Tiger Town (2 page)

“Nick, I am very, very sorry that I offended you in any way by implying that either your sanity or intelligence was in question.”

“What? What does that mean?”

What it meant was that he was too stupid to understand what I’d just said. “It means that I’m sorry I said you were stupid or crazy.”

“Oh, good,” he replied. “In that case, I’ll help.”

I put the mop away and looked at the finished result. The floor was clean. The table was clean. The counters were clean. The furniture was back in its regular place and the cupboards were properly organized. I didn’t remember ever seeing Mr. McCurdy’s kitchen looking this good. Or, for that matter, any part of his house. Mr. McCurdy was a wonderful guy, but he wasn’t much better at organization than Calvin was. His house always had more of a “lived-in” look — although it had certainly gotten better over the past year. Since we’d been coming around, I’d been helping to tidy up sometimes.

“There, finished,” I said proudly. “It looks perfect.”

“Maybe too perfect,” Nick replied.

“How can it look too perfect?”

“Personally I’d get suspicious if I saw anything that looked this good. I’d wonder what was being hidden. Maybe we should mess it up a little.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about messing it up,” I suggested. “Calvin will take care of that all by himself.”

The chimp was sitting on the floor with his back against the cupboards, drinking his second can of Coke. The first, empty and crunched, was sitting on the floor beside him.

“You better put that in the garbage can,” I warned him.

Calvin reached down and picked it up.

“See,” I said to Nick, “he can be taught to be tidy.”

Calvin wound up and whipped the can across the room. I ducked as it soared over my head and smacked into the wall right beside Polly. A flash of flustered feathers flew into the air, and he soared out of the room, squawking and swearing.

I gave Calvin a dirty look but didn’t say anything. He shouldn’t have thrown the can at Polly, but he didn’t hit him. Besides, there had been a couple of times when I wanted to toss something at that rude bird myself.

“Did you hear that?” Nick asked.

I turned to listen. It was the sound of gravel crunching underneath tires. It had to be Mom.

“What time is it?” I asked. My watch was still on the table beside my bed.

Nick looked at his wrist. “Almost nine.”

“Nine! I didn’t know it was that late. Mom was supposed to be here around eight. I wonder why she’s so late?”

“Let’s find out.” Nick raced for the door and I hurried after him. He went through first, letting it slam shut with a loud thud. I pushed it open and skidded to a stop, bumping into Nick who stood just couple of metres from the door. Why had he stopped? Then I saw the reason. The car coming up the driveway wasn’t our mother’s — it was a police cruiser!

Normally I didn’t mind the police. That was, I didn’t mind them anywhere except at Mr. McCurdy’s farm. My few dealings with them here had always been a problem — things like the mayor ordering them to remove Mr. McCurdy’s animals. Thank goodness that had all ended well.

“I wonder what the police want,” Nick said.

“Probably nothing,” I said, hoping I knew what I was talking about.

“Yeah, right, the cops are coming out here to say hello.”

The car came to a halt. “I guess we won’t have to wait long to find out.”

The driver’s door opened and out popped an officer. It was the captain! He was second-in-command of the whole police department. We’d first gotten to know him when Mr. McCurdy’s tiger, Buddha, had escaped. He was a pretty decent guy, but he was still a police officer, and he made me more than a little nervous. He wouldn’t be out here unless it was for something important.

The passenger door opened and …

“Mom?”

“What’s our mother doing in a police car?” Nick asked. He sounded as confused as I was.

“I don’t know.” I couldn’t think of an explanation that was even remotely possible.

“You don’t think she’s been arrested, do you?” Nick asked.

“Of course not! Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Sarah! Nick!” she yelled as she came toward us, waving a hand in the air. She gave us both a big hug. “I want you to know that I’m all right,” she said in a serious voice.

A bolt of electricity shot up my spine. “What do you mean you’re all right? Why wouldn’t you be all right? What happened?” I demanded.

“Nothing, nothing really.”

“It must have been something, or you wouldn’t have said you were all right!” I cried.

“Sarah, it was just a little accident.”

“What sort of accident?”

“It was nothing … just a little car accident.”

“Oh, my gosh! A car accident! That’s awful, are you injured? Are you —”

“Sarah, she’s fine … remember?” Nick said.

