"I'm sorry, Mou, how was your day?"
"Very informative, and I see your day was spent well."
He nods excitedly.
"So, Rizzo, would you feel terribly violated if I used your project as my project for class?"
He turns his head to the side. "Like, you want to use me for an experiment?"31Please respect copyright.PENANA5VC6CEbk8R
"No, Rizzo, not in the least---"
"Madhuri, I'm just kidding." He has a quizzical smile. "I trust you will portray me well?"
"As perfectly as the great Gianrico portrays all of his photography subjects."
He glances at me thoughtfully, then shrugs.
"It'll be the story of all the amazing things you have taught me."
He stares out into the soft blue sky for a long moment before asking, "So it'll be the story of us, then?"
"I suppose so."
He doesn't say anything else, seeming trapped in his web of thoughts all of a sudden, so I change the subject, "So, who are we going to see?"
"The great tiger trainer, Isabella Armstrong. She said to call her Izzy. She trained tigers for almost thirty years starting in 1990."
We swerve onto a red dirt road, and I take in the trailers and unfamiliar territory. The GPS calls it "unknown road." As we turn into the driveway of our destination, a middle aged woman struts toward us with a little kennel.
"Now she breeds and shows Abyssinian cats on the road with her truck-driver husband. They leave tomorrow."
As we pull to a stop and hop out of the car, Izzy waves. She has a giant toothy grin, and strands of her dark brunette hair brush between her lips.
"Are you Gianrico?"
"Yes, and my girlfriend, Madhuri."
"Come on over to the patio. I have chairs out for you both."
I glance at Rizzo, but his excitement gets the best of him. Characteristaically trusting, he struts up the stairs to the old lawn chairs waiting for us; I get ready to sit beside him, but he pulls me onto his lap and leans his chin on my shoulder. His leg his shaking.
"You nervous?" I tease.
"Only a lot, Mou."
Placing my hand on top of his, I murmur, "You're going to be great. Just be yourself, and show people how to accept you for who you are...just like you showed me."
His blue eyes brighten, and he nudged me with his cheek. "That should be the opening line to your book."
"Book? Rizzo, I wasn't going to write a book."
"Well, that girl said she would read it, and frankly, I think the world deserves to know the story of us. After all, it's pretty extraordinary..." He kisses my shoulder gingerly. "Write the book, and don't leave out any detail, Mou."
I squeeze his fingers between mine as Izzy joins us.
"Well, ain't y'all cute? Last time my husband held me like that was 1995 on the day of our wedding...now, we just argue and grunt a greeting every morning. Old coot. You kids keep that fire alive, you hear me? Ain't nothing like good love." She clears her throat. "Anyway, not here to talk about matters of the heart, even though tigers are near and dear to mine." She narrows her eyes at us. "And I hope you feel the same way about them, talking about opening a santuary. You have to love what you do because there are gonna be days where you don't want to do it." She crosses her legs. "Do you know anything about tigers?"
I feel Rizzo's fingers tighten along my hip. I take a deep breath, and he follows suit, then bursts out with facts about tigers equivalent to that of an encyclopedia: what they eat, how much they eat, where he plans to source his meat, how big the enclosures need to be, how to nourish baby tigers...Some of the facts, I expand on.
"Well, dang." Izzy scratches her head. "Ain't ever heard that many facts before in my life, but what you're missing boy, is passion." she licks her lips and nods. "The love you got for one another is the kind of love you have to have for these animals---that passion and that fire everyday...that'll bring you success. How are you going to fund yourself?"
"We will be open to the public soon. Right now, we just need to support baby tigers, and I will go on a payment plan for the land we find. I just need money to buy the baby tigers, and...you know..."
Rizzo nudges me with his chin inconspicously, and I hop into the arena. Tag team. "Someone to help us raise them right and someone to help us handle them as they grow. we want them to be as 'tiger' as possible. Right now, they're in a circus, and they have no hope of living lives outside a cage. We want to change that."
"So, how are you going to get the money to buy the baby tigers?"
"Well, I have shared this picture with an animal right's group called, Support the Fur Friends, and they have already donated six hundred dollars." He slips a picture from his photography bag onto the table and slides it forward: an elephant in chains. the way he captured the sorrow/fear in her liquid brown eyes sends shudders up my spine even more than the fact that her legs are chained. I feel like I can almost reach out and speak to her, promise her everything is okay. "I will start a blog and post more pictures like this."
"Any legal issues with this?"
"No, I had the right to take whatever photgraphs I wanted per my father and his company's contract with the circus, but I won't slander them. I want to help them improve conditions. I believe there might be a happy medium."
"I have worked with circuses for a long time, and I can assure you they are not the most dynamic or open people, boy. That's why I stopped the business. my training techniques took too long; they wanted me to be brutal, but I wasn't having it."
"I think we should at least try."
"Okay, have you found land yet?"
Rizzo nods. "I have some places in mind, but the baby tigers are pretty small right now, so we are going to keep them at my house. I already talked to my father about it. We have a big enough space for them right now. With the growth we are getting thusfar, I estimate it will only be a few months before we can get an appropritate place."
