Through the Tiger's Eye by Kerrie O'Connor Page B

though the last bus stop is at the bottom of the hill.’
    She lowered her voice: ‘I think he was breaking the rules, just quietly, but I was the last passenger, so no one will know. You won’t tell, will you, Ricky?’
    Ricardo was on his second slice and by the time he could speak he had remembered there was something he had to ask Grandma.
    ‘Do you know the old lady who lived here before us?’
    Grandma and her friends were like a secret society with X-ray vision and bionic tongues. Lucy remembered when Mandy Hoffman told everyone she was going to Disneyland and Lucy rushed home to ask if they could go too and Grandma already knew about it. She knew how much it had cost and which credit card the Hoffmans had used to pay for it and the strain it had put on the marriage because Mr Hoffman had wanted to go to Euro Disney instead of America.
    Grandma’s old friends were formidable . Dad said Grandma and her gang added up to one giant old octopus. If you just tugged on one of its arms and asked a question, sooner or later one of the other arms would tickle you under the chin with the answer. What’s more, they’d tell you why you were asking in the first place. Dad called Grandma’s bingo club the Octopus Information Exchange.
    Grandma acted all innocent at first.
    ‘How would I know? And how do you know it was an old lady?’
    Ricardo looked at Lucy.
    ‘I don’t,’ he said slowly, looking as if he didn’t know what to say.
    Then he did what he always did when he didn’t know what to say. He ran around the room, squealing the same word over and over again, ‘Lady, lady, lady,’ until Grandma told him to cease and desist.
    Lucy thought she had better say something.
    ‘I think it was an old lady too,’ she said.
    ‘Why, Lucy love?’
    ‘Because of all the mermaids and it’s got an old lady’s garden, like your one, Grandma, with all those roses.’
    ‘Well, it was your grandpa, rest his soul, who planted all my roses, Lucy, but I think I know what you mean. I can ask at bingo, if you’re really curious. Beryl Shepherd used to live up this way when her Bill worked in the mines. I’m sure she’ll know. Now, show me this horrible old rug you’re all so excited about, and if you stop prancing about and look in my bag, Ricky, you’ll find something special for that dreadful dog.’
    Ricardo’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw how bright the tiger was, but for once he kept his mouth shut. Luckily Grandma hadn’t seen the rug before, so she didn’t notice anything different. Lucy was caught between pride at hearing Grandma say how beautiful and exotic the tiger must have been when the rug was new, and really wanting her to get out of the room in case the rug decided to get even newer. Hang on, what was that between the tiger’s front paws? It looked like . . . oh no! Lucy quickly sat on the tiger’s head, covering its paws with her feet.
    ‘Get off him, stupid,’ said Ricardo, shoving her.
    ‘She’s a her, you idiot!’ and Lucy shoved him back.
    ‘Now, if you two are going to fight, I’m going to make a cup of tea.’
    Lucy shoved Ricardo again and he tried to get her in a neck lock.
    Grandma shook her head and walked out.
    ‘Look at this, you dingbat,’ said Lucy, wriggling easily out of Ricardo’s grasp and getting up to show him what she had been hiding.
    ‘Oh.’
    It was very faint, but there was no doubt. The image of a snake was woven into the rug. Its disturbingly large head was between the tiger’s front paws. It certainly hadn’t been there before. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but as they stared, the snake seemed to get even clearer, its body twining along one entire side of the rug before tapering to a pointed tail.
    Ricardo had gone pale.
    ‘First the tiger in the rug, then the Tiger-cat in the tunnel, and then the tiger in the jungle. Do you think . . . ?’
    ‘Yep,’ said Lucy.
    ‘Then I’m not going.’
    ‘We have to. They need more