THE BRIMSLEY TIGER
A young, British engineer living in Brimsley, has won a contract for his company to build an oil pipe line in India and soon after begins dreaming of a huge tiger. The dreams are haunting, foreboding, and seem to predict a future connected with the jungle and India. At one point the dreams become too real, claw marks on the door in the morning after a nightmarish dream.
He goes to work as usual that day, mentions the dreams to a friend who is more confused than helpful. He stops at a bar for a drink, walking home he realizes he is being stalked; the shadow and sounds of the tiger from his dreams are following him, haunting him, but he does not know why. He makes it home and closes the door in the nick of time before the unseen tiger is banging and clawing at the door only to vanish when the phone rings. His lady friend is on the phone, she is already at her wits end with the tiger stories and the frantic description of his experience only makes things worse. She hangs up on him.
The next morning the engineer gets up to see that a homeless man on the news is claiming he saw a tiger on the streets the night before, a white tiger. After a long and bizarre search for the homeless man, the engineer finds him and is led on a foot chase into a shabby part of town where he loses him. As the engineer catches his breath, he is accosted by an elderly Hindu man, his name is Ajeet.
Ajeet is quiet and mysterious, insists the engineer come with him, as if he knows him. The engineer goes along under the circumstances, he has nothing to lose. They go a short ways to a small apartment where there is a elderly woman waiting for him smartly dressed in Hindu garb. She asks him to be seated.
She asks him if he remembers her, and she reminds him of his childhood in India, she was there many years ago. She reminds him of a story she once told him, about a white tiger. This tiger was said to protect the villages and places sacred to the people living there. The tiger has come here to kill Ajeet because of his plans to build an oil pipe line in India, one which would run through ancient forest. If Ajeet does not change his intentions, the tiger will kill him before he can destroy the forest. She tells Ajeet she is powerless against it and it has come to warn him to stop the destruction of the forest for his oil pipeline. If Ajeet does not stop the construction, the power extending from his ancestors through all time will come to bear through this ghost tiger.
Ajeet realizes he must go to India and create a solution first hand to save himself, villages and jungle that are threatened. When he arrives he is advised workers on the pipeline are refusing to work after two of them were killed by a rogue tiger. Ajeet goes into the jungle himself with a small team to inspect the worksite that has been abandoned.
Ajeet and his team find the worksite and see that workers have already destroyed a swash of jungle as they made their way from a mountain valley above the site. There are displaced villagers and homeless animals now left to their fate with no concern from the company. Ajeet is broken hearted by the mess this project has created and begins to understand the depth of his situation.
Ajeet looks at the mountain and his maps, he sees that the pipeline could have gone on the other side of the mountain, through barren, dry land. As Ajeet ponders a new plan for the pipeline, he hears one of his team scream, the others saying he was carried off by a huge tiger. They decide to immediately head back to the place they left their vehicles before dark.
On the way back, the shadows of the forest make it difficult to see, the men can hear they are being followed by a large animal. At times they can hear the gurgling and growl of a large cat which terrifies them. They begin to move faster, but the tiger is following them and soon grabs another man leaving Ajeet and two others. The two others vanish before Ajeet finds his way to the clearance where they left their vehicles. Ajeet barely makes it into his truck before the tiger can catch him, the car being bashed around and turned over before the tiger gives up and lurks back into the forest.
Ajeet returns to the company staging ground in terror, the company owner outraged Ajeet’s story about what happened to the missing men. Ajeet argues and fights with him over a new route on the other side of the mountain instead of through the forest. Despite Ajeet’s warning, the company owner sends another team into the forest, professional trackers and hunters. Despite their experience and weapons, the hunters find themselves confused and fearful of a presence of something they are familiar with from legend. They decide to return and give up their hunt, but they never make it back. Instead, one of the displaced villagers emerges with some of the hunter’s things covered in blood before vanishing into the forest. The company owner asks him why he is not afraid of the tiger, the villager tells him the tiger is for him and his people. He tells him he and his people are safe and it is the company owner who is doomed.
The company owner goes to his owner goes back to his nearby office angry and depressed, he has no idea what to do at this point. The wind is beginning to blow and a light rain begins to fall as he lets himself in. The man sits and pours himself a drink, he looks at the calendar on the wall, a picture of a tiger within the forest is the picture of the month. Within the sound of the wind and light rain, he can hear thrashing of brush outside. Suddenly there is a loud bang on the wall and the low growl of the tiger. The man is totally unnerved.
