by Lin Oliver
“But, David!” Luna called. “What’s going to happen to you?”
“So long, you two,” he shouted. “Maybe someday we’ll meet again and I’ll return your helicopter.”
I heard a low growl. I turned to see the tiger’s attention had switched from the fake bird to us. He was standing directly under the tree. Crouched down on all fours, his eyes glowed and his jaw hung open, showing his sharp teeth. He sniffed the air, ready to attack. It was just like in the painting. He took a step toward us.
“Oh no!” Luna screamed.
Just then, the hand on my Batman watch moved. Big hand on the twelve, little hand on the five.
“It’s the hour of power!” I yelled.
“The hour of power!” Luna joined in.
“The hour of power,” we heard David say from the treetop.
Our voices echoed throughout the jungle. The tiger froze in midstep. The world seemed to stop.
Before we knew it, the jungle disappeared and we were tumbling back into darkness.
Chapter 10
All I remember seeing were the stairs, thousands of them. I don’t know if we were climbing them or flying over them. We tumbled head over heels through the darkness. I had the feeling we were moving at the speed of light.
“Tiger!” I heard Luna’s voice echo all around me.
“I’m here,” I called back to her.
As we somersaulted through space, the sound of the rain and thunder grew dimmer and dimmer. The sound of ripping grew louder. Then I saw the hole in the painting. Was that a face at the other end of it? I squinted.
Yes, it was. The face of an orange pig.
In one tremendous burst of speed, we shot out of the painting into Viola Dots’s living room. We knocked poor Chives to the ground. Immediately, I spun around to look at the painting, just in time to see the hole close up completely. The sound of wind and thunder stopped. The air became still. The painting looked like it always had. It was as if nothing had happened.
“Oh my! Oh my!” Viola Dots was screaming. “We thought we’d never see you again.”
Luna climbed off Chives and started to talk, in great gushes of words.
“We were there,” she said. “In the jungle painting. And we saw David. He’s been all over. He lives in whatever painting is in the frame. His hair is really messy and he loves helicopters. He’s there right now, in the jungle.”
“You saw him?” Viola said. “But why didn’t he return with you?”
“He stayed back to save our lives,” Luna said. “If he hadn’t, we would have been attacked by that tiger. He’s a hero! Your son is a hero, Mrs. Dots.”
“But if he’s still there, then he’s in danger,” she said. “That tiger . . . those jaws . . .”
She was right!
“Come with me, Chives,” I said. “We have to replace that painting!”
I hurried over to the wall. Quickly, I flipped through several of Viola’s paintings.
“There,” I said. “This is a good one.”
It was a painting of old-fashioned men and women, all dressed up. Some were carrying umbrellas. They were strolling in a park by the side of a peaceful river. Beautiful boats sailed by. Everyone looked like they were having a wonderful time.
Chives and I carried the painting over to the frame. We lifted out the tiger painting and replaced it with the peaceful scene by the river.
“David should be safe there,” I told Mrs. Dots.
“Ah, yes,” Chives said. “Paris is lovely in fine weather.”
“Nonsense,” Viola cried. “We can’t leave poor David there. He belongs at home, with me. You must go back and get him immediately.”
I looked at my watch. It was five minutes after five. The hour of power was over.
“We can’t,” I told her.
“I would go myself,” she said, “but I’m too old. I’d never survive the journey.”
“I would be pleased to go, Madame,” Chives said.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Chives,” she snapped. “You’re a pig. Do you see any pigs in that painting?”
Chives looked a little hurt. Luna went to him and patted him on his chubby belly.
“You’re a very handsome pig,” she said. “The best-dressed pig I’ve ever met.”
That seemed to make him happy.
“The hour of power is over for today,” I explained to Mrs. Dots. “If my theory is right, I think it only lasts from four to five o’clock.”
“Fine. Then come back tomorrow at four,” she said. “And you’ll bring my son back to me.”
“We’re having a family picnic in the park tomorrow at four,” Luna said. “I can’t come then.”
“And I have a soccer game,” I said. “I can’t miss it. I’m my team’s secret weapon.”
To be honest, I’m not my team’s secret weapon. In fact, on a very good day, I’m a below-average soccer player. And another thing: I didn’t know what time my soccer game was. I just wanted some time to think things over before I went zooming back into another painting. Luna and I were lucky that we had escaped the jungle this time. Another day, we might not be so lucky. But Viola Dots is not the kind of woman who likes to hear the word no.
“When will you come back?” she said. “Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday?”
I didn’t answer.
“Honestly, am I going to have to name every day of the week?” she said.
Luna went up to Viola.
“I will help you find David,” she said. “But the first thing I’m going to do is give you a big hug. My grandma says that a hug is the best medicine for whatever is hurting you.”
Luna put her arms around Viola’s waist.
“Come on, Tiger,” she said. “You too.”
