***Chapter 22***
***Slugger's Story*** (Part Four)
An hour or more, while the snow gathered an angry strength, frosting the barren tree braches and freezing the chattering stream, Slugger rode aimlessly through the lonely hills, pondering on his uncertain future. He had left school just a few short weeks ago and was free as a bird to go anywhere he chose. But where would he go? He had no home, no money, no job. The travelling fair was the only life he had ever known, the only family he had ever loved. He rode slowly back, having reached no answer, a solitary trail of hoof prints growing sadly behind him in the quiet winter's snow.
Eddie and Barbara were waiting, shivering, by the edge of the camp, their soaking hair plastered against their pinched faces as if they'd been watching out for him on that cold, cold night for some time.
"Where the hell have you been?" Barbara demanded, running to him as he jumped down from Dandy, her heavy eyeshadow and thick mascara smudged by the tears she had shed for the youngster. "We've been worried sick."
Slugger shrugged. "Riding. Wondering where to go, what to do. I got no job and nowhere to live now Ma's dead."
Eddie half laughed, half cried as he squeezed Slugger's shoulder."You ****ing little idiot. This is where you live, boy. You think we'd kick you out?"
"And welcome home," Barbara said quietly, her voice choked with emotion, as she gave him a tender peck on the cheek.
He told Dandy all about his unnecessary worrying the next time they rode out together. In the absence of companions his own age the horses had long been his confidants. Sometimes, deep in the arms of sleep, he would dream a strange dream of another life, another time. Sometimes the dreams were so real that he would hear a whinnying, a stomping of hooves and the vague murmur of voices, smell the sweet smell of the hay, almost touch the the gnarled wood of the ancient tree, lashed by lightning, but still defiant. Madame Zola, the fortune teller, had told him this would be so, but he never once believed in ghosts, devils or omens, and would laugh at his wild imagination when he woke anew.
Madame Zola was a small, round woman, nut brown and wrinkled by the sun, the only one among them who could speak the Romany tongue. She had arrived at Eddie Shaw's Travelling Fair one late summer's evening a year or so after his mother's death, when the smell of newly cut grass scented the air and a red sun was sinking slowly below the horizon.
The company was in relaxed mood, laughing and joking, preparing to move on the next day. She cast her shadow first, briefly darkening where Eddie stood smoking, to whisper something in his ear. Those close enough to see, reported that he started and turned deathly white but, whatever secret they shared, they took to their graves, for the mood turned suddenly lighter. Eddie guffawed, showing a mouthful of yellow, broken teeth as he plucked the last of the cigarette from his mouth and stomped it beneath the heel of his boot. "Then you're welcome to travel with us," he was heard to say.
And so it was that Madame Zola too joined the travelling fair. She made no secret of the fact that she had come to die among her own kind and she told their fortune to any who would listen. But of herself, Madame Zola revealed only her name, whether her own or no, and that, many years ago, as she claimed her spirit guide had predicted, she lost her husband and children when villagers set fire to the gypsy camp site; that she had wandered alone telling fortunes ever since.
"You have a way with animals," she remarked one day, as Slugger prepared to take Dandy out for a morning canter. She turned to him, her weak eyes wise though I'm afraid the irreverent youth sniggered at her words. "In the fiercest storm the tree with the strongest heart will stand. Your destiny is not of the warrior. Your destiny will be to care for these noble creatures."
Madame Zola passed away in her sleep some six months later and, as he grew older and the dreams faded, Slugger forgot all about the strange prophesy. On his own suggestion, he had begun to earn his keep as a fairground boxer and he felt he'd found his niche, thoroughly enjoying the thrill of the boxing ring, the roar of the crowds and the adrenalin of thunderous applause. Several times, when the fair set up in a new town, Slugger, who had an eye for a pretty girl, fell in love, or thought he did, but he he loved too the freedom of the fair and was close as a grandson to Eddie and Barbara. And while he wavered, torn between both worlds, his latest flame would inevitably tire of waiting and jilt him so that yet again Slugger would be left nursing a broken heart.
And then, as often happens, fate snatched the decision out of his hands.
Eddie died of cancer and Barbara, in poor health, survived him by only a few months. In the travelling fair, cracks began to appear and spread like shattered ice. Such shows were rapidly falling from favour as cinemas gained popularity and the takings plummeted. No new acts had been signed for several years, the Kowalskis had left when Anna became pregnant and others had retired. The Shaws' original intention had been to leave everything to Slugger, but sadly they never got round to making a will. A nephew Barbara never knew inherited every penny and Frederick immediately set about selling the lot.
Talk of an impending war consumed the country and on an impulse, telling himself he had no ties to keep him there, Slugger signed up to join the Army. Ironically, he met his soul-mate on that very same day.
It was a rowdy bunch of patriotic would-be war heroes who met by chance at the recruiting station and who one and all agreed they deserved a last drinking binge before their postings. Thus, without further ado, they sought the nearest public house and roared inside (if there is a more apt word to describe how they entered the Sword and Dragon, normally the sedate haunt of draught-playing, newspaper rustling gentlemen, I would dearly like to make its acquaintance) and, fuelled by alcohol and camaraderie, grew ever louder. Nineteen-year-old Phoebe White did her utmost to take their jokes in her stride, this being only her second day working as a barmaid and having been warned to expect a certain amount of ribaldry, so she only flushed and smiled at the compliments. But when one young fellow, unused to drinking such large amounts of alcohol and drunk as a lord, began slobbering over her she finally burst into tears. Slugger jumped up to chivalrously rescue the damsel in distress only for a human mini tornado to beat him to it, flying through the door, tossing hat and coat aside in mid flight and wrestling the troublemaker so quickly and expertly to the beer-soaked floorboards that he begged for mercy. All that was left for Slugger to do was to gallantly help both ladies to their feet and apologise for his companion's lewd behaviour while a couple of his drinking buddies took Alfie outside for some much-needed fresh air.
"Tiny" Mulholland returned Slugger's smile and their eyes met. No music played and no stars fell from the sky. A punter pushed open the door, a red bus thundered past and the smoke and fumes of London's rainswept night carried inside. This was all. Yet even before he learnt, as well as being head barmaid at the Sword and Dragon, Betty was, in her spare time, a wrestler and even before she learnt, as well as being a soldier, Slugger was in fact a boxer, they somehow knew they were kindred spirits. Her photo, cherished and crumpled and carried close to his heart, sat on the kitchen table at Follyfoot now.
Slugger grinned at Jimmy. He hadn't thought about Madame Zola's prophecy in years, not until an hour or two ago, when he'd been startled to come across the lightning-struck tree that he'd seen in his dreams. It had been an odd feeling to see it again though he'd said nothing to Davey, who was talking nineteen to the dozen as he gave him an informal tour of Follyfoot. It would have been too crazy to admit it was almost like coming home.
"We've been drinking to absent loved ones," he said, raising his glass to Jimmy and winking. And then he said something that sealed a friendship. "Including loved ones I never knew but which Davey has told me all about. To Beauty and Magic."