Tiger in Trouble (14 page)

I hadn’t really thought about that. It wasn’t as if we could go in and get him.

“Did you bring your bathing suit like I said?” Vladimir asked.

“Sure, it’s under my clothes.”

“Good. Go swimming. The water is warm. The sand is soft. Enjoy.”

Samantha and Danny were already in the water splashing around.

“Nick, are you coming, too?” I asked.

“Definitely. I figured I’d swim out to Peanuts and see if he wants to play.”

I grabbed Nick by the arm. “Is that okay, Vladimir? Is that safe?”

“Not so safe. Peanuts is a playful elephant. He may grab Nicki and throw him around like a water toy.”

“Did you hear that?” I asked Nick.

“I heard. I’ll stay in the shallows. Can I ride him home again?”

Valdimir nodded.

“Excellent,” Nick said, and he headed off to the water.

“You go in, too, big girl Sarah.”

“Um … I was wondering if I should go back and check the deer.”

“The deer are fine,” Vladimir said. “You fed them before you came. They are fine by themselves in the little pen until you return.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“I am almost always right with animals.”

“I was wondering, how much are the two fawns worth?”

“I am not sure. Maybe four or five hundred dollars each. Why do you ask?”

“I was just thinking.”

“Thinking if big girl Sarah can buy the deer?”

“Well, we do live on a big farm and there’d be plenty of space for them.”

“You are a good mother, but do not worry. Maybe the deer can stay here.”

“But you said he’s sold all the babies that have been born here.”

“Yes, but all those animals were healthy.”

I felt my heart skip a beat. “You mean there’s something wrong with my deer?”

“Your babies are healthy.”

“That’s a relief.”

“But the only ones who know that are you and me. I can tell boss that both are very sick, maybe they have the disease that killed their mummy deer.”

“But she didn’t die from a disease. It was from giving birth, wasn’t it?”

Vladimir smiled. “I know this. You know this. Boss, he knows nothing. He has to believe what I say. I will tell him if he sells sick deer and then other animals get sick, he will get in big trouble. Lawyers can sue him and it will cost him a lot of money. He will not want to lose money. He will leave the deer alone while I keep them in a special place away from the other animals.”

“Like in quarantine?”

“Like in their little cage,” Vladimir said. “I will tell him they cannot be with other deer.”

“So my deer are safe?” I asked.

“Safe for now. Maybe safe for two years,” he said with a shrug. “Who knows.”

“I guess nobody.”

“All Vladimir knows is that bath time is over.”

“It is?”

“Yes. Peanuts is coming out of water.”

I turned and saw the elephant emerge from the lake. In his trunk he was carrying a large log that had been floating in the water. The three kids scrambled along beside him, splashing, jumping and screaming. Peanuts dropped the log and dipped his trunk back into the water. Then he turned and shot out a spray of water, hitting Nick and nearly knocking him off his feet.

“Peanuts likes to play,” Vladimir said. “He is lonely since the other elephants were sold. It is hard to be alone.”

“Is it hard for you?” I asked, blurting out the question without thinking.

Vladimir smiled sadly. “Was easy when old boss was around. Now it is hard. I miss my family in Russia. Still, I have family here.”

“You do? I didn’t know that.”

He grinned. “Lots of family. Peanuts is family. Kushna is family. All the animals are like family. And for few days, big girl Sarah and little girl Samantha, and Nicki and Danny are like family, like my little brothers and sisters back home. Come, there is still much work to be done. You kids can help with the feeding.”

“Are they having chicken again for lunch?”

“It is a special lunch so visitors can see. I call it Feast of the Beasts. Tourists love to watch.”

After we put Peanuts back in his pen, we all sat together for a quick lunch. Then, while Vladimir was getting the food ready for the big cats, the four of us went back to our cabin and changed out of our bathing suits. Everybody pitched in to give Sarah and Samantha another feeding of formula. I appreciated the help, but I had to admit that I felt a little bit jealous. After all, I was their mother, and it looked as if they were more interested in whoever had the glove than they were in me. It was like my mother always said: “You raise them to leave you.”

Suddenly there was a loud rumbling of an engine outside the cabin. For an instant I had the terrible thought that Mr. Armstrong was coming to inspect his property and to see if the deer really were sick. Then I realized that the sound I was hearing was more like a lawn mower than a fancy car.

