Page 56 of Tiger Queen

“You passed five signs informing you that we are no longer offering that service.”

“Why not?” she demanded.

“It is a new policy.”

She glared at me like it was my fault. Granted, it was my fault, but she had no way of knowing that. “Carl always let us take photos with the tigers. I do it every year.”

I took a deep breath to avoid saying something I would regret. “It’s not good for the animals.”

“They always seemed fine with it!”

My friendly demeanor slipped. “That’s because they were filled with sedatives to the point that they could barely sit up straight!”

“Exactly!” she said as if that proved her point. “Like Prozac or something. It makes them chill! Why can’t you do that?”

My hand ached. I realized I was clenching it into a fist.

“Hi there!” Anthony said as he slid next to me. “I know it sucks that the policy has changed. But you can take all the photos you want from outside the enclosure.”

“Do you know who I am?” she demanded.

“I’m sure you’re a very popular Instagram influencer,” Anthony said patiently. “But we aren’t giving special treatment anymore. If you’ll step through this door and walk to the end of the path, our tour guide Mary Beth will lead you on the first tour. I promise you’ll enjoy the zoo even if—”

The girl grabbed her boyfriend’s arm and they stormed out of the place. Anthony and I shared a look, which made me smile.

Hundreds of people came the first day. That was a lot of money, I knew. Hopefully it would look good on the financial sheet too. It took an hour to sell tickets to everyone in line. As soon as it ended, I kissed Anthony on the cheek and told him I was going to walk around the park.

The visitors all seemed happy and excited. There were a lot of children. The looks on their faces when they saw the big cats made something in my chest move. Sure, this place was a poor excuse for a zoo and the best thing for it was to close down, but the education for the children delighted me. I had first learned to love animals while visiting the National Zoo. The wonder I felt that day long ago was mirrored in the look on each child’s face.

But then I started noticing behavior changes in the animals themselves. After getting a couple of weeks of peace and quiet, the sudden return of human visitors was jarring for them. The two female Bengal tigers paced their cages nervously. The wolves hid in the far corner of their enclosure where they were concealed by two bushes. The exotic bird section was a cacophony of noise from the toucans, pelicans, and hornbills screeching.

Big Caesar was the only animal who seemed chill about the entire thing. He sat near the corner of his new enclosure where the pedestrian path bent and watched the visitors walking by, as serene and unfazed as a house cat. The visitors enjoyed him the most; the way he sat like the Sphinx and stared out at the people made for good photographs, even if it was through two layers of protective fencing.

Mary Beth approached from the opposite end with a trail of people listening to her tour. “And here we have, um, our Siberian tiger,” she said. “You can tell he’s Siberian because he’s white! His name is Big Caesar. He’s named that because, um, he’s so big! He’s the biggest cat we have in the zoo…”

Bengals can be white too, I thought with a groan. She hadn’t studied the information I had given her. I followed her around for the rest of the tour, staying far enough away that she wouldn’t feel pressured. Overall, she did okay. She got a few other facts wrong—like calling the chimpanzees monkeys—but it was her first day, after all. And despite the inaccuracies, the crowd ate it up and hung on her every word.

Her tour ended at the gift shop side of the visitor’s center, so I hurried inside to help Anthony handle the rush of customers. Even though the items we sold were kitschy and cheap, people snatched them up like they were limited edition Beanie Babies and it was the year two thousand.

When the crowd died down, I went back out to give Mary Beth some feedback. I found her around the side of Big Caesar’s enclosure, hiding behind a tree and looking at her phone.

“You did pretty good for your first day,” I said.

She flinched with surprise, then hastily shoved her phone back in her khaki shorts. “I’m sorry! I was taking a break. I’ll start the next tour soon…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I told her. “Relax. You’re not in trouble.”

“It’s exhausting giving a tour! That was worse than reading a term paper in front of the whole class. I thought real life would be so much easier than school.”

I smiled and patted her arm. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it over time. But I wanted to mention some things you missed…”

Suddenly a voice to my right caught my attention. “Go ahead now, Jimmy! Toss it on in there! Get it way in there this time!”

I walked out from behind the tree. Two parents and a small boy were standing in front of the wolf enclosure. The boy reached back like a baseball pitcher and hurled something brown into the wolf enclosure.

“Mom,” the boy whined. “They’re not coming.”

“Toss another piece of jerky. Go on, now.”

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