward out of the darkness and into the light. One of them was Officer Sinopoli.

“Okay, what’s going on here?” questioned Sinopoli loudly. “These are the kids that let out your tiger, aren’t they, Mr. McCurdy?”

“I thought you weren’t going to call the police,” Erin said quietly to Mr. McCurdy.

“I didn’t.”

“Are these the kids, Mr. McCurdy?” Sinopoli asked.

Mr. McCurdy turned to the kids, all lined up, and looked at them slowly. His gaze passed from one to the other. He turned back to Sinopoli.

“Nope, these folks are my guests and since it’s getting late, I’d better get them home now.”

Two or three of the kids broke into smiles, while a couple more looked relieved. The rest just continued to look confused. The two officers came forward until they stood in the circle of light. They looked at the teenagers, who looked down at the ground.

“I know you,” the other officer said, pointing at one of the boys who looked up and gave a feeble smile. “And you, and you …” he continued, pointing at two others.

“What are you kids doing here?” Officer Sinopoli asked.

“They’re my …” Mr. McCurdy started to say.

“I asked them,” Sinopoli interrupted sharply. “Somebody tell me what’s happening here or I’m running you all down to the station.”

“I already told you …”

“You were already told to shut up!” the other officer thundered.

Mr. McCurdy opened his mouth to respond, but before he could I jumped in. “We’re guests! We were invited to come over and see the animals.”

“In the middle of the night?” the officer asked. His tone of voice left little doubt he knew I was lying.

“Best time to see them. Don’t you know that tigers are nocturnal?” I explained.

“Nocturnal?” Sinopoli asked.

“It means they’re awake at night.”

Sinopoli shook his head in disgust and walked over to one of the girls. “You’re Michelle Hartley, aren’t you?”

She nodded in agreement, looking very embarrassed.

“Do your mother and father know where you are?” Sinopoli asked.

“Sort of,” she answered.

“What do you mean, ‘sort of’?”

She looked over at Erin. “Well … they know I’m with Erin … sleeping over at her house.”

“Hey, Frank, look at this,” the other officer said. He bent down and picked up the hacksaw, which had been lying on the straw-littered floor.

Sinopoli walked over and took it in his hands and turned to Mr. McCurdy. “A hacksaw, the kind that would cut through a heavy chain to free a tiger.”

Mr. McCurdy didn’t answer. He was probably still furious at being told to shut up.

“Were your ‘guests’ planning on helping you with a little renovation work?” Sinopoli asked.

“I never ask my guests to work,” Mr. McCurdy replied.

“Guests? Come on, Mr. McCurdy, don’t fool around. These are the kids that let your tiger loose. Let me do my job and arrest them.”

“You’re not going to be arresting my guests,” Mr. McCurdy responded.

“Don’t you want to protect your animals? If you don’t let me arrest them, there’s nothing to stop them from coming back again.”

“I
am
protecting my animals, and I hope they do come back again. Now if you have no more business here I better help my friends get home,” Mr. McCurdy said.

“I do have other business. The business that brought me here. Okay, Sarah, come along with me,” Sinopoli said, pointing at me. “And, you too, Nick,” he said gesturing to my brother.

“We’re guests. Why do we have to go anywhere?” Nick questioned as he stepped forward.

“Because your mother’s telling you to,” came a voice, my mother’s voice, out of the darkness.

Nick and I both looked up in shock as a shadowy figure walked toward us and then into the light.

“Mrs. Fraser, I asked you to wait in the cruiser,” the other officer said.

“I couldn’t do that, not with my children missing.” She turned her gaze onto me and my brother. “Sarah, Nicholas, both of you, right now, into the police car. We’ll talk when we get home.”

“Don’t be mad at them, Mrs. Fraser,” Mr. McCurdy said, stepping forward. He extended his hand to shake. “I’d like to introduce myself. I’m your neighbour, Angus McCurdy.”

She glared at him with a look I’d only seen once before, when my father walked out.

“I know perfectly well who you are and I will be angry if I want to be, Mr. McCurdy. As for you, you have more important things to worry about. Things like criminal charges for child endangerment or kidnapping or …”

“He didn’t kidnap us,” I snapped. “We came over here on our own!”

