Skycircus

by Peter Bunzl

  He turned and rattled the cage door, but it wouldn’t open. The bars were solid. Unmoving.

  The animals eyed him suspiciously, huffing and grunting in the dust. They were used to the humans in their cage having big sticks to hit them with. But soon they realized that Robert had nothing like that, and they commenced to stalk slowly and carefully towards him. Robert began shaking; the horror shivering through every bone and sinew inside him. His nerves jangled and the sweat poured down his back in rivers, slicking the hairs on his skin.

  He turned again and tried to push himself through the gap in the bars. They were wide enough for his body to squeeze through, popping the buttons on his shirt, but his head was too big to fit. He could feel the iron poles crunching against the side of his skull, scraping at his ears. He gave up and stumbled back inside the bars. There was nothing for it. He would have to face them. One of the creatures gave a horrible roar.

  “Our technical assistant will now turn on the X-ray,” Slimwood narrated. “Once it’s on, the radiation will mean the machine is too deadly for any normal human being to approach. At the end of the act, our metal man here” – he indicated the Lunk – “will go to turn the machine off and remove the freak girl from its clutches.”

  Lily felt sick. Stuck beneath the heavy lid of the machine, her neck trapped in a metal ring at one end, she could barely turn her head and could see nothing except what was directly above her. She caught a brief glimpse of Dr Droz as she flicked the switch on the machine and checked a few dials on its side, before retreating from view.

  The humming of the machine rose an octave. The hairs on Lily’s skin stood on end and a static shock, potent enough to make her teeth buzz, shot through her. She watched in horror as lightning bolts of electricity wound snake-like along the machine’s brass conducting-pole, suspended over her chest, flickered through a glass tube and broke across a metal plate suspended somewhere above her feet.

  Suddenly, with a jolt, the image of Lily’s chest appeared on the billowing white sheet above her head.

  The crowd gasped in shock at the sight of her mechanical heart, its cogs and wheels turning, pushing blood through each chamber like a cross between an organic pump and a carriage clock.

  “See the tubes, gears, springs, wheels, pins and cogs inside her heart,” Slimwood continued. “They’re not only parsing the seconds, minutes and hours of her existence, but also the blood through her body, creating each beautiful beating moment of her life. We should be able to hear the freakish tick of the heart too, if we listen carefully.”

  As he spoke this last line, Dr Droz placed a trumpet-like amplifier against her chest and the sound of her heart ticking filled the auditorium.

  BOOM-TICK-

  BOOM-TICK-

  BOOM-TICK-

  BOOM—

  The sound echoed around the canvas tent, hovering over the crowds. So loud and pure. A mix of the dark and deep interior heartbeat you hear when you press your head to someone’s chest, and the tick of a watch when you put it to your ear. The noise from Lily’s heart hammered in time with the ghostly image of it projected on the screen – part blood, part bone, part clockwork.

  Lily’s body was buzzing with energy; her head pounded and her limbs shook; nausea grew in the pit of her stomach. The striped canvas and the bright characters around her were waving like a flag in the wind.

  Finally she managed to shift her head and glance around the ring.

  From up in the eaves of the tent, Angelique was trying to swoop down towards her as they had planned. Only the Lunk was in the way, his long arms snatching at her in the air, blocking her path. Why hadn’t his malfunction happened?

  Slimwood stood on the kerb to one side of her, gesturing with his whip to the screen above. Joey and Auggie had arrived at this side and were gazing open-mouthed in amazement at the moving X-ray. On the far side of the ring Madame stood with Droz. The Lunk had seen off Angelique, yet now his eyes blinked weirdly, as if he wasn’t there. He swayed from side to side. Lily wondered if finally he was about to malfunction, but then he recovered.

  The longer Lily stayed under the eye of the machine, the worse she felt. And the more likely it was, she knew, to kill her in the end. Shrivel her up like the apple. It didn’t matter what their plan had been, she had to get herself out of this right now. Madame’s threat against Robert weighed heavy in her mind, but she didn’t really believe the woman would be merciful even if she did as she was told. The best thing she could do for Robert was get out of here and go and save him.

