Free Tiger Town by Eric Walters

then, my mother was blasted in the back of the head by a stream of filthy water that Peanuts sprayed out of his trunk! She staggered forward, practically falling. Vladimir reached out and grabbed her, stopping her from tumbling over.
    “Bad elephant!” Vladimir yelled.
    Peanuts trumpeted, sounding like something out of a Tarzan movie. My mother turned around, saw the elephant and jumped backward, away from him.
    “Very bad elephant!” Vladimir waved his hands and started toward Peanuts, who retreated into the water. He went deeper and deeper until only his trunk and the top of his head were sticking out of the water again.
    I looked at my mother. Her hair was plastered to her head and her clothes — at least the back of her clothes — were soaked. That wasn’t good. She was wearing one of her court outfits, an expensive tailored black skirt suit. Maybe it was ruined. Hopefully it just needed to be dry cleaned.
    “Are you okay, Mom?” I asked.
    “I’m … I’m … An elephant just spit at me.”
    “No, no, it didn’t spit. It sort of sprayed,” I tried to explain.
    She shook her head, wide-eyed. “No, something that was in its mouth is now all over me.”
    “Not really his mouth,” I said. “I guess it’s really more like his nose.”
    “And that’s better?” she gasped. The expression on her face showed just how disgusted she felt.
    “Wipe that smile off your face!” she said, pointing at Nick. There was a smirk there that instantly faded.
    “I wasn’t smiling … honestly. I was just thinking that Peanuts probably did that because he likes you.”
    “Because he likes me?” Mom asked. She sounded as shocked by what he had said as she was by the original blast of water.
    “Yeah. Maybe he did that because he was sort of giving you a present,” Nick said. “Does that make sense, Vladimir?”
    Now it was Vladimir’s turn to seem confused. He shook his head. “Elephants are very smart animals. They do not give filthy water as a present.”
    “Then why would he do that?” my mother asked.
    Vladimir shrugged. “Maybe he just thinks it is funny.”
    “Well, I certainly don’t think it’s funny,” she said.
    “Either way, it did save you some time,” Nick said.
    “Time?”
    “Yeah, thanks to Peanuts you won’t have to take a shower before your date.”
    Suddenly I burst into laughter. I couldn’t help myself. I tried to stifle it, but it just came out. My mother looked like a drowned rat in a business suit. Mr. McCurdy cackled, Vladimir chuckled, Nick laughed and then even my mother cracked a smile — a little one, but it was still a smile.

Chapter 6
    “But you said you’d come and see the animals this morning,” Nick said as Mom drove way too fast up Mr. McCurdy’s bumpy driveway. I held on to the edge of the seat with both hands to keep from bouncing in the air.
    “I wish I could, but I’m late for work.”
    “But you promised,” Nick insisted.
    “I know, but I wasn’t planning on sleeping in when I made that promise.”
    “You wouldn’t have slept in if you hadn’t been out so late last night,” Nick snapped.
    Mom hadn’t gotten in until a lot later than she’d originally thought. We’d been “tucked in” long before she came home.
    She stopped the car behind one of the trucks. It was blocking her from driving any farther. “I’ve already apologized for that,” Mom said. “I didn’t mean to be so late last night, but I just lost track of the time.”
    “I’m surprised you could even fit behind the wheel of this little car to drive us,” Nick said. “Any meal that lasted for four hours must have put a lot of weight on you. Is that why you were so late? Because you had to digest the food before you could drive home?”
    “Nick, we did a lot more than eat.”
    “What do you mean by that?” Nick demanded angrily.
    “We talked. We talked for hours! I had no idea that the two of us had so much in common.”
    “You have a lot in common with the acting