Tiger by the Tail (4 page)

“Ahh … Mr. McCurdy …?”

“Show your manners,” he answered softly. “Weren’t you taught to say please and thank you?”

“Yeah … um … thanks, Calvin,” I muttered. Instantly he released his grip. He shuffled over and offered the second can to my brother.

“Thanks, Calvin,” Nick said and the Coke was released.

“How about one for me?” Mr. McCurdy asked.

Calvin turned and looked at Mr. McCurdy. He put his hands up to his ears, spread them like antlers, stuck out his tongue and went “PPPPLLLLLEEEEEEZZZZ.” A fine mist of saliva shot out of his mouth. Mr. McCurdy broke into a full laugh that was only broken by another coughing fit.

Calvin, his hands now free, quickly moved across the floor, grabbed his Coke, squatted down and took another long sip. A little dribble flowed down out of the corner of his mouth and disappeared into his fur.

“Should he be drinking pop?” I asked.

“Maybe not, but he likes it. Chimps aren’t much different than people. Besides, it’s like that joke: Where does a nine-hundred-pound gorilla sleep? Anywhere it wants. So, I guess he can drink what he wants.”

“But he’s just a chimp. He couldn’t hurt anybody,” I said.

“HUH!” Mr. McCurdy stated. He turned to Nick. “It must feel good to know she doesn’t know
everything
.”

My brother nodded his head in agreement.

“A full-grown chimp, like Calvin here, is strong enough to rip a man apart. He could practically tear your arm right off. Even lions leave a healthy male chimpanzee alone.”

I looked over at Calvin, reclining on his back on the floor, a now empty Coke can balanced on one of his back feet, sticking up in the air.

“Him?” Nick asked.

“Him,” Mr. McCurdy answered. “Calvin … act mean.”

Calvin closed his eyes and scratched under his left armpit with his right hand.

“Pretty mean,” Nick commented.

Mr. McCurdy shook his head. “CALVIN …”

Calvin opened his eyes.

“Calvin, you mangy monkey, if you don’t act mean, right now, I’ll …”

I watched as Calvin’s eyes opened. He quickly rolled
over and got to his feet. His teeth, which I’d seen when he smiled, once again became visible but now he snarled menacingly.

“EEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH,” he screamed and started to beat an arm against his chest. With his free hand he grabbed the empty Coke can and tossed it across the room. It bounced on the tabletop, careened off the wall and dropped to the floor.

I felt my heart rise into my throat and then I think it stopped beating completely.

Calvin moved threateningly toward us, opened his mouth wide, showing all his teeth and then, “BUURRRPP!”

Calvin looked embarrassed and sat down by our feet.

“Sometimes the Coke gives him a little gas,” Mr. McCurdy explained.

As if in answer, Nick burped as well.

Everybody broke into laughter. I looked at my watch. It was time to go home and I didn’t want to be late.

“We better get going.” I rose to my feet. “It was really nice to meet you, and your animals.”

“It was really nice meeting the two of you. What do you know, the grandchildren of Emmy Gibbons. You know, you even look like her,” he said to me.

“She does?” Nick asked. “I thought you said that our Nana was really beautiful.”

“Shut up, stupid boy!” Polly squawked.

I smiled. “Thank you, Polly.”

“You’re welcome … stupid girl,” Polly replied.

We left the kitchen and walked down the hallway. Mr. McCurdy followed after us. He stopped at the door.

“Don’t go trying any more shortcuts, you hear?”

“Yes, sir,” I answered.

“Just go straight down my driveway and along the road,” he ordered.

“Sure, no problem,” Nick agreed.

We exchanged good-byes and left. The gravel path crunched under my feet. The sky was now clear and the sun was shining again. I heard the screen door slam and looked back. Mr. McCurdy was standing there, watching us walk away. I stopped. Nick kept on walking.

“And thanks for the drink and for fixing up my knee,” I called back.

“That’s just being a good neighbour,” he said with a wave of his hand.

“Is it okay for one neighbour to drop in and see another neighbour sometime?” I asked. I held my breath waiting for an answer.

