Geometric tiger pen drawing

You will be glad to hear the tiger finally arrived at the allotment, although not in the way the council promised. Mr Okonedo from the grange sent a boy with a barrow, and the boy tipped the crate over by the leeks, and out walked this great striped thing with its head down like a man leaving a pub. Nobody had told us it would be walking towards us. Everybody stopped digging. Even Doreen stopped talking, which you will agree is a miracle.

It did not eat anyone. It went straight through the bean canes, ignored the scarecrow, and sat down in the circle of stones you laid out last spring, the one you swore was only for rhubarb. It looked at me the way Father used to look at a bad invoice, long and flat and without any hurry. I think it was counting the facets of my face. I stood very still and counted its stripes back, which took the better part of an hour.

When the van from the zoo finally came, the keeper said it had been drawn that way, all hatched lines and corners, and that the animal was simply the picture getting out of hand. I told him the picture had been out of hand since your sketchbook went missing in March. He did not understand, and I did not explain.

It is gone now, and the beans are trampled, but the rhubarb is thriving. Come on Sunday and see for yourself. Bring the sketchbook. I owe it an apology and I would rather make it in person.

Yours in muddy boots, Evelyn