I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea, so I kind of threw one arm around her and one around Luna. Just for a second, though.
I thought Viola Dots was going to faint right then and there. I have never seen anyone look so surprised. Chives grinned and let out a squeaky little pig giggle that didn’t go with his top hat and tie.
When we all let go of one another. Viola straightened her headband and her necklace.
“Then it’s settled,” she said.
“Are you in, Tiger?” Luna asked me.
I wasn’t about to let Luna Lopez be braver than me.
“I’m in if you’re in,” I answered.
“I’ll wait to hear from both of you,” Viola said. “Just make it soon. Oh, and tell no one. Until David is found, no one must know. I won’t have the whole neighborhood chattering about this.”
As we left the house, I could hear Viola asking Chives for a cup of tea.
“Not too full,” she barked. “And not too hot, but not too cold, either. Two sugars. And I’ll need some more green paint. Not too dark, but not too light, either.”
We headed back to our duplex just as my mom and Maggie were pulling up in the driveway.
“I see you and Luna have become friends,” my mom said. “Did you kids do something exciting this afternoon?”
“We just hung out,” I said. “Turns out there’s a lot of interesting things to see right here in our neighborhood.”
I could see Luna stifle a giggle.
Maggie climbed out of the car. Her face was covered in chocolate frosting. Obviously she hadn’t understood that the Elmo cakes weren’t for her.
“Did you see any orange pigs?” she asked.
“Just one,” I answered. “He says hi.”
“Goody,” she said. “I’m going to go draw a picture of him.”
The little frosting face skipped happily down the driveway and into the house.
“That’s nice of you, Tiger,” my mom said. “It’s good to encourage a child’s imagination.”
Wow, Mom, I thought. If only you
could imagine what I’ve seen. If only you could know that Luna and I traveled over time and space into the world of art.
No. There’s no way anyone could imagine that.
But I’m here to tell you. It actually happened. And I had a feeling it was going to happen again very soon.
About the Painting
Surprised! or Tiger in a Tropical Storm by Henri Rousseau
Henri Rousseau, Surprised! © The National Gallery, London. Bought, with the aid of a substantial donation from the Hon. Walter H. Annenberg, 1972
Surprised!, sometimes called Tiger in a Tropical Storm, is a real work of art, painted in 1891 by the French artist Henri Rousseau. It shows a tiger, lit up by a bolt of lightning, about to attack its prey in the midst of a raging storm. It was created with oil paints on canvas. Rousseau used many layers of paint and many shades of green to capture the colorful feel of the jungle. He used strands of silver paint scattered diagonally across the canvas to depict the windblown rain. Notice in the painting that we never see what the tiger is hunting. Its prey is beyond the edge of the canvas so we are left to wonder what the result of the hunt might be.
Henri Rousseau was born on May 21, 1844, in Laval, France. As a young man, he worked for a lawyer and then served in the army. When he moved to Paris, he became a tax collector at the entrance to the city. He worked at that job until he was almost fifty. Only then did he become a full-time artist.
Rousseau is known as a self-taught painter, which means he never formally studied art. During his lifetime, his work was not accepted by the official art world in Paris. In fact, when he first showed Surprised! in 1891, it was made fun of by art reviewers. Many critics thought his work was childish.
Rousseau is best known for his paintings that show humans or wild animals in jungle-like settings. Surprised! is the first of his jungle paintings. These paintings often have a dreamy quality. They are not representations of an actual jungle. Rousseau never saw a real jungle. In fact, he never even left France. Instead, he studied plants and animals at the botanical gardens in Paris, and learned to draw wild animals from books and magazines. Perhaps that is why his paintings do not seem realistic.
Later in his life, Rousseau’s work was discovered by a new generation of young artists who liked the strong emotions his paintings showed. When Rousseau died in 1910, he had made very little money from his art. Yet his paintings went on to influence a generation of famous artists, including the great Pablo Picasso. Today, they are among the most well-known paintings in the world of art.
Surprised! hangs in the National Gallery in London, England.
About the author
Lin Oliver is the New York Times best-selling author of more than thirty books for young readers. She is also a film and television producer, having created shows for Nickelodeon, PBS, Disney Channel, and Fox. The cofounder and executive director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, she loves to hang out with children’s book creators. Lin lives in Los Angeles, in the shadow of the Hollywood sign, but when she travels, she visits the great paintings of the world and imagines what it would be like to be inside the painting—so you might say she carries her own Fantastic Frame with her!
About the Illustrator
Samantha Kallis is a Los Angeles–based illustrator and visual development artist. Since graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, in 2010, her work has been featured in television, film, publishing, and galleries throughout the world. Samantha can be found most days on the porch of her periwinkle-blue Victorian cottage, where she lives with her husband and their two cats. More of her work can be seen on her website: www.samkallis.com.
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