Tiger Town (6 page)

“Get moving!” Mr. McCurdy yelled, and we turned to see another deer — no, two deer — at the top of the ramp. They bounded down the ramp and skidded to a halt on the grass.

Nick waved his hat above his head and yelled. The deer jumped into the air and dashed down the corridor. They entered the pen quickly and joined the big buck in the middle of the field. Again, exactly what we’d hoped for. There wasn’t much time to celebrate, though, because another deer was already coming down the ramp. It ran along the corridor in a dozen strides, hitting the pen and stopping among the others that were already grazing.

Deer were such herd animals it made sense that it would get easier with each one. They’d each want to run to the increasingly large cluster of deer already waiting in the pen so they could rejoin the herd.

Two more deer thundered past me toward the pen, then another, and another, and another. I looked back at the trailer and saw more deer getting ready to come down — and there were Sarah and Samantha! The rest of the deer all wanted to join up with the herd. They trotted past us toward the pen, with Sarah and Samantha running along behind the last of the big deer.

“Way to go, girls!” I yelled at them, and they both slowed to a stop. The bigger of the two — Sarah — turned and lifted her head, sniffing the air. Then she started to move back toward me, and Samantha followed.

“They remember you, Sarah!” Nick cried.

“Of course, they remember me! I’m their mother!”

They both stopped right in front of me. It looked as if they wanted to come closer but were frightened by the fluttering clothes.

“It’s okay, girls, your mommy’s here,” I said as I reached through the line and tried to rub them behind the ears. They didn’t move. They were frozen there, wanting to get closer to me but afraid of the laundry.

“Get moving, ya big dumb beasts!” Mr. McCurdy shouted.

I looked up. Two gigantic buffalo were at the top of the ramp, their heads sticking out of the trailer. A third appeared. Mr. McCurdy smacked one of them with his hat, and the buffalo jumped, its back legs kicking out behind it! Then all three came charging down the ramp, their hooves thundering and — my girls! They were right in the path of the buffalo! They’d be crushed!

“Sarah! Samantha!” I screamed.

Before I could think what to do next, Nick scrambled across the narrow corridor. He pushed the two little deer, propelling them out of the way and under the line, just as the three buffalo came charging past us, their hooves throwing up divots of grass behind them.

“Nick, are you all right?” I gasped as I grabbed him and tried to pull him to his feet.

“I’m fine … I’m okay,” he said, standing. “The girls … are they all right?”

They were beside me, their little mouths working desperately to try to suckle the fingers on one of my hands.

“They’re okay, too.”

“That’s what’s important,” Nick said.

“You could have gotten yourself killed!” I yelled. He would have been just as dead as the deer if a buffalo had trampled him or kicked him in the head.

“But I didn’t, now did I?”

“But you could have.”

“If I didn’t do it, the girls would have been killed,” Nick argued.

I shook my head. “That was just about the most stubborn, unthinking, stupid, bone-headed, brave thing I’ve ever seen,” I said, reaching over, throwing my arms around his shoulders and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Why’d you do that?” Nick demanded, wiping away my kiss with the back of his hand.

“I just wanted to thank you,” I said.

“Next time you really want to thank me, don’t give me a kiss. Give me cash.”

I bent down and put an arm around each little deer. They snuggled into me and began to lick my face. At least somebody thought it was okay to kiss me.

“Peanuts!” Nick shouted.

I glanced up. Vladimir was leading the elephant out of the trailer. They started down the ramp, and it sagged badly under the weight of the big man and the much bigger animal. It looked as if it might break … and then they reached the safety of the grass.

“Can I ride him?” Nick yelled as he rushed toward them.

“Nicki, you love Peanuts! Come, ride the elephant!” Vladimir grabbed Nick, effortlessly lifted him off the ground and tossed him on top of the elephant.

Nick’s face broke into a huge smile. Vladimir wasn’t joking about Nick loving Peanuts. That’s all he’d spoken about for days. In fact, he’d been talking about it so much that a couple of times I’d wanted to tell him to put a sock in it, but I didn’t. Riding Peanuts at camp had been one of the highlights of Nick’s summer — maybe his whole life. Now Peanuts was going to be living right next door.

“Nicki, do you remember the commands to make Peanuts go and do things?” Vladimir asked.

“Do birds fly?” Nick asked.

Vladimir shrugged. “Some birds fly. Others no fly. Penguins swim and ostriches run.” Vladimir’s English was pretty good, but he still missed some things, especially humour or sarcasm.

“Does Nicki remember?” Vladimir asked again.

“Yes, of course,” Nick answered.