“I’m not talking to you right now, Sarah. Do as I’ve told you and take your brother and get to the police car, right now!”

“But …” I started to object.

“Do what your mom tells you to do, Sarah,” Mr. McCurdy interrupted.

“But it’s not …”

“Come on, Sarah, let’s not make it even worse. Go on,” he said quietly.

I looked at him, then at Nick and finally at my mother. I took my brother by the hand and we started to walk to the door. Over my shoulder I heard Mr. McCurdy say one more thing.

“Whatever you might think of me, Mrs. Fraser, I want you to know I’m really sorry for the trouble I caused between you and your kids.”

Walking right behind us was the other officer. Just as we were leaving the stable I caught sight of Calvin, sitting on a bale of hay in the darkness, the shotgun lying at his feet. He waved a hand but I thought it was best not to wave back in case the police officer saw him sitting there in the dark. The police car was just outside the barn. The officer opened the back door and I climbed in, followed by Nick. He slammed the door closed and walked back over to the stable, disappearing inside.

“Look, no handles, just like on TV,” Nick announced in wonder.

•

We sat in the back of the car for another ten or fifteen minutes before Mom and the two officers reappeared. One of them opened the back door for her and she climbed in next to Nick. The officers got into the front, turned on the car, turned it around and drove down the driveway. In the darkness of the car and the countryside all I could see were the silhouettes of the two officers through the mesh screen. We turned up our driveway. Both officers got out and opened up the back doors.

“Will you be needing anything else tonight, Mrs. Fraser?” Sinopoli asked.

“No, thank you, but thanks to both of you for your help. I just want you to know this isn’t like them. Honestly, they’re good kids.”

“That’s important to remember,” Officer Sinopoli said, “and I don’t mean for us.”

My mother looked at him quizzically.

“I’ve met your kids a few times now. I’m not happy with the way we’ve met but I still think they’re good kids. Don’t you forget it. Good night, ma’am. Good night, Sarah. Good night, Nicholas,” he said and both officers climbed back into the car.

We watched as the car backed down the driveway. Mom walked to the house and opened the door. We trailed after her. She took a seat at the kitchen table and rested her elbows on the table and her head on her hands. We stood beside her, afraid to move, for a couple
of minutes. Nick looked at me and mouthed the words “Should we go to bed?” I shrugged my shoulders. “Ask her,” he mouthed. I shook my head no and pointed to him. He nodded in agreement.

“Mom … should we go to bed?” he asked apologetically.

She raised her head and then looked at us for a long time. Her face was sad and scared and angry all rolled into one. I felt like melting away into the floor.

“I think you better go to bed. We can talk in the morning when I’m feeling more … reasonable.”

We both started to walk across the kitchen when she called out to us.

“You’re never to go back to that man’s property again!” she called out and we both froze.

“But he’s our friend!” I protested.

“Well, I’m your mother!” she snapped and I knew instantly I should have kept my mouth shut. “I want you both to know how much you scared me tonight. How terrifying it was to find your beds empty and not know where you were. And I want you to know, especially you, Sarah, how disappointed I am, and how irresponsible and selfish and thoughtless you were. Now go to bed before I say anything else.”

I stood there too stunned to move. Nick pulled my arm and led me through the door and up the stairs. We stopped at my bedroom door.

“Don’t worry, Sarah, it’ll be better tomorrow.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Has to be. I can’t think how it could get worse. Try to sleep,” he said as he continued down the hall and into his room.

I entered my room. I started to take off my coat, but I was so tired I just flopped down on the bed. I should have gotten changed into my pyjamas, but I couldn’t even find the energy to pull up the covers. I stared up at the ceiling and listened for the floor boards. My body was exhausted but my mind kept humming. I could hear my mother’s words going around and around and around inside my head — irresponsible … disappointed … thoughtless … selfish.

•

“Sarah! Wake up!”

I opened one eye to see my brother standing over me.

“Sarah, get up, you have a phone call,” Nick said.

For a couple of seconds as I struggled to wake up I’d forgotten just what had taken place last night. It all seemed like a dream, a bad dream.

“Who’s on the phone?” I asked.

“Erin.”

“Erin, our sitter?”

