As the truck rumbled down the grand drive, Jimmy looked over at Adeline, gauging her emotional state. She was holding the rather large envelope in her lap, and he was distinctly aware that she was looking in the passenger's side mirror, her eyes on the opulent home in their wake, just as his had been on her in the very same mirror the day before.
"Hey!" he interjected, gently.
Adeline whipped her head around, a dazed look on her face. "Hmm?"
"Everything okay?" he asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Oh….yes, fine," Adeline replied. Unconsciously, she picked at the corner of the envelope with her gloved hands, and was reminded of what it was she held. With some difficulty, she tore open the heavy paper, as Jimmy turned out onto the main road.
"It went all right? No problems." The last phrase was a statement, as though Jimmy, in disbelief that it was in fact true, was inviting her to correct him.
Adeline shook her head. She left the envelope, partially opened, in her lap, and replied "None. Promise. There was the usual…heightened interest in my…" she wiggled her gloved hands "…but nothing untoward. He was…very polite."
Jimmy sniffed. "Yeah, I'm sure. Bet you didn't have to say no to him." He noticed the slightly affronted look on her face, her eyebrows raised, her mouth twisted in a slight grimace, and thought then he had made a terrible mistake, but all she asked was
"What exactly do you mean?" more concerned about what he might be suggesting regarding her behavior than what he was projecting onto Dandy.
Jimmy sighed. "Look, I can tell you're a nice girl…and a good person. And you're a professional. Probably more than anyone else we got. Thing is….you also got" Jimmy was attempting to make his point without appearing as jealous of Dandy as he begrudgingly felt, and he widened his eyes and looked down at her figure, scanning up and down to show what he meant, hopefully not appearing too lewd in his choice method of communication "…universal appeal. I don't think he's the type to…come after you, like the rubes might, ya know? More…subtle, more….dicey."
Adeline tipped her head to the side and gave him a doubtful look, clearly unimpressed that he was underestimating her. "I'll keep that in mind."
"Hey, hey….I'm on your side here. I'm just lookin' out for you."
She gave him a gentle, reassuring smile. "I know. You take care of your troupe, and…it's appreciated. Thank you."
"Well….you're welcome," he said, giving her a shy, charming smile.
Adeline set about opening the envelope the rest of the way as they drove through town. When she peeked inside, she immediately recognized something she had expected, and something quite unexpected. She tossed the envelope up on the dash and turned around in her seat to open up the single piece rear window, modified to push upward and outward to allow air to flow into the truck during long drives towing the caravan and the enclosure. She leaned through, reaching for her train case.
"Hey…careful," Jimmy advised, watching her maneuver around, reaching out a protective hand behind her in case he had to stop suddenly.
She grabbed the top handle and dragged it towards her, flipping the latch, and lifted the lid, drawing out the other envelope from its hiding place. She shut the train case and sat back in her seat, retrieving the second envelope. Along with another note from Gloria, more bills. She sat with her head down, counting quietly. Another three hundred dollar bills, and four fifty dollar bills. She sighed and put the envelope down in her lap.
"My God," She exclaimed, clearly shocked.
Jimmy jammed on the breaks, pulling to the side of the road, the tires kicking up a cloud of dust behind them. Adeline jerked back, hitting her seat rather forcefully, and looked over at him, startled.
"She short you?" he raged, indignantly.
"No…" Adeline breathed. "There's two thousand dollars here." She gestured towards both enveloped in the lap of her dress.
"Holy shit," he said. He huffed out a breath of air. "I thought she said fifteen hundred." Adeline carefully pinched Gloria's note between her fingers, unfolding it carefully
"She did. This is…. gratuity, apparently."
As Jimmy, shaking his head, pulled back out onto the road, Adeline took out Gloria's letter and began to read, silently.
Dearest Adeline,
I could neither have dreamt of nor anticipated how tremendously successful your visit with my son would be. I have not in some time seen him so elated. Truth to tell, I cannot recall having ever seen him so exultant. For this, you have my sincere thanks. Please accept this gesture of my profound gratitude.
As I'm sure you can imagine, Dandy and I would be so pleased if you would visit us again. I'd like to invite you to luncheon, at your earliest convenience. You need only telephone to inform me when you wish to attend, and I shall make arrangements. I would much prefer hosting you for dinner, but the curfew has put a damper on my ability to entertain, I'm afraid. Would you do us the honor of joining us? It would be our great pleasure.
