Tiger in Trouble (5 page)

I watched as the luggage carousel went round and round and round — it was completely empty. There was no more baggage to be picked up, and no more people. With a loud thud the conveyor belt came to a stop. It was now official.

“What now, Sarah?” There was something about Nick’s tone of voice that was different than usual. He sounded anxious.

“Maybe we should look outside,” I said. “They could be waiting for us out there.”

That may not have been my brightest idea, but it was the only one I had. What would we do if we got outside and there was nobody? What then? We could always wait. But for how long? I guess we could find a security guard or maybe a police officer and tell him what happened. They’d help us, make a call — a call to Erin to get Mr. McCurdy, and he could come and get us. But even if we got through to Erin and she went straight to Mr. McCurdy, he couldn’t possibly get here today. He was more than eight hundred kilometres away. Maybe we could use our return ticket today, and he could meet us at the airport. But if we couldn’t, if there wasn’t a flight today, then where would we stay until then? Who would be in charge of us?

I put a hand against my pocket. There were ten twenty-dollar bills folded in there. That was my baby-sitting money — I’d brought it along, just in case — and some money Mom had given us for “special treats.” I knew Nick probably didn’t have two nickels in his pockets. He spent his money slightly faster than he got it. If worse came to worst, we could always stay the night in a hotel. I was old enough to take care of Nick for one night.

“Come on, Nick, let’s go outside to check.”

I picked up my bags and started to walk. I’d gone no more than a half-dozen steps when I stopped dead in my tracks. There, hidden from where we were standing by the luggage carousel, were two kids — a boy and a girl.

The girl was about Nick’s age, and the boy was a few years younger. I’d noticed them a couple of times while we were waiting, but hadn’t paid much attention. It wasn’t as if they were there to meet us.

Obviously, whoever was picking them up was late, too. They were just standing there beside their luggage by themselves. They looked worried. I was sure they’d be picked up soon and … What if …

“Excuse me!” I called out, and they both looked over. “Are you two going to zoo camp?”

In answer they both came toward us. The little boy looked scared. The girl had her hand on her hip and looked angry.

“You should have been here right away to meet us,” the girl said, wagging a finger at me. “You scared my brother! We thought we’d got off the plane at the wrong place, or should have been waiting someplace else.”

“We were worried,” the boy said, wiping a tear away with the back of his hand.

“I’m sorry you were scared, but —”

“But you should have been here on time!” the girl snapped. “I was going to call out to the camp,” she said, “But I couldn’t find a number on the brochure. Why didn’t you put one on?”

“That’s strange, not having a telephone number,” Nick said.

“So, are we going straight to the camp or waiting for other people?” she asked.

I didn’t even know this kid’s name, but I’d already taken a definite dislike to her.

“Oh, we’re going to be waiting,” Nick said. “Waiting for somebody to pick us up.”

“I don’t understand,” the girl said. “Aren’t you going to drive us?”

“First, I’m not old enough to drive,” I told her. “And second, I don’t work at the camp.”

“You don’t?” The girl looked confused and worried. She stepped back a couple of steps. “But … but … how did you know we were going to zoo camp?”

“When we saw that nobody had picked you up, and nobody had picked us up, then I just thought that —”

“Because we’re going to zoo camp, too,” Nick said.

“You’re a kid?” the girl asked, pointing at me.

“I’m not a kid. I’m almost fifteen. But I am going to camp. My name is Sarah. This is my brother, Nicholas.”

“Nick,” he said.

“I’m Samantha, and this is my little brother, Daniel.”

“Danny,” he said. “I’m Danny.”

“I guess we’re all in the same boat,” I said.

“Boat?” Danny asked, looking around.

“It’s a figure of speech,” his sister said. “It just means we’re all in the same situation.”

“We were going to go outside and see if somebody was waiting for us out there,” I explained. “Do you want to come with us?”

“I think we should wait right here. That would be the
smart
thing to do,” she said, implying that I was doing the stupid thing.

“Suit yourself. You can spend the entire week right here, for all I care.”

“I want to go with her,” Danny whined.

She let out a big sigh. “Fine, we’ll go with them. Just wait while we get all our luggage.”

