Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish

by Kirsty Murray

  ‘Well, I hope she doesn’t get better too quick and come and get you early.’

  ‘That’s a horrible thing to say,’ said Gus.

  ‘No it’s not. Look, this circus needs us.’

  ‘Seems like you need me even more.’

  Effie screwed up her nose as if she’d just smelt something repulsive and punched Gus hard in the arm.

  ‘You should be in a boxing outfit, not a circus,’ he said, rubbing the spot where she’d hit him. ‘I only meant, without me, you’d wind up in a boarding school. I heard Vytas telling Doc.’

  ‘Is my dad crapping on about that again? He’d have to drag me to the place kicking and screaming. If that’s the truth, you better stick with Zarconi’s, ’cause if I wind up in a convent and go totally nuts it will be…’

  ‘All my fault!’ said Gus.

  20

  SHAKING OFF THE MORTAL COIL

  Audiences were thin for the whole of the Perth season. Even when Zarconi’s moved to the northern beaches, the big top was never more than half full. Doc decided they’d have to head north earlier than planned.

  On their last morning in Perth, Gus and Vytas went down to the beach to say goodbye to the sea. Autumn was on its way and the water was cold and bracing. Gus couldn’t get enough of it, diving deep and holding on to rocks and seaweed to keep himself underwater until his lungs could take no more. As they trudged back to the circus lot, he kept looking over his shoulder, staring hungrily at the water, soaking up his last vision of the Indian Ocean.

  ‘Don’t worry, little fish,’ said Vytas. ‘The desert is as wonderful as the coast. It is another kind of ocean that you must discover.’

  But there was no desert at their first stop. They pitched the big top on the other side of a bridge near a bustling country town, and Vytas went into town to hand out fliers. Doc was convinced that country audiences were what they needed, but Gus still felt there was a cloud hanging over the circus. Pikkle had never returned from Circus Destructo, and Mac quit the day before they left Perth, so Doc decided he’d take the extra work on himself. It didn’t do a lot to improve his temper. He barked at everyone for the least little reason, especially at Gus.

  Hannah had been trying to find opportunities for Gus and Effie to train on the trapeze but Doc seemed to be around whenever they tried to sneak into the big top. Gus kept on with his floor work and did chin-ups twice a day, trying to lay some extra muscle on his upper body but it felt like a chore without the thrill of being high above the ring.

  In the late afternoon, he and Effie wandered down to the river bank and skipped smooth flat stones across the silky brown water. Gus gave up after a few goes and squatted down in the yellow mud, drawing pictures with a stick.

  ‘What’s the matter with you?’ asked Effie.

  ‘I don’t know. The curse of Zarconi’s,’ said Gus.

  ‘That’s my line, not yours. It’s your haircut, more likely. It’s gone all dark at the roots. It looks sick.’

  ‘Thanks. That really helps.’

  ‘I could hack it all off with a pair of scissors, if you like.’

  ‘Look, the hair’s the least of it. I just wish…things are getting so bad since Pikkle cleared off. He was really funky. He made me feel like things could change but now it’s just you and me and the oldies, it feels kind of hopeless. Even Mac’s gone and there’s only Stewie left and he never even says anything.’

  ‘Who cares? Mac was a creep. And you can’t let Pikkle shooting through get under your skin. People leave you. That happens. All the time. They piss off and do the dirty. Your big problem is you don’t have enough to worry about. Your mum’s getting better and she’s gonna come and get you in Broome and you’ll live happy ever after but what about Zarconi’s? What about Doc and Nance and Vytas? No other circus will take them on, they’re too old. Even Hannah is getting past it. And if Zarconi’s goes down the gurgler, my dad will lock me up in some convent school!’

  Effie grew red in the face as she worked herself into a rage. ‘Why don’t you try and think of someone other than yourself for a change! You’ve got a job to do and you better get serious about it ’cause we don’t have much time left. You’ve got to help save this clapped-out circus, ’cause I can’t do it all by myself.’

  Suddenly she shoved Gus hard in the chest, and ran. He landed in the mud, yellow river water soaking into his clothes.

