Three months later, I saw on the news that the zoo incident had been resolved. The truth had come out, and everyone knew about the crimes of Mr. Green and Rick. And to everyone’s satisfaction, they had been killed by the tiger.
What goes around, comes around.
22
I became famous too. The laptop I had stolen contained crucial evidence. I was a hero who had saved the animals.
As for the Tiger King, he was still alive.
He had been shot five times and had spent half a month in critical condition before he was finally stable.
During that half month, I worked tirelessly, telling his story to as many people as I could.
Ten years ago, the Tiger King had been brought to this zoo. He was only three years old then, lively and curious, and he was well taken care of.
My mother was one of his keepers.
I was a teenager then, and I used to follow my mother to work and pet the tiger. We became friends. He even let me ride him.
But my playful curiosity didn’t stop there. I was also curious about the lion in the next enclosure. I snuck over to see the lion, not realizing that there was another lion sleeping in the inner den, one that hadn’t gone out.
By the time I realized my mistake, the lion’s teeth were already sinking into my shoulder. Just as I was about to be killed, my scream woke up the Tiger King.
He let out a mighty roar, and the entire carnivore section fell silent. The lion that was biting me flinched and let me go, running back to its den in terror.
I was crying, but I was alive.
After that, I was traumatized. I never dared to go back to the zoo.
It wasn’t until after I graduated from college that I revisited the place, only to find that it had completely changed. The director was different, the staff was rotten, the
ground stank, and the animals were sick.
And the Tiger King… he didn’t remember me. It had been ten years, after all. He was so thin and weak, his eyes dull, like a dying old man.
So, I joined the zoo as a zookeeper.
And the Tiger King… he broke out of his cage and took back his dignity. In all that chaos, he didn’t harm a single innocent person. He only killed the two who deserv-
ed it.
And then, he quietly waited to die.
After my story came out, more and more people started to pay attention to the Tiger King, to worry about him, to petition for him.
He didn’t deserve to die.
In the end, the authorities decided to release him back into the wild, back to the mountains of the Northeast.
I cried tears of joy, remembering what I had said to him.
“Hi there. You’re the most beautiful tiger I’ve ever seen.”
“You have stars in your eyes.”
“I own a mountain in the Northeast. I want to take you back there, so you can be the king of the forest again.”
Tiger, I thought, be well.
