Tiger Town (14 page)

“These are only temporary pens until Mr. McCurdy and Vladimir can build better ones,” I argued.

“I understood he’s had the one tiger for years,” the man said. “That pen is also not up to standards. I’ve been told he has a cheetah that lives in the house?”

“Yeah. But it isn’t like you can complain about the cage. She isn’t even in a cage,” Nick said.

“My point exactly,” the unfriendly inspector said. “That cat must be in an enclosure, and all the other enclosures must be fixed within four days.”

“Four days!” I exclaimed.

“That is correct,” he said.

“And if the pens aren’t repaired in that time?” Martin asked.

“Then the animals will have to be removed.”

“Removed! But Mr. McCurdy has the right to keep his animals. The court order says so!” I exclaimed.

“He has the right to keep animals in safe and approved enclosures. These are neither. I’m going to give him the papers and inform him of my decision,” he said, holding up his notebook.

“No, I’ll do it!” I snapped. There was no telling how badly Mr.McCurdy would react if the inspector gave them to him.

“Sorry, I can’t give them to you. You’re only a child.”

“How about you give them to me and I’ll give them to him?” Martin said.

“That would be fine,” the man said. He handed the papers to Martin. “As long as he’s formally served with the papers.”

Martin looked at them. “Does it say here what changes must take place to meet the inspection codes?”

“It’s all there in black and white.”

“What if it takes him a little longer than four days?” I asked.

“That’s all the time he gets. I’ll be back to re-inspect at that time, and if the changes haven’t been made, the animals will be removed.”

“Mr. McCurdy won’t let you do that,” I protested.

“He’ll have no choice. I’ll be here along with whatever is necessary to carry out the legal enforcement and the consequences of that inspection,” he said.

“What does that mean?” Nick asked.

“It means the police and animal-control people,” I said.

“But Martin wouldn’t do that,” Nick said.

“He won’t have any choice,” the inspector said. “Because that’s what my cousin will order him to do.”

“Your cousin?” Martin asked. “Who’s your cousin?”

“The mayor.”

“The mayor is your cousin?” I almost yelled.

“Yes, he is. And he’s taken a personal interest in this matter. Anybody who’s employed by the city, or hopes to someday become the chief rather than the acting chief, would be advised to do exactly what the mayor orders.”

I glanced at Martin. His face was stony, silent.

“I better get going,” the inspector said. The rest of us stood by the pen and watched as he got into his vehicle and drove away.

“I guess we’d better go tell Mr. McCurdy,” Martin said.

“Not us. Me.”

“But the papers were entrusted to me,” Martin said.

“I think it would be better if I did it by myself,” I said.

Martin nodded. “You’re probably right,” he said, handing me the papers.

“Yeah, she is,” Nick said. “Besides, you’ve already done enough to help. I guess we’ve figured out who we can really trust.”

Mr. McCurdy sat in the kitchen, his head resting in his hands, his elbows propped against the table. He’d studied the papers line by line, asked me questions and then studied them again. Now he just sat there, staring at them as if by looking long and hard enough, an answer would reveal itself. There was only one way out of this I could see. I had to suggest it.

“Mr. McCurdy?” I asked.

He didn’t answer. It was as if he didn’t even hear me.

“Mr. McCurdy?” I called out louder.

He glanced up from the papers.

“I’ve got an idea.”

“An idea? What we need is a miracle.”

“We just need to fix up the pens.”

“I don’t have the money or the materials to do that.”

“But you could get the money,” I said.

“Get it how? You figure I should rob a bank?”

“You can borrow it,” I said.

“From who?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

“From my mother.”

“Yeah, she’d lend you the money,” Nick agreed.

“I’m not borrowing money from your mother,” Mr. McCurdy said, getting up from the table.

“Why not? She’d lend it to you. I’ll ask her —”

“You won’t ask her for money, and neither will I!” he snapped.

“But why not?” Nick asked.

“For one thing, I don’t go asking people for money. Never borrowed money and never will, especially not from friends.”

“But we’re more than friends. We’re like family.”

“That’s even more reason. Maybe things would be different if there was some chance I could make things work.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Sarah, even if the pens were okay, where am I going to get the money to feed all these animals?”

“Maybe we could borrow more money from our mom,” Nick said.