  ‘Effie, wait,’ he called, scrambling up the river bank after her. He ran around the back of the big top but she was nowhere in sight. Then he heard her screaming. When he got to her caravan, she was standing in the doorway, sobbing, with Cas and Nance pushing past her.

  ‘What is it? What’s happened?’ asked Gus.

  ‘Lily, Lily,’ she blubbered, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

  ‘What about Lily?’

  ‘She’s dead,’ wailed Effie.

  Cas came outside with Lily’s body in his arms. Her forked tongue protruded from her mouth and all her taut and shimmering energy was gone. He laid her out on the dirt and everyone stood around looking down at the limp body.

  ‘I just went to sit down and I gave her a little push to make her move and she was all limp. She just uncoiled and fell onto the floor,’ said Effie, sniffing.

  ‘She was very old, Effie,’ said Cas. He put one arm around her and gave her a little hug. Effie started crying again, her nose red and runny.

  Doc came over and squatted down next to the dead snake. He ran a hand along the length of her dull scales.

  ‘If we’re gonna stuff her, we should do it before rigor mortis sets in,’ he announced.

  Effie let out a long wail and ran back into the caravan, slamming the door behind her.

  ‘You shouldn’t have said that, Doc,’ said Nance, disapprovingly.

  ‘It was only an idea. When I was a boy there was a mob that toured around here with a stuffed snake. Told everyone it was still alive and did the snake girl routine in the ring for years until the skin split and the stuffing burst out.’

  ‘We’d have to be on our last legs to sink to that,’ said Nance.

  ‘How much lower do you reckon we need to go?’ said Doc. He stood up, dusted the dirt from his hands and walked away, his big shoulders slumped and his head down.

  21

  FULL MOON OVER KALI

  Effie was down in the dumps for the rest of the day. Gus felt sorry for her and a little ashamed of himself. Even though she was a living thing, he had always thought of Lily like a bit of the furniture.

  They got a better audience that night and Doc thought it would be worth staying another night but Nance wanted to move on. Everyone retreated to other caravans while they fought it out. Effie and Gus made themselves some instant noodles and switched on the TV. They’d just got settled when the caravan started to shake and the soup slopped over the side of the bowls.

  ‘What’s happening?’ said Gus. He grabbed the side of the laminex table as everything in the cupboards began to rattle and the whole caravan shuddered.

  Effie was on her feet and making for the door.

  ‘It’s Kali, something’s wrong. I have to get Dad and Doc.’

  She was halfway across the lot by the time Gus got outside. He ran around the side of the caravan to where Kali was tethered. At night, Kali’s leg-iron chain was attached to the axle of the Cuelmos’ caravan. If she was distressed, she’d raise her leg and shake it, pulling the chain to let Cas know she needed him.

  In the dappled moonlight, Gus could see she had her head down and was swinging her leg back and forth, tugging at the chain and making the caravan rattle and shake.

  ‘Kali,’ he called, but she paid no attention. Then he saw them. A shadowy group of figures a little distance from the electric fence. There were four or five of them, and they looked to be around sixteen. Suddenly, something wet and mushy hit him in the side of the head. He wiped it away and dived under the electric wire, leaping across Kali’s chain to reach the other side of her enclosure.


  ‘Get out of here!’ he shouted. One of them laughed and threw something at Gus, forcing him to duck. It splattered on the ground near Kali’s foot and she reached out with her trunk, prodding the rotten fruit. She made a low wheezing noise and took a step closer to Gus, her huge body casting a dark shadow across him.

  ‘We’se jusshzt feedin’ it,’ came a voice, the words drunken and slurred. One of the gang moved in a little closer to Gus, a stubby of beer in one hand. ‘Get outta the way, kid. We wanna see the el-fant.’

  ‘You better clear off, ’cause my grandfather will sort you out real quick,’ shouted Gus but he felt his heart sinking. He recognised them from the evening’s performance. They’d sat up the back of the bleachers making rude cat-calls at Effie on the web and jeering when Hannah and Vytas did the dental act. Doc, Cas and Stewie had thrown them out halfway through the performance and there’d been angry words outside the big top. Gus took a step back and felt a jolt go through him as he connected with the electric fence. Behind him, Kali let out a long wheezy trumpet of distress, curling her trunk into the air as she swayed and stamped the ground. Gus shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Doc! Doc!’

