Tiger Town (15 page)

“Mom, could you just come in and talk to him?” Nick asked. She was on her way to court and was dropping us at Mr. McCurdy’s on the way.

“I can’t speak to him about what you want me to talk to him about,” she said.

“Why won’t you lend him the money?” Nick demanded.

“That isn’t what I said.”

“Then you will loan him the money?” Nick asked.

“That isn’t what I said, either,” Mom told him. “What I meant was, I’d lend him the money, but he has to ask. I have too much respect for Mr. McCurdy to try to force him to change his mind.”

“What about the animals?” Nick asked.

“Look, Nick, I’ll give him a chance to ask me,” Mom said.

“What if he doesn’t? It’s not like we have much time.”

“The pens have to be fixed in four days … three days now,” I said.

Mom didn’t answer right away. “I’ll come by after work today and I’ll talk to him. I’ll give him the opportunity to ask me, and if he doesn’t bring it up, then I’ll mention it.”

“You’ll come right after court?” Nick asked.

“Right after. I was going out to dinner but —”

“With him?” Nick demanded.

She nodded. “He invited me and —”

“You can’t go out with him again!” Nick cried.

“I explained to him that I was just too busy to have dinner with him tonight,” Mom said.

“Good!”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m never going to go out with him again.”

“But, Mom, you can’t go —”

“I can if I want. That’s a decision I will make if and when he invites me out again. Understood?”

“I understand,” I said.

“And you, Nick?” she asked.

“I don’t understand, I don’t agree and I’m not ever going to agree, so there’s no point in even trying to convince me that —”

“Oh, my goodness! What’s happening?” my mother questioned.

I leaned forward in my seat and peered through the windshield as she slowed the car. People — maybe a dozen or more — were standing on the road in front of Mr. McCurdy’s lane.

“What are they doing?” I gasped.

“Look, they have signs,” Nick said. “It’s a protest march! Maybe they’re here to help Mr. McCurdy keep his animals!”

My mother brought the car to a stop. “It’s a demonstration,” she said, “but they’re not here to help Mr. McCurdy. Look at the signs.”

As one of the marchers turned to face me, I read the big sign she was carrying. It read: ANIMALS BELONG IN NATURE, NOT IN A CAGE! I looked at a second sign. FREE THE ANIMALS! it said.

I climbed out of the car. My brother and mother did the same. We slowly made our way to the protesters. As we walked, I counted. There were fourteen demonstrators. Most of them were women, with a couple of kids, and one man.

“Do you know these people?” my mother asked.

“I’ve never seen them before in my life,” I answered.

“They’re animal-rights activists,” she said.

“They’re nuts, is what they are,” Nick said.

“Nick, keep your voice down!” Mom whispered.

“Why, they’re probably too nuts to understand what I’m saying. Look at some of those signs!”

I looked at the one he was pointing at. It read: PUT PEOPLE IN CAGES, LET THE ANIMALS LIVE FREE.

As we watched, one of the women came toward us. “Hello,” she said, “my name is Rainbow.”

“Your name is Rainbow?” Nick asked, sounding shocked and disgusted at the same time.

“Yes, Rainbow,” she repeated sweetly. “Have you come to join our protest?”

“You want us to join you?” I asked in disbelief.

“We’re here to protest the filthy conditions in which these majestic animals are kept and —”

“How do you know the conditions are filthy?” I questioned.

“Well, we read the newspapers —”

“You can’t believe everything you read in the papers!” I snapped. “You should see things for yourself before you make a decision like that.”

“We tried to see the animals,” she said.

“You went onto the property?” I asked, afraid of what she was going to say or, more precisely, what Mr. McCurdy had said or done.

“We did. That man threatened us with violence. He said something about getting off his property before he got his gun! Can you imagine that?”

That sounded like something Mr. McCurdy would say. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”

“He sounded like he meant it.”

I had to see Mr. McCurdy. I turned to my mother. “You’d better get going. You don’t want to be late for court.”

She looked at her watch. “You’re right. I better get a move on. Judges hate it when lawyers are late.”

“We’ll see you right after court, right?” Nick asked. “You’ll come and talk to Mr. McCurdy?”