Nick leaned forward and put his head by one of the elephant’s big ears. He said something, not loud enough for me to hear, but obviously loud enough for the elephant. Peanuts performed a little bow, and Vladimir clapped his hands in appreciation.

“Do you fellas think you could wait till all the animals are safe before you start playing around?” Mr. McCurdy barked from the back of the trailer.

“The trailer is empty and —”

“The buffalo!” Nick screamed.

I turned around. The three big buffalo had come back out of the pen and were pushing up against the lines. They were trying to get away!

Vladimir rushed toward them, yelling and waving his hands. All three of the beasts turned to face him. He’d gotten their attention, but instead of running back into the pen, they just stared at him. One of them — the big male — began to paw the ground! Was it going to charge? Vladimir skidded to a stop. Thank goodness he wasn’t going to butt heads with the buffalo.

“Nicki!” Vladimir yelled. “Make elephant come forward and charge at buffalo!”

“Nicholas, no!” I cried. “You can’t —”

My words were lost in the pounding of Peanuts’ feet against the ground as he lumbered straight at the buffalo. The buffalo spun around, and all three of them galloped through the opening and back into the pen. Vladimir jumped in front of the elephant, and Peanuts stopped at the entrance.

“Good boy, Peanuts! Good boy, Nicki!” Vladimir called out. He quickly took the roll of fencing and started sealing off the opening to keep the animals inside. Mr. McCurdy hurried over — I was always amazed at how fast those old legs of his could move when they needed to. In a matter of minutes he had the fencing in place and had used metal ties to secure it.

I walked over, and the two little deer — bigger than they had been just two weeks ago — bounced into the back of my legs and almost knocked me over. I regained my balance and went to Mr. McCurdy’s side.

“We were lucky those buffalo were afraid of Peanuts,” Nick said.

“All buffalo are afraid of bigger buffalo and an elephant is just a bigger buffalo to them,” Vladimir said.

“I thought Peanuts was going in there, too,” I said.

“A pen is no good for Peanuts,” Vladimir said. “He would not like it, and would just walk through the fence. Peanuts will stay in another place.”

“How about my house?” Nick suggested. “We have a two-car garage and only one car and —”

“I was thinking the barn would be plenty good for Peanuts,” Mr. McCurdy said.

“With Buddha?” I questioned.

“Peanuts can be up on the main level. There’s plenty of straw and a big open space he can have all to himself.”

“Is that floor strong enough to hold him?” I asked. There were places where it seemed to sag even under my weight.

“There’re a couple of spots that need to be shored up.”

“What about the holes in the roof and the missing boards?” I questioned.

“Neither of those is a problem for now. We’ll fix ’em up before winter. He’ll be okay in there. Nick, you want Vladimir to lead the elephant, or do you want to ride him to the barn?”

“You joking?” Nick asked in amazement.

Vladimir turned to me. “Big girl Sarah, do you want to ride the elephant with your baby brother?”

I shook my head. “I think I’m fine just walking. Besides, I want my girls to stay with me.”

“Aren’t they going into the pen tonight?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

“Maybe tonight, but not right now. I want to visit with them for a while. I think they missed me.”

Mr. McCurdy laughed. “I think they missed you just about as much as you missed them. Bring ’em up to the house with you. We all need to get some grub.”

As we strolled along the lane, I thought that if anybody was watching us, we’d make a pretty strange sight: a boy atop a large grey elephant leading the way, followed by an old man, a man as big as a bear and a girl with two little deer. Quite the parade.

“Nicki!” Vladimir yelled. “Slow Peanuts down!” He did seem to be getting quite a bit ahead of us.

“I’m trying!” Nick shouted back over his shoulder. “He isn’t listening!”

It looked as if they were pulling even farther away from us. The elephant wasn’t moving his legs very fast, but his strides were so large that each one ate up lots of ground. They were getting farther and farther away.

“Peanuts!” Vladimir screamed as he ran to catch them.

What was happening? Why wasn’t the elephant stopping? Was Nick in any danger?

“He’s headed for the pond!” Mr. McCurdy called out. The pond was right beside the barn. It wasn’t that large — or clean. The water was dark and had lots of greenish algae growing in it.

“He must still be thirsty,” I said.

We watched as the elephant picked up speed, Nick bouncing on top of him. Vladimir was chasing after them and … there was a gigantic splash as Peanuts charged into the pond!

“Nick!” I screamed. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. Oh, my gosh … what had happened to my brother? Was he hurt? Was he trapped underneath the elephant? Had he been thrown free? Was he …? And then I saw Nick. He was standing in the shallow water at the edge of the pond. Vladimir waded in and put an arm around him, helping him out of the water. Nick sat on the grass beside the pond.