They went back to get their bags. She had two huge pieces of luggage, and partially carried, partially dragged, them toward us.

“How long are you going to be at this camp?” I asked.

“A week,” she said. “I like to be prepared.”

Again, there was something about her tone of voice or the expression on her face that said
she
was right and anybody else who didn’t have two bags was wrong.

“Do you want a hand?” Nick asked.

I turned to him in shock. Nick, offering to help?

“You can take the big bag. The one that’s slightly smaller has all my valuables in it.”

“Valuables?” I asked. She was such a princess that I expected there must be a diamond-studded tiara in there somewhere with her underwear.

“My new camera and a portable DVD player,” she said.

“That’s cool,” Nick said. “Do you think that I —”

“Do you think we can get going?” I asked, cutting him off.

Nobody said another word, and we started for the big set of doors. Just outside there was a line of taxis. Beyond that was a busy street and cars sitting at parking meters and — there it was! A large van with the words ZOO CAMP painted on its side!

“There it is!” I screamed.

“What? Where’s what?” Nick demanded.

“The van from the camp,” I said, pointing toward it.

They all saw it at once, and there was a rush toward the road.

“Hold on!” I said, grabbing Danny’s arm. “This is a busy street and we have to be careful and cross at the lights.”

“You sound like my big sister,” he said.

“All big sisters sound alike,” Nick said.

“Maybe we all sound the same because all little brothers are the same,” Samantha said.

“What do you mean by that?” Nick asked.

“Irresponsible little goofs who have to be taken care of!”

“Hey, I resent that!” Nick protested.

“I think you resemble that comment more than you resent it,” I said.

We went over to the crossing and waited for the light to change. I kept one eye on the signal and the other on the van. The last thing I wanted was for it to take off when we weren’t looking. It remained at the curb while the light changed and we crossed. It wasn’t going anywhere.

As we got closer, I got a better look at the van. It was pretty beat-up with dents, bangs and rust spots. A big crack in the windshield radiated like a spiderweb. The logo on the side of the vehicle — ZOO CAMP — looked as if it was painted by the same person who had created the brochure. Different letters were different sizes, and the edges weren’t clear or clean.

“Nobody’s here,” Nick said.

“Maybe they’re inside the airport looking for us,” Samantha said. She still believed we should have waited inside and didn’t want to admit I was right in suggesting we come out.

“Maybe they are inside,” I agreed. “But if we wait right here, they’re bound to come back. We’ll just wait here and —
ahhh
!” I screamed as I recoiled from the van.

A man had suddenly appeared in the driver’s seat! I stumbled farther back. The man’s head and face were a tangled mat of hair, beard and moustache. He opened the door and climbed out of the truck. He was gigantic, and I took a few more steps away, almost tripping over my luggage. The man was dressed in dirty old jeans and a T-shirt and had black rubber boots on his feet.

“You kids look for zoo camp?” he asked in a heavy accent.

Everybody nodded.

“Climb in van.”

We all hesitated. How did we even know he was the staff person?

“Hurry, hurry,” he said, gesturing with his hands.

Nobody moved. He paused, and his face twisted into a thoughtful look. “Don’t be afraid. Nothing to fear. I am Vladimir,” he said, pointing to his chest. “From camp. You are —” He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. “Danny, Samantha, Sarah and Nicolai.”

“Nick,” my brother said. “It’s Nick.”

“In English it is Nick. In Russia it is Nicolai, like Czar Nicolai.”

“What’s a czar?” Nick asked.

“It means like a president or a prime minister,” I said.

“More like a king,” Samantha said, correcting me. “They were the royal family of Russia.”

“I like that,” Nick said. “Royalty. King Nicolai.”

“You’re more like the court jester,” I said.

“Come, I take your bags,” Vladimir said.

With one hand he grabbed Danny’s bag and tucked it under his arm, then took one of Samantha’s bags and Nick’s. The way he picked them up you would have thought they were empty. He tossed them into the back of the van, turned around, grabbed my suitcase and did the same.

“You get in the van,” Vladimir instructed us.