“You can count on it. When I turned down dinner, Martin had suggested a cup of coffee after work. I’ll call him to explain that I can’t even make that.”

“You don’t have to call him,” Nick said.

“It’s only polite to let him know I’m not coming,” Mom said.

“I mean, you don’t have to call him, because you can tell him in person,” Nick said. We both instantly saw what he meant. A police car had just pulled up, and Martin and another officer climbed out

“I wonder why they’re here?” I asked.

“We called him,” Rainbow said.

“Why would you do that?” I questioned.

“To have that man charged with threatening us.”

“You want to have Mr. McCurdy charged?” I gasped.

“He should be.”

I turned to Mom. “You have to speak to Martin.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Mom said, and started to walk away.

“Don’t forget to tell him you’re coming right back here after court,” Nick added.

“I’m going to speak to Mr. McCurdy,” I said.

“You can’t go in there!” Rainbow exclaimed. “He’s dangerous! He could harm you!”

“You don’t understand,” I said. “He won’t harm us. We’re his friends.”

“I thought you were here to join our protest to free the animals,” Rainbow said.

“Free them? It’s not like they’re in jail, you know,” Nick said.

“They’re in cages! They should be free to return to their natural environments.”

“How can you return them to someplace they’ve never been?” Nick questioned. “These animals were all born in captivity.”

“But they should still be released into the wild.”

“They can’t be released into the —” Nick stopped mid-sentence. “But I’m not going to talk to you anymore, because you’re a nut.”

“Nick!”

“What, Sarah? Don’t you think she’s a nut, too? For goodness sake, the girl’s name is Rainbow! Come on, let’s go and see Mr. McCurdy.” Nick began to walk away.

I glanced at Rainbow. “I’m sorry. He can be rude sometimes. He really didn’t mean it … I’ve got to get going.”

I started to move away. As I did, I looked back over my shoulder and saw Mom talking to Martin. I hoped she could convince him not to charge Mr. McCurdy.

“Excuse me,” I said, inching between two of the protesters and after Nick.

“This isn’t going well,” I said, catching up to him.

“Not going well?” Nick asked. “I’m trying to figure out what could possibly make it any worse.”

I knocked on the door, and we headed into the farmhouse and then into the kitchen. Mr. McCurdy, Vladimir and Calvin sat at the table. Two of them were holding mugs, the third — Calvin — took a sip from the can of Coke he was clutching. Calvin gave us a little wave, but it seemed as if Mr. McCurdy and Vladimir hadn’t even noticed we’d entered the room.

“Hello,” I said quietly. They were both in the same clothes they’d been wearing when we left last night, and neither looked as if he’d slept. I hadn’t slept much myself. “Are you two okay?” I asked.

Mr. McCurdy slowly shook his head. “We’ve been up all night thinking about ways we can get out of this.”

“What did you come up with?” Nick asked.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Nothing that can save all the animals.”

“But you think you can save some of them?” I asked.

“Calvin … Buddha … Laura … maybe Kushna.”

“What about Peanuts?” Nick asked.

Vladimir shook his head. “Peanuts is a big animal. If we sell him, we can get enough money to buy things that —”

“You want to sell Peanuts?” Nick spluttered. “But that’s what the Armstrongs were doing! What’s next, do we sell one of the tigers, too!”

“Nick! You shouldn’t be —”

“It’s okay, Sarah,” Mr. McCurdy said. He stood and walked over to Nick, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Nick, we don’t like this any more than you do, but we couldn’t figure out another way to do things. Between the problems with the inspector, no money to fix the cages or buy food and now these protesters out there —”

“And Vladimir being in the country illegally —” I stopped. What had I done?

“Vladimir’s what?” Mr. McCurdy said.

I glanced at Vladimir. “I’m sorry. It just slipped out.”

“Had to find out sometime,” Vladimir said.

Mr. McCurdy turned to him. “You’re here illegally?”

“Just a little illegal,” Vladimir said.

“My mother can maybe help with that,” I said. “It’s just that we have to find a way to make some of it work, even if we can’t make it all work. Unless somebody else has a better idea?” I asked.

Nick shook his head, and Mr. McCurdy and Vladimir remained silent.

“Maybe I have an idea.”

