The Tiger Rising

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 is coming to get you.”

“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.”