“Borrowing means having to pay it back, and I don’t see any way that’s going to happen. Aside from a tiny pension that hardly feeds me, I’ve barely got two dollars to rub together.”

Suddenly I remembered the twenty dollar bill that woman had given me. It was stuffed in my pocket. I pulled it out … along with an idea.

“This belongs to you,” I said as I handed it to him.

“I don’t understand.”

“That woman gave it to me. The one whose son’s shirt was ripped. She gave it to me so she could see the animals,” I explained. “She isn’t the only one who’d pay to see them.”

“Heck, I can’t charge people to see my animals,” Mr. McCurdy said.

“Yes, you can. Didn’t the circus charge admission?”

“Of course, but this isn’t a circus.”

“No, but it is — it could be — an animal park. It could be!”

Just then I heard the door open, and Vladimir appeared. I’d wondered where he’d been. I was amazed at how somebody as big as him could keep disappearing. “And Vladimir can help make it happen. He knows all about this sort of thing.”

“Vladimir knows about what thing?” he asked.

“How to set up this place as an exotic animal park,” I said.

“You mean like the old Armstrong place?”

“Exactly the same!”

“Could do. We could do it!” Vladimir said, nodding enthusiastically.

“Then there’d be enough money to feed the animals and to pay back my mother for the money you’d need to fix up the pens.”

“I’m not borrowing money from your mother.”

“But that’s the only way to fix them before the inspector returns and makes you give up the animals!” I pleaded.

“Give up the animals?” Vladimir asked. “Why would you have to give up the animals?”

In one long burst I explained what had happened.

“Bad … very bad,” Vladimir said.

“It doesn’t have to be.” I turned to Mr. McCurdy. “You borrow the money, fix the cages, then you and Vladimir make it into a park, support the animals and pay my mother back. Simple,” I said.

Mr. McCurdy started to laugh. “Sarah, things aren’t that simple. What you’re saying is nearly impossible.”

“But not completely impossible. We have to at least try.”

Mr. McCurdy didn’t answer right away. That was a good sign. He was thinking about it. Just then there was a loud knock at the door.

“Who can that be?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

“I’ll get it,” Nick said.

“Sarah, let’s just imagine that everything you said could happen —”

“It could,” I said enthusiastically. “It could.”

“Even if it could, I still don’t know if we have enough time.”

“That’s why we don’t have any time to —” I stopped mid-sentence as Nick, followed by Martin, walked into the kitchen!

“I just wanted to come back and offer anything I could to help,” Martin said.

“Haven’t you helped enough already?” Nick snapped.

“Nick, show some respect … regardless of whether he deserves it or not,” Mr. McCurdy said.

“I guess I deserved that,” Martin said, and I suddenly felt sorry for him. It wasn’t as if it was his fault. “I just thought if there was anything I could do, I’d like to help.”

“We don’t need your help!” Nick said.

“It’s just that Sarah and I were talking about the food shortage, and I had a few ideas.”

“We’ve got all the help we need right here!” Nick said sharply. “Between me and Sarah and Mr. McCurdy and my mother and Vladimir.”

“Vladimir?” Martin said. “Vladimir is here?”

“Yeah, he’s right … he was right there.” We all heard the back door close. Why had he run out? This couldn’t be about my mother.

“Maybe Vladimir doesn’t want to talk to you now,” I said.

“Maybe nobody wants to talk to you!” Nick shouted.

Martin’s face paled. He opened his mouth as if he were going to argue and then stopped. He looked hurt … badly hurt.

“I better get going,” he finally said softly, and started toward the door.

“Can I ask you a question before you go?” I asked.

He stopped and turned around. “Of course you can, Sarah.”

I tried to think of the way I wanted to say this. It was important I put the words together the right way. “Okay, what I want to know is this. If you were ordered to come here by the mayor to help them remove the animals, would you do it?”

“Sarah, it’s not that simple. Things are complicated.”

“I know they are. All I want to know is, would you help them remove the animals? Yes or no.”

He took a deep breath and let out a sigh. “I’d do my job.”

“That’s what I thought. You were right. You better go.”

“All right,” Martin said. “There’s nothing more I can say.”

He turned and left, and I fought as hard as I could to hold back the tears. I heard the door close.

“What the heck happened to Vladimir?” Nick asked.

“I don’t know, but he certainly got out of here fast,” Mr. McCurdy said.

