Soon the customers trooped through, wide-eyed rubes who pointed and laughed at what they didn’t understand. “What makes you so smug?” I wanted to yell at them. “Do you think that those with different bodies have different emotions, too? They should be wondered at and treated with respect.” But I didn’t say a word because it wouldn’t make a difference.
Ceecee followed Mink through the tent and leered at me as he passed. My skin crawled. What gave him the right to pose as an anomaly of nature and exploit its gutter potential, when others had no choice and bore their difference with so much dignity? What made that self-made freak and murderer believe he was above God’s laws?
Between shows, while the locals enjoyed the mouse game, I slipped into the larger tent. The children ran from where they sat around Miss Lightfoot’s skirts to gather around me and complain about Apollo.
“He’s a brute,” said Moses. “He punched my arm when I said that he looked like the moths had got him. I was only joshing.”
Apollo stood in the background. His frown, combined with the damage done by Ceecee’s razor, made his expression quite fearsome.
“He’s unhappy about Bess,” I whispered to the young ones. “Don’t you get grumpy when you’re sad?”
“Frog Boy does,” Bertha said, and nudged Moses with her bowed arm.
Moses glowered fit to match Apollo, and one eye popped slightly.
“I expect Apollo’s quite sorry, really, but too angry with himself to say so,” I told them. “Why don’t you give him a hug and a kiss, Minnie?”
Minnie didn’t have to be told twice. She toddled off and, before Apollo knew what had happened, flung her arms around his legs. Apollo’s eyes widened with panic, and he tried to pry her off. The children squealed with laughter, and Willie, still young enough to hug another fellow shamelessly, grabbed Apollo’s waist. “Hey!” Apollo cried. Bertha lumbered up on all fours. She pushed herself up on her stubby legs to throw her stunted arms around the dog boy’s neck and kiss his cheek with gusto, while he tried to squirm away from her lips.
Miss Lightfoot giggled, and Earle’s laughter bellowed so loud Mr. Ginger peered out from behind his curtain to see what we were about.
Apollo’s lips twitched and the light returned to his eyes. There was nothing that boy loved more than affection—except for food, maybe.
Moses rolled his eyes, sauntered toward the dog boy, and patted him on the back as if there were spines there. The frog boy’s reluctant gesture undid Apollo, and he roared with laughter along with the rest of them.
Mr. Ginger shook his top-heavy head and dropped the curtain.
“Could you look in on Mr. Bopp, honey bun?” Miss Lightfoot asked me. “I do fret for his comfort.”
I didn’t know what I might do for him, but I nodded and slipped away.
Bonfiglio had left the crate unguarded while he showed off his muscles to the country girls. I heard crunching as I pulled myself into the back of the wagon.
“You all right, Mr. Bopp?” I asked, kneeling in front of the crate.
He spat. “Ain’t shat myself yet, if that’s what you want to know.”
I examined the wooden box. “Something flat could slide through these slats. I’ll suggest skillet cakes for supper, Mr. Bopp, if that suits you?”
“Bonfiglio will be back soon to fart over me head,” said the human torso. “I’d as soon have me one of them knives of yours to goose him good.”
I smiled. “If I leave with the children,” I said, “are you with us?”
He snorted. “Got nothing left here,” he said, “but I wants to kill the fake he-she first.”
I understood, but I couldn’t promise him that. “Just be ready,” I said.
“I’ll cancel me dancing lesson,” he answered.
I hurried back to my post before Mink missed me. Tauseret hadn’t moved an iota. Perhaps she only came alive at night.
In the lull between the last full performance and Ceecee’s late-night show Apollo came to see me. I was packing up the jars, ready for our move.
“I want to leave,” he said. “Now.”
He’d finally come to his senses. “It’s not that easy,” I told him. “We have to take the others.”
“I’ll load the children on the wagon,” he answered. “We can go tonight.”
“What about Mr. Bopp?” I asked. “We can’t leave him. I’d like to ask Miss Lightfoot and Mr. Ginger to come too.”
“You’re crazy, Abel!” the dog boy exclaimed. “It’ll be hard enough to sneak us and the kids out.”
