"Is you done yet?" he asked, crossing his arms and huffing impatiently, the girl sending him a look, concentrating so hard on her evil eye she forgot her balance and toppled over.
"Now I am! Your fault!" she screeched at him, pushing him and stomping out of the room and onto the fire escape to pout up a storm in freedom. Of course, like every child her age, only one emotion could control her at a time, and as the Barnum and Bailey circus poster was being painted on the side of a nearby building. "ELEPHANTS!" she squeaked, hopping inside. Yes, elephants.
"Elephants?" Jackson asked, thoroughly confused. Why would she leave the room screaming at him and come back…screaming at him? Well, that wasn't the point. The point was she had gone from angry to gleefully going off about elephants, of all things.
"Yeah! Circus! See?" she continued, grabbing him roughly by the shirt and pulling him to the window, pointing out toward the banner. "I wanna go!"
"Beau won't take us," Jackson told her realistically, knowing his brother was currently busy with little things that kept them from doing anything fun at all, let alone do something as big as go to the circus.
"But I wanna goooo!" Ginny whined terribly, her eyes starting to water as she bounced up and down in childish frustration. She carried around desperately, Jackson trying everything he could to quiet the girl down before Beau got up and fussed at him for upsetting her…like he did anything in the first place. She was the idiot that stood on her head too long and jerked her brain loose.
"Fine…we'll go, but we'll keep it a secret," he whispered to her, Ginny silencing immediately, a wide smile soon slapped on her face. Oh, this was worlds better than the game she had been playing. Monkeys and giraffes with acrobats beat holding your breath while standing on your head any day.
Grabbing a few pennies and their jackets, they stuffed their beds with pillows (even though it wasn't bed time, but they had seen Carrie do it and thought it would work any time of the day), and rushed down the fire escape.
Running down the winding streets of lower Manhattan, the young Waynes joyfully passed building after building before they realized one serious problem: they had no idea where the circus was, nor how to get there. So, technically, two serious problems, all tied into one hideous issue which caused the pair to stop in their tracks simultaneously.
"Where are we going?" Jackson asked his sister. After all, she was the one who saw the poster for it, she should be the one who knew where it was to begin with. However, Ginny was four and, being such, only memorized the fact that the banner had an elephant on it.
"I don't know…" she whimpered, biting her lip and fidgeting, twisting the hem of her dress into little knots. Great, now they could be lost and, on top of that, they'd never see the circus. Beginning to cry, Jackson rolled his eyes and did the only smart thing he could think of, which was reaching his quota for the week, at least. Taking her by the hand, he pulled her toward a street vendor. He might know…or someone around here might. Luckily, after several failed attempts, he found a vendor that not only spoke English, but pointed them in the right direction, seemingly not caring about the fact that he was giving directions to two small children without a guardian in sight.
Getting sidetracked a time or two by a doll or a train in a store window, eventually the tiny terrors reached their destination, exhausted but, at the same time, full of energy with the prospect of seeing lions, tigers, and bears.
"Oh my!" Ginny squeaked as she gazed at the elephants entering the large tent, several of the 'freaks' sitting in the back playing cards before the start of the evening show.
"Got any queens?" the bearded woman asked as an acrobat twirled and flipped behind her in her own little rehearsal.
"A pair…but the Siamese twins are still in front of the damn mirror," the 'lizard' man countered in what he saw as a brilliant joke, the bearded woman simply rolling her eyes and grabbing from the deck. Jackson, however, found it hilarious, and tried desperately to stifle his giggles. This didn't seem to be too big a problem when a large hand clapped down on each of their shoulders, Jackson and Ginny's eyes widening considerably.
"And what are you two doing?" came a gruff voice, the siblings turning to see a large, navy man with a gray mustache. Shaking their heads a few times, they soon realized the man that loomed over them wasn't with the circus but, instead, was a star member of the police force, and not very pleased with the pair of them, at that.
"Ummm…we were…Oh, look, a bear!" Jackson tried before attempting to run off, grabbing Ginny before the officer rolled his eyes, trying not to laugh at the kid.
"Nice try…Want to tell me where you live?" the man asked, kneeling down to look the two children in the eyes, Ginny's eyes already wet with tears, Jackson shifting nervously.
"Umm…we're orphans. We don't live nowhere," he said, hoping that was good enough for the man to leave them alone. On the contrary, it gave the seasoned officer an idea. He had dealt with troublemakers before, so dealing with these two precocious tots wasn't going to be an issue.
"Well, then you have two choices…the orphanage or I take you to the police station with me and we sort this all out there…"
The police station? The simple sound of it caused Ginny to burst out into sobs, yelling incoherently about Beau killing them and how she'd never see the light of day for a hundred years and by then all monkeys on the world would probably be dead. Waiting for her crying to slow to the point he could talk above her, the police officer decided, now that at least she was broken, he could take them home in one piece.
