The Tiger Rising

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.