“Nick, are you all right?” I cried as I rushed over and threw my arms around him.

“Will you stop with the hugging stuff?” he said, brushing me away with wet arms. He coughed loudly and spit up a little bit of water.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “I just swallowed some water.”

“You could have been killed!” I exclaimed.

“I’m okay, Sarah. Don’t make more of this than it is. I just had a little water go down the wrong way. Haven’t you ever had that happen?”

“Not when I was in a pond with an elephant. I was scared. I thought something had happened to you!”

“Something did happen. Something really cool,” he said, gesturing to Peanuts. The elephant was in the middle of the pond with only the top of his head sticking out. He was spraying water into the air with his trunk.

“Cool? You think that was cool? You can’t tell me you weren’t just a little bit scared.”

“Me? Scared?” he asked, sounding confused.

“Come on, Nick. You’d have to be completely stupid not to be scared! Okay, maybe you are stupid enough not to be.”

Nick snorted. “You’re just saying that because you’re jealous.”

“Jealous!” I yelled. “Jealous of what?”

“You didn’t get to go in the pond with Peanuts.”

“Did you hit your head or something?”

He smiled. “It was like being on a ride at an amusement park. You know, like Mr. Elephant’s Wild Ride, except for real. It was so cool.”

I turned to Vladimir. “Why did Peanuts do that?”

“Peanuts smelled water and needed to drink more and get cool,” Vladimir said. “It was too hot in the trailer for Peanuts. Poor elephant.”

“Everybody okay?” Mr. McCurdy asked as he finally reached us.

“Nicki good, Peanuts good,” Vladimir said.

Mr. McCurdy reached down and patted Nick on the head. “Take more than an elephant to crack a coconut as thick as this one.”

Peanuts certainly looked good. And happy. I didn’t know if elephants could smile, but it appeared as if he were smiling. He kept dipping his trunk into the water and spraying it into the air.

“Do you know what I’d like to do now?” Nick asked.

“Take a bath to get rid of the slime, change clothes and eat?” I asked.

“That would be good, but I’d like to do one thing first.” He paused, and a big grin split his face. “I’d like to try that ride one more time, but this time I’d try to stay on top of the elephant when he hit the water.”

Vladimir and Mr. McCurdy burst into laughter — one a deep, booming laugh, the other a raspy, cackling chuckle. The terrible thing was I was pretty sure Nick was just joking around, but I wasn’t one hundred percent certain.

I looked up from my book to see a car coming up the driveway. It was a sleek, sporty, red number with tinted windows. I closed the book and put it on the chair as I got up. I’d been feeling guilty, anyway, reading while everybody else was busy working, but somebody had to watch Peanuts. He’d shown no willingness to leave the pond, and until he was out and put away in the barn, somebody had to be there. My two deer, who had been lying on the grass beside me, got up and trailed after me.

The car stopped right behind the second of the big trucks. I wondered who it could be. The door opened, and Mom stepped out. She’d mentioned she’d have to rent a car while ours was being fixed. Pretty snazzy. I waved to her, and she started walking in my direction. I decided to meet her partway. I’d still be able to keep an eye on Peanuts from there.

“So these are your girls,” she said.

“These are them. The big one — this one — is Sarah, and the other is Samantha.”

“They’re beautiful, and a lot bigger than I expected them to be.”

“They’re a lot bigger than I thought they were going to be. They’ve really grown over the past couple of weeks.”

“They seem pretty attached to you,” Mom said.

“Shouldn’t babies be attached to their mother?” I asked.

“I always thought that was the way it should be,” she said with a smile. “I assume Mr. McCurdy must be here. Did he come with those trucks?”

“They held the animals. Mr. McCurdy drove one and Vladimir the other.”

“It’s nice he’s home earlier than expected. Does that mean you and Nick will be coming home tonight?”

“We’ll be home for the night, but we’ll have to be right back here tomorrow. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

She crinkled her face. “It didn’t look like you were working too hard.”

“I wasn’t working hard, but I was working,” I assured her.

“And just what were you doing that would qualify as work?”

“I was watching — I am watching — Peanuts.”

“Peanuts … Peanuts the elephant?” She’d heard Nick talking about the elephant enough to know it by name.

I nodded. “He’s right over there in the pond.”

Mom walked with me to the edge of the water. Peanuts was still almost completely submerged. All that was sticking out of the water was the very tip of his trunk. He was using it like a snorkel, to breathe while staying underwater.

“There’s an elephant under there?” Mom asked.

“A big elephant.”

“Why is he in the pond?”

“Elephants like water. He was hot and thirsty after being in the trailer, and I guess he just wanted to go for a swim.”