“Nope, it’s not okay … It’s much better than okay,” he said and smiled. “Any time.”

“Great. Well good-bye. I mean, I’ll see you later,” I said and then sprinted to catch up to my brother.

We moved quickly along the road. I wanted to get home and get cleaned up before Mom arrived.

“Pretty weird, eh?” Nick asked.

“Different.”

“You going to go back?”

“Yeah. Why not?”

“I don’t know. The animals are pretty cool, but he’s strange,” Nick observed.

“Like I said, he’s different.”

“If Mom knew she wouldn’t let you go back there.”

“Why not? Why wouldn’t she want me to visit an elderly man who’s our neighbour and knew our grandmother?” I asked innocently.

Nick smiled at me. “So what you’re saying is that you think we should lie.”

“No, I’m not saying we should lie!”

“So you think we should tell her about the gun and the tiger and python and —”

“No!” I interrupted. “I’m just saying that we shouldn’t tell her
everything
. There’s no point in worrying her, is there?”

“It’s good to see that I’ve finally had an influence on you.” Nick chuckled. “A bad influence.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I countered. We turned off the road and onto the long driveway up to our house, which was still hidden around a curve in the lane.

“Be careful, Sarah. Telling lies is just like eating pretzels. It’s hard to stop after just one.”

“I’m not telling any lies!”

“The best lie is half the truth.”

“Oh, shoot!” I exclaimed. “Look who’s here.”

Parked next to the house was a bright, lime green car that belonged to our sitter, Erin. If she was here that meant Mom was working late. Again.

Nick opened the door. I took a deep breath and followed after him. We were greeted by the sound of Erin’s voice. She was talking on the phone.

I went to the cupboard to see what I could make for supper. Erin continued to talk on the phone, as if we weren’t even there. As I shuffled cans and containers I picked up enough of the conversation to figure out she was talking to a boyfriend. Probably a new boyfriend. She always had a new boyfriend. My mother would be happy if Nick changed his socks as often as Erin changed boyfriends. She finally glanced our way.

“I guess I should be going now,” she said into the phone, and then turned her back to us and made a kissing sound.

“Oh, yuck,” my brother said, his mouth full of peanut butter he’d spooned out of the jar.

Erin hung up and turned to us.

“Your mother called. She said she wouldn’t be home until late tonight. I’m to feed you and get you both into bed.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it again. I’d been trying to be nicer to Erin but it was hard. It just bugged me to have her tell me what to do. I knew that she was older, she was almost seventeen, but she was just so … so …

“Erin, do you know our neighbour, Mr. McCurdy?” Nick asked.

“Old man McCurdy?”

“I imagine he has a first name,” I answered curtly.

“Yeah, that’s him,” Nick said ignoring me. “He’s a real old guy. Do you know him?”

“Not really, but I know
of
him,” Erin answered. “Or should I say I know about his family.”

“Fill us in,” my brother invited.

“Well … everybody in town knows about the McCurdy family. They were always a little strange. There used to be stories about what went on at the farm. You know, ghost stories.”

“Ghost stories?” I questioned.

“They said the place was haunted, that old McCurdy was into strange voodoo things.” She looked like she was actually a little spooked just talking about it.

“Come on, Erin, you don’t actually believe all those
stories?”

“Maybe not all of them, but I’ve got friends who’ve seen things.”

“Yeah, everybody always has a ‘friend’ who has a ‘friend’ who knows somebody who saw something,” I scoffed. “But did
you
ever see anything?”

“Well … I didn’t actually see anything.”

I flashed a smug smile at Nick.

“But I was up there when …”

“You’ve been to the farm?” I interrupted.

“Well …” she answered, her voice just above a whisper. “Once.”

“When was that?” Nick asked.

“Promise you won’t tell anybody?” she asked, again in a low voice.

“Who do you think we’re going to tell?” my brother asked.

“I don’t know, but promise me what I say will be just between the three of us.”

“Sure, no problem,” Nick answered.

She looked at me. I nodded in agreement.

“It was a couple of years ago. One of my ex-boyfriends used to go up there sometimes … late at night … and wander around the farm and the fields. It was a dare, and I went up with him.”

