Tiger

In the middle of every night I awake from my sleep for one of two reasons: mixures of different languages coming from Kunzes' dreams or from the amount of water I must drink to complement the very spicy Nepali dinners we have here. When the latter occurs, I hike out to the field of mustard flowers that villagers use as their bathroom. Last night, I was stopped by the dad who has now given up his room for us and sleeps with the animals. “Tiger” he says. With my minute understand of Nepali I was able to understand there was a tiger roaming in our village earlier. Keep in mind our village is made up of five homes including ours. Our mother gestured for me not go to the field and to go closer to the “ghar” (home). I guess after the snake skin incident I shouldn’t be too shocked that there are tigers here. The mother could see I was having a bit of trouble getting myself out of the door at that point. She got out of bed, took my hand and brought me to the animal hut below. Under the bright moon and stars and I tried not to think about the tiger but of the mother right beside me keeping watch of the animals in her shimmering red sari.