“And there’s someone else,” I said.
Apollo groaned. “Earle? He’s huge! We wouldn’t get far at all.”
“Not Earle. He doesn’t want to come,” I answered. I paused to consider how to go on. He might think me truly crazy when I told him. Perhaps I was. I took a deep breath and guided him over to where Tauseret lay. Apollo had not spared the mummy a glance when he came for me that morning; consequently he hadn’t seen her eyes wide open and intelligent, but I knew once he did, he would understand.
“This is Tauseret,” I said.
“You want to take a body? You’ve given it a name?”
“She’s not a body,” I told him. “She’s alive.”
Apollo stared at me slack jawed, as if I’d announced I was the king of England. “Don’t be mean, Abel,” he said. He headed for the door.
“Devil take it, Apollo. You know I don’t lie to you.” My strong language shocked the boy motionless. “Wait with me awhile. If she doesn’t open her eyes and talk before Ceecee’s show, we’ll leave tonight, I promise.”
Apollo rejoined me cautiously. “You better be telling the truth,” he said. “’Cause if not, I’ll leave anyway, whether you or anyone else comes with me.”
Tauseret lay in tatters, her face dun and cracked with the centuries. No wonder Apollo thought I’d lost my senses.
Time ticked by and slowly made a liar of me.
Wake up, I begged Tauseret silently. Save yourself. I knew she needed me to become alive, else why would she have waited for me? If I had to run after Apollo, I might not be able to come back for her. How could I leave her behind, trapped in a living death?
At any moment Billy Sweet would be back to see why the exhibits hadn’t been loaded, and Tauseret’s chance of freedom would be gone. I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand, and the scarab ring scraped my face. The ring. It was not until I had placed my ring-clad hand on the mummy that Tauseret had opened her eyes the previous night. I hardly dared breathe as I lowered my hand to her face. My fingers brushed her parched brown lips. Did I imagine they twitched?
Apollo didn’t even pay attention. He stared at the exit flap, his bushy brow knit, as if he longed to be gone. “Hsst,” I said, and he glared at me. “Look,” I stroked Tauseret’s cheek.
The change happened faster than the night before. Lips plumped, cheeks filled in, flesh gained a bloom, and her chest rose and fell with breath. Apollo gasped and bent over her. Silence held sway like the silver moment before the first birdcall of dawn, and in that moment Tauseret’s lashes flickered. She opened her eyes a sultry slit, then they shot wide.
“Anubis?” Her thin voice trembled with panic.
Apollo growled and jumped back.
“He’s my friend Apollo,” I said.
Her eyes slid from side to side as she looked around as much as she could, then she chuckled, a sound like pebbles shaken in an earthen jar. “I thought I was finally in the underworld and jackal-headed Anubis had come to lead me to judgment.”
I motioned to Apollo, and he edged forward. “I’m a dog boy, not a jackal,” he said, a touch sharply.
Tauseret’s lips curved. “I can see my mistake, dear heart,” she said in that cracked, whispery voice. “You are much more handsome than a jackal.”
How astute. Barely awake and she knew how to manage the petulant boy.
“Are you hurt?” Apollo asked, pointing at her bandages.
�
�I mend with each moment,” she replied.
“We can’t stay long,” I said. “Mink’s man will be back soon, and you’ll need to pretend you are lifeless again. We don’t want them to find out you are a better exhibit than they know. They’ll guard you too closely.”
“You will take me from these thieves, will you not?” she asked.
“Yes, soon. Won’t we, Apollo?”
“Yes,” the boy said without hesitation, and I could have cheered.
Footsteps approached.
“The show moves on tonight,” I told her. “Have patience while I figure out how to get us all away from Mink. It may take a day or two.”
“Why you lollygagging, Dandy?” asked Billy Sweet as he came in. “Finish packing those pickled punks.” He carelessly lowered the lid on the sarcophagus, and I saw what he did not— helpless fear flash through the eyes of a girl who’d been buried alive.