“You know any other Erins?”

“I wonder what she wants. Do you think she’s angry
about last night? Mad about me setting them up?”

“Go and ask her,” Nick suggested.

Nick trailed after me into the dining room. I was relieved there was no sign of Mom. I picked up the phone, which was resting on the dining room table.

“Hello,” I said tentatively.

“Hi, Sarah. You and Nick okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. What happened after we left?” I questioned.

“The police tried to convince Mr. McCurdy to have us all charged, but he wouldn’t do it. Then Mr. McCurdy drove us all home. That’s some cool car he has. He let me sit up front,” Erin bubbled.

“That’s good. I’m sorry for setting you up last night,” I apologized.

“Setting me up?”

“You know, telling you that Mr. McCurdy wasn’t going to be there,” I said, suddenly struck by the fact that maybe she just hadn’t figured it out and I should have kept my mouth shut.

“That’s okay. I figured you were doing it because Mr. McCurdy’s your friend. Sometimes you have to lie for your friends.”

“I’m glad you understand.”

“That was really something when you went into the tiger’s cage. Do you do that all the time?”

“Not all the time,” I acknowledged, not wanting her
to know that was the first.

“Do you think Mr. McCurdy will let me do that?”

“He might.”

“Are you and your brother going over today?”

“Not today, maybe not ever,” I replied.

“Not ever?”

“No, not if my mother has her way. She’s really angry.”

“No kidding. When I saw her face last night I wanted to crawl in with the tiger. I figured it would be safer.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks, Erin. I guess I better get going. We’ll see you later.” I ended the call.

“Well?” Nick asked.

“Everything’s cool. You talked to Mom this morning?”

“Yep, although she didn’t say much.”

“Where is she?”

“In the den. They sent her some papers this morning on that big deal she’s been working on. She said we should get our own breakfast, leave her alone to work and stay in the house.”

I nodded my head. Maybe we wouldn’t work anything out today but at least it would give her a chance to cool down a little more.

“Want to go to Mr. McCurdy’s today?” Nick asked.

“Are you crazy?” I asked in shock.

“Naa … just kidding,” he chuckled. “I wanted to see if I could get you going.”

“I just wish we could call Mr. McCurdy and find out
what’s happening.”

“Yeah, too bad he doesn’t have a phone. Are you going to make breakfast?”

“Breakfast? I’m not sure I’ve got an appetite.”

“That’s okay, I do,” Nick said, flashing me a smile.

“Nicholas, you are just …”

“Hungry, really hungry. Some pancakes would be nice.”

“You and me, together, can make pancakes,” I suggested and he nodded in agreement.

We made breakfast, ate, and then cleaned up. I put on a pot of fresh coffee and had Nick bring Mom a cup. It was sort of a peace offering. While he was doing that I went to the door to get the morning paper. Unfolding it and flipping it over, I felt my heart almost stop.

There, across the top of the page was a gigantic headline: “MAYOR VOWS TO REMOVE EXOTIC ANIMALS.”

I tore into the story. It had extensive quotes from the mayor saying how he wasn’t going to jeopardize the lives of his citizens. He was making it one of his election promises to rid the area of animals that “posed a danger to public safety.”

Nick came back into the room. I looked up at him and my expression gave away my feelings.

“What’s wrong, Sarah? We didn’t make the papers again did we?”

“Not us, but Mr. McCurdy did.”

“Let me see,” he said, taking the paper from me.

His mouth moved silently as he went down the column. He stopped a couple of times to ask me what different words meant.

“We better not let Mom see this,” Nick said.

“See what? What now?” Mom asked anxiously as she pushed in through the kitchen door.

“Nothing … much,” I answered. “Give her the paper,” I said to Nick.

She took it. Unlike my brother, she didn’t move her lips as she read, but she did nod her head in agreement every few seconds.

“It makes sense. The mayor’s made some very important points.”

“Like what?” I questioned.

“These animals shouldn’t be allowed in built-up areas, around people,” she noted.

“Built up? We moved here because you said you wanted to get away from all the people. Except for Mr. McCurdy we don’t have another neighbour for kilometres.”

“That’s a comforting thought. If that tiger gets loose again it’ll come straight for us,” she said.