How the Tigers Got into the Intercoms

Freddie was proud. There was a tiger in his intercom, a very special tiger, a Bengal tiger, all the way from India.

The other kids in the Project had tigers in their intercoms, too. All except Mary. Mary just had static in her intercom. Her intercom just didn't work right.

The tigers scared away ghosts and goblins and monsters. Each night, all the kids, except Mary, left out saucers of milk for their tigers.

Freddie asked the New Boy, "How did the tigers get into the intercoms?"

Mary mocked him, "Oh, silly, how can you believe such nonsense? Tigers only live in jungles. Tigers don't live in intercoms."

"Mary's partly right," admitted the New Boy. "Tigers used to live only in jungles. Then people came and chopped down the trees and dug up the grass and built roads and shopping centers and there wasn't any jungle anymore. Some of the tigers got jobs working for zoos and circuses. And the other tigers went around with stray dogs and cats, looking for scraps of food in people's garbage.

"It wasn't a very happy life. Often they went hungry and cold. And they felt useless.

"Then one day a man came and told them about the Space Project. He said there was going to be a City way out in outer space. And the best and luckiest kids and grownups were going to get to live in that City. And they needed tigers to guard the people, because nobody knows what's really out in outer space; and there could be all sorts of ghosts and goblins and monsters. And tigers are so big and strong and fearless -- they could scare away anything.

"So lots of tigers went with the man. Now they live in the intercoms in the Space Project. They're very proud and happy, most of the time. But sometimes they get homesick. Then they just lie there in the intercom and shut their eyes and growl softly and imagine they're back in the jungle."

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