The company owner frantic, covering windows and looking for any kind of weapon. The tiger is banging on the side of the office and trying to get in. A lightning flash makes everything quiet, the wind and rain stop, the tiger becomes quiet. The door of the office begins to creak as it bows in from something pushing from the outside, the door handle jiggles but not enough to open the door. Again, a huge push against the door bows it, making it creak and crack, nearly breaking it in. It stops, then there is a silence, the company owner takes a breath, but then a loud pounding against the wall stuns him huddling to the floor. All goes quiet, but the man remains huddled in fear.
There is a knock on the door, it is a human knock this time, Ajeet calls out his name. The company man rises and cautiously opens the door revealing Ajeet and his map. The man initially blames Ajeet for his horrible experience, Ajeet is confused then realizes he is talking of the tiger. The company man tells Ajeet he will call in the government people that hired him and let them deal with this, he wants nothing more to do with it and will leave the next day.
A team of government military men arrive in a truck, the company man welcomes them and leaves with the driver wishing the men good luck. Ajeet meets them and warns them not to go and instead to support him in his plan to change the route of the pipeline. The commander instead, warns Ajeet to stay out of his way and let them do their job. He reminds Ajeet to stick to the original plan and to stop bellyaching about villagers who don’t matter.
Ajeet takes a step back, he decides to travel to the part of the pipeline where he plans the diversion to the desert valley on the other side of the mountain. The military men pack ready their equipment which includes infrared and night vision, they are heavily armed and well trained. The commander assigns positions and duties to each man before they head off into the forest.
It is not long before the men can hear they are being followed, they cannot see through the vegetation so they use their infrared, which detects nothing. Still they can hear something behind them, so they decide to stop and spread out and take a stand. The men wait for a long time, but there is no sound or anything the can see, so they decide to keep going. This time they hear a sound in front of them and decide to stop, the commander telling his second it may be the tiger gone ahead of them while they were stopped, that they are being stalked.
As they move ahead the coming darkness is beginning to obscure clear vision. A sound from above causes them to look up, they see the company man hanging from the mouth of a monstrous animal, a tiger. The tiger has him by the shoulder, he is still alive and calls for help. Some of the men draw guns, but the commander stops them, they may hit the company man. A moment later the tiger drags away the company man into the darkness of the trees, there is screaming, then it stops.
The men are terrified and ready, they spread out and slowly move ahead, suddenly there is a burst of gunfire and a scream, one of the mean is gone. The others frantically look with their infrared and finally see the body of their comrade high in a tree, stuck atop a branch. There is no evidence of what killed him. One by one the men disappear until only the commander is left, fleeing through the jungle to save himself.
On the other side of the mountain, Ajeet has made final estimates for the diversion of the pipeline, he realizes it will not only save the forest, but cost less to build. After this success, he heads down the path into the forest on the other side of the mountain. There he sees the destruction and the displaced people, homeless animals and dead ones, it is heartbreaking and seems to justify the attack of the tiger for Ajeet.
Ajeet finally comes to the end of the path, he listens for the tiger and talks out loud to it. He promises he can change this, to please spare him and his family, to ask his ancestors to forgive him. He also tells them how much the pipeline is needed to help people who live today, to please forgive the world for the way it has gone, but the need is great for many.
Ajeet offers himself to the tiger to see if he can be forgiven and make reparations for all the destruction. Ajeet walks alone through the forest, he is fearful but focused on his fate. There is a sound amongst the brush, someone running towards him. Out of the nearby trees comes the commander, he is still alive and fleeing the tiger. He sees Ajeet and comes at him, blaming him for the loss of his men and all that has happened.
The commander takes a stand and points his gun at Ajeet, but as he’s ready to fire, he is snatched away by the tiger and held in its mouth. The tiger looks at Ajeet in the eyes and growls in a low tone, the aggression leaves the tiger’s eyes before it drags the commander off into the forest. It was the tiger’s way of forgiving, Ajeet collects himself and heads back to his vehicle.
Back at home again in Brimsley, Ajeet tells the story to his wife and children. After dinner he goes to bed and dreams. The tiger comes to him, gently but watchful, it is an image of power and justice, of his ancestors and his connection to all things, there is now a sense of thankfulness in the tiger’s presence. He sees the white tiger slip off into the forest before awakening.
END© 2024 Jim Caron