Nick pulled open the sliding door and climbed in, with Danny following. I was just about to open the passenger door when Samantha grabbed it and climbed into the seat. I was going to sit there! She should be sitting in the back — she’s younger than me. I looked back at Vladimir securing the luggage. Maybe it would be better not to sit right beside him. I climbed in and took the middle seat.

The inside of the van wasn’t much better than the outside. The seats were old, ripped and made of some sort of fake blue leather that felt sticky in the heat. I shouldn’t complain. At least we were in the right place, or at least in the right place to get to the right place. Well, at least I was pretty sure this was the right place. He must work for the zoo camp — although what if he didn’t? What if he was some deranged mental patient who had killed the staff person, or stolen the van, or just painted his van to look like this? That would explain the paint job. But how would he know our names if he wasn’t from the camp?

Vladimir climbed into the driver’s seat and plopped down. He turned the key, and the engine coughed and sputtered and tried hard to start — but didn’t. Vladimir mumbled something in a language I didn’t understand. Maybe it was Russian. He tried the engine again and it made a grinding sound. He said something else. This time, even though I still didn’t understand the words, I figured I knew what he was saying.

Suddenly the engine came to life with a roar, and Vladimir laughed and slammed his fist against the dashboard. Samantha and I both jumped.

“Old truck,” he said. “Old like my grandmother … but not strong like my grandmother.” He turned the wheel and steered the truck into traffic. It chugged and rocked as he changed gears.

“Is the camp far from here?” I asked.

“Not far,” he said. “Fifteen, twenty minutes drive.”

“We would be there already if you’d come in to get us,” Samantha said. She certainly had a lot of nerve.

“I had to wait by truck. Parking at the airport is expensive. Free if I stay by truck. I knew you would come out sooner or later.”

“But we didn’t see you when we first came out,” I said.

“I fell asleep. Last night was a very late night. No sleep,” Vladimir said.

“You didn’t sleep last night?” Samantha asked.

He shook his head. “Working all night.”

“You were working all night?” I questioned. “Couldn’t whatever it is have waited until today?”

“I asked the lion. She said no. She wanted to have babies in the night.”

“One of your lions had a cub!” I almost yelled.

“Not
a
cub. Four babies.”

“Wow! That’s wonderful!”

“It is the season for babies.”

“And you actually got to watch a lion give birth?” Nick said, sounding amazed.

“Not watch. Help,” Vladimir said.

“You
helped
her?” Now it was my turn to be amazed.

He nodded.

“Are you a veterinarian?” Samantha asked.

Vladimir burst into laughter and the whole van seemed to shake. “I am not doctor of animals.”

“But wouldn’t it have been better to have a qualified veterinarian there in case something went wrong?” Samantha pressed.

“Vets are for pets … for poodles. For
real
animals, you need real animal man.”

“Like Mr. McCurdy!” Nick exclaimed.

Vladimir’s look was questioning.

“He’s a friend of ours,” I explained.

“And your friend is an animal man?” Vladimir asked.

“Are you kidding?” Nick said. “He has a tiger, a chimpanzee, a big Burmese python and a cheetah.”

“Cheetah? He has a cheetah?” Vladimir asked.

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Her name’s Laura.”

“Cheetahs are not common. Where did he get a cheetah?”

“He raised her, and her mother, and lots of other cheetahs —”

“He raised cheetahs?” Vladimir interrupted, practically turning around in his seat to look at me. “Nobody has cheetah babies.”

“Practically nobody. Mr. McCurdy did, though,” I said, pointing at the windshield. “The road!”

“I see road. And this man has a zoo?”

“It’s not a zoo. Mr. McCurdy and his animals live on the farm right beside our farm.”

“And he raises cheetahs on the farm?”

“Not on the farm. He did that when he was with the circus,” I said.

“Circus!” Vladimir bellowed. “Like Vladimir! I worked in the circus in Russia!”

“Mr. McCurdy always said how exciting it was to do that sort of work. I bet it would be even more exciting to work in a Russian circus,” I said.

“I would like to meet this man who raised cheetahs. Can I meet?”

“Sure, he likes visitors, and I bet he’d like to meet another circus man,” I said.

“How far away does he live?” Vladimir asked.