"Plus, our friend Saunders has lots of land with horses."
"Plus, we are going to be doing fundraisers and stuff."
"So you're exploiting these creatures?"
"No, but everyone loves a cute little tiger. We could let people adopt them, have stuffed animals, even a show on the internet to help gain support for them. The possibilities are limitless."
She sits back in her seat, silent for a moment. We have almost won. Suddenly, this does not seem like a distant dream from just this morning. This is real, and I'm all of a sudden exctied. Is this how Saunders and Rizzo feel about everything?
"So, where is your passion?"
I am speechless. Here we are talking to a tiger expert, impressing her with a definite game plan and facts she could not have dreamed, and she's accusing me of not loving my favorite animal in the whole world.
I frown at her, leaning forward on the table. "We will love those baby tigers like they are our own children, Ms. Isadora, believe it! My boyfriend knows what it's like to be charged with an identity not your own, people trying to mold you into something you're not. NO ONE, and I mean, NO ONE will understand them like him...and no one understands him like me. We are the best bet those tigers have got!" I guess my mother's feisty nature does reside in me deep down somewhere, ready to pour out like lava from a dormant volcano when needed.
"Hah!" she clasps her hands together. "There it is, girl, there it is!"
Rizzo pulls me to his chest as she jumps up, green eyes filled with sudden life.
"Okay, so where are you going to get your labor?"
Rizzo and I glance at one another, and I shrug. "It's just us right now, but..." I think quickly. We can't falter now. "I know some friends that would be willing to learn and help out."
"Okayyy...and who is going to teach them?"
"We will have enough to hire one professional tiger employee right now to train everyone," Rizzo's fingertips tap out the investment figures on the table.
"I think $15/hr is a fair starting salary."
"You mean..." Rizzo and my eyes get big, and I stare at him. for once, I am the one screaming. "Rizzo, baby, it's real! It's real!" I squeeze his face between my palms, and he laughs, pulling me into a kiss.
"My granny left me some land...bout 15 acres left to her by my great grandfather came from Spain. It's not huge, but until we get something else, we can use it for the raising of the tiger cubs." She puts her hand on her hip. "Gotta build up the old barn and get it mowed down and stuff. It's worth bout 40,000. I need a down payment of 5,000 by the end of the month, and after that, payment plan will be 2,000 a month. Fair?"
Rizzo nods, writing everything down.
"Once you open to the public, it will be a different game plan."
"You can have forty percent of the proceeds once we open to the public---IF our rent is reduced to 1500 a month."
"Hmmm, but how do I know how well you're going to do?"
Rizzo shrugs. "Exactly. You either loose five hundred dollars and gain more or gain nothing. your call, but we have to pay the land off, plus you will still be working for us. So it's a stellar deal. what are the odds baby tigers aren't going to make money?"
She crooks an eyebrow at me. "I love the way your man thinks."
I give an amused grin. "I love everything about him."
"Roy!" she calls over her shoulder. "Roy! Get out here! Roy!"
A middle aged guy shuffles up the steps. "What do you get at screaming my name like that? I'm not deaf!"
"You act like it!"
"Maybe because I get tired of hearing your nagging all the time---"
"Roy, go get that contract for my Granny's land!"
"Why? You sold it to some kids? Is this the tiger people? You believe that bologna?"
"Roy, as my granny used to say. The sky will always be blue, but chances like this happen once in a lifetime. Take a chance on a chance, and just go get it!"
He strolls into the house and comes back with a old browned folder. "Here, woman."
"Thanks, love you too."
"He grumbles under his breath, then jams his hands in his pocket. "Be nice to have tigers aound again, getting tired of those cats..."
"Roy, you leave my babies alone." She opens the folder and adjusts her glasses.""So this is the proof that the land is ours. We will have our lawyer make a copy and go over everything with us all. We can talk figures again and sign a contract, but I like what I heard. What about you two?"
Rizzo nods.
"Agreed." I scan the contract. It's almost a century old made between an Englishman named William Taylor and Ricardo Gonzalez.
"So, the Armstrongs and the..."
Rizzo glances at me.
"Balistreris," I answer.
"We're not married," Rizzo corrects.
I look at the ring on my finger. "Someday, we are gonna be. You promised, right?"
"Of course. No one else in this world for me."
We turn back to the Armstrongs, who are speechless. Rizzo continues. "the Balistreris and the Armstrongs are going into business."
"Alright, so when do we get the tiger cubs again?" Roy prompts. "Miss those little grey eyes and squawls." He laughs, reminiscing."
"Now?" Rizzo looks around at us.
"Make the call," Izzy prompts.
Rizzo takes out his phone and dials up the circus; i lean in to listen. "Ummm..."
"More confident, boy," Roy prompts.
"My name is Gianrico Balistreri, and my lady, colleagues, and I would like to buy your new baby tiger cubs."
"Wooooo!!!!" Isadora dances on the patio.
"Oh, yes, I would like to speak with the owner, Dotty."
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