"You're ambidextrous?" Violet asked Kevin. "That's a good thing, isn't it?"
"Are you kidding?" said Kevin. "I have two equally strong and dexterous hands. I can write my name just as well with both. And every day people laugh at me and throw things at me because of it."
"Oh," said Dash.
"I'm glad you've come, because now all the attention won't be on me," Kevin said. "Have you thought about what acts you're going to do?"
"Acts?" said Bob/Hugo.
"A good point, Kevin," said Madame Lulu. "What will all of you do to show off your deformities, please?"
"Easy for me," said Helen/Colette. She sat on the ground and put her arms and legs behind her head.
"Good, good, Freak Collette" said Madame Lulu. "Contortion looks very freakish."
"Grragh!" said Jack-Jack, crawling around and making mock biting attacks.
"That'll work," said Kevin. "You look violent, and the audience loves violence."
"I'm drawing a blank," Hugo said. "What should I do?"
"Try to put on one of those old coats hanging on the coat-rack, Freak Hugo please" suggested Lulu.
The coat was too small for Hugo; it tore like paper across his mighty shoulders.
"Excellent," said Madame Lulu. "Now you two-headed one -- what names shall we call you, please?"
"I'll be Beverly," said Violet. "My brother can be Elliot."
"Why Elliot?" asked Dash.
"I don't know. It just popped into my head as the right name," said Violet.
"There is cold corn-on-the-cob left over from dinner in the refrigerator," said Lulu. "Let us see if it will look funny for a two-headed person to eat it, please."
Violet got the corn. It was tricky to hold it so both she and Dash could bite it at the same time. Dash's hands were up the long sleeves of Violet's invisible costume and he was using them to hold onto her back, so he couldn't help. They ended up getting corn all over their faces.
"Bravo!" said Madame Lulu. "The audience loves sloppy eating!"
Violet and Dash felt a little sick at the thought of performing this act every day in front of an audience and getting mocked for it.
"It is now late," said Madame Lulu. "Kevin will show you the way to the freak caravan, please. Tomorrow will be great debut performance, my freaks."
"Everyone really gets into their parts around here, don't they?" Dash said to Violet as they followed Kevin to the other caravan.
"What parts?" Violet/Beverly asked. "It feels almost natural to me... I've always felt like a freak."
"Sometimes I do, too," said Dash/Elliot sadly.
"Grragh!" agreed Jack-Jack/Chabo the Wolf Baby.
The "freak caravan" had enough bunk beds for everyone. There was also a dressing table with a mirror. Colette sat down at the table to brush her rough-looking hair.
"Would you help me brush mine, too?" Violet asked Colette.
"Do it yourself. I'm not your mother," Colette replied coldly, then gasped as she saw Violet's stricken expression and realized what she had said. "I'm sorry, darling, I don't know what came over me. Of course I'll help you,"
"Never mind," Violet said with tears in her eyes. "I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Get off my back, brother. Just because you're my 'other head' doesn't mean we have to share a bed."
The three Parr children had trouble sleeping that night. They had thought getting their parents back would make everything all right. But it didn't seem to be working out that way... not at all.