  The air swelled with shouting voices from all directions. The thugs surged towards Gus and something came hurtling through the darkness straight at his face. Gus raised one hand to shield himself and something cold and hard glanced off his forearm, thudding to the ground beside Kali.

  Gus wasn’t sure what happened next. The floodlights suddenly came on, so the whole site was lit up just like before a show. There was a rush of footsteps, Doc shouting and the crash of breaking glass. One of the teenagers started screaming and Gus saw him clutching his head, dark liquid oozing out between his fingers.

  Cas was beside Kali, in close, talking to her in a soothing voice while Doc, Vytas and the tenthands rounded up the hoons into the glare of the floodlights. Gus followed behind them, dazed and confused. A police car sped across the bridge from the town and two officers jumped out.

  ‘Bloody idiots,’ swore Doc. ‘You could have got yourselves killed, messing with an elephant.’

  The teenagers looked smaller in the full light, surrounded by adults. One of them doubled over and vomited, a stream of beer and bile. The boy with the wounded head crouched on the ground whimpering, while another one of his mates knelt beside him.

  ‘You boys, you’ve been warned before,’ said one of the police officers. ‘Troublemakers, the lot of them,’ he said, turning to Doc, his hands spread in apology.

  ‘But what’s happened to Petie here?’ asked the officer, squatting to look at the injured boy.

  ‘That kid, he chucked a beer bottle at me,’ blubbered Petie, pointing an accusing finger at Gus.

  ‘I did not!’

  ‘Well, how’d I get this?’ shouted the boy, taking his hand away to reveal a messy gash.

  ‘I didn’t, Doc, honest I didn’t!’

  ‘No, he didn’t,’ said Cas, stepping forward. ‘I saw what happened. It was Kali.’

  Doc let out a shout of angry laughter.

  ‘That’d be right. Listen you louts, if that elephant wanted, she could have gone for ya and crushed the lot of ya, like that,’ he said, snapping his fingers. ‘You throw something at her, and she’ll chuck it right back. You’re bloody lucky to be alive, is all I can say.’

  After the police had loaded the teenagers into the back of the divvy van, Doc turned to Gus. Gus thought he was going to get a pat on the back for having come to Kali’s rescue, but Doc grabbed him by the front of his T-shirt and half lifted him off the ground.

  ‘What the hell did you think you were doing, boy?’

  ‘Saving Kali,’ said Gus in a small voice.

  Doc let go of his shirt and shoved Gus away from him.

  ‘I can’t believe you’ve been travelling with us all this time and not learnt a bloody thing about her. You could have been in real trouble, getting in that close when she was upset.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘Shut up, boy, and listen to me when I’m talking to you. Those hoons are lucky to be alive, and so are you. In fact, that little fracas could have ended badly for quite a few people. You think Cas or me is the boss of that elephant? You think we tell her what to do? You think that pissy little whip and hook are how we control her? They’re just to make the bloody audience feel safe! She weighs 3500 kilograms and she’s close to three metres high. Do you really think that we can get her to do anything she doesn’t want to? Respect, boy, you gotta respect her or you’ll get exactly what you deserve.’

  Gus stared at the ground. He felt hot with anger. One of the police officers came and asked Doc to come into the police station and make a statement, and Doc strode away from Gus without saying goodbye. Cas came over from Kali’s enclosure and rested a hand on Gus’s shoulders.

  ‘I know you meant well, Gus. Doc’s just upset. It could have finished the circus if there’d been real trouble with those boys.’

  Gus nodded and swallowed back the hard knot that was forming in his throat.

  After everyone left, Nance tried to cheer him up with a hot chocolate, but Gus felt too full of his own misery. He wandered around the circus lot, scuffing his Blundstones on every stone he could find. Every time he thought of how Doc had spoken to him he felt a stab of rage.