“How did it happen?” I asked.

“I drove the car into a ditch.”

“How did you do that?” Nick asked.

“I was on my way here when a deer darted out in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and —”

“Did you hit it?” I asked.

“It’s fine. I missed it.”

“Both your mother and the deer were lucky,” the captain said. “Deer get hit by cars all the time. Besides killing the deer, it can really damage the car.”

“How’s our car?” Nick asked.

“It sustained some damage,” Mom said.

“But I thought you missed the deer?”

“I missed the deer, but I hit the ditch. The car had to be towed to town to be repaired.”

“That’s where I got involved,” the captain said. “I heard the call for the tow truck over the radio and I went out to investigate.”

“And you arrested our mother?” Nick asked.

“Of course not!” Mom exclaimed.

“Then why are you in his car?”

“I mentioned that I had to come out here and check on the two of you before I went into town, and Martin offered to give me a ride.”

“Martin?” Nick and I both asked in unison.

“That’s my first name,” the captain said. “I have a first name, you know.”

“Of course … we knew you probably did … I mean, definitely … Captain.”

“Actually you shouldn’t call me Captain anymore,” he said.

“You want us to call you Martin?” I asked in amazement.

“From what I’ve just been told, I think that Chief would be more appropriate,” our mother said.

“Chief? You’re in charge of things?”

He laughed. “You sound shocked. Don’t you think I can run everything?”

“No! Yes! It’s just I thought that old guy was the chief, and I was just —”

“I’m joking,” he said, cutting me off.

“You were? You mean you’re not the chief?” I asked.

“Oh, no, that I was serious about. I meant about giving you a hard time.”

“Oh … sure.”

“My daughter says I have to learn to smile more when I’m kidding around. She tells me I scare people,” Martin said.

“I didn’t know you had kids,” Nick said.

“Just one. She’s about your age. She lives with her mother a few hours away from here, so I don’t get to see her as much as I’d like, mainly holidays and during the summer.”

“Is she here now?” Nick asked.

“She was for the first part of the summer, but she’s back at her mother’s now.”

I guessed all that meant he was divorced or separated or something. I didn’t want to talk about any of that stuff. It had been almost two years since our parents separated, but it was still too close to the surface.

“What happened to the old chief?” I asked, changing the subject. “Did he retire?”

“Technically he hasn’t, so I guess I’m still the acting chief.”

Nick chuckled. “It looked like he’d retired a few years ago, but somebody forgot to mention it to him.”

“Nicholas!” my mother exclaimed. “That is not a very nice thing to say!”

“That’s okay, Ellen,” the captain — acting chief — said. “The old chief was an outstanding police officer in his time, but that time has passed him by. He’s gotten a little long in the tooth.”

“Long in the tooth? What does that mean?” Nick asked.

“Old,” I said.

“How about ancient?” Nick said.

“He’s coming up to his seventy-fifth birthday,” the acting chief said.

“If he’s that old, why doesn’t he retire?”

“He will, on his birthday, in two months.”

“But he’s not really in charge of things now, is he?” Nick asked.

“He remains the chief, but all decisions must be reviewed and approved by me.”

“That’s good to know,” I said. I remembered my only experience dealing with the old chief. He’d been yelling and screaming and giving orders that didn’t make sense.

“He was a good man, but sometimes age catches up to people.” The acting chief paused. “By the way, how old is Mr. McCurdy?”

“He’s seventy-five,” my mother said.

“But a really young seventy-five,” I quickly added. “There’s nothing catching up to him. He’s fine!”

“Yeah, not only is he not long in the tooth, he doesn’t even have many teeth,” Nick added.

My mother and the acting chief both laughed.

“He certainly seems pretty quick to me,” the acting chief said. “Lots of people at his age are still very vital. He’s an example of somebody who can get older and maintain all his faculties.”

“Faculties?” Nick asked.

“Brains … senses … thinking,” I explained.

“He’s still got all of those for sure,” Nick said. “He’s one of the best thinkers I know. Heck, he’s even smarter than me.”

I had the urge to say something, but wisely kept my mouth shut.

“Yes,” my mother agreed, “he is a very bright man. It’s a shame he never had more formal education.” Mr. McCurdy had run away from home when he was kid and joined the circus. He’d become an animal trainer and, when he retired, he came back to the family farm and brought with him some of his circus animals, including Laura, Calvin, Polly and a couple of others.

