Tiger Town by Eric Walters Read Free Book Online

a long time — maybe forever.
    “Aren’t you finished yet?” Nick asked as I left the trailer and started back down the ramp.
    “Not even close.”
    Nick smirked. “I guess one of us made a better choice than the other.”
    We had decided we’d each take care of the animals in one of the trucks. All the big cats and Boo Boo had made me nervous, so I’d chosen to water and feed the ones that didn’t consider me a source of food. Maybe that had been the safer choice, but it certainly hadn’t been the easier one.
    “You could help,” I said, trying to hand him a bucket.
    He refused to take it from me. “I could help, but I don’t think I will. You didn’t offer to help me.”
    “That’s because there was almost nothing to your job!”
    “I had to do things,” he protested. “I gave each cat a chicken, and I had to go all the way down to the barn to get them.”
    “Big deal! I had to get water for all my animals!”
    “I had to get water for the animals in my trailer, too!”
    “Ha! I bet it only took you five or six trips!”
    “About that,” he admitted.
    “I’ve already made over thirty trips!” I said, exaggerating to make it seem even worse than it was.
    “A deal’s a deal.”
    “Come on, Nick.”
    “I guess one of us just chose smarter,” Nick said, “or maybe one of us was just too big a chicken to be around the animals with sharp teeth.”
    He had me there, but I didn’t want him to know it. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. The animals in my trailer are just as dangerous as the ones in yours.”
    “Are you joking?” Nick scoffed.
    “No, I’m not. I’ll put my animals up against yours any day of the week!”
    “Yeah, right, a deer against a tiger. That’d be a great contest!” he snapped.
    “Not as good as an elephant against a tiger! No contest there, either! Forget the mangy tigers or lions, because I’ve got the real king of the jungle in my trailer!”
    I suddenly got an idea. I knew how much Nick had enjoyed riding Peanuts while we were away at camp.
    “I’ve got the only animal you can ride!” I said with a smirk. “Every time I bring up more water or some hay for Peanuts, who do you think he’s getting to like more? It certainly won’t be you! There’s an old saying: ‘An elephant never forgets.’ Peanuts will remember that I was the one bringing him stuff —”
    “Can I help?” Nick pleaded.
    “No way. A deal’s a deal. I’m going to take care of Peanuts. After all, if I have to do all the work with the other animals, there’s no way I’m going to let you take care of the elephant!”
    “How about if I help with all the animals?” Nick asked.
    “The deer and buffalo, too?” I asked.
    He nodded.
    I didn’t answer right away. I wanted him to believe I was really thinking it over. What I was thinking was how gullible he was. “Okay. You got yourself a new deal. Here, take the buckets.”
    Nick took them from me, and I turned and began to walk away so he wouldn’t see the grin on my face.
    “Hey!” Nick called out. I turned around, wiping my face clean. “Where are you going?”
    “Me? I’m going to get more hay for the animals. I’ll be back in a while.” I walked up the lane toward the house and barn. The only hay I wanted was a big bale to lie down and go to sleep on. None of the last three nights I’d slept at Mr. McCurdy’s had been a good sleep, but last night was terrible. Combined with all the work we’d done today, both in the kitchen and now with the animals, I thought I could fall asleep standing up.
    Just off to the side of the lane, Vladimir and Mr. McCurdy were working. Vladimir had been driving poles into the ground, and Mr. McCurdy was hammering fencing that had been placed against the poles. They were creating a temporary pen for the deer and buffalo. A square about twenty metres on all sides, it was going to be a lot smaller than the pen they’d had back at the animal camp, but would certainly be bigger than