  She wrenched her arm free from beneath the hood of the machine and pulled the end of the amplifying tube away from her chest and towards her mouth.

  Her throat was dry as she began to speak.

  “My name’s not Cora Valentine,” she said, “it’s Lily Hartman.” The words echoed around the crowd. She wasn’t sure how many of them could even understand, seeing as she was speaking English, but nevertheless, she persisted.

  “Yes, I am a hybrid, but I’m not improper or impure. I’m just like you, and I don’t deserve to be treated this way. I’ve been kidnapped. These people are holding me prisoner. Holding us all prisoner – hybrids and humans alike!”

  Joey, Auggie and Slimwood were rushing towards her, but the rest of the circus folk, led by the Buttons and Silva and Dimitri, stood in their path to block them. Robert’s speech must’ve succeeded in changing their minds, as Lily realized with relief that they’d decided to help. The old man who ate china hit Joey over the head with his tea tray. Auggie, meanwhile, tried to wrestle Bruno and Gilda Buttons to the ground, but they merely ducked and backflipped round him, then clonked him on the head with one of his own juggling clubs, knocking him out. Only Slimwood managed to scrabble away from the group, waving his whip to keep them at bay. He shouted for the roustabouts, who rushed from the backstage area and began to surround the rebellious circus performers.

  The audience could see something was up, but they hadn’t moved beyond shifting uneasily in their seats; they seemed unsure if all this was part of the show or if they should be stopping it. Perhaps they were too afraid to approach the flashing machine after Slimwood had told them how dangerous it was? Lily had to persuade them to join the fight. She had a voice, she had to speak her truth, as Mama had told her.

  “Aidez moi!” she shouted to the crowd. “Help us!”

  Her voice sounded hoarse and ragged.

  A handful of people in the crowd stood and took a few tentative steps from their seats. Maybe the language barrier meant they couldn’t understand her exactly, but she could see from their faces that they felt the heartache behind her words.

  Madame had stood too, and was talking animatedly to Droz, while gesturing to Lily. Lily could see the anger in their faces, the desire in them to come and stop her speaking. Only the crackling noises and the flashing electric current pulsing through the X-ray machine and the dangerous radiation it indicated, made them keep their distance.

  “SILENCE MISS VALENTINE!” Slimwood called out to the Lunk, who was once again snatching at the swooping Angelique. The Lunk turned and lumbered towards Lily.

  Lily kept on speaking, while struggling to free her other arm and climb from the machine.

  “Some think only pure humans have feelings,” she shouted. “That only pure humans love and suffer. But that’s not true. My heart is made of metal, and yet I feel things just as keenly as you do.”

  The audience were on their feet now. They understood that she was in trouble, that this whole show was just a dangerous, torturous sham. Some of them were stepping into the aisles, wondering whether to try to stop the performance.

  Speak your truth, she heard her mama say in her head.

  “Some say only pure humans have souls,” Lily continued. “But my soul came back when I became part clockwork. Back from the void. Back to this body – part blood, part machine.”

  She’d run out of words. The expanse of faces waited, expectant.

  And then it came to her.
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br />   “I was a human for the first half of my life,” Lily said, “and a hybrid for the second, and I know from experience they are both the same. We hybrids, we should be treated equally, not shunned or hidden away or shown as freaks in a circus, and you can help make that change happen if you unite with us.”

  The crowd nodded in approval.

  Lily had almost freed herself from the machine. She pushed the lid aside and sat up, only to see the Lunk approaching like a deadly steam train. He reached the machine and grabbed for her, but he was slow. Lily slipped from his grip and his head clanged against the metal lid. It must’ve been enough to dislodge something for, finally, the Lunk’s rogue program was set in motion, as Angelique flapped down from above and gathered Lily in her arms, scooping her up into the sky.

  The Lunk squealed and thrashed his arms about, his body spinning crazily, thumping against the empty X-ray bed, before he keeled forward into its crackling, flashing centre.

  The machine whirred unhappily. Its dials flickered and its cogs twitched. It paused in silence for a fraction of a second, until…

  KABOOOOOOOOOM!