23
WE PULLED OUT AFTER THE LATE SHOW and rumbled down a dirt road by what little remained of moonlight. Mink still fancied Apollo as a pet, and Apollo was too frightened to refuse to ride with him. We traveled into the early hours of the first of August, then slept until daylight between the wagon wheels on scratchy blankets. That day we set up camp outside another town. How fast one becomes jaded; I wasn’t at all interested in this new place.
Mr. Bopp stayed locked away, and Miss Lightfoot sent Moses with his breakfast. “He’s still madder than a bobcat,” said the frog boy. “Why, he’s been chewin’ wood, he’s that mad. He spit splinters at me.”
As we raised the main tent around the fat man, I noticed that the work felt lighter. My hands were coarsened with calluses and rope bums, and the muscles of my arms had thickened with use. My sweat smelled pungent, a man’s sweat, and when I removed my shirt, I took sinful delight in my robust chest. I would have been proud that my whiskers grew in tougher every day, but when one was a friend of the dog boy, one couldn’t boast on that account.
Billy Sweet and Bonfiglio left the final pounding of the tent pegs to me and departed for other tasks.
“You look pleased with yourself, Dandy,” Ceecee uttered. My swing went wild and I dropped my mallet. I straightened carefully to face my enemy. Despite the heat I shivered.
He wore smeared makeup and a sneer above his male attire. His razor was in his hand, and he waved it as if conducting music only he could hear. “You think you can join this show and take over, don’t you? You think you’re better than the rest of us.”
There was no way to protest this accusation.
He came close, too close, and stuck his face in mine. I tried not to pull away and give him the satisfaction, but he reeked of stale pancake makeup and something sweet I couldn’t name, and it took all I had to stay still. The razor burned like a hot coal just beyond my sight.
“What gave you and her the right to turn Mink against me and take my little boys away?” he demanded. “Not good enough to be in charge of children, am I?” His breath was rank, and several of his teeth were gray and dead. “She didn’t interfere with the brats and me before you came. Do you think it was good for her to do that? Are you happy you encouraged her?”
I was stunned. He was actually placing the blame for Bess’s death on me.
“You force me to do things I don’t want to, Dandy,” he whined. “That pains me. Dr. Mink never raised his voice to me before you arrived. I was like a son to him. What sort of person comes between a father and son?” His eyes were wet, but it could have been sickness, not tears. This sentiment had not prevented him from stealing Willie from his father, I noted.
“Don’t sleep, Dandy,” he whispered. “Don’t dare sleep. Or I might give you a good-night kiss.” He waved the razor in front of my terror-stricken eyes, then poked out his tongue and wiggled it like a pale slug. I cringed, and he pulled back, laughing.
He left, and the heat of the day came crashing back as if into a vacuum.
I bent over, feeling sick to my stomach. I was on the verge of vomiting when Apollo marched up to me. “That ugly lady won’t speak,” he said. “Bertha and Moses are laughing at me. If you want my troupe to help, you’d better show the brats I’m not a liar.”
“You shouldn’t have told them,” I snapped.
“They have to know she’s a person, else they’ll believe you a thief, running off with Dr. Mink’s exhibit.”
“Minnie knows she’s a person,” I said. The way Apollo frowned told me she hadn’t informed him of that fact.
I took a deep breath and slowly straightened, and the nausea subsided. Apollo allowed the children much higher moral indignation than was realistic. I considered letting him stew, but a shared secret like this might give the children a reason to keep quiet and pull together as a team. We had to get out of here. I glanced around to make sure Ceecee had truly gone. “All right,” I said. “But quickly.”
As soon as I touched Tauseret’s face, a blush like sunrise rose up her cheeks and her eyes fluttered open. I almost gasped with the children.
“It’s alive,” squeaked Willie with delight.
“Knew that,” said Minnie, earning me a shocked glance from Apollo.
Tauseret didn’t waste time in finding her voice. “You neglect me,” she accused in tones more smoky now than raspy.
Moses bugged his froggy eyes and uttered an oath I didn’t think one so young should know, let alone speak in front of girls. Bertha must have agreed, because she smacked his head.
