Tyger Lilly

by Lisa Trusiani

  “I think his father was a Nazi because the poetry Mr. Stinchfield wrote describes the work his father did for Hitler.”

  Lilly gulped. This was more than she wanted to know. She jumped up but before she could offer to finish putting away the books, the end-of-recess bell rang. “I’m sorry I didn’t help you today, Miss Brightman,” Lilly said, putting the books back into the bin.

  “On the contrary,” said Miss Brightman finishing her last sip of tea, her eyes brimming with excitement. “You brought me the wonderful news that Rudolf, I mean, Mr. Stinchfield shared his poetry with you students.”

  In the days that followed, Miss Brightman shared her secrets with Lilly. Unlocking the library closet, she showed Lilly a sleeping bag and confessed she lived in the library. This explained some of the library’s more unusual features -- a mini-refrigerator, hot plate and microwave. Lilly thought it might also explain how Miss Brightman could afford to work for no pay, if she did work for no pay. Lilly considered asking Miss Brightman but decided that would be prying, and Goodie said prying, is like opening a jar with your teeth. There’s a good chance you’ll get inside but you could break something important doing it.”

  In the end, seeing Miss Brightman’s sleeping quarters was a great disappointment to Lilly, because she realized no matter how much Miss Brightman liked her, Lilly, her mother and forty-nine animals could not live in the library with her.

  At first, Lilly hesitated sharing her own secrets with Miss Brightman. But the more they chatted, the more Lilly found confiding in Miss Brightman irresistible. Lilly told Miss Brightman about floating away when she was frightened, and about her father calling her Tyger Lilly. She talked about her mother, and how they were going to lose their home unless Lilly earned thousands of dollars.

  Miss Brightman bent over and hugged Lilly when she heard about the taxes. “I believe there’s only one thing to do with a problem,” she said. “Solve it. And if you’re willing to do anything to solve a problem, you will.”

  That’s when Lilly told Miss Brightman about her plan to find a Most Wanted criminal for the reward money. “I have an idea,” said Miss Brightman. “Instead of putting books on the shelves, why don’t you look for criminals while you’re here?”

  “Well, I don’t think I’ll find any in the library,” said Lilly puzzled.

  “We have county telephone books for the past fifty years,” said Miss Brightman. “You can check to see if a criminal’s name is in any of them. Check their aliases, too.”

  “That’s a good idea. You would really let me do that?” asked Lilly.

  “Of course.”

  From that afternoon on, Lilly used her recess to look for criminals under the guidance of Miss Brightman who seemed to have a good imagination when it came to criminal behavior. Lilly also jotted down funny names she came across in the telephone books, another unique collection that like her business cards, were free for the taking.

  Chapter 21

  Faces stared from the walls of Lilly’s bedroom, a lineup of the sheriff’s MOST WANTED. It was Janie’s idea for Lilly to hang the posters up, and the guinea pig was proud of herself. Lady, however, stared at the posters and quacked loudly. In fact, she seemed to be throwing a tantrum.

  Lilly stopped hanging posters and looked at Tobias. “Lady says she doesn’t like their eyes,” he replied, swinging from the broken chandelier in the center of the bedroom.

  “Is that all?” asked Lilly as Lady stomped around.

  “Her exact words are: ‘They’re watching us! They’re watching us!’ Meanwhile Janie argues, and I quote, ‘Grrreater effort, grrreater rrrewards!’ She says we must all do our part to help you catch criminals because without the reward money our home will be taken away.”

  Lilly watched Janie run in circles chattering faster and faster. “Now she is screaming, “What will become of us -- ?” announced Tobias.

  “Oh, dear,” said Lilly. “I hate seeing her so upset.”

  “Oh, melo-DRRAMA!” screeched Tobias. “Janie hasn’t changed Lady’s mind, but she has managed to upset her own babies.” Lilly put a poster down and picked up a small guinea pig.

  “Don’t worry, McCloud,” murmured Lilly into his fur covered ear.