All My Very Best,
Gloria Mott
Adeline drew some bills out of one of the envelopes, and extended them discreetly to Jimmy. "With my thanks."
Jimmy took a hand off the wheel and put it up, indicating that he didn't intend to take it.
"Nah, please…" he shook his head at her, waving the hand back and forth dismissively.
"I was going to anyway," she said. "It's customary, and you know that."
She jutted out her hand again, and Jimmy hesitated. He didn't want to accept money from her for doing something he considered his duty to begin with, especially since, personally, he considered it a demonstration of his desire to keep her safe. All the same, he would be shirking another duty in breaking a tradition unique to their culture, and she was the last person in front of whom he'd want to appear lacking in reverence for their code.
"I'm just going to find a way to hide in your trailer if you refuse me anyway," she continued, still holding out her hand. "Come on."
He could see she was holding two crisp hundreds, folded awkwardly, and he shook his head.
"Too much."
She sighed, exasperated, and put one of them back in her hand, holding out the other.
"Nah," he said. "You got smaller there." He jerked his head towards the stack of bills peeking out of the second envelope in her lap.
Adeline grumbled and put the other hundred back in the pile, holding out a fifty-dollar bill. "You're a pain in the ass, Darling."
"You too, sweetheart." He winked at her, taking the money and putting it in his shirt pocket.
"Very funny," she said quietly, trying not to concede that he was in fact quite amusing. He grinned, chuckling, and shook his head, quite pleased with himself.
They rode on in pleasant silence, back to camp.
In the hours before sunset, after the matinee, Adeline's first performance with Elsa Mars' Cabinet of Curiosities now concluded, the colors began to change in the sky. Adeline sat on the floor of her rather opulent caravan, the long runner rug rolled back, one of the trap doors in the floor open. In going to hide most of the money Gloria had given her, she had become sidetracked from her original mission, which was setting up her living space the way she wanted, replacing items on display she had packed away in order to tow the caravan without them jostling and crashing around. She was now looking through a miscellany of her possessions when she heard the obnoxious varying whine of police sirens, unmistakably heralding the arrival of law enforcement at camp, as indicated by the way the sound grew in intensity and volume. Without hesitation, she hopped up, placing the beaded wolf robe she had taken out, a gift to her Uncle from a Sioux warrior, gently into the storage compartment amongst the rest of her things. She then nestled in beside it three of the scrapbooks she had taken out to examine. Then she shut the trap door, locking it with a master key hanging on a ribbon, and scrambled to her feet to rearrange the rug over it. She mounted the few steps up to the raised platform that held the lavish bed built into the wall, its headboard, footboard, and left bedside flush against the wall, all constructed to feature built in bookshelves rising up to the ceiling. The only exception to the continuous shelving was the cut out space in which the rectangular window at the very back of the caravan was installed. She crossed three paces across the wide platform until she was at her bedside, and knelt on the plush mattress, leaning over to pull a book labeled Deutsch Märchen from an inconspicuous place on the shelves. Once it had been a book of German fairytales. Now, damaged some years before and replaced with another volume, it had been modified, the pages glued down and then hollowed out to create a hiding spot. She placed the key inside and shut the book, putting it back carefully. Then she hurried out of her caravan, going to see what the fuss was about, a terrible, tightening sensation settling in her throat. It harkened back to too many things. She heard a distressed shout, and thought that it sounded like Desiree's voice.
Passing between two trailers, Adeline noted there were in fact three police cars on the premises, two plain clothes detectives speaking with Elsa, and several beat cops prowling around in the yard behind the performance tent. Standing back, she watched, and feared a second confrontation between Jimmy and the new barker, Dell, the younger's bruises still fresh on his face.
She heard an authoritative voice shout "Nobody moves a muscle until we search every tent here….tear this place apart!"
As the uniformed officers began rifling through trunks and entering trailers, Adeline felt an awful rippling sensation rising in her chest, and found herself anchored to the ground by pride despite the overwhelming impulse to run. Her eyes darted around, searching the dismayed faces of her new allies, uncertain of what exactly she sought. Suddenly, the barking, macho voice of one of the officers caught the attention of all accounted for as he declared "We found it, sir!" followed shortly thereafter by the weak, tremulous protestations of the charming fellow named for the single discernable word he spoke, the simple phrase, "Meep!", which he uttered now in varied, quavering, broken half syllables and whimpers as he was brought to stand beside Elsa. Jimmy, dismayed, turned his face in Adeline's direction in commiseration as she narrowed her eyes at the officers and uttered under her breath in disgust "You can't be serious."