“Vladimir’s here,” Nick said. He was standing at the door.

“Are the babies all put away in their pen?” I asked.

“I put them in myself,” Samantha said.

“And the gate’s secured so they can’t get out?”

“I locked it myself,” she said.

“Good. Then we better get going.”

Vladimir was sitting on the seat of a little tractor. The engine was rumbling noisily, and a stream of smelly black smoke came out of the exhaust. Behind the tractor was a small trailer. It held three large containers, each overflowing with meat for the big cats.

“The tourists are waiting,” Vladimir said. “You four take the shortcut through the woods. I will drive round and meet you by the leopard cage.”

There was already a large crowd of visitors gathered at the chain in front of the leopards’ pen. The Feast of the Beast was a big draw at the park. We’d missed it yesterday because we had to care for the fawns. Even though I’d seen Buddha eat a hundred times and had been part of feedings here already, I was still looking forward to it.

We came up to the back of the crowd. Danny, Nick and Samantha started to wind their way through the people, trying to get a spot up by the front. I was too old to do that. Instead I climbed onto a large rock where I could see over everybody’s heads.

I heard the sound of the tractor and saw it bumping down the path. Vladimir slowed and brought it to a stop near the edge of the crowd. He climbed off the tractor and went to the trailer. Hoisting one of the containers of meat, he put it on his shoulder and started moving through the crowd toward the pen. As he stepped over the chain, the leopards came bounding toward the fence. They snarled and snapped and fought each other, scrambling to get right up to the section of the mesh directly in front of where Vladimir stood. He put the container on the ground and turned to face the crowd.

“Good afternoon. My name is Vladimir. I am the head trainer and zookeeper at Exotic Animal World. I will feed the cats, starting with leopards. While I feed the animals I will talk about the animals. If you have a question, I will try to answer. So I start.”

Vladimir bent down and grabbed two slabs of meat from the container. They were red and raw and cut into long, thin pieces. There were bones — maybe rib bones — protruding from them. “These are leopards. From Africa. They live in many parts, jungle, forest and plains.”

Inside the cage one of the cats was standing on its hind legs, tail twitching, watching Vladimir’s every move. The second cat, a smaller female, was a few metres away, crouched, its tail moving back and forth. Vladimir took one of the slabs of meat and pushed it through a porthole in the fence. The cat greedily grabbed the meat from his hands. Quickly Vladimir took the second piece of meat, reached in through the hole, and pitched it in the direction of the second cat. She jumped up and grabbed it in midair.

“Leopards are small big cats. Big animals, but small compared to cats like tigers or lions,” he said as he reached down and grabbed two more pieces of meat. When he pushed them through the hole, the male leopard grabbed them both in his mouth and dropped them in a corral formed by his paws. The cat was guarding them, stopping his mate from getting near his food.

“Typical male. Doesn’t want to share,” a woman joked.

“Typical all animals,” Vladimir said. “Big animals do not want to share with little animals.”

“All animals?” the same woman asked.

“All cats. Even cats that hunt in packs, like lions. Big eat first, then little animals get leftover scraps. Here Vladimir feeds, so all animals get food.” Vladimir reached back into the food container and grabbed more meat. Two pieces were tossed to the little female, and another slab was dropped at the feet of the big cat.

“The leopard is a good hunter, good killer of animals. Many times it kills, and then lions come and chase the leopard away. The leopard is only a small big cat,” he repeated. “So for safety, it takes the prey in its mouth, jumps into a tree and climbs high.”

“Why don’t the lions just climb up after him?” a man asked. He was wearing funny-looking shorts and a shirt to match and had three cameras draped around his neck.

“Lions do not climb trees well,” Vladimir answered.

“Couldn’t they just jump?” the man asked.

“Not high enough. Leopards jump high and then climb to a safe place.”

“And it jumps carrying the animal it killed?” the same man asked.

“Yes. Can jump two metres up tree with an antelope in its mouth.”

“No way,” the man said, shaking his head. “I think you’re wrong.”

“Wrong? You think Vladimir is wrong?” he asked, waving a piece of meat and taking a step toward the guy in a threatening manner.

