on up. It reminded him of what she had said about his sadness needing to rise up. And when he thought about the two things together, the tiger and his sadness, the truth circled over and above him and then came and landed lightly on his shoulder. He knew what he had to do.
Chapter 26
He left Willie May at the motel and went down the highway.
“Sistine!” he shouted as he ran. “Sistine!” he screamed.
And miraculously, he saw her — her orange dress with the pink polka dots — glowing on the horizon. Sistine Bailey.
“Hey,” he shouted. “Sistine. I got something to tell you.”
“I’m not talking to you,” she shouted back. But she stopped. She turned around. She put her hands on her hips.
He ran faster.
“I come to tell you about the tiger,” he said when he caught up with her.
“What about him?”
“I’m fixing to let him go,” said Rob.
Sistine squinted her eyes at him. “You won’t do it,” she said.
“Yes, I will,” he told her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys and held them in front of her, proudly, as if he had just conjured them out of thin air, as if they had never existed before. “I’m going to do it,” he said. “I’m going to do it for you.”
“Whoooooeeee!!!!!” somebody screamed, and Rob turned and saw Beauchamp come speeding right toward them in his red jeep.
“Oh no,” whispered Rob.
“Is it him?” Sistine whispered.
Rob nodded.
Beauchamp pulled over to the side of the road, spraying mud and water everywhere.
“You out getting your exercise?” he hollered.
Rob shrugged.
“Speak up,” roared Beauchamp. He got out of the jeep and came toward them. Rob quickly pocketed the keys. His heart thumped once, loudly, as if it was cautioning him to keep quiet, and then it went back to beating normally.
“Well, looky here,” said Beauchamp when he saw Sistine. “You out chasing girls. Is that it? Man after my own heart. This your girlfriend?” Beauchamp pounded Rob on the back.
“No, sir,” said Rob. He looked at Sistine. She was staring so hard at Beauchamp that Rob was afraid the man might burst into flames.
“I got more goods for you,” Beauchamp said. “I left ’em back at the motel with Ida Belle.”
“Yes, sir,” said Rob.
“What’s your name, little thing?” Beauchamp said, turning to Sistine.
Rob’s heart gave another warning thump. Lord only knew what Sistine would say to Beauchamp.
But Sistine, as always, surprised him. She smiled sweetly at Beauchamp. “Sissy,” she said.
“Well, that’s pretty,” said Beauchamp. “That’s the kind of name worth running down the road after.” He leaned over to Rob. “Remember what we got going. You’re keeping your manly secrets, ain’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” said Rob.
Beauchamp winked. His toothpick wiggled.
“I got me some business in town,” he said. He squeezed Rob’s shoulder hard and then took his hand away. “You and your girlfriend stay out of trouble, now, you hear?”
“Yes, sir,” said Rob.
Beauchamp swaggered back to the jeep, and Rob and Sistine stood together and watched him get in it and roar down the highway.
“He’s afraid,” said Sistine. “He’s afraid of the tiger. That’s why he’s making you feed him.”
Rob nodded. That was another truth he had known without knowing it, the same as he had known that Sistine’s father was not coming back. He must, he realized, know somewhere, deep inside him, more things than he had ever dreamed of.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “What I said about your daddy, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want to talk about my father,” said Sistine.
“Maybe he
“He’s not coming to get me.” Sistine tossed her head. “And I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the tiger. Let’s go. Let’s go set him free.”
Chapter 27
The first key slid into the first lock so smoothly that it made Rob dizzy with amazement. It was going to be so easy to let the tiger go.
“Hurry,” Sistine said to him. “Hurry up. Get the other locks.”
He opened the second lock and the third. And then he took them off one by one and handed them to Sistine, who laid them on the ground.
“Now open the door,” she said.
Rob’s heart pounded and fluttered in his chest. “What if he eats us?” he asked.
“He won’t,” said Sistine. “He’ll leave us alone out of gratitude. We’re his emancipators.”
Rob flung the door wide.
“Get out of the way,” he shouted, and they both jumped back from the door and waited. But the tiger ignored them. He continued to pace back and forth in the cage, oblivious to the open door.
“Go on,” Rob said to him.
“You’re free,” Sistine whispered.
But the tiger did not even look in the direction of the door.
Sistine crept forward and grabbed hold of the cage. She shook it.
“Get out!” she screamed. “Come on,” she said, turning to Rob, “help me. Help me get him out.”
Rob grabbed hold of the fence and shook it. “Get,” he said.
The tiger stopped pacing and turned to stare at them both clinging like monkeys to the cage.
“Go on!” Rob shouted, suddenly furious. He shook the cage harder. He yelled. He put his head back and howled, and he saw that the sky above them was thick with clouds, and that made him even angrier. He yelled louder; he shouted at the dark sky. He shook the cage as hard as he could.
Sistine put a hand on his arm. “Shhh,” she said. “He’s leaving. Watch.”
As they stared, the tiger stepped with grace and delicacy out of the cage. He put his nose up and sniffed. He took one tiny step and then another. Then he stopped and stood still. Sistine clapped her hands, and the tiger turned and looked back at them both, his eyes blazing. And then he started to run.
He ran so fast, it looked to Rob like he was flying. His muscles moved like a river; it was hard to believe that a cage had ever contained him. It didn’t seem possible.
The tiger went leaping through the grass, moving farther and farther away from Rob and Sistine. He looked like the sun, rising and setting again and again. And watching him go, Rob felt his own heart rising and falling, beating in time.