A shiny bit of metal sailed through the air, and it was picked off by the suited, smug looking man standing in front of Elsa. He took a look at what he had caught, apparently the evidence he had been searching for. "This is Detective Bunch's badge," the detective imparted.
Adeline, behind Jimmy to his right, was not surprised to hear Elsa say that she was shocked. It was best not to protest in instances where the police were involved, lest the entire troupe be punished for daring to insist upon their rights.
"Take this freak back to the station," the detective instructed in his condescending tone.
In place of the dread Adeline had felt was only disdain and contempt as the meek, gentle creature was lead away to one of the squad cars.
As Dell passed by Jimmy with a defiant glare at the younger man, Adeline sprung into action, jogging over to one of the squad cars, intentionally choosing one that had only uniformed officers inside, and neither Meep nor either of the detectives, both of which had already begun to pull away anyway.
"Excuse me!" she called, lightly, keeping her voice friendly to indicate that she did not mean to cause any trouble. "Excuse me, officers?"
Elsa held Jimmy back by one arm as they watched her approach the car, which lingered, waiting for Adeline to address the driver and the other officer beside him in the car.
"Can we help you, little lady?" the officer driving asked, his voice steely and stern despite the courteous content.
Adeline leaned down, placing her hands on her knees and giving a warm, reserved smile. "Thank you for waiting." She noticed the officer in the passenger's seat couldn't help but give her a little smile in return, leaning forward past his colleague to peer at her. Jimmy had broken away from Elsa and was standing a few yards behind Adeline, his watchful eye on her, his ear tuned to the conversation.
"Could you tell me when arraignments are held, please?" she asked.
"Nine am tomorrow, miss!" the passenger said.
"Thank you," Adeline said, as though it had been a tremendous favor he had done her in answering the question. "And the court house?" She asked.
He gave her a bashful smile, and Adeline ignored the impatient sigh of the driver. "West Palm Beach. Three hundred North Dixie Highway."
"Thanks, gentlemen," she said, backing away from the car, and it roared off almost instantly.
She turned to Jimmy, whose presence she had been aware of out of the corner of her eye.
"What was that about?" he asked.
"If they decide to grant it, we can post bail," she said, searching Jimmy's face to be certain he was on the same page with her.
He was nodding.
"I doubt the judge would do that, where it's a cop involved, but we have to try. And at least we'll have an idea of what he's up against…he seemed so frightened. It may do him some good to see a familiar face or two. There'll be press and everything, I'm sure."
"Sure, yeah, of course, I'll go with you," he said.
"Between what I have, after today, and we can ask Elsa and the others, too, we should have enough… if the judge decides to set bail."
"What're you gonna do, if you have to give up that cash?" He asked, his eyes darting back and forth, focusing on hers but also searching her face.
She shook her head "You get it back when you show up for your court date. And even if I didn't….there's…there's no way he did this. It's the right thing. I can call my parents, in Vienna if it comes down to feeing Max. I'd rather swallow my pride than….I just…I know a thing or two…about this, you know?"
Jimmy nodded again, recalling her mention of Angloa the day before, reaching out to touch Adeline's upper arm briefly, a simple gesture meant to convey how moved he was by the depth and ferocity of her loyalty to a troupe she had only just joined, and the integrity she appeared to posses in general.
"I gotta….I'm gonna take a walk," he said, wracked with guilt over the fact that his plan to rid them of Dell had backfired, and it was his well-intentioned actions that had now been criminally attributed to Meep. Adeline nodded and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder, returning to her spot at camp to check on Max, secured to the tree nearby, and to resume the organization of her caravan, a typical method of distraction she often sought in stressful situations.
Adeline was closing the curtains in her caravan, meaning to change into bedclothes and read for a spell before drifting off to sleep, when Jimmy's tortured, agonized cry ripped through the heavy fabric of night that had settled over the camp like a shroud. She ran to the door and flung it open, standing out on the landing above the steps to listen and be certain she had indeed heard what she thought she had. Looking over to her right she noticed that Max, who had been asleep when last she checked him, had roused himself from his comfortable position under the tree and had stalked forward, his neck craned upwards, mane bristled, his chest puffed out. Then Jimmy howled in agony again and in the few moments that followed, as Adeline squeezed her eyes shut in dismay, and with a renewed sense of dread, she heard Max's reply, a resounding, distressed roar in several bursts of air ushered forth from his lungs. She stood, frozen in apprehension for a moment, before willing herself to move, hurrying back inside her caravan.