“And?” I asked.

“And what?”

“And what did you see?”

“See? I didn’t really see anything, but I could tell that evil things were going on.”

“How could you tell?” I asked.

“I just knew. I’m one of those people who are very sensitive to things like that, spirits and ghosts and UFOs. I think I even have ESP.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” Nick deadpanned.

I gave him a dirty look.

“And I knew that you’d give me that look,” he continued.

“What?” Erin asked.

“Nothing.” He chuckled. “So you think you have extrasensory perception?”

I bit my tongue to stop from laughing.

“Either way, if that was a few years ago, then you would have been up there when the other brother was running the farm.” I said.

“Yeah. But then his brother — none of us even knew he had a brother — showed up and I hear that he’s even more strange.”

“Strange, how?” Nick asked blankly.

“Bizarre sounds from the barn,” she answered, her voice once again a whisper.

“I don’t know how you can make claims based on rumours,” I protested. “Today, Nicholas and I went —”

“For a walk by old man McCurdy’s farm,” my brother
interrupted, “and now that we know about it we won’t go by there again.” He gave me a knowing look. “And, Erin, our mother gets spooked easily so we’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention any of this to her. Okay?”

“I don’t even like talking about it. It makes me nervous.”

I started to get dinner ready while Erin and Nick went into the living room to watch TV. We didn’t mention to Mom that I was the one fixing suppers when Erin was taking care of us. The first night Erin had tried to fix us dinner, but it was inedible. After that I was the one who made supper.

•

“Good morning, sleepyhead. Time to get up.”

I turned over, toward the sound of Mom’s voice. The bright morning light hurt my eyes as I struggled to open them.

“I see Erin took good care of you. The kitchen was even cleaned up.”

Of course it was cleaned up. I did it while Erin was having another lengthy telephone conversation with her boyfriend.

“Erin took good care of us,” I said.

“I was talking to Nick. He’s been up for a while. He mentioned you met one of our neighbours.”

I swallowed hard. “Yes.”

“He said that he was a nice older man and he knew Nana.”

Again I swallowed and nodded in agreement. I wonder what else Nick had mentioned.

“Your brother said you two thought you’d head back over to see him again some time.”

“If that would be okay with you, Mom.” Obviously Nick hadn’t told her anything else, or at least anything else that would worry her.

“Why wouldn’t it be okay? I think it’s sweet the two of you want to spend time with a lonely old man. But there is one condition,” she said slyly.

I held my breath.

“You have to tell me any stories he has about your grandmother. I heard she was quite an interesting lady when she was younger.”

“Sure, no problem,” I answered, exhaling.

“Better get up and get moving,” Mom said as she left my room. I listened to the floor creak as she walked. She stopped in the bathroom.

The entire farmhouse had hardwood floors that creaked and groaned underfoot. The worst part was at night. Long after we went to bed and the lights were off, the floor continued to make noises. Mom said it was like that when she was little and she used to be scared by the sounds. When Nick heard me say it made
me nervous, he started telling me stories. So I started propping a chair under the doorknob every night, just in case the floors creak because someone is coming.

I threw back the covers and hung my legs over the edge of the bed. I felt with my feet until I found my slippers, tucked in under my bed, as they always were. I slipped them on and stood up. I plumped up my pillow, put it in its place, pulled up the covers and made my bed.

I heard Mom singing. She sang a lot lately, songs from the radio, songs I liked. It scared me.

One of the first things to change with my father was the music he listened to. One day he’s normal and listening to “adult” music and then as fast as you can change the dial, he’s listening to rock and roll. Next he started to wear his hair differently. My dad began to grow his hair long on one side so he could comb it over his bald spot. Then, he went out and bought a new, red, convertible sports car. And worse, he bought it without even talking it over with Mom. That was the biggest argument I’d ever heard them have. The funniest thing was watching Dad drive with the top down, his long strands of hair trailing behind him like a horse’s tail.

