Freaks: Alive, on the Inside!

I wrestled my team still and leapt to the ground. “That’s a damn stupid way to get into the Police Gazette,” I yelled, and felt unwelcome tears on my face as I ran to Earle’s prostrate mound of a body.

Tauseret caught up with me while I patted Earle’s cheeks and tried to find some sign of life. “The enemy approaches,” she cried.

29

EARLE LAY ACROSS THE PATH, HIS eyes closed, an impassable hillock. No wagon could get around him and down the lane. Shards of his cart lay across the track in front of the train; his horses had disappeared from sight.

“We must stand and fight,” said Tauseret.

We had no choice. I quaked inside. Where was Toms Junction? Had Tauseret’s calls for help all just been fantasy?

My passengers abandoned our wagon and ran to us. Apollo led the way. Mr. Ginger held Miss Lightfoot’s arm tight, and he almost dragged her. His steps were fast and firm, for his slouched hat covered the face of his twin and his vision was sure. Moses and Willie carried Mr. Bopp in a blanket sling between them, huffing and puffing with the load. The other children followed. Moses lost his grip, and they dropped Mr. Bopp near my feet, eliciting a curse from the limbless man. Moses stuck his hands in his armpits and made faces.

“Abel, Mink’s coming!” cried Apollo needlessly.

An engineer leaned out of the locomotive. “Is that fat feller crazy? Who’s going to move this trash?”

Jeers and catcalls rang from the enemy wagons, and then the trap of debris we’d dumped behind us must have claimed the villains, for their calls turned to oaths and cries of distress, and horses screamed. I felt a surge of triumph as I heard a crash.

“You gotta help us,” called Moses to the engineer. His eyes popped without calculation this time.

The engineer glanced back down the line nervously. “Hey, you,” he called to me. “Move some of that crap off the tracks. I’ve got a schedule to keep.”

Mink’s shrill voice split the night as he angrily rallied his scattered troops.

Tauseret grabbed a spar of wood from Earle’s smashed cart and brandished it like a club. “There’s one less for your metal road,” she cried. Mr. Ginger and Apollo followed her lead.

Moses hauled Willie onto his shoulders, and Willie beat at a carriage window. “Let us in! Let us in!” he called. Bertha and Minnie screamed up at the passengers too, and pale faces peered out in confusion, curiosity, and annoyance. No one opened a door, and my hopes of victory dissolved.

The engineer and his mate jumped down from the locomotive to clear the tracks, cursing loudly. They wouldn’t help us. I had to stall Mink while my friends got away.

“Take the children across the field,” I called to Miss Lightfoot. “You too, Tauseret. Get out of here, everyone!”

“Never!” proclaimed Tauseret.

“I’m not leavin’,” said Mr. Bopp.

“What about you, Abel?” Miss Lightfoot cried.

The sky brightened in the east, but the predawn light was still murky. Mink’s angry curses told me I had a few minutes yet while he reorganized his thugs. “I have a plan,” I answered.

“I’m helping,” said Apollo, to my dismay.

“No!” I said.

Miss Lightfoot and Mr. Ginger dashed around to gather up the children, and then they all thrust through the hedge to the field beyond.

Tauseret shouldered her spar of wood and stood her ground. I cursed and took off back toward our wagon, with Apollo sprinting beside me. I waved him off frantically, but he wouldn’t heed.

“What are you going to do?” asked the dog boy, grabbing my arm as soon as I came to a halt. There were dark tear tracks in the fur of his face, and I knew he was very frightened. But damn him, couldn’t he do what he was told?

Approaching yells told me Mink’s men were on the move again.

“Don’t follow me. Get out of here,” I ordered, but I knew that stubborn look.

Mr. Ginger ran up behind the dog boy. He hadn’t gone with Miss Lightfoot after all. He clutched a buggy whip in his hand. Tauseret arrived close behind him. I almost choked on my fear for her.

I dived under our wagon. There wasn’t time to argue. At least I could try to give the children and Miss Lightfoot time to hide.