DISCLAIMER: Carnivale and its canon characters are the property of HBO and the show's producers; no copyright infringement is intended.
Note: Like any speculative Carnivale fiction written now, this story may be rendered AU by canon established in a future season.
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"You don't need a plan this convoluted," Hack Scudder argued. "I don't want you making a fool of my son!"
The Grand Master of the Order of Knights Templar gave an exasperated sigh. "I won't be making a fool of him, Hack." Lowering his voice as the desk clerk walked through the hotel lobby, he said, "Aside from the business with the ring, I'll be treating him like I would any other rival freak finder."
The desk clerk was glaring because the pay phone had been tied up so long. He knew no coins were being dropped into it; the guest with the unlikely name "Phineas Boffo" had instructed Hack to call him at a prearranged time.
Serves you right for not having phones in the rooms, Phineas thought smugly. In truth, he'd been surprised that the one hotel in this one-horse town had even a pay phone.
Hack, sulking in faraway New Mexico, said, "I could simply have walked into Carnivale and gotten him out of there--"
"How? By knocking him out and dragging him? How many times have we had this discussion?"
Phineas spent much of his time being annoyed with Hack. He was determined to assert his authority as Grand Master. But it was hard to do, when his sole source of information about Ben Hawkins' comings and goings was Hack's mental link with his son.
"Let me spell it out again," he said now. "Point One: You have at least two mortal enemies in that carnival, maybe more. And there are a half-dozen other people who'd recognize you.
"Point Two: The boy presumably understands that you're his father, but he has no reason even to like you, let alone drop everything and jump when you say jump.
"Point Three: He's on the run from the law, and a carnival must strike him as the safest place to hide. He can avoid being seen by the rubes, and carnies are fanatical about protecting and covering for their own.
"Point Four: You yourself told me he seems to be getting cozy with one of the carnie women. Who's an 18-year-old male likely to choose, the woman in his life, or his father? In this case, a father he thinks deserted him?"
Hack ventured, "I could...tamper with his mind. Just slightly, to make him decide to come with me."
"No! Never!" Phineas was so shocked that he momentarily forgot to keep his voice down.
"I have reason to think the Avatar of Darkness has already learned how to put ideas in people's heads and make them think they're their own."
"I don't care!" Phineas took a deep breath, looked around, and forced himself to speak quietly. "We must never descend to the enemy's level, Hack. It's all right to give your son information in unorthodox ways--you through dreams, me, as I hope, through my ring. But it's imperative that he know the information came from an outside source. Any decisions he makes have to be truly his.
"What's more, if we expect him to follow the rules--and it's crucial that he does--we can't risk his learning that you've broken them."
"All right, all right. Sorry I suggested it." Hack sounded chastened, if only for the moment. But then he said, "So you're going to Carnivale. Since you want to talk to Samson, and you also want to shake hands with Ben so he can pick things up from your ring, why can't you wait till Ben's back at Carnivale, and just go there and do it all at once?"
Phineas moaned. We've already been over this. We're going round and round in circles! Shifting from one foot to the other at a wall phone where he couldn't sit down, he thought longingly of his room--small but comfortable--and of the manuscript he'd been reading, a work-in-progress by a cousin who was a published author.
He launched into another explanation. "My stopping by Carnivale to say hello wouldn't be in character. Old friend or not, Samson wouldn't buy it.
"There really is a freak in the area, so I have to seem desperate to get to her first and sign her. And it wouldn't be plausible that I'd visit Carnivale either before or after. I need an excuse, and wanting my ring back will provide it."
Hack mulled that over for a few seconds. Phineas wearily switched the receiver from one hand--and ear--to the other.
At last Hack said, "Then when you intercept Ben on the road, why can't you give him correct directions to the girl's house, and shake hands then and there? All you have to do is shake with him while he's sitting in the truck, right? So you can let your ring come off in his hand, and he'll be so shocked by the images he picks up that he'll step on the gas. What does it matter where you do it?"
Round and round.
"My not steering him wrong would be out of character," Phineas explained. "I'd still be going to Carnivale to reclaim the ring, remember? Samson would get suspicious if the boy told him I'd helped him find the freak."
Hack said doggedly, "Then why not skip stopping him on the road? You could make sure you get to the girl's place first, sign her, and wait there till Ben shows up. You could still shake hands with him."
This time Phineas glanced at the fuming desk clerk and pantomimed "round and round."
To Scudder, he said, "That wouldn't work because I couldn't plan the timing. I know the road signs are so confusing that Ben will need directions. And if I'm the one sends him on a wild goose chase, I'll know approximately how long it will take him to straggle back and find his way to the freak's house.
"If I went straight to her house and signed her, with no idea how many hours later Ben might get there, I couldn't justify waiting around. The girl will be eager that we get on our way--from what I've heard, the home is a dump."
While Hack was pondering that, Phineas's free hand strayed idly into his pocket. For a moment he didn't know what he was touching. Then he grinned, and pulled it out for another look.
Inveterate souvenir hunter that he was, he'd swiped a coaster from the hotel bar. He'd been amused by the establishment's grandiose name. "Hotel Astoria," the coaster read. "Lonnigan, Texas."
Suddenly, Phineas said, "Lone again takes us."
Not surprisingly, Hack's response was "Huh?"
"The name of this excuse for a town is Lonnigan," Phineas elaborated. "Lonnigan, Texas." He chuckled. "And I've been reading that manuscript I told you about, a book my cousin plans to call Finnegans Wake." He was proud to be one of the few people who'd been told that secret title.
"So what? Lonnigan, Finnegan. Not much of a connection."
"No, of course not. But my cousin likes to play with words, give them multiple meanings. He told me what he had in mind with this title. Fin means 'end' in, uh, French. So the title Finnegans Wake can be read as 'end again wake.' "
" 'End again wake'?" Hack echoed. "What does that mean?" Not being a novice in matters paranormal, he speculated, "Something about reincarnation?"
"Could be," Phineas said good-humoredly, "but mostly it refers to the cosmos repeating itself. Eternal cycles." Going round and round!
"The plays on words fascinate me," he continued. "I was just looking at the words 'Lonnigan, Texas.' And I remembered that we're attempting this contact with your son today because--according to you--this is the first time since he joined Carnivale that he's been away from the carnival, alone. No fellow carnie sticking to him like glue.
"His being alone again will enable him, however involuntarily, to take something from us. Considering what I mean to give him--the entire history of the Templars, if he can absorb it--he actually will be receiving us.
"Lone again takes us."
Hack muttered something that sounded like "Idiot."
After a pause, he said testily, "I don't see how the title Finnegans Wake could make you think of that. The only part that's similar is 'again.' "
"That's true," Phineas acknowledged. "But why am I going to Carnivale? Why did I tell you I want to talk to Samson?"
"To...to mention, 'casually,' that your carnival has done well in New Mexico. To plant the idea he should bring Carnivale to Loving." That was the town that housed the Templars' headquarters--where, they hoped, they would once again catch Ben Hawkins alone.
Phineas smiled. "My nickname is P-H-I-N, pronounced 'fin.' Fin equals 'end.' And I'm going to convince my pal Samson to make Loving, near the Mexican border, the end of Carnivale's southern swing."
Hack was saying "Ouch!" as Phineas hung up the phone, bringing an overdue end to their conversation.
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(Fin)