Freaks: Alive, on the Inside!

“It’s an oboe,” Miss Lightfoot corrected.

“You should have snakes,” said Apollo to Miss Lightfoot. He bent and wiped Mr. Bopp’s nose with a tattered cloth. “The Alligator Lady and Her Reptile Friends.”

“My goodness me, sugar plum pudding,” she said, fanning herself. Nevertheless, I could see her interest.

“I’ve got the timetables, Colonel,” Archie proclaimed as he strode up on short, bandy legs.

Before long, I was sitting on a train to Maryland, surrounded by the companions of my adventure—well, except for Earle, who had to stay in a freight car with the camels, owing to his large size. We made one of the dining cars our clubhouse and squeezed around two tables on either side of the aisle. The children were quiet, among strange grown-ups as they were, but they seemed to enjoy all the tales to be told. Minnie sat on Miss Lightfoot’s lap and sucked her thumb, Willie held on to his father’s hand contentedly, but Bertha and Moses hung over the partition from the table behind, and every time they acted up and kicked the backs of our seats, Archie Crum patted them kindly on their cheeks and fed them penny candy to settle them down. He had been like that with me when I was a child, I realized, and I wondered why I had ever thought him mean before I left my home. I obviously hadn’t been thinking straight.

“I guessed you’d joined that circus,” said Colonel Kingston, “but by the time I caught up with Marvel Brothers Circus, you were nowhere to be found. The brothers Marvel were none too helpful, except to say you jumped from the train to avoid responsibility for harboring an incorrigible fugitive stowaway who subsequently escaped, and no, they didn’t know where. Apollo, you cost me the price of a trick ball, a soiled costume, and several bushels of fruit,” said Colonel Kingston.

“Those varmints,” objected Apollo. “I didn’t eat that much!”

“But those elephants you fed did,” returned the colonel.

I expected more arguments from Apollo when I told our side of events at the circus, but he grew unnaturally silent as we neared home. I worried about the boy. I missed his high spirits.

My audience gasped when I told of how I was thrown off the train.

“Sorry we didn’t speak up for you, Abel,” said Eddie, looking sheepish.

“We didn’t want to lose our jobs,” explained Frank. “Then we decided we hated our jobs if keeping them made us act like blighters.”

“Then that clown took to drink and told everyone the dream he’d been having,” said Eddie. “A dark lady kept telling him to rescue Abel at Toms Junction in Iowa.”

Lillie’s hands flew to her cheeks. “That was my dream too.”

The colonel raised his eyebrows. “That was in Miss Dibble’s telegraph to me.”

“We couldn’t find Toms Junction on a map of Iowa,” Frank explained, “but there’s new stations popping up every day. So we took the train east and started asking.”

“Granny read tea leaves,” said Eddie. “She taught us not to ignore dreams.”

“What a sight we made, I’m sure,” said Frank. “Changing trains with our camels loaded with luggage.”

“I telephoned an agent I know who plans routes for his acts,” said the colonel. “He has all the latest information on the railroads.”

“I know men who worked on this railroad,” said Mr. Northstar. “When Lillie told me her dream, I made some inquiries.”

“Thank goodness that fat man blocked the track,” said Frank, “else we might not have had time to saddle up.”

“When I ran for my horse, I didn’t expect to find two men climbing on camels,” said the colonel.

“I didn’t believe the dream, really,” Mr. Northstar said, shaking his head. “But I was desperate.”

“I didn’t believe we’d end up with a whole passel of children,” said Archie.

“Just gots to bite ’em,” growled Mr. Bopp. “That shows ’em.

Bertha laughed. “You don’t bite us.”

“Ought to,” he said, and closed his eyes and pretended to nap.

The wonderful thing about the show folk I grew up with was they took a person’s story at face value, even if the tale was unlikely. If that’s what you wanted to be, fine. It’s how you acted in the now that counted, not what you may have done and been in the past, and there’s a lot to be said for believing in your own tale to make your act come alive. That was why I didn’t hesitate to tell Tauseret’s tale, and my heart swelled with pride and love as I did so.

I tried to skim over the embarrassing parts, however, but Tauseret, unlike A

pollo, did not keep her mouth shut, and her many interruptions made this impossible.