"So, let's try this again…where do you live?"
"Ummm…On Henry…Some big old grey one…with some woman name Mrs. B," Jackson offered, trying his best to remember everything he could about their new abode, no longer worried about Beau seeing as he really, really didn't want to go to jail.
Sighing, the officer nodded and, taking both of them by the hand, escorted them toward their street, looking for any gray buildings that might seem familiar. After about twenty minutes down the same street, both children bounced, pointing toward their tenement. While not eager to see Beau, they were eager to get home instead of in a jail cell.
As they neared their building and, more so, as they climbed the stairs toward their flat, the two soon realized that a jail cell might be better than facing their brother, and bit their lips in anxiety as the officer knocked on the door once they pointed to it.
As Beau answered the door, he visibly breathed a sigh of relief before sending them both looks. Yep, they were probably better off in jail than here with him and that look on his face.
"I'm Officer Bailey…these yours?" he asked, pushing the children gently toward their brother, Beau crossing his arms.
"See, they look like mine, but my siblings know better than to run off without telling me and without an adult…" he said, taking them both by the arms, albeit gently. As upset, even angry, as he might be, he was never harmful toward them.
"Just…keep an eye on them. They were pretty well behaved once I got the truth out of them," he said, before adding toward Jackson and Ginny, "Keep your noses clean, alright?" at which point Jackson ran his sleeve under his nose.
"What in God's name were you two thinking?" Beau asked them hotly once the door was closed, Ginny's eyes welling up and Jackson looking down at the floor. "You two know better than that! Ginny, you…You both…" he began to stammer, before taking a deep breath. "You both scared me out of my mind. I have told you, Virginia, time and time again about running off! And you, Jackson? What were you thinking? I want the whole story, and this second!"
"I just wanna see the monkeys!" Ginny cried, rubbing her eyes, unable to say anything more than an occasional sob about another random animal. Jackson, on the other hand, had his wits about him enough to explain to Beau everything from Ginny standing on her head to right to this point. In fact, he explained so well, Beau was wondering if he was going to tell him every detail down to what color the bearded woman's beard was.
It took a long moment for Beau to respond, Ginny still sniffling considerably, Jackson shifting his weight every now and then. "You two know better. Do you have any idea how worried I was? Anything could have happened to you two! I barely go outside on my own and…we don't know this city yet and you two are parading around it without a second thought? You even knew you shouldn't have left or you wouldn't have stuffed the beds…which, by the way, it might not have been bed time, but it is for the both of you."
As the two children looked up at him, upset and surprised, he grabbed them each and swatted them several times to their seats, Jackson making a face and rushing to his room, Ginny crying anew and whimpering off to bed. Before Beau even had a minute to reflect on what just happened, Jackson, frowning considerably, poked his head out and asked, "With no dinner?"
"With no dinner. Straight to bed, and don't you get up," Beau ordered, Jackson now sniffling himself as he shuffled to his bed, Beau shaking his head and collapsing on the couch. He could have lost the two of them…anything could have happened. As he started to think about what he could possibly do to get Ginny to stop running off, he heard her sobs worsen though the door only a few feet off.
Feeling terrible, he slowly rose and knocked gently on the door, letting himself in after a moment and sitting on the edge of the bed she shared with Ana. "Ginny, baby, what were you thinking?" he asked her in a soft, gentle voice, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Monkeys and el'phants and now I'll never see 'em and I'll die with no monkeys or el'phants," she cried out, her pillow soaked with tears. "And it hurts…"
"What hurts, pumpkin?" he asked, worried about the possibility of her having gotten hurt or, an even more terrifying though, the possibility that he hurt her.
"My heart…I wanted to see the circus and now I'll die before I do!" she went on dramatically, Beau lifting her to sit on his lap and cuddle her for a moment. Poor child. As angry as he wanted to be with her, he almost understood her running off. After all, what four year old wouldn't run off to see a circus? Hell, if there had been a circus in Mississippi when he was her age, he could bet he would be there, even knowing what he would have caught from his father for it.
"Ginny, baby, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to promise to be good, alright? If you promise to be as good as gold, I'll see what I can do about the circus, but you have to behave yourself, and that means no running off," he said, but softly and sternly, the little girl nodding adamantly, her tears slowing. "Now lay down and think about what you did, and get some sleep. You had a long day and I want to make sure you don't have another one like it."
Sitting with her until she fell asleep, her thumb firmly in her mouth and her eyes closed tightly, he quietly snuck out of her room and checked on the other kids before secretly going toward his bills and any money he had. If he just…and cut back on the…yes, he could. Barely, but he could, and even take Rae along. Smiling to himself, he thought that, though she probably didn't deserve to at the moment, Ginny would see her precious circus animals. She learned her lesson, he hoped, and an event like this was something none of them had ever been exposed to. Getting things together, he planned the best way to get everyone together for one day out, one day to forget any problems and just…have fun.