Taming Lions (Chapter 1)
A flying coffee cup lid leads to two boys' inadvertent relationship with an old lion tamer and the secret he feared to reveal.
Taming Lions | Chapter 1 | Pete Strayer
She wasn’t as heavy as he expected. His feet chomped and scuffed along the gravel and sand as he loped into the desert night.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he panted to the baby as he struggled to see where he was stepping.
The trail was getting harder to follow, even in the distant whitish glow of the tall street lights. The little girl was bundled in a soft yellow blanket that flowed behind like a mini cape, tickling the ground and drawing a trail behind him. She had no idea what kind of danger she was in and how the 8-year-old who carried her had just barely slipped away from an escalating confrontation back at the house.
Moments earlier, what should have been a short and happy visit from Wade, the baby’s dad, was turning violent under sharp words and the smell of alcohol. It was some kind of misunderstanding, slowly becoming a fog of muffled sounds with the growing distance.
Survival, Abel was told, meant getting away. Beyond the pounding of his heart, all he knew was that now he was responsible for his precious niece Janey, and that he needed to find a hiding place until he either saw the police arrive or until his mom yelled for him to return home.
As he scurried over and around the large rocks, tumbleweeds, and boulders that punctuated the vast tract of desert behind the Stanton home on the outskirts of Las Vegas, all he could think of was getting Janey to safety. That, along with his mom and sister's argument with her former husband, back at the house. Abel knew his best chance would be to go to a family friend; the old man who lived across the street, in the 3-story nondescript building. To Able, the building was an imposing sight in the coming darkness. Ironically, it was a retirement complex called Sunnyside Community. To get there would mean risk. Getting across the street and being close enough to the house to be seen by Wade would mean danger.
The old man’s name was Dewey Turner. Still, the neighborhood kids knew him as ol’ Sun, the hobbled old codger who trekked into the desert nearly every day, with a cane and a paper bag, to feed all the local stray cats with several stubby cans of cat food and a beaten-up plastic jug full of water, from which he'd fill a dozen or so empty cans from previous feedings.
Abel and his best friend, Kev, accidentally met ol’ Sun one summer afternoon when their frisbee smashed into the sliding glass door on Sun’s ground-floor balcony. But rather than Sun scolding the boys for the errant throw, he welcomed them in and made them some of his signature lemonade, regaling them with stories of his days in the circus, taming the lions.
Abel ran as fast as he could without bouncing Janey around too much. From a distance, he couldn’t tell what was happening back at the house aside from the fact that there were a few cars parked crookedly in the driveway and every light on inside. The dead-end street in front of Sunnyside Community meant traffic was generally sparse, especially this time of day. Abel paused and peeked over the small rock wall concealing him and Janey.
She was still sleeping soundly, completely unaware, which surprised Abel, considering their awkward and bumpy escape. He could get to ol’ Sun, but it would make him and Janey easily visible for nearly the entire run between the desert and the front door of Sunnyside. What would Wade do if he saw Janey being taken away?
Abel’s mom’s words kept echoing in his head: “Take Janey and run into the desert! We’ll come and find you.” It was nothing new to Abel that his big sister’s ex-husband Wade could become wild and erratic sometimes, especially when he was drinking beers, but tonight was a new level of craziness. What was usually Abel’s nervous acceptance of Wade became bona fide fear.
Abel’s mom, Sandy, was not the kind of woman who took any cuff from anybody. Even so, there was only so much a five-foot woman could do, even armed with a well-used iron frying pan to defend her family.
“Okay, Janey. It’s you and me. Don’t worry, I won’t let you go,” Abel whispered as he jumped up and scampered toward the street.
They couldn’t have been more visible, though the break in any traffic gave them a clear path on the few hundred yards of hot pavement between them and ol’ Sun’s place. About halfway across the parking lot, Abel heard the sirens. They were getting louder, and he knew they were headed to his house. He could see the blue and red blinks out of the corner of his eye as he steadily pressed on, despite the flinging laces of his untied shoes.
What’s wrong with Wade? Why is he acting so stupid? Abel tried to make sense of it like an eight-year-old tries to understand why he can’t ever kill the small bats that flew every evening around his house with his trusty slingshot. It wasn’t quite enough perspective to be disturbing in the way his mom and sister Cindy felt, but more than enough to bother a boy whose typical laid-back personality gave everyone the impression of maturity beyond his short years.
He grabbed the steel door handle and went inside. Sunnyside was normally a place regarded by the neighborhood kids as both to be enjoyed, like a forbidden super playground, and also a place to be feared, because the elderly residents did not take kindly to their balconies becoming an impromptu launch pad for parachute toys.
The heavy door clanked shut behind Abel and Janey - the noise echoed down the hall. He rarely visited ol’ Sun via the indoor hallway entrance. He and Kevin usually hopped onto Sun’s balcony and knocked on the glass door whenever they wanted to say ‘hi’ to their unofficial adopted grandfather.
Abel held onto Janey so tightly that he couldn’t quite reach up to the door knocker, but he leaned onto the door as he shuffled Janey more squarely onto his shoulder. Ol’ Sun had surely gone to sleep for the night. Abel knew this because once the daylight faded, he and Kevin knew better than to get the old man up for a surprise visit.
Ol’ Sun answered the door, looking surprised and a bit confused at the sight of Abel, sweaty and carrying a baby.
“Abel, what are you doing here?” he asked.
“We need a place to stay, “ Abel gasped, still catching his breath. “Until things calm down at home.”
Ol’ Sun brought them in and motioned for Abel to sit where he usually sat when he and Kevin came over - the old couch against the wall. Janey was stirring now, and though she knew Abel, she was trying to figure out where she was and who this old man happened to be.
“Is everything okay?” Sun asked, as he gave Abel his standard fare of one tall glass of lemonade.
“My big brother-in-law Wade is acting crazy,” Abel replied, placing Janey on the couch.
That’s about all Abel knew.
“Sometimes people do things when they’re drinking that they’d never do otherwise,” Sun said, sensing his concern. “You can stay as long as you need, but that sweet little bundle might be hungry when she wakes up,” he observed.