Drip . . . Drip . . . Drip . . .
"DDDDDDDDDooooooooo . . .
yyyyooooouuuu think it is safe to go out?" Willie asked his friends, Jack
and Calvin. Hiding in darkness, Willie
was lying on his stomach on a cold, damp, rock floor.
"Ssssssshhhhhhh," whispered
Calvin, stuck between his rotund friend and a rock wall. "It still might be out there."
"But, I haven't seen it in a
while, and I am hungry."
"Why are you thinking about
food at a time like this?" Jack questioned, as he elbowed Willie. "You just had a snack when we were at
the lake."
"Well, how long do we have to
wait here?" Willie asked impatiently.
Tired of being squished by Willie,
Calvin suggests, "Maybe one of us should take a peek to see if it is still
out there?"
"I'll take a look," Jack
whispered as he crawled forward on his stomach.
Slowly, he inched forward.
Finally, his red Phillies cap, with brown hair poking out underneath,
emerged from the cave like a turtle's head poking out of his shell. Intently, he looked left. Seeing nothing unusual, he rotated his head
to the right. Still nothing unusual in
the woods. Or is there? What is moving over there? His head freezes. Jack holds his breath. He looks closely. A bush rustles. A squirrel emerges and climbs a nearby
tree. He sighed in relief. He continued looking to the right. Nothing.
His eyes scan back to the left.
Still nothing.
Cautiously, he climbed out of the
cave. Kneeling, he looks from his left
to his right. Still nothing. With his right hand, he waives for his
companions to come out of hiding.
"I think the coast is clear.
I don't see anything."
Calvin and Willie breathlessly
watched Jack emerged from the cave and waive for them to join him. Willie exhaled. Calvin moves forward first and climbs out,
followed by Willie. They stand
together. It feels good to stretch after
being cramped in darkness, for what felt like hours.
As they stood, Jack looked at his
friends, Calvin in a muddy Star Wars t-shift and Willie in a mud covered Pepsi
t-shirt, "You guys look terrible."
"You don't look so good
either." Looking at his shirt,
Calvin continued, "My mom is going to kill me."
Willie chimed in, "My mom
expects me to be dirty."
Jack pulls at his muddy red Phillies
shirt, "My grandmother will just think that I am in trouble again. Now that it looks safe, what should we do
now?"
Jack and Willie looked at Calvin for
the answer. "Let's go back to the
lake and get our bikes."
"Follow me," Jack said as
walked on a narrow path down a hill.
Calvin followed as Willie trailed behind. Trees and brush surrounded them as they
walked. Jack and Calvin kept looking
around to be sure it was safe. After a
few minutes, Willie started to sing.
Calvin elbowed him, "Sssssshhhhhhhh." Jack turned and glared at him.
They walked in silence.
Suddenly, Jack threw out his right
arm, stopped sharply, and whispered, "Stop." Calvin collided into Jack, dislodging his
hat. Willie dove to his right and
crawled under some brush.
Jack knelt down on his left knee,
his right arm outstretched and pointing down with his forefinger. Calvin bent over, looking over Jack's
shoulder, asking, "Why'd you stop?"
"Look. There's his paw print."
The boys, in awe, stared at an eight
inch tiger paw print etched into the soft ground.
"You didn't see the
tiger?" came a voice from the brush.
Willie stood, wiping away dirt and leaves.
"So, we weren't imagining
things. We really did see a
tiger." Calvin remarked under his
breath as he stood up, looking around for the tiger.
"What is a tiger doing out
here?" asked Jack. "Tigers
don't live in the Poconos."
"I don't know, but let's get
our bikes before we see it again."
Calvin replied as he rose.
Jack stood in front of Calvin and
resumed leading the boys down the path.
Willie scrambled out of the brush, slowed down to see the tiger's paw
print, then hurried to catch Calvin.
Nearing the lake, the boys game to
the edge of the woods. They could see
their mountain bikes lying on the ground by the water. A meadow of long, green grass separated them
from their bikes. Jack stopped.
"What is it?" asked
Willie.
"I hope nothing. I just wanted to look around before we get
out in the open."
All three looked around.
"All clear." Jack walked towards their mountain bikes, as
the others followed.
The boys slipped their backpacks
over their shoulders and strapped on their helmets. "Where are we going?" Willie asked.
"I think we
should try to figure out what's going on.
Remember, before we saw the tiger, we heard a loud noise," Calvin
said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, I
remember the noise. It sounded like it
came from near the river," Jack recollected.
Getting on his
bike, Calvin instructed, "Let's go the river and see what the noise
was. Maybe it will explain the
tiger."
"Okay, but I
don't think anything can explain a tiger in these woods," Willie doubted
out loud as he climbed on his bike.
"By the way, what do we do if we see the tiger while we are
riding?"
Jack looked up
and down at his slightly overweight friend, "All I have to do is ride my
bike faster then you." Jack rode
away.
Beginning to
pedal, Willie snarled, "That's not funny."
The boys followed
a dirt path about two miles until they
came to the southern end of Bear Lake, which was marked by a dam, holding the
lake in place. The path ran next to Bear
Creek for another two miles until it emptied into a larger river. When they reached the river, the path became
wider and ran between the river and roal road tracks. After following the tracks and river for a
mile, they rounded a corner, allowing them to see around a mountain.
For the first
time, they saw the disaster. Sheriff's
cars, fire trucks, and ambulances were spread out, surrounding a train that was
lying on its side, next to the tracks.
The boys rode
their bikes to the engine and started walking around. The train was like no train they had seen
before. The cars were painted with
tents, animals, and clowns. Some of the
cars were cages with animals like lions and bears in them.
"It is a
cicus train," Jack exclaimed.
"I remember
hearing something about a circus train coming through town," Calvin
chipped in. "Let's walk around and
see if we can find out what happened."
Near the engine,
they saw the sheriff talking with two men, one looked like the train's engineer
and the other was an older man, wearing a suit.
As they talked, they were pointing at the rear wheels of the train. Calvin put his right forefinger to his lips,
"Sssshhhh." Then, he waived,
indicating that he wanted them to follow him.
He led the boys around the engine and stopped, where they would be
inconspicuous, but could still overhear the conversation. Calvin could not overhear every word, but it
sounded like a small explosive went off, causing the wheel to come dislodged
from the track and the train to derail.
When the train derailed, the tiger's cage broke and he escaped. The first priority was to capture the tiger
before it hurt someone.
Calvin heard
enough. He wanted to see the tiger's
cage. They walked by numerous people who
appeared to have minor injuries. Calvin
assumed they were circus workers who were on the train when it derailed. Paramedics and EMTs were tending to the
injuries.
Calvin found the
car that served as the tiger cage. It
was tipped over on its side. It was
empty, so obviously the tiger escaped.
However, Calvin noticed something unexpected. "Hey guys, what's missing from this
cage?"
Jack and Willie
looked at the cage. "We already
know what is missing," Willie replied.
"The tiger."
Calvin
frowned. "Obviously. But, if the crash enabled the tiger to
escape, we should be seeing something.
But, it's missing. What is
it?"
Jack took another
look at the cage. "I am looking,
but I don't know what you are talking about."
"The cage is
not broken. All of the bars are intact,
just like the other cages. Look, the
bears, lions, and other animals are still in their cages. Those cages did not break. This cage did not break either. Someone let this tiger out."
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