I strolled down the hall and peeked in the open bathroom door. Mom was standing in front of the mirror. She was wearing high-heeled shoes and a skirt that I thought was too short for either a lawyer or a
mother. I watched in fascination as she started to apply her makeup. She put on this thick-looking pink stuff and rubbed it into her neck and around her eyes. She told me this was to hide her wrinkles. I didn’t really think she had enough wrinkles to worry about hiding. She then put blush on her cheeks and started layering on black mascara. Before my father left, she hardly wore any makeup at all. She called it the “natural look.” I guess that meant she was now going for the unnatural look.

“Do you want to try some makeup?” Mom asked.

She’d startled me. “Ah … no thanks,” I mumbled.

“I’m sure a lot of girls your age, in your grade, will be wearing makeup.”

“Just because a lot of girls will be wearing it doesn’t mean I have to!”

My mother turned around and we exchanged strange looks. This was probably the only house in the whole country where a mother was trying to
convince
her teenage daughter to wear makeup.

“I don’t think she needs to wear makeup,” my brother piped up.

I turned around. I didn’t even hear him come upstairs. One of his favourite new games was seeing if he could move around without causing the boards to creak so he could surprise us.

“Isn’t that sweet!” Mom beamed. “Your brother thinks
you’re so attractive that you don’t need makeup!”

“I didn’t say
that
,” Nick protested. “I meant that it wouldn’t
help
.” He instantly turned and ran along the hall and down the stairs.

“Do you see what I have to put up with?”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“Talk to him! That’s all you ever do is talk to him! Why don’t you punish him? Put him in his room, take away his allowance, ground him!”

“I’ll talk to him,” she repeated.

“I don’t even tell you most of the things he does. When you get home tonight I’m going to tell you everything he did wrong today.”

“You’ll have to wait till tomorrow. I won’t be home until you’re in bed. Erin will be taking care of you two.”

“Erin! Two nights of Erin in a row isn’t fair,” I cried. “Besides, when you come home so late I forget half of the things I want to talk to you about.”

“Maybe you should write them down.”

“Like in a letter?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes, exactly, like a letter!” she exclaimed.

Great, I have a father who bounces around from place to place and the only contact I have with him is the emails he writes, but those don’t even come so regularly because there’s not always internet connections where he ends up. Now I have a mother, who lives in the same house as me, who thinks I should write her letters.

“Why do we have to have Erin? Why can’t I take care of us?” I asked.

“You’re too young.”

“But I’m not too young to take care of us all day long,” I protested.

“We’ve been over this, Sarah. It’s different during the day, but not late at night.”

“Late? How late? You don’t usually even work on Friday nights.”

“It isn’t work,” she said meekly as she put in a pair of earrings. “It’s a date.”

“A date!”

“Yes, a date.”

“Is it with that Peter guy again?” I asked.

“No. Somebody new.”

“‘Who is he?”

“His name is Robert.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“At work. He’s a lawyer,” she answered.

“I haven’t heard you mention him before.”

“He just started. I better get going,” she said as she moved by me and out of the bathroom. I trailed behind her, along the hall and down the stairs.

“Isn’t it unusual for a firm as small as yours to hire another lawyer so soon after you became a partner?” I asked.

“He’s more like a … junior lawyer. He just graduated,”
she said as she pushed into the kitchen.

“Junior lawyer! How old is he?” I asked.

“Sarah, how should I know how old he is?”

“You must have some idea,” I stated. “About how old is he?”

“I don’t know, twenty-seven or twenty-eight, I’d imagine,” she said. She looked tremendously embarrassed.

“Twenty-seven or twenty-eight! If he’s twenty-seven then he’s exactly half way between my age and yours,” I stated.

“Sarah, age isn’t important. Everybody says I look a lot younger than forty-one.”

She grabbed her purse and started for the door.

“Aren’t you going to have breakfast?”

“I don’t have time, Sarah.”

“But breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” I said.

“Maybe I’ll have a bigger lunch to make up for it.” She gave me a hug. “Look after your brother and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

She picked up her purse, grabbed her briefcase and was out the door before I could say another word. Maybe I should start writing that letter. I heard the engine start and went to the window to watch her drive out of sight.