  Tobias continued translating throughout the argument and the conversation that followed. That’s how Lilly knew Lady shouted at Janie to “Get those horrid men out of my sight! And that woman, too!” In a huff, Lady flew out the window.

  Lilly sat on the bed and put McCloud on the floor. He scurried to his mother and buried his face in her fur. While Janie soothed the whimpering guinea pigs, Gwendolyn the Iguana counted the number of times Zelda the Rabbit blinked. “Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine. That’s the number I have too Zelda. The auction takes place in fifty-nine days.”

  “Fifty-nine days? I thought it was one hundred and twenty-nine days!” shrieked Janie.

  “Imagine Janie thinking we had one hundred and twenty-nine days left when we started with ninety. Check your math! Check your math!” shrieked the ancient parrot swinging madly on the chandelier, which dangled dangerously from frayed electric wires.

  Oh dear, he sounds hysterical, thought Lilly. She watched shimmering colors from the crystal chandelier dance wildly on the wall and wondered if the pressure of looking for criminals every day and not finding any was too much for the old parrot. Tobias rested his head against his chest. The chandelier slowed. “Timma-ahh,” Tobias sighed as he slipped into a nap.

  Lilly picked up the rest of the posters and stared at the man on top. Stevie ‘the Shark’ Tripoldi was wanted for bank robbery in three states. Lilly leaned back and closed her eyes. She imagined Stevie walking into the pet store, saying “Point me to the nearest bank, kid.”

  Lilly opened her eyes and read Stevie’s description again –pumpkin orange hair and blue eyes. Distinguishing characteristic – pumpkin orange freckles. She took a pencil and connected his freckles dot-to-dot. Stevie the Shark looks like ‘Stevie the Freckle-Faced Catfish,’ thought Lilly smiling. He’s not so scary now.

  Lilly reached over and turned on the radio. “Unless we get serious rain folks, drought restrictions will remain in effect. People caught watering their lawns or washing their cars will be fined. The health department is asking, however, that everyone continue to wash their feet.”

  Tobias woke with a start. “Waaash your feeet!”

  “It’s only the radio, Tobias.” It was nice of Dorian to leave his radio the last time he visited. He said it was to entertain everyone while Lilly was out. By now Tobias and the others knew Lilly worked at the pet store after school but they didn’t know why. Only Isadora knew the real reason.

  Lilly stood to leave. “Zelda wants to know why you’re working in the pet store today, Lilly,” said Tobias. “It is Saturday, a perfect day for catching criminals.”

  Lilly knew they didn’t want her working in the pet store. It took too much time away from searching for criminals – and away from them. They were jealous. “Isadora’s father insisted I work today,” explained Lilly. “But I promise I’ll talk to Isadora and tell her today’s the last day.”

  When Lilly arrived, she discovered Isadora was out shopping with her mother and wouldn’t be in. I’ll talk to her tomorrow, thought Lilly.

  At least with Isadora gone, Lilly had one less person watching her. While she cleaned cages and replaced straw, Lilly gave the animals extra cuddles, caresses and treats.

  “Don’t get attached to them,” warned Mr. Snodgrass when he saw Lilly playing with a spirited hamster.

  “Sorry, Frankie, I can’t play anymore,” said Lilly placing the hamster gently into his cage.

  “Did I hear you call that rodent, Frankie?” Mr. Snodgrass hooted. “Are you crazy? These animals are for sale. Did you name the dog food, too?”

  He snapped his fingers at a bag of dog food. “Sit, Fido, sit! Now, stay,” he held out his hand like a traffic cop. “Look, he didn’t move. Good boy!” He patted the bag of dog food on top where
its head would be if it had one.

  Mr. Snodgrass howled with laughter as he walked back to the cash register. A barrel-chested man stood waiting for him. “What can I do you for?” said Mr. Snodgrass. It was his typical greeting then he laughed to himself and thumped his thumbs against the cash register.

  “A Mr. Stinchfield told me to come here,” said the man.

  “My half-brother,” snorted Mr. Snodgrass. “Thinks he’s the king.”

