Above His Station Read Online Free PDF Page A

through my mind relatively quickly, barely registering as I watched the tiger lock its eyes with mine. I felt like I was in one of those old Road Runner cartoons, when a starving Wile E. Coyote would stare longingly at the bird and see it all plucked and steaming as if it was fresh out of the oven (I would be Road Runner and not Wile E. Coyote, just so there’s no confusion).
    The tiger made its way towards me and I was frozen to the spot, unable to move my feet. I tried to force my brain to understand my commands, but it was as if I was speaking double-dutch. If I didn’t move soon the beast would block my only escape: the gate at the end of the platform. Gripping the toolkit tighter, feeling the sharp corners dig into my side, I plucked up my courage and ran. I was nowhere near capable of the speed required, and I had just cocked my leg over the barrier when I felt a whoosh of air by my right side. I began to make my way back over to the gate, but as I glanced over my shoulder I saw a trail of blood from the edge of the platform and felt something wet on my leg. I had not even been aware that the tiger had mauled me, but my trousers had three large slashes in them and so did my thigh. I almost collapsed as the pain kicked in, the realisation delayed by my confused state. I was forced to drag my right leg behind me as I stumbled over to the gate. As I lost my grip on the toolkit, it crashed to the ground and the tools spilled out all over the platform. I quickly grabbed the adjustable wrench.
    ‘That looks painful,’ said the rat, nodding at my leg.
    ‘That’s because it is!’ I said, widening the wrench’s head so it would to fit the bolts fixing the heavy iron gate to the wall. ‘Now shut up so I can concentrate!’
    The rat mimed a zipping motion across its mouth.
    ‘I can’t budge it!’ I yelled, casting the wrench to the ground in frustration. ‘It’s seized up.’ Losing my strength, I slumped down onto my backside, getting a closer look at my wounds. The cuts didn’t seem to be all that deep, but they burned like hellfire. I was done for. With no way out, no weapons to defend myself with and no energy to use them even if I did, contemplating my imminent end seemed the sensible thing to do. But just as I’d almost got used to the fact that I was going to die, I saw a flash of orange as the tiger leapt up onto the station platform. Now my death was even more of a certainty.
    The tiger lowered its head with its eyes fixed upon me, its muscular shoulders swaying to and fro and it placed each padded paw carefully on the platform. It was almost as if the beast was grinning at me, as if it knew that I was terrified and it was enjoying every second of it – quite the opposite to my appreciation of the situation, of course.
    ‘I can’t bear to look,’ said the rat, slapping its paws over its eyes.
    I wanted to do the same. The tiger was doing a very good job of intimidating me; growling constantly, building in volume and pitch, making the ground beneath me tremble. As my fear blotted out my senses, making me blind to everything apart from the tiger, I watched the beast’s nose twitch. And then, I can only describe it as if some unseen force had grabbed hold of the tiger by its tail and yanked on it, causing the tiger to explode in a splatter of guts and blood. My fear then freed my senses, allowing me to appreciate what had happened with clearer eyes.
    The vibration that had been so strong before was not the tiger’s growl, but the sound of an unannounced train arriving at Regal Street – and just in the nick of time too! The tiger’s tail had been over the edge of the platform and the vacuum had sucked the beast right into the train’s path, killing it instantly as it mashed it against the platform.
    What remained was very much like those rugs that Big Game hunters used to have adorning their huts in the old films. The tiger was completely flat, all its organs compressed from its interior out of any