“Maybe somebody should find him and talk to him,” I suggested.

“Somebody?” Mr. McCurdy asked. “There’s only one somebody I can think of.”

“You mean me?”

He nodded.

“Who else?” Nick asked.

I shrugged. “I guess I could talk to him.”

•

I didn’t know for sure that Vladimir had gone to the barn, but that was the logical place for me to start looking. Despite the hundreds of times I’d been in here, I still didn’t like going in by myself, and the addition of all the new animals hadn’t made it any easier. Maybe the inspector was right and those cages couldn’t hold the animals. What would I do if a jaguar confronted me?

I peeked into the barn. Peanuts was off to the side, munching away on the last bale of hay we’d given him.

“Hello?” I called. “Vladimir, are you in here?”

There was no answer. Maybe he was somewhere else.

“Vladimir?” I said louder. “It’s me.” There was still no answer. I got an idea. “Come on, Vladimir, I hate being in here by myself … it’s scary. Please come out.”

Suddenly Vladimir stepped out of the shadows.

“He’s gone,” I said.

Vladimir didn’t say a word.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Big girl Sarah can ask many questions.”

“I just have one.” I paused. “I want to know why you keep disappearing whenever Martin comes here.”

“I do not understand what you mean.”

“It just seems like you’re hiding from him. Is it because he likes my mother?”

“It is good he likes your mother. They could get married,” he said.

“They’ve just seen each other a couple of times. Now all of this is going to make things more complicated.”

“Too bad,” Vladimir said. “It would be good for your mother to marry so she would not be so alone.”

“Alone like you?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I have the animals and Angus.”

“But wouldn’t you like to have more than that?” I questioned, trying to let him know diplomatically and delicately that I didn’t think my mother was interested in him, even if Martin were out of the picture.

“I have more than that … I have a girlfriend.”

“You have a girlfriend? So you don’t want to marry my mother?” I questioned.

Vladimir looked shocked. “No, no! I wish to marry my girlfriend. Vladimir likes your mother, but not love. I love my girlfriend.”

My mind was spinning. “It’s just … I didn’t know you had a girlfriend. I’ve never heard you talk about her.”

“It makes me sad to talk about.”

“I’m sorry. Does she live by the Armstrong place?”

“She lives in Russia. I have not seen her for three years. We just write letters and have phone calls.”

“That’s sad. Is she going to come over here to join you?” I asked.

“She would like to join me, but can’t. Not now.”

“Why not?”

“She can only come if she’s sponsored to come to the country.”

“Why don’t you sponsor her?”

“The only people who can sponsor are those who are —” He suddenly stopped.

“Who are what?”

“Nothing … We should not talk … I do not want to get big girl Sarah in trouble.”

“Please tell me. Does this have something to do with why you’re always hiding when Martin shows up?”

“No, nothing,” he said, but looked away from me.

There had to be some way to get him to open up. “Vladimir, you’re my friend. A friend to all of us. When Martin comes around, you disappear and you look like you’re afraid. And I know that you’re not afraid of anything — not a tiger or a man. Please tell me what’s wrong. Maybe we can help.”

“If I tell, you must promise not to tell Angus. I do not want trouble for Angus.”

“I won’t tell him,” I said, hoping this was a promise I could keep.

Vladimir took a deep breath and then exhaled loudly. “Vladimir is not supposed to be here.”

“Of course you’re supposed to be here. You were invited and —”

“I am not supposed to be in this country.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When I first come, just as a visitor, I met Mr. Armstrong. He gave me a job.”

“I know all that.”

“But I was not supposed to stay in the country for this long. I was only supposed to stay for one month. Now I have been here for three years. If the police find out, Vladimir gets sent back to Russia and Angus gets in trouble for keeping me in the country … if he knew. You cannot tell him.”

“But there must be some way to fix things,” I said. “Maybe if I talked to Mr. McCurdy he could —”

“Big girl Sarah, you made a promise. Speak to no one.”

“You can’t go on living like this, avoiding the police.”

“I have avoided for three years. I can avoid forever maybe.”

“How about if I just asked my mother and she —”

“Talk to no one. If people know, then Vladimir must leave. I want to stay.”

“We want you to stay.”

“Then you must keep your promise. Will you?”

“I’ll do it, but I won’t like it,” I said.