  As Lilly looked for the broom, she saw the barrel-chested man reach inside his shirt and pull out an egg. Mr. Snodgrass’ eyes lit up. Lilly waited for the man to perform another trick. Would he take a quarter from Mr. Snodgrass’ ear? Instead the magician pulled another egg from inside his shirt.

  Lilly had never seen eggs like these. Eggs from the grocery store were delicate and oval. These were leathery and oblong. The magician pulled out another. Mr. Snodgrass stared at the eggs with sheer delight.

  Suddenly his eyes met Lilly’s. He scowled, then said to the man, “Come with me.” The magician passed Lilly and tossed her a giggling look. “Shush,” he whispered. When they rounded the corner, Lilly quietly followed. She saw them enter the secret room.

  Lilly stayed until closing time. While Mr. Snodgrass returned from the secret room after only fifteen minutes, Lilly didn’t see the other man again. Mr. Snodgrass didn’t say a word about the man or the eggs.

  At five o’clock, Lilly went to the backroom and pulled the bag from the trashcan. She put her ear to the wall. No sounds came from the secret room. Lilly tied up the trash bag and carried it to the front of the store, winking at all the animals as she passed. The turtle winked back.

  “Goodbye, Mr. Snodgrass.”

  “Right,” he said not looking up. He sat at the register counting money. Lilly didn’t think there could be much because most people who came in today were children wanting to see the nest of baby gerbils. More than once, Lilly heard Mr. Snodgrass grumble, “Go to the zoo!”

  On her way home, Lilly stopped in the alley to toss out the trash. On top of the garbage heap rested one of the magician’s eggs. She lifted it and looked closely. Like a river on a map, a crack ran down the egg.

  Lilly rolled the egg up in the bottom of her shirt and cradled it against her stomach. She wanted to show Tobias. Lilly was about to leave when she noticed a door. It went from the alley to the secret room in the pet store. “So, that’s how the magician left without my seeing him,” she mused. “Unless he’s still in there.” Lilly looked down the alley both ways. No one was watching. She placed a hand on the doorknob and swallowed hard.

  “What are you doing, Lilly?”

  Lilly jumped. Dorian walked toward her with a worried expression. She put her fingers to her lips like the magician had earlier then tried to open the door. It didn’t give. Locked, she thought.

  Before Dorian spoke again, Lilly ran down the alley whispering for him to follow. Halfway home, Lilly unrolled her shirt. She held the unusual egg for Dorian to see. Then she told him about the barrel-chested magician and how happy Mr. Snodgrass had been to see the eggs.

  When they arrived home, Lilly repeated the story to Tobias. She opened her hands to reveal the egg. It felt heavy in her palm. Tobias’ eyes gleamed, first with delight then with barely suppressed rage.

  “What is it, Tobias?” asked Lilly.

  “Well, I’ll tell you what it isn’t,” he said. “It isn’t an ordinary, crack-one-in-the-frying-pan, henny-penny egg from the grocery store.”

  “Can you tell what kind of egg it is?” asked Dorian.

  Tobias rolled the egg around the palm of Lilly’s hand with the tip of his beak. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “Water,” he murmured to himself, eyes still closed. “Water yes, an island thousands of miles away. Inside a chick, a parrot chick in its own liquid world.”

  He lifted his head, opened his eyes and stared at Lilly. “What you have here is an egg, Lilly. Of course we won’t know what species until the parrot chick hatches.”

  Lilly’s eyes widened with surprise. “A chick can hatch from an egg that’s cracked?”

  “Rrright! Exactly and directly right,” said Tobias. “We need simply to strengthen the seal.” He asked Dorian to find some petroleum jelly. Dorian ran home. When he returned, Tobias took the tube in his beak and squeezed the gel along the crack.

  “What do we do now?” asked Lilly.

  Tobias explained that in nature, female parrots leave their eggs in termite nests, tree hollows, or in the crevices of rocks. “In Argentina,” said Tobias, “Monk parakeets build a nest of sticks that’s large enough for more than one family.”