I knew better — a lot better — than to tell her who was on top of the elephant when he took his dip. I just hoped Nick was smart enough to keep that little piece of information to himself, as well. If he didn’t, that might be his last ride on the elephant.

“How long has he been in there?” she asked.

I looked at my watch. It was almost five o’clock. “About four hours.”

“And how long will he be in there?”

“I guess that’s up to Peanuts.”

“I see. Where’s your brother and Mr. McCurdy?”

“They’re in the barn with Vladimir, getting things ready to transfer the cats from the trailer to their new pens,” I said.

“Is that going to happen today?” She sounded anxious, as if she didn’t want to be here if it was going to happen now. She probably didn’t want Nick or me to be here, either.

“They need to have more materials to get the pens ready before they move the animals. I don’t think that’ll happen until tomorrow at the earliest. Speaking of early, why are you here so early?”

“I brought dinner for you and Nick.” She held up a bag. “Chinese.”

“That’s great. Is there enough for Mr. McCurdy and Vladimir?” I asked.

“I didn’t know they’d be here, or I would have brought more. Maybe since Mr. McCurdy is here, I can take the two of you home to eat. Or the four of you could share.”

“I think I’d rather eat here and — four of us? What about you?”

“I’m not going to be eating with you. I have to meet somebody for dinner.”

“A business meeting on a Friday night?” I asked.

“Not business. It’s sort of a date.”

“Sort of a date? Is it or isn’t it a date, and with whom?”

“It’s nothing really. Martin invited me to join him for dinner.”

“You’re going to dinner with the captain — I mean, the acting chief?”

“Is there anything wrong with that?” she asked. “He seems like a nice man.”

“Sure, he seems nice, but he’s the acting chief of police,” I explained.

“So?”

“So I don’t know.” It just didn’t seem right. Did policemen go out on dates? Did they eat?

“Maybe I should say hello to Mr. McCurdy,” Mom said. “And I’m eager to meet Vladimir before I go.”

“They’re in the barn. How about if you go down and get them? I’ll stay here with Peanuts and —”

“Hey!” Nick yelled, coming up the path. Mr. McCurdy, Vladimir and Calvin were right behind him. There was something about seeing a chimpanzee ambling along that always brought a smile to my face.

“Have you seen my elephant?” Nick called out.

“I’ve seen parts of the elephant,” Mom said, ignoring the part about it being Nick’s elephant.

“How are you doing, Ellen?” Mr. McCurdy said.

“I’m doing fine, Angus. And you?” she asked as she gave him a hug.

“Good as can be.” He paused. “Now where are my manners? Ellen, this is Vladimir.”

Vladimir stepped forward, bowed slightly, and they shook hands. “Most pleased to meet you. I am Vladimir … Vladimir Markov.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Ellen Fraser.”

Vladimir still held my mother’s hand. “Fraser, like in last name of big girl Sarah and Nicki?”

“We share the same last name because I’m their mother.”

“No, cannot be!” Vladimir said. “Cannot be mother … too young.”

My mother looked as if she was blushing.

“But could be big sister of big girl Sarah. You look like her. Pretty like big girl Sarah.” Now I felt myself start to blush.

“That’s kind of you to say, Mr. Markov.”

“Not Mr. Markov … Vladimir! Please call me Vladimir!”

“And you can call me Ellen.”

“And now I know you are mother of wonderful big girl Sarah and Nicki I must do this!” Vladimir pulled my mother toward him and wrapped his arms around her, lifted her off the ground and gave her a big kiss on first one cheek and then the other. He released her. She looked completely shocked. Vladimir turned to Mr. McCurdy. “Is fine to hug and kiss women, no?”

“A lot better than hugging me,” Mr. McCurdy said, cackling.

“Good, good.” He turned back to my mother. “Your kids are wonderful! Smart, kind, they care for animals! Very brave and —”

“Brave?” she asked.

“Very brave!”

The last thing I wanted was for him to tell our mother anything more than she needed to know about what had happened at the animal camp.

“He means around animals,” I said, butting in. “You know how we’re not afraid of animals — especially Nick.”

She nodded but didn’t look convinced. I thought I’d better change the subject before she asked anything more, or Vladimir volunteered something.

“Mom brought us dinner,” I said, pointing at the plastic bag she was still holding. Mentioning food always seemed to distract people.

“Food, all right! What did you bring?” Nick asked as he tried to look in the bag.

“Chinese food, but I’m afraid I didn’t bring enough. I didn’t know Angus was back with Mr. Mar— Vladimir.”

“But we can share what you brought, and I can make up something to go along with it for all of us,” I said.

“That’s okay, Sarah. We wouldn’t want to be any troub—” Mr. McCurdy began.