  It exploded, knocking the collapsed Lunk aside and throwing jagged flashes of electricity everywhere, scattering bits of metal around the ring.

  The crowds screamed and ducked beneath their seats.

  Lily and Angelique were blown from the air. They tumbled across the sawdust and struggled to their feet, as smoke and a loud ringing noise hung around them.

  Madame lay prostrate on the other side of the arena…but in seconds she was up and coming for them, Slimwood too, but he was waylaid by angry members of the audience.

  Angelique opened her wings, sending flecks of sawdust skittering away from her in the dark. “Take my hand,” she called out to Lily. Lily glanced down at her dusty feet, pinned to the earth, then she reached out and grasped Angelique’s hand in both of her own, holding it tightly.

  Madame staggered closer. Angelique flapped her wings and lifted up into the dark interior of the tent, pulling Lily along behind her.

  Lily felt her arms stretch out to their full length, felt herself rise to tiptoes and lift from the sawdust. Angelique couldn’t take off very fast carrying someone else.

  Lily was four feet off the ground, now six. Angelique wobbled in the air above like a moth drunk on gaslight.

  Lily stared up at her flapping figure. She could sense a ball of self-belief inside Angelique growing. It was incredible that the power of her wings was enough to lift them both off the ground.

  But at that moment Madame jumped for them. Her hand shot out and snapped around Lily’s ankle, yanking them both downwards.

  Angelique dipped in the air and her wings faltered. She glanced down at Lily.

  Lily’s muscles ached from the weight of Madame holding on beneath, but she couldn’t let the woman win.

  “Keep going,” Lily called out, and Angelique redoubled her efforts, flapping harder.

  The three of them were rising off the ground together now. Madame was gripping Lily’s boot, pulling her leg so hard that it knifed with pain, and felt like it might pop from its socket.

  Madame screamed and kicked her feet in the air as they left the floor and climbed high into the rafters.

  The crowd, and the rest of the battling performers and roustabouts, stared at them and gasped.

  Lily let go of Angelique with one hand and, reaching down, started pulling loose the laces of her boot as Angelique struggled upwards towards the roof of the tent.

  The knot was tight, but Lily finally got it undone and tugged the laces and boot free…

  Then, with a piercing scream, Madame tumbled down, down, down, smashing hard into the sawdust of the ring.

  Robert heard the deafening explosion and felt the ground shake beneath him. The lions and tiger and the big brown bear retreated in alarm at the noise, cowering in the far corner of the cage.

  The X-ray machine must’ve exploded. He hoped their plan to tweak the Lunk’s brain cogs had worked, and Lily had got away in time. But he didn’t have much time to contemplate that, for there were four hungry carnivorous animals stalking back towards him!

  The tiger was the closest. It seemed to be the leader – the alpha of the pack. Its orange-and-black striped fur gleamed in the light thrown between the cage bars, and the bib of its belly was white, like a fresh dinner napkin.

  Saliva dripped from its mouth as it ran a tongue hungrily over its teeth.

  Robert could smell the hot sweaty stench and hear the rasp of its breathing. He tried to remember what Silva had told him to do in this situation. What was it?

  Throw your arms up in the air and blow raspberries at them as loud as you can.

  Robert tried it.

  BBBBBBBBBUUUUOOOUPPPPPPPPFFFFTTTTT TTTT!

  The tiger didn’t listen.

  “HELP!” screamed Robert in a high screech instead.

  The tiger flinched at that jarring noise, probably because it sound like the Lunk.

  “SHOO!” he screeched, as loud as he could this time. “BE OFF WITH YOU!”

  It had nearly reached him…but it was withholding the moment of attack, playing with him. He narrowed his eyes and shrank back.

  Then something orange streaked through the bars and took up position in front of him, growling and baring its teeth. It was Malkin.

  “GET AWAY FROM HIM, YOU FILTHY FLAMING FLEABAGS!” Malkin shouted.

  The tiger looked quizzically at the tiny orange mechanimal fur-ball, then shrank back in alarm. The other animals followed suit.