“Where’s Mr. McCurdy now?” the acting chief asked.

“He’s gone for a few days,” I answered cautiously, trying to be deliberately vague. There was something about being asked questions by a person in uniform that made this process seem less like a casual conversation.

“He went to get some more animals,” Nick said.

So much for being vague.

“Not that many,” I added, trying to deflect the conversation.

“It’s actually a fascinating story,” our mother said, beaming. “Sarah, would you like to tell it to Martin?”

Not really, and I didn’t want anybody else to tell him, either. “I’m sure he has more important things to do than listen to me tell some boring story.”

He shrugged. “I was off-duty a half hour ago. The only thing on my schedule for the next few hours is dropping your mother off and going home and getting some sleep. I have time.”

“It’s not that interesting.”

“Sarah, don’t be so modest. It’s a simply fascinating story!” Mom said.

“I’ll tell him,” Nick volunteered.

“No!” I snapped. “I’ll do it.” The last thing I wanted was for Nick to tell him. Nick was a great storyteller, and I didn’t want this story to become more exciting than it already was. We’d kept some of the details from our mother: things like us sneaking into the owners’ house; how there had been men who were trying to slaughter the tiger and sell its body parts; and how Nick, me, Vladimir and Mr. McCurdy had tricked them. Actually we’d kept most of the story from her.

“Nick and I went away to camp this summer,” I began.

“An exotic animal camp,” Nick added.

“Interesting,” the acting chief said. “I didn’t know they had camps like that.”

“Neither did we,” I said.

“It was a present from their father,” my mother said coldly. “It was one of his typically inspired ideas.” The only thing that impressed her less than my father was his ideas. “The least he could have done was come out east to see them but —”

“Am I going to tell this story or not?” I asked sharply. I was pretty annoyed at my father myself, because it had been over a month since he’d even called us, but that didn’t give her the right to pick on him. I was the only one who had that right, and I certainly wasn’t going to do it in front of somebody who was practically a stranger.

“Please go on, Sarah,” she said.

“Thank you. Anyway, Nick and I were at this camp, and it wasn’t very well run, so it was being closed. There was no place for the animals to go, so Mr. McCurdy offered to let them stay here at the farm.” What I chose not to say was that Vladimir inherited all the animals after we tricked the old owner — who wanted to sell off the animals — but he had no place to take them until Mr. McCurdy offered his farm.

“Isn’t that something?” my mother asked. “Most kids go to camp and come home with a necklace or a T-shirt they made in craft time, but my kids brought back a tiger!”

“Another tiger?” the acting chief asked.

“He’s an old tiger,” I said.

“But big! Even bigger than Buddha!” Nick said excitedly. “And there’s Boo Boo the bear, and the two leopards and —”

“And Vladimir,” I said.

“What sort of animal is Vladimir?” the acting chief asked.

Nick and I both started to laugh.

“Vladimir’s a man,” Nick said.

“Really, the animals are Vladimir’s, and they’ll only be here for a while. He’s from Russia and he’s a real expert on animals and he’s never had any problems with them and he’ll be helping Mr. McCurdy and you know that Mr. McCurdy takes good care of his animals and —”

“Sarah,” the acting chief said, “just take a deep breath and slow down. It’s okay. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Sarah always has to worry about something,” Nick said.

“Well, she doesn’t have to worry about this. I’m the acting chief of police, not the animal-control officer. I don’t care if he has a whole zoo full of animals here at his farm.”

“That’s great,” I said, exhaling.

“I’d be interested in seeing the animals and meeting this Vladimir. He probably has lots of stories to tell.”

“His English isn’t so good so he doesn’t talk that much,” I said. His English was actually pretty good and he loved to talk and tell stories but I still figured it was better to keep the two apart. Nothing good could come from Martin hearing stories.

“Did you two just get up?” Mom asked.

“No, we’ve been up for a while,” Nick said.

“Then why are you both still in your pyjamas?” she asked.

We’d been working so hard and then rushed out so quickly when we heard the car coming that I hadn’t even thought about what we were wearing. Thank goodness I hadn’t worn my fuzzy, comfy pyjamas with the sewn-in feet.