“The only trouble would be if you didn’t eat with us. We’re sharing and that’s that!” I stated loudly.

Mr. McCurdy looked as if he was going to argue but didn’t.

Vladimir shrugged. “I will not argue about food. The important thing is not what is eaten but who it is eaten with.” He turned to my mother. “Will you be eating with us?”

“Not tonight,” she said. “I have a prior engagement.”

“Engagement?” Vladimir asked. “What is that?”

“Sort of like a date,” I said.

“Oh, you have a date?” Vladimir said to my mother. “You have a boyfriend?”

“Not a boyfriend,” she said. “I’m just having dinner.”

“Who with?” Nick asked.

“The acting chief of police,” I said.

“You’re eating with him?” Nick gasped.

“Why do my children seem so surprised by that?”

“Well, he does seem mighty old for you,” Mr. McCurdy said. “He’s practically my age.”

“Not the old chief,” my mother explained. “The new chief is the old captain.”

“So they finally replaced that old bird.”

“He’s retiring, and the captain replaced him,” I said. “It’s not official yet, so he’s still the acting chief for another couple of months.”

“He seemed like a decent enough fella … especially there at the end. You want the kids to stay here tonight?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

“No, they might as well sleep at home,” Mom said.

“It’s just if you’re going to be out really late —”

“I won’t be out that late,” she said. “We’re just having dinner. I’ll be home early enough to tuck them both into bed.”

I didn’t really want to be tucked in by anybody, but it would be good to be home in my own bed tonight — and to have her there with us.

Mom looked at her watch. “In fact, we’re having an early dinner, so I should go home to change, and get to the restaurant.” She was standing with her back toward the pond, and as she stood there, Peanuts stuck his head out of the water and began to emerge slowly.

“Do you want to see all the new animals before you go?” Nick asked.

“I’d like to, but I don’t think I have time right now.”

Nick, who was standing beside me, could see Peanuts as well as I could. “How about if you just see one animal, one big animal?”

Peanuts continued to move forward. Vladimir and Mr. McCurdy were facing away, as well, so it was only Nick and I who could see Peanuts.

“I’d love to, Nick, but I really don’t want to rush things. How about if I drive the two of you back here tomorrow? Then I’ll have time to see the animals —”

Just then, my mother was blasted in the back of the head by a stream of filthy water that Peanuts sprayed out of his trunk! She staggered forward, practically falling. Vladimir reached out and grabbed her, stopping her from tumbling over.

“Bad elephant!” Vladimir yelled.

Peanuts trumpeted, sounding like something out of a Tarzan movie. My mother turned around, saw the elephant and jumped backward, away from him.

“Very bad elephant!” Vladimir waved his hands and started toward Peanuts, who retreated into the water. He went deeper and deeper until only his trunk and the top of his head were sticking out of the water again.

I looked at my mother. Her hair was plastered to her head and her clothes — at least the back of her clothes — were soaked. That wasn’t good. She was wearing one of her court outfits, an expensive tailored black skirt suit. Maybe it was ruined. Hopefully it just needed to be dry cleaned.

“Are you okay, Mom?” I asked.

“I’m … I’m … An elephant just spit at me.”

“No, no, it didn’t spit. It sort of sprayed,” I tried to explain.

She shook her head, wide-eyed. “No, something that was in its mouth is now all over me.”

“Not really his mouth,” I said. “I guess it’s really more like his nose.”

“And that’s better?” she gasped. The expression on her face showed just how disgusted she felt.

“Wipe that smile off your face!” she said, pointing at Nick. There was a smirk there that instantly faded.

“I wasn’t smiling … honestly. I was just thinking that Peanuts probably did that because he likes you.”

“Because he likes me?” Mom asked. She sounded as shocked by what he had said as she was by the original blast of water.

“Yeah. Maybe he did that because he was sort of giving you a present,” Nick said. “Does that make sense, Vladimir?”

Now it was Vladimir’s turn to seem confused. He shook his head. “Elephants are very smart animals. They do not give filthy water as a present.”

“Then why would he do that?” my mother asked.

Vladimir shrugged. “Maybe he just thinks it is funny.”

“Well, I certainly don’t think it’s funny,” she said.

“Either way, it did save you some time,” Nick said.

“Time?”

“Yeah, thanks to Peanuts you won’t have to take a shower before your date.”

Suddenly I burst into laughter. I couldn’t help myself. I tried to stifle it, but it just came out. My mother looked like a drowned rat in a business suit. Mr. McCurdy cackled, Vladimir chuckled, Nick laughed and then even my mother cracked a smile — a little one, but it was still a smile.