Larry

by Stephen Levey Larson, age 10, from US

Thinking himself rejected by all the other animals, since he could tap dance, Larry the Siberian tiger sauntered around the cold winter forests in search of a talent show.

Then one day he saw on the horizon, a dot getting closer and closer. At last, he could see that it was a Jeep with a cage in the trunk. A man was in the front seat.

"Tourists" Larry thought. "Maybe, if I tap dance, they'll take pictures of me, and I'll become rich and famous..."

So he started tap dancing.

"Harold to Beemhamer" the man in the jeep said into a walkie-talkie "We have a tap dancing Siberian Tiger over here! I repeat! A tap dancing Siberian Tiger! Over!"

"Are you just pulling my leg, Harold?" said a voice on the walkie-talkie. "Over!"

"No," Harold answered "I'm not. Maybe you want me to say 'A Panthera tigirs altaica'. Come see if you don't believe me. Over!" "If you say so! Over and out!"

While tap dancing, Larry saw a row of trucks, side by side on the horizon. Semis. Big, big gigantic trucks. Let's just say they were overwhelming to Larry, who being seven feet long-not including the tail, is tiny compared to them. Even if there were just five of them.

"They are going to eat me..." Larry thought "They are going to eat me.." As the trucks drove closer, Larry tap danced a little bit farther away. All of a sudden, he broke into a run!

Harold frantically screamed into the walkie-talkie. "Mayday! Mayday! Our dancer is getting away! Quick! Surround him! Over!"

The trucks flew in front of Larry, surrounding him.

"Please don't eat me!" Larry thought. Then he saw something on the side of the trucks. His only hope now was that the signs on the sides of the trucks were true. The signs that said "Barns and Bales (of hay) Circus".