I turned around. Martin was standing in the doorway. What was he doing here, and what had he heard? I looked from face to face. Everybody seemed shocked and surprised — except for Vladimir. He was scared and started to get out of his seat. Was he going to make a run for it?

“Sit down,” Martin said, pointing at Vladimir. “We’re all going to talk.”

Vladimir slumped back into his chair.

“You can’t come barging into my house and ordering people around!” Mr. McCurdy thundered.

“I can and I did!” Martin snapped. “And you sit down, too!”

Mr. McCurdy folded his arms and puffed out his chest. Unless Martin was going to bring Peanuts into the house, there was no way he was going to move Mr. McCurdy.

“Please?” Martin asked, suddenly softening his voice. “I just want to talk.”

Mr. McCurdy still cast him an evil eye, but he took a seat. I sat in the empty seat between Calvin and Vladimir. Martin took another chair and pulled it over to the table, sitting down beside Mr. McCurdy. I held my breath, waiting for him to begin.

“First off, I didn’t hear anything when I walked in,” Martin said. He turned to face Vladimir. “But even if I did hear something about an immigration problem, I’m a police officer, not an immigration official.”

I felt the tension drain from my body, and a small smile broke through Vladimir’s beard.

“From the little I know about immigration law, if somebody has been in the country a number of years, is employed and has had no problems with the law, they are free to apply for legal status. All they need is a lawyer. Does anybody here know a lawyer?”

“Mom could do that,” Nick said. “She’d help for sure, Vladimir.”

“I do not wish to be problem.”

“It wouldn’t be a problem,” I assured him. “She’s coming here right after court today, and we’ll talk to her.”

“Good,” Martin said. “I’d like to talk to her, too.”

“I still don’t know how you figured you had the right to just come into my house like that without knocking or being invited in,” Mr. McCurdy said.

“You’re right,” Martin said. “I had no right, and I have to apologize.”

“Then why did you do it?” Nick asked.

“I thought it was the only way I could talk to both Mr. McCurdy and Vladimir — every time I show up he runs for the hills. This way he didn’t have a chance to run.”

“What is it you want to talk to us about?” I asked.

“Before I talk to all of you I have to clear up one legal matter,” Martin said.

“What legal matter?” Mr. McCurdy questioned.

Suddenly it hit me. He’d been called here because Mr. McCurdy had threatened those protesters! “You aren’t going to charge Mr. McCurdy, are you?”

“Charge me with what?” Mr. McCurdy demanded.

“You threatened those people, and they called the police —”

“Nobody is charging anybody with anything!” Martin said, cutting me off. “Although you do have to stop threatening to shoot people.”

“Maybe if people stopped coming onto my property I’d stop threatening to shoot them!” Mr. McCurdy argued.

“I’m glad we agree, because that was part of the deal I made.”

“What deal?”

“Those protesters really wanted you charged,” Martin said. “But I convinced them I could only charge you if I charged them.”

“Charged them with what?” I asked.

“Trespassing. They were on your property without your permission. As well, they were holding a demonstration without the necessary permits.”

“You need a permit to hold a demonstration?” I questioned.

“Technically, yes, you do. Of course, nobody ever does apply for the permit, and we never do charge anybody for it.”

“So you were bluffing,” I said.

Martin smiled. “And you and Mr. McCurdy wouldn’t know anything about bluffing people, would you?”

Martin stood up. Was he finished? Was he going to leave? Somebody had to thank him for what he’d done. He didn’t start to walk away. Instead, he took off his hat and put it on the table. Next he undid his heavy utility belt — the one holding his handcuffs, nightstick and gun. He removed it and placed it on the table beside his hat. Then he took the badge from his shirt and tucked it into his pocket.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“The mayor called me into his office. He wanted to speak to me about what’s going on here.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he expected me to personally supervise the inspection and have the animals removed if the standards weren’t met. He made it crystal clear that if I wanted his support to become the chief of police, I had to act to make sure the law was upheld.”

“So you’re quitting the police department?”

“Not quitting. Taking a three-day holiday.”

“A holiday?” I asked.

“Yes, for the next three days I’m going to be here to help get things in order so you’ll pass that inspection.”

“And then?” I asked.

“Then I lead that inspector back in here to follow the letter of the law.”