Never Trust A Tiger. A Novel by Char Valdez

In the golden age of the circus (1890-1918), there was a lady lion tamer. Her name was Marta Lundeen. She traveled all over the United States and Europe with the William Keth Circus. She was a small and demure woman who depicted herself as a child entering a den of ferocious lions, leopards, and tigers. She often played fairytale characters. She risked life and limb every day to amuse and entertain the public. She would come close to death many times and be hospitalized time and again, but would return to the arena triumphant, until one day her career but not her life would end with a mauling. As a young girl growing up in Austria, Marta’s parents struggled to make a living. There was political unrest. So in a desperate attempt to make a better life for their small family, they moved to America, a rural area outside of Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Lundeen hoped he could make a better living at his photography business, and Mrs. Lundeen, a seamstress, could also provide nicely for her family with her skill. Marta, their daughter, a scraggly waif of a girl, only sixteen years old at the time, fretted over English being her second language. She was sure she would be ridiculed and have no friends. But Marta did well in school, making many friends, and there was plenty of business for her parents. The boy next door would play a pivotal role in Marta’s life, teaching her to ride and train horses. The boy would also break her heart. She would then turn her attention to modeling school. She would aspire to be like the ladies in the glossy magazines her mother bought. Marta’s mother died in a locomotive accident.

 On the way home from the funeral father and daughter would be confronted by a band of gypsies who read her fathers palm. Marta would receive her palm reading, warning her of impending danger and long-lasting love in the form of a dream. Marta’s father granted her the wish she’d had since childhood of going to modeling school. Marta was so small and demure; the modeling ideal was not what she was. In college she would meet another fortuneteller who strangely told her the same things the gypsy had. Then, one fateful afternoon, her college friend took her to the circus. It was there that she would realize her true calling. She would join the circus and train lions, tigers, pumas, monkeys, birds, and dogs. She would rise to the top and become circus royalty. She would learn about patience, skill, and bravery. Her life would be dangerous, adventurous, and exciting. She would feel the fullness of being someone special and the sting of jealousy and hate. A third fortuneteller would warn her of the same impending danger and love interest that the other two had warned her about. She would not heed these warnings. After a near fatal mauling crippling her hip and bruising her ego she would have a different life. Obscured behind the scenes, Peter, a friend and loyal admirer, would be her hero on so many occasions that she could not ignore him. She would leave her circus life and eventually settle into married life. Living in an old Victorian house full of cats in Chinatown, San Francisco. They would watch the fireworks from their porch on Chinese new Year hand in hand on their front porch swing.