  “What kind of nest can we build?” asked Lilly. She cradled the egg in her hands and looked around the room. No termite nests, rocks, trees or sticks were within view. She did, however, see a cardboard box.

  Dorian held the egg while Lilly lined the cardboard box with soft, threadbare towels and filled it with her own pillow. When Lilly was done, Dorian placed the egg in the nest box. The egg making only the slightest impression on the pillow had already made an enormous impression on Lilly. “I can’t wait to meet you,” Lilly whispered to the chick she imagined inside.

  After a great deal of coaxing, flattery and promises, Tobias convinced Lady to sit on the egg. When Dorian went home, everyone in Lilly’s room turned in for the night but Lilly stayed wide-awake and wondering. Who was growing inside the egg? How long would it be before the egg hatched? Why would an egg suddenly appear atop a trash heap in a back alley thousands of miles away from its home?

  Before long everyone including Lilly slept peacefully under Tobias’ watchful gaze. And his was the only watchful gaze since Lady had refused to sit on the egg until all the criminals’ faces were removed from the walls.

  Chapter 22

  Tobias tapped the map with his beak and began to march across. The map, borrowed from the school library, was open on the bedroom floor. Tobias wanted Lilly to see the areas he’d flown over in his search for criminals. So far, the determined old parrot had crisscrossed ten square miles and found several abandoned shacks in the woods. “Any criminals using them for hideouts?” asked Lilly excitedly.

  “VACANCY! No one is using them whatsoever,” shrieked Tobias. “Flew into one shack and found the petrified remains of pork and beans next to a 1954 newspaper. What a bully that McCarthy was.”

  “Oh,” said Lilly disappointed. As the two put their heads together over the map, Lady clucked loudly. Tobias explained that Lady refused to sit on the egg any longer because it feels like ‘a bowling ball.’ Before Lilly asked how Lady knew about bowling balls and before Tobias panicked, Janie and her children crawled inside the nest, snuggling the egg to keep it warm.

  Tobias narrowed his eye as Lady waddled past. “I won’t forget this derrrr-eliction of duty. You have abandoned the nest!”

  Lady stuck out her bill, “ I will remember the nightmare of sitting on your egg.”

  Lilly left to make breakfast. In the kitchen, she put the kettle on. Every morning and evening, Lilly made a special tea for her mother with plants from the garden the way Mrs. Mynah had showed her.

  Lilly plucked leaves from their stems and dropped them into her mother’s cup. Sometimes when Lilly thought about her mother, it made her angry. Why did she have to have a mother who was so helpless? She thought about her father, too. Why had her father run around saving tigers instead of taking care of his family? The boiling teapot whistled. Lilly turned off the stove and poured steaming water into the cup. She stirred with a silvery spoon and saw leaves swirling round.

  Lilly quickly ate a bowl of cereal. Then she fried an egg and scooped it onto a plate. Fresh dill from the garden went on top, a banana on the side. It was part of the diet Mrs. Mynah had worked up for her mother. When the watery brew in the teacup cooled, Lilly took out the spent leaves. What remained was an herbal tea with a faint licorice smell.

  Lilly carried the breakfast tray to the garden and noticed her mother’s cloud seemed ligh
ter. Lighter gray, less dense. The wispy cloud floated above her mother, rippling in the breeze. Mrs. Wilder continued to pull weeds. “Good morning,” said Lilly. “Here’s your breakfast, Mother.” She expected her mother to say, ‘thank you,’ without looking up. It had become their morning routine.

  But this morning was different. This morning Lilly’s mother stopped, stood up, looked at Lilly and took hold of the tray. Lilly let go of the tray but held her mother’s gaze. “Thank you, Lilly.” As her mother spoke, Lilly noticed her eyes were clear for the first time.

  “Do you want strawberries, mother?” Lilly didn’t want to let go of this moment. She tugged red berries from a bush and pushed her cupped hand toward her mother. Mrs. Wilder looked from the bright berries to Lilly’s bright eyes.