  Malkin snapped his jaws together like a rabid dog. Between his screeches and grunts, Robert could hear the fox muttering to himself, to give himself courage: “They’re no bigger than the cats I chase from the garden. They’re no bigger than the cats I chase from the garden.”

  It was working. The tiger, lions and bear were so discombobulated that they gave little moans and meows, and stepped back in retreat.

  Malkin barked and brayed at them…but it couldn’t last for ever. Soon the animals began to realize the fox was no real threat; they regrouped and started stalking in from either side of the cage, the bear closing in down the middle.

  Then, suddenly, Dimitri, Silva, Deedee and Luca arrived. The four of them began bashing at the metal bars beside Robert with sticks, creating a crazed rattling noise that made the wild animals dizzily shrink back once more.

  “Thank goodness!” Robert cried. “How did you get out?”

  “Malkin snatched the key to our cage in the panic,” Silva yelled above the din.

  Luca grasped two metal bars between his claws and prised them apart, wide enough for Deedee to pull Robert through the gap.

  Malkin hopped out after him.

  “I heard an explosion; is everyone all right?” Robert asked.

  Silva nodded.

  “What about Lily and Angelique?” Robert said. “We have to find them.”

  Dimitri led both the horses from the stalls at the back of the bay, then mounted the black horse, while Silva flipped up onto the white.

  As they manoeuvred round the cage, she ducked and grasped Robert by the arm, yanking him up behind her. When he dared open his eyes, Deedee and Luca were already mounted behind Dimitri on the black horse, trotting down the cargo ramp.

  “Malkin?” Robert called.

  “I’m perfectly fine down here,” Malkin yapped. “Don’t expect me to ride on that animal too.” His brush up, he followed Silva’s horse towards the door.

  Dimitri and the others waited outside the sky-ship on the black stallion. Robert felt the bones of the white horse’s back beneath him as Silva cantered it down the ramp to join its friend.

  “Gee up!” Dimitri shouted to both horses and the pair galloped across the yard with the five children on their backs, barrelling into the tent and smashing their way through the backstage area towards the Big Top ring.

  “This is fun!” Malkin barked, weaving along beside them. “I’ve never been in a horse race before!�
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  They ducked through the curtains and into the arena.

  The rest of the circus troupe and some of the audience were hurrying the other way, but as they passed the two horses, they swerved and turned back.

  Robert glanced over his shoulder to see that the lions and tiger had slunk through the narrow opening in the cage bars, and were now bounding into the backstage area, knocking over tables and mirrors and racks of clothes.

  Then they spotted the horses and the trail of people heading back towards the Big Top, and began to chase them.

  There was a scream as one of the roustabouts was taken down.

  It was chaos. Smoke drifted everywhere, sharp and acrid in Robert’s lungs. It mixed with the sweaty smell of the panicked audience trying to get to the exits, and the lions and tiger stalking amongst them.

  Silva swung her skittish horse around as Robert scanned the tent frantically for Lily and Angelique.

  Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of Angelique perched on the wire above, and a figure beside her, who was sitting on the wire with her legs dangling, one foot bare. With relief, he noticed a flash of red hair and realized it was Lily.

  He was about to yell to her when Slimwood stepped up beside them and yanked him from the back of the horse.

  “I’ve not finished with you yet, boy!” he said, dragging him across the sawdust ring.

  Malkin bit at Slimwood’s heels but it didn’t stop him from clutching Robert by the neck.

  Silva’s horse whinnied and reared up, leaping away to one side.

  “Look behind you,” Robert warned Slimwood, as outside the tent, police sirens chimed in the distance.

  Slimwood chuckled. “Ha! I’m not falling for that cheap trick!”

  But Robert wasn’t playing tricks. The tiger was stalking towards them, its body slinking low to the ground as it prowled the ring. Its tail dropped straight, following the line of its back, and each muscle moved in a synchronized, assured motion. It crouched lower, coiling into a tight, powerful shape. Its ears flattened against its head and its mouth was a wide black hole beneath its terrible, fearsome eyes.