  One by one, the lights of the caravans were switched off. The circus lot was eerily still except for the dark shadow of Kali swaying rhythmically from side to side. Gus crossed over to her enclosure and stared up at her. She glanced at him with one glistening black eye, then turned away, moving silently across the enclosure to stand on the far side, staring into the bush. Just as Gus was about to turn away, she reached down with the tip of her trunk and grasped the metal peg that secured her leg iron. Delicately, she withdrew the peg and shook her leg free. Gus watched in amazement as she picked a fallen branch up with her trunk, laid it gently across the electric fence and stepped out of the enclosure. Slowly, purposefully, she turned towards the river and onto the narrow bush track beside it.

  Gus hesitated. What should he do? Doc and Cas were still in town and if he wasted time trying to wake the others, Kali might be out of sight before he could rouse them. What if Kali got hurt or lost? What if she didn’t come back? More trouble for Zarconi’s and more trouble for Gus. If he could get Kali to come back, though, Doc would have to be grateful to him.

  He ran after her, following her huge dark shape as she forced her way through the undergrowth. Overhanging branches creaked and snapped as she pushed on deeper into the bush, moving faster than Gus had known she was capable of. Then she turned and headed towards the river. Gus leapt over fallen branches, scratching his bare arms on twigs and jagged bits of wood. He heard the water splashing as she waded into the shallows. By the time he reached the banks she was halfway across, blowing trunkfuls of spray across her back. The water swirled around her, pale in the moonlight against her huge dark body. Gus stood on the muddy bank and called out to her.

  ‘Kali! Come back, Kali!’ he called.

  He was sure she heard him – Cas had said she could hear things happening five kilometres away – but she took no notice. Desperately, Gus waded into the river, and struck out for the opposite bank. A snag scraped against his leg as he swam into deeper water and the current swept him a little further downriver from where Kali had landed. Finally, he reached the bank and scrambled up, grasping at small trees, clawing his way through the scrub. Blood was pounding at his temples. He’d made a terrible mistake. He should have roused someone, he should have done anything but lose himself at night in the bush. He couldn’t hear Kali crashing her way through the forest any more. He stood still, straining to hear anything. His wet clothes clung to him and he shivered. He started running, forcing his way through dense undergrowth, snaring his clothes on low hanging branches and calling out Kali’s name. How could this be happening? How could he be such an idiot? How could anyone lose an elephant?

  Suddenly, he broke out of the undergrowth and
found himself on the edge of a vast silver paddock, with the bush, dark and brooding, hemming its borders. Cattle grazed quietly on the far side. In the middle of the moonlit grass stood Kali, swaying gently. Gus ducked under the barbed-wire fence and jogged towards her, the long grass brushing gently against his legs.

  ‘Kali,’ he said breathlessly. He stood in front of her and spread his hands out on either side. ‘Kali, we’ve gotta go home.’

  She looked at him sharply, her black eye glittering in the moonlight. Then she turned and ripped up a bunch of grass and put it in her mouth, grinding away peacefully.

  All of a sudden, Gus felt incredibly stupid. How could you call that dusty bit of space between the Cuelmos’ caravan and Kali’s truck ‘home’? She looked huge and strange against the night sky, like an alien in this still landscape. Gus stared up at the massive elephant and felt small and vulnerable.

  One last time, he spread his arms wide and begged, ‘Kali, come back.’

  For a moment, he thought she was going to do as he asked, then, before he could do anything to defend himself, she reached her long trunk out towards him and curled it around his body. Panic surged through him as she lifted him into the air. If she flung him to the ground, he knew it would be the end of him. He shut his eyes tightly and waited to feel the crunch of his bones hitting the dirt.

  ‘Please don’t Kali, please-don’t-Kali, please-don’t-Kali,’ he pleaded, so rapidly that the words blurred into a mantra of fear.

  Then he was rolling across her leathery hide, wiry filaments scraping against his skin, the top of her head cool and hard beneath him. He landed awkwardly in the crease of her neck and lay there, limp and terrified. Slowly, he hauled himself up to a sitting position. Little hairs, as sharp as splinters, stuck into his bare legs and he could feel blood oozing from a scratch on his forehead.

  He looked around, across the top of the scrub to the dark river. Town lights glittered in the distance. He looked down at the ground on either side of him and felt slightly sick. It was a long way down.