"Not again," she lamented aloud, "please, not again."
She retrieved the master key from the book of fairytales as quickly as she could and knelt on the floor beside her bed, unlocking the top in a set of storage drawers, the one immediately beneath where she slept, pulling the drawer out carefully despite the urgency she felt. She reached back, deep beneath the box where her mattress lay, and drew out the heavy burgundy velvet pouch, lifting it out and placing it on the bed. Reverently, working slowly, she tugged open the drawstring and carefully drew out the custom white metal Colt M1911 her Uncle Kurt had been given as a gift by a renowned exhibition shooter in one of the first shows he ever worked, a Wild West outfit. He had given it to Adeline on her twentieth birthday. She held it in her right hand and pressed the magazine catch with her thumb, dropping the mag out into her left hand. She checked to be certain the mag was loaded with .45 bullets, and, satisfied, she clicked the magazine back into place. She left the hammer down and elected not to chamber a round, but she tucked the gun into the waistband at the back of her jeans, easily accessible beneath the baggy white sweater that had been her father's. Then she placed the key around her neck and tucked that beneath her sweater as well, hastily locking her caravan door and bolting down the stairs, towards the sound of Jimmy's distress.
Following the sounds, she circumvented the trailers and tents, moving around the yard to flank the big top. She darted around towards the front entrance, weaving around the demon's face, and there she saw her new troupe gathered, standing over Jimmy where he knelt over a humble, diminutive bundle. She cautiously circled about, and her heart plunged towards her knees when she saw Meep's lifeless, blood smeared face peeking out from the top of the swaddling. She closed her eyes and felt her jaw tremble. Then she took off running once again. She had been unaware of her bare footedness as she approached the sound of Jimmy's guttural cries, but now she was distinctly aware of the feeling of the cool, damp earth beneath her feet as she tore through the grass back towards her caravan. Then suddenly, a horrible, sharp impact and she stumbled, cursing aloud, frustrated tears streaming down her cheeks. Not worried about examining her injuries, despite the agonizing throb in her ankle she was vaguely aware of the mallet-split jagged tent stake head she must have collided with, as she hauled herself back up to her feet and continued on her way. She slowed only when she saw Max, standing and waiting patiently, his leonine brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Hey, Bubba…" she said.
She walked deliberately past him over to his tree and sunk down onto the ground, adjusting the pistol at her back so she could lean against the trunk. "come on," she said.
Maximus followed, padding dutifully behind her, and flopped himself down onto the ground beside her, lolling his head into her lap as he generally did when she came to sit with him. She lay her left hand on his shoulder reassuringly, and with her right, she gently stroked his mane from the top of his head back towards his body.
Quietly, she sang, as much to herself as to him,
"The day is my enemy…..The night my friend…." Cole Porter's lyrics leaving her lips effortlessly, their familiarity so deep seated as to not require a bit of thought as they filled her little corner of night beneath the tree with the consoling melody they rode upon.
"For I'm always so alone…..Till the day draws to an end…" She was now aware of a hot, throbbing ache, and of a rather horrible looking gash on her ankle, trickling blood steadily onto the dirt beneath her leg, but she was unconcerned.
"But when the sun goes down….And the moon comes through…." She watched the fireflies dance on the air and concentrated on the rise and fall of Max's chest, and the twitching of his tail on the ground, aware of the gentle rustle of leaves above them.
"To the monotone of the evening's drone…..I'm all alone…. With you."
Wishing not to think on the terrible scene she had just beheld, she allowed her mind to drift to the pleasant memories of that morning.
"All through the night….I delight….in your love….."
To cupcakes, and blue eyes, to cashmere, and gently stroking fingertips, the memories of which she could conjure so readily and so vividly she gave an involuntary, delighted shiver as she felt the ghost of them against the inside of her wrist.
As Max drifted off to sleep, Adeline's mind wandered places it likely shouldn't, as the words passed through her lips….
"All through the night, you're so close to me…."