Page 32 of Tiger Queen

“She was nice,” David said while staring at his plate. “Cheerful. Like you.”

Anthony shrugged and resumed eating.

It seemed like a touchy subject so I switched gears and asked, “How is the GoFundMe page coming along? Did the photos help?”

“Oh, yeah!” Anthony said around a mouthful of broccoli. “It looks great now! It totally helps having action shots of everyone working in the zoo. I’d like to do some videos too, but for now photos are fine. Next I need to take over the zoo’s social media presence. Start asking for donations there.”

“Good work,” David said.

“While we’re on the subject? We’ve gotten a lot of Facebook posts asking when we’re going to open the zoo back up.”

Jake stabbed a piece of chicken extra hard and angrily bit it off his fork.

Anthony glanced at him and said, “We should give an update. So people know what’s going on. What our plan is.”

“Good idea,” David replied. “I’ll come up with an official statement. Oh, and speaking of the plan. I got an email an hour ago from a sanctuary down in Florida. They might take three of the tigers.”

Jake tossed down his fork, scraped his chair back, and went into the kitchen.

“That’s awesome,” I told David. “Which sanctuary?”

“The acronym started with an E. E-C-something?”

“The Endangered Cats Animal Preserve?” I asked.

“That’s the one.”

I laughed. “Small world. That’s an hour outside of Tallahassee. I used to visit there all the time. Tried to get an internship there last year, but they rejected me.”

“Their loss!” Anthony said with a friendly smile.

“Hopefully they’ll handle the transportation too,” David said. “But for now, it’s a good start on moving all these animals to better homes.”

I smiled as I finished off my beer. It was nice to see that David’s plan for this place was gaining momentum. It wasn’t just an empty promise to get me to work here.

Jake returned from the kitchen with a bottle of Jack Daniels. “Needed something stronger than beer,” he muttered while opening the hutch behind the table.

“I’ll take one too,” I said, trying to be friendly. Jake looked surprised, but then pulled two glasses out of the hutch and slammed them down on the table. He filled them with three fingers of whiskey, then slid one across the table, sloshing brown liquid over the edge.

“Thanks.” I took a sip. Fire burned down my throat and warmed my belly. Jake drank his entire glass in one long gulp, then refilled it from the bottle.

The rest of the meal passed quietly. A dark mood had fallen over the table, and the only sound was that of forks scraping against plates.

“So the three of you are half-brothers,” I said into the silence. “Was your dad a polygamist like those guys on Tiger King?”

Anthony grinned at me. “I thought you hadn’t watched it.”

“You haven’t seen Tiger King?” David said, surprised. “It’s nuts. It’s totally accurate, of course. Big cat owners really are crazy, our father included. How did you not watch the show?”

“I may not have seen it,” I told Anthony, “but I read the Wikipedia page. What’s with all of them being polygamists?”

“I don’t know, but dad wasn’t one,” David replied. He leaned back in his chair. “He just couldn’t keep wives for very long.”

“Charming enough to get a ring on their finger, but not sweet enough to keep them,” Anthony said. It sounded like he was quoting someone.

I let out a relieved laugh. “Alright, just wondering. That would have been crazy. Some weird relationship where everyone shared one partner…”

Jake looked up. “Hah!”

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