“He’s right!” I said, and the entire crowd turned to face me.

“Leopards can do that. I’ve seen it — when I was on safari in Africa.”

“You were on safari?” Samantha asked.

“Tell them all about it, go ahead,” Nick taunted

“Um … when I was in Africa on safari … from the Jeep I saw the leopards.”

“Who is this girl?” the man asked.

“World expert here to visit today,” Vladimir said.

“She’s just a girl,” somebody else said.

“Not girl. Twenty-seven-year-old woman.”

Twenty-seven! I was lucky if I could pass for sixteen!

“And as a special treat, Dr. Sarah will help me today on the tour.”

I looked down at Nick, standing in the crowd, smirking. He was enjoying this.

“I’d be glad to,” I said. Maybe I wasn’t twenty-seven, and maybe I wasn’t a world-famous expert, but I did know a thing or two about animals, at least more than anybody standing in the crowd.

•

“You two are really starting to annoy me,” I said to the little deer as they bounded and pranced around. And I thought having a little brother was bad enough.

“Can’t you make them stop?” Nick asked, his voice coming out of the darkness over my head from his bunk.

“Yeah, we need to get some sleep,” Samantha added from across the room.

“I can’t help it. They’re just being playful. They’ll settle down,” I pleaded.

“You said that half an hour ago,” she said.

“And when you brought them in,” Nick added. “Vladimir said they don’t even need to be here, that they can sleep in that pen.”

“By themselves at night in the dark?”

“It’s always dark at night, Sarah,” Nick said. “And they don’t have to be alone in their pen.”

“They don’t?”

“No, you can sleep there, too, if you want,” Nick said.

“Thanks a lot.”

“Come on, Sarah. Vladimir said it would be okay, so it’ll be okay. Please,” Nick begged. “We need to get some sleep.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, Sarah, it might even be better for them to be in the pen,” Nick added.

“How do you figure that?”

“Because then they can get to know the other deer, and the other deer can get to know them.”

He had a point. Vladimir had completed the small pen attached to the side of the big deer pen. That way they were right there with their extended family but were still safely in their own pen where nobody could accidentally step on them.

One of the deer bounced up onto her hind legs and butted me in the side. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for them to be in there tonight. They’d just been fed, and I’d feed them again first thing in the morning. Besides, it wasn’t just the other three who were being cheated out of their sleep. I needed sleep just as much, if not more.

“Okay, I’ll put them in their pen.”

“Great!” Samantha said.

“Fantastic!” Danny seconded.

“Finally,” Nick said with a sigh.

“So who’s going to go with me?” I asked.

Suddenly the room was quiet. The only sound was the clip-clopping of little deer hooves on the wooden floor.

“Somebody should help me,” I said.

“Why?” Nick asked. “None of us wanted them here tonight except you. Besides, it isn’t as if they’re going to wander away from you. Wherever you go they’ll follow.”

“I just don’t think I should have to go by myself.”

“It’s not far, Sarah. You could be there and back in the time it’s taking you to argue about it. Just go,” Nick said.

I wanted to argue, and I still didn’t think it was fair, but I knew it would be faster to just do it myself. When I climbed out of bed, the two fawns got even friskier, jumping up at me. They must have figured it was feeding time again. As they tried to latch onto my fingers, they seemed more like baby pigs than baby deer. They’d come to associate fingers with the glove, and the glove with food, so they were always trying to suckle my fingers. I pulled my hands up, reached over and flicked the light switch, bathing the room in bright light.

“What’s the big idea!” Nick screamed.

“Hey!” Danny yelled.

I smiled. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t find my shoes without turning on the light.”

I turned it off again. I knew exactly where my shoes were located. I just thought I shouldn’t be the only one who had to get more awake.

With the deer at my feet, I started out the door. Besides slipping on my sneakers, I’d also taken a little flashlight from the top of the dresser. Stepping outside, I flicked it on. A small beam of light shone a few metres ahead of me, illuminating the path.

Up above it seemed like a million stars twinkled at me. It was hard to believe, but these were the same stars that sparkled above my house right now — the same stars that were in the sky above my mother’s head somewhere in the Caribbean. It was amazing how bright it was.