“Ah, the frog boy,” said Tauseret. “I saw you with my ka and it was a good omen. The frog is a sign of rebirth.”
“Lady T.,” piped Minnie. “You’re speaking with your outside mouth.”
“Yes, indeed, little priestess,” said Tauseret. I could sense her affection for the lone soul who knew she had a voice, before I came.
Willie tilted his mottled face up at me. “Is it a trick?”
“A trick of the universe, perhaps,” I answered, and then pitied his puzzled look. “Not a trick,” I said. “A miracle.”
“Will you take them bandages off now?” asked Moses.
“Soon,” said Tauseret, and an unexpected thrill ran through me.
“Show Earle,” said Willie, tugging at my waistband. “She’s better than a newspaper story.”
“Earle can’t come in here,” chided Bertha. “He’s too big.”
“Take her in there,” suggested Moses.
All joined in a round of excited agreement.
Lord Almighty, this had to be the worstkept secret in the universe. I began to explain why that was impossible, when a husky voice interrupted.
“I have seen the fat man’s heart,” Tauseret said. “He will keep faith. Carry me.”
Willie cheered, and Minnie joined in, jumping up and down until her large head wobbled and I feared she’d fall over.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I mean, is it safe to carry you?”
“I’m stronger,” Tauseret said, “and I would like to be in your arms again.”
Her words brought a disconcerting pang of desire to my gut, but that died at the sight of her gray, tattered rags and clawlike hands. I bent and gingerly slid my hands under her, on either side of her torso. Something crumbled under my fingers and I froze.
“Fear not,” said Tauseret as if she had read my thoughts. “The cloth erodes, but not the woman beneath.”
I swallowed hard and hoisted her to my chest. I expected her to be stiff, but she gave in my arms and tumbled against me like a loose sack of laundry. For a moment a cloud of dust enveloped me. When I’d finished sneezing, I noticed she had a smile of satisfaction on her face—a face that now had the bloom of health on high, tawny cheeks, and full provocative lips.
“What you staring at, Abel?” asked Apollo, still waving away the dust. “Hey, the ugly lady isn’t ugly.”
I carried Tauseret into the next tent. The children clustered around me, except for Willie, who ran ahead. Her body grew warmer as we walked, and took on a voluptuous weight. I was dismay
ed to find respect and my baser nature at odds in my drawers. I prayed that all eyes were on Tauseret and not on me. I felt ashamed, puzzled, and nauseated by my reaction.
“Hey, Earle,” cried Willie.
Earle put down his ever present newspaper and peered down at us from his cart with little eyes buried in his doughy face like currants in a bun.
“The mummy lady is a real lady,” said Apollo.
“She was under a spell,” said Minnie.
“I was cursed,” corrected Tauseret.
“Don’t ask me to explain,” I said to Earle. “There’s more mystery to the universe than we ever thought.”
“I knew it!” exclaimed Earle. “I knew it. Goldang! A live mummy. Don’t that cap the climax.” He chuckled with glee. “And don’t she like you, Abel?”
I realized that Tauseret had her head on my shoulder in a most affectionate pose.
Earle lowered his voice a mite. “You’re gonna rescue her, right?”
“Yes, and the children will help, won’t you, children? You’ll keep her a secret, and we’ll all escape together.”
They nodded eagerly and their eyes gleamed.
“We will be pursued,” said Tauseret. “It is likely we will be caught.”
“It is,” I answered. I wished she hadn’t said that in front of the children.
“Then, we will need reinforcements. The soldier from your home.”
“How would the colonel know where to find us,” I said to her, “even if I could send him a wire? I don’t even know where we are or where we’ll be tomorrow.”
“Minnie, my flower,” Tauseret said. “Close your eyes.”
The little girl complied without hesitation.
“Think of us fleeing from the bone man. We are bouncing in a carriage. We are traveling down the road. We are leaving him behind. Make pictures in your head, pictures of all of us here.”
Minnie nodded.
“Follow our journey into the future. Hold on to the bright thread of our lives. Where does the cold and dark try to swallow them, Minnie? What do you see of the place of our greatest peril?”
Freaks Page 20
