“How can you treat children this way?” I demanded. My voice cracked.
Mink’s knuckles went white as he tightened his grip on his cane. “I expect they were making a nuisance of themselves,” he said through his teeth. He cared more about my insolence than their condition.
“See?” said Bess. “It’s not just a troublemaking dwarf who notices. A complete stranger knows the tune.”
“They’re filthy,” I said, taking strength from her suppo
rt. “They could get sick and die from those conditions.” I jabbed a finger at the wagon.
Mink appraised me with a cold look and then examined the scene in the wagon. His tongue flicked out to lick his lips, and I thought of a snake. “Ceecee!” he shrieked.
“Dr. Mink?” Ceecee sauntered through the other performers, who had gathered to see what the commotion was about. He had the remnants of colored powder over his left eye and the start of a beard on his right cheek. A cigarette in his hand sent a thin line of smoke skyward.
“What are you?” Apollo asked, and I winced.
Ceecee’s laughter sounded like a whinny. “Who is this boy?” he asked, and he looked Apollo up and down in a greedy way I didn’t like at all. “I am the star of the show. Cecil-Cecilia—half man, half woman, wholly unique.” He bowed, then curtsied, showing a leg of trouser under his flowered wrap.
“Stow that star-of-the-show bull. This feller tells me you’re diseasing my investment,” Mink said.
“Disease?” Ceecee’s eyes widened, and he yanked his wrapper close around him.
“From the shit, you imbecile!” Mink roared.
“You should put Abel in charge of them,” said Bess. “They’ll last longer.”
Ceecee snarled, “You hairy little bitch.”
“She’s right, you’re done with them,” said Mink. “You can drive the gentlemen performers. Billy will drive the brats, and … this fine lad is now in charge of them.” He tugged Apollo over by his whiskers.
Apollo yelped and rubbed his cheek, but he managed to grin.
Ceecee swiveled his mannequin head between Bess and me, his eyes slits. He couldn’t seem to decide whom to hate more. He flicked his cigarette into the observers, who ducked and scattered. “Who are you to interfere?” he hissed at me. He reached inside his robes with a spidery hand and stepped closer. I didn’t know his intent, but I moved back as a chill ran through me.
“You won’t touch him unless I say, if you want a job,” Mink said.
Ceecee whirled and left.
“Well, clean them,” Mink ordered Apollo. “We’ve got a show to set up,” he snapped at the others. “Get cracking.”
Billy Sweet shook his head as he walked off, and Miss Lightfoot’s scaled face was drawn with worry, but Bess gave me a wink. That heartened me.
“Come on, Apollo,” I said. “I’ll help you clean up this mess.”
“Do I have to?” Apollo pinched his nose with his fingers.
I felt much the same way, but, “He put you in charge, didn’t he?” I said. “And my guess is you’ll live here with the children.”
Apollo gulped. “I’ll get the bucket.”
While the puppy boy ran for a pail, I evacuated the wagon. “What’s your name, darling?” I asked the lantern-headed girl as I lifted her out.
“Minnie,” she whispered.
“Well, sit right here, Minnie,” I said, and placed her on top of a large wooden crate I had removed before her.
“I’m the frog boy,” claimed a hoarse voice, and a skinny young man of about eight or nine clambered out of the wagon under his own steam. “You sure told the doc what’s what. I never seed someone sass him before. No one ’cept Bess, that is. You’re gonna be sorry for that.”
No doubt, I thought. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing at a trunk under the wagon.