Thirty-Four

My head felt top-heavy, too thick for it to be worthwhile to open my eyes. I made a slight attempt but gave it up as too strenuous. Much better to leave the light out of my little black world. I knew instinctively that movement would bring pain and I didn’t want to chance it.

I couldn’t escape the smell though. It was a barnyard smell, sharply repugnant. But I had to breathe. I was lying on my right side. I tried holding my breath but, when I let it out and took it back in, my nose was tickled. There was hair tickling my nostrils. My poor suffering nose—twitching hairs and an unpleasant smell. I slid my face against a scratchy blanket and half opened my eyes, looking through my lashes. There wasn’t much light, but a lamp must have hung somewhere behind me. The darkness was my friend, full daylight would have been painful.

I wasn’t in my own soft bed, though, and where was Stephen? I let my eyes close again as I began to realize I didn’t know where I was. Better to sink back into darkness. Some fidgety little spot of attention and worry had been awakened, though, and it would not sink back down. Where was I? In the deep darkness, I could hear a swishing noise, more than once. A swish, tap, tap, swish, then a swish tap, swish, tap, swish, tap, tap, swish. Soft sounds from different directions, above my head, down at my knees, behind me now. At least it wasn’t the children. They were never that quiet, especially Tommy. Delia, maybe?

The idea of the children prevented me from giving way and losing myself in the velvet darkness again. They were fine, I was sure. Still, I ought to be aware. Shouldn’t I check on them? The air by my nose got hot and moist. With an effort, I opened my eyes to a slit. I immediately closed them again. I’d seen a black wet snout and amber eyes with black pupils, then white and brown fur with deep black spots. A black-rimmed mouth was slightly open, panting. There’d been just the gleam of yellow teeth.

I felt a thrill at the base of my neck that extended up to the roots of my hair and down to the toes that curled inside my shoes. It was a leopard. I was with the leopards. I vaguely recalled the filming of Alonzo and Babe’s engagement, the toast, then falling, falling. Someone carrying me, then later supporting me along. Falling. But how had I gotten into the leopard cage? With great effort, I smothered my desire to jump away. Still…I had to be very still.

My heart raced suddenly, but I kept my eyes closed, quietly clenching my toes and fists. I felt dizzy. I tried to picture the leopards’ cage. It was the big square cage where I’d seen Kathlyn Williams, and I remembered it connected to the smaller, shorter cage that Big Otto had shown me. There was a gate that could be lowered between them to get a single leopard out at a time. I must be on the chaise lounge in the big cage. I tried not to imagine the blood stains under the blanket I was lying on. This was where Leeder had been attacked. I could hear everything now. Two of the cats were moving back and forth, while one lay heavy on my feet, just as I’d seen them do with Kathlyn Williams.

My head was still foggy. I must have had too much champagne. I was afraid to raise my head, afraid to move, because I had no idea what the leopards might do. Otto said they would attack the jugular vein. My neck lay exposed on the lounge. I had to keep myself from moving to protect it. I prayed someone would come before the cats decided to react to me. I tried to become part of the sofa, tried to relax. I could feel my calves begin to cramp from my anxiety.

Suddenly, I heard a voice. “Mrs. Chapman, are you here? Olga, what have you done? Did you—” Kathlyn Williams’s voice stopped and I heard the sound of a struggle and then a scraping noise. I wanted to call out. I peered through half-closed eyes and nearly jumped when a tail waved an inch from my nose. The leopards. If I startled them they would be on me before anyone could react. I froze.

Through my blurred vision, I noticed a leopard’s head move toward my feet. The bars of the cage rang unpleasantly. No! Someone was purposely riling the leopards, hitting the cage with a stick. I heard a snarl…it was deep throated…then one of them jumped, and another growled. I didn’t dare change my position to see, but I was sure whoever it was must be prodding the cats with a stick through the bars of the cage. I heard repeated sounds of growls and jumps. They were so agitated it felt like there were sparks in the air…like when you hit a burning log. The animals threw themselves at the end of the cage near my feet.

They continued to prowl in an excited fashion, but now the knocking of the sticks came only after the cats jumped. Perhaps the person had left. I opened my eyes a bit, convinced that if I didn’t do something, the leopards would attack. They seemed to be building up to it.

On the ground, in a pool of light just in front of the cage, I saw Kathlyn Williams in her silk dress, face down. Was she friend or foe? I had no choice but to try to enlist her help. I hissed at her a couple of times. One of the leopards stopped pacing, and I shut my eyes when it came and thrust its nose at me, but it went away again and I risked it. “Kathlyn…help…Kathlyn.”

She moved a bit, then pushed herself up into a sitting position, her head hanging heavy. My instinct told me that the cats were building up to something. One of them sprang toward the end of the cage. I risked a move to look. There were sticks thrust through the bars of the cage down there. They must have been used to knock against the bars, and then to hit the animals. It seemed they’d been left there as obstacles to annoy the cats.

Kathlyn looked at me with horror and stumbled to her feet. “Keep still,” she whispered. “Slow and still. That’s what Olga says, slow and still.” She looked around helplessly. “I’ll get the key.” She stumbled into the darkness and the leopards jumped at the bars of the cage near my feet as if trying to get to her. She was back quickly. “It’s not there. Whoever put you in there took it.” She clutched her head and looked anxiously around.

“The gate,” I whispered. I was remembering what Otto had showed me. The smaller cage that could be separated by the gate was beyond my head. If I could get in there, I could drop the gate and get away from the cats.

“Yes.” She stepped closer to the cage at the end near my head. The leopards rushed to see what she was doing and scratched at the bars, leaping up now and then. “Here’s the rope, I’ll open it.” She knew what I wanted to do—to get into that smaller cage and shut the connecting gate. There was the sound of a slide as she opened it. “They can get in, too,” she said, sounding frightened. “Maybe I should go for help.”

“No!” I still whispered but harshly this time. With the gate up, the leopards could get into the cage but it was my only way to escape them. I had to take the chance.

“I could go get Olga—”

“No, please!” I was afraid that, if she left their sight, the cats would turn on me. “Please.”

She stood up straighter. “All right. I’m tying this off here, you can reach it when you get through the gate, release it to drop it.” She bent over her knot. “I’ll distract them down at the other end and you’ve got to be quick. Jump in and get the gate down. OK?” She was biting her lip. I hadn’t raised my head, only moved it to watch.

“Right. Hurry…please!”

She moved to the other end of the cage, talking to the leopards, and getting them to follow her. There was one still in front of me, behind the others. I wondered if I could slip off the back of the couch but it was too high.

“Come here, you,” Kathlyn said. “She won’t come. Here, you.”

I looked down and saw that she’d picked up one of the sticks and was waving it above their heads.

“Now!” she shouted as they jumped.

I bolted off the chaise and ran the few steps to the gate, looking for the rope end, but stumbled and fell into the smaller connecting cage before I could release the knot. The leopards howled. As I turned on my back to get up, one of them jumped up onto the chaise lounge and then leapt toward me. Her mouth was open in a fierce grin of sharp teeth and her claws were spread. There was no time to reach the rope. I curled into myself to protect my neck.

Bang! The gate dropped and the leopard smashed into it, roaring with frustration. Kathlyn was weeping. She’d managed to reach the rope and undo the knot just in time.

I turned over on the ground, shivering with the remains of my fear.