Box Set: The ArringtonTrilogy (47 page)

“Remember, Momma, the light will bring us
home safely,” I said, waiting on the edge of my seat for her
answer. Heath waited to get into the boat. Finally she agreed, but
insisted I be home before dark.

“Thank you, Momma,” I said, and I waved to
her all the way out to the ocean. She waved until we had turned the
end of the island.

I’d always loved being on any boat, but I
especially loved rowboats, where I could put my fingers in the cool
water and drag them along, leaving a small wake behind me. Heath
rowed with expertise, and Ayden kept his head low, sitting silently
next to me.

The waters were calm, and it didn’t take us
long to get to the harbor.

“The circus tents are just outside of town;
we’ll have to walk a few miles,” Heath said. Together, the three of
us walked through the small village and down the road to the
circus. Families on buckboards passed us on the muddy road. Heath
walked steps in front of us, talking about the gypsies that
traveled with the circus.

“The gypsy people are the animal trainers.
They travel with the performers. Most of them were originally from
Austria and Germany.”

“I heard they are all thieves,” Ayden
said.

I didn’t know anything about them. Before
Heath mentioned them, I hadn’t even heard of gypsies.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear,
Ayden,” Heath said.

“I don’t,” he replied.

“I’ve read a little about the circus.” I said
as we strolled along the wooded road. “Is it true that there are
five-hundred-pound women and people who eat fire, and is there
really such a thing as a wolf-boy?”

“They are called side shows, and it’s all
true.”

It didn’t take us long to arrive at the
clearing on a private farm. There was one large tent set up, and
several smaller ones were scattered around it. There were wagons
everywhere—some from spectators. Others were covered wagons that
carried the gypsies and performers from town to town. I even
spotted wagons with giant iron bars that housed the lions and
tigers.

“Come this way to purchase our tickets,”
Heath said.

Ayden and I stayed close behind Heath. The
crowd was large, and it was difficult to get to the midway. Once we
arrived at the small wooden booth, Heath took out a five-cent piece
and bought our three tickets. It was hard to see anything in the
thick crowd. People were pushing and shoving. Heath noticed I was
having trouble and immediately came and took my hand. Ayden stayed
close to me as we pushed through to the sideshows. A pitchman was
selling an array of colored balloons for one cent, and as we passed
him, he went to hand me one.

“A balloon for the beautiful young lady?” the
tall man with the funny moustache asked. Heath told him no. The man
smiled and winked at me, then continued to holler, “Balloons
here!”

“Stay close,” Heath told Ayden and me.

In the many different side shows were
midgets, a fat lady, a lady who had a beard just like a man, and
even a man with two heads!

“That is a Siamese twin. They are very rare.
They are created when the two embryos don’t completely separate,”
Heath informed me.

Ayden’s eyes were wide, and he gasped each
time we came upon a freak.

After we had seen the different side shows,
Heath brought us to the marquee. There the ducat grabber took our
tickets, and we squeezed through the crowd and into the galley. By
pure luck we found three seats together, right at the front. I sat
between the boys.

Heath was amused by my wide eyes. I had never
experienced such an event or crowd. I couldn’t wait for it to
start.

Ayden pointed out the clowns that appeared.
“There are your clowns, Lillian,” he chuckled, remembering the
night I learned the circus was coming to town. I laughed with
Ayden.

“And there are your elephants,” I added.
Ayden gave me a big smile.

“Okay, here comes the ringmaster,” Heath said
excitedly, and the crowd went quiet. We all listened as he
explained that there would be rope walkers, perch acts, and even
death-defying acts! There would be big, dangerous cats, and funny
clowns, and dogs that would walk on balls. Pretty ladies sat on
swings hundreds of feet up, then flew through the air, only to be
caught by a handsome man on the other swing. I clapped so hard my
hands were sore and my face ached from smiling and laughing so
much.

Afterwards, when it was over, I was fulfilled
and ready to return to our island. Just as we began our walk back
to the harbor, talking over all the exciting acts we had witnessed,
I noticed a small covered wagon nestled in the woods, not too far
from the side of the road. An old lady with a shawl draped over her
shoulders was hunched over a small fire. Her wagon read, “Miss
Lola—Fortune Teller.” I nudged Heath, who was walking at my side,
and he looked at me.

“Look,” I said. “It’s a creepy gypsy
lady.”

“We should be getting back,” Heath said,
sensing my curiosity.

“It’s still early,” I replied. The old gypsy
woman noticed us and waved for us to come to her. I looked at
Heath, who like me, was very curious. It was our nature—we were
always wondering.

“Don’t go over there,” Ayden warned, hiding
behind Heath.

“Oh, come on now; it will be fun,” Heath
said.

I was the first to hurry over to the old lady
in the woods. Heath was right behind me, but Ayden stayed back by
the road until he realized that we were leaving him alone. Then he
ran to catch up.

The old gypsy knew why we were there and
slowly got up to open the flap to her wagon for us to join her
inside. Heath reached for a coin as we sat down in the dimly lit,
make-shift room.

“Here you go,” Heath said, and she took the
money from him.

The old lady sat down, and we all huddled
close. Several candles gave off just enough light to see her face
and a deck of cards that she lifted and handed to me.

“Shuffle them,” she instructed. Heath watched
as I mixed the cards. Ayden had his eyes closed tightly, obviously
petrified. When I felt I was finished, she extended her long, boney
hand and took the cards. Then she began to lay them out on the
table in a distinct pattern. The cards had mystical drawings and
words on them.

“That must represent you,” Heath whispered in
my ear, referring to the card in the center. It was a colored
drawing of a blond-haired girl. The gypsy glared at Heath, and he
sat back without another word.

Ayden had opened his eyes and begun to watch
as she studied the cards. We waited impatiently for her to speak. I
tried to figure out what the cards meant. It all seemed rather
confusing. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she spoke.

“I see the past with great clarity and the
future with such darkness,” she began, in a deep, hoarse voice
laced in a heavy, unrecognizable accent. “You are only one child in
the family, a sole child.”

“Yes, that’s true,” I exclaimed.

“Your roots are of the South.”

She studied the cards with great intensity
and shook her head in obvious disbelief. “You are the image of your
mother, but not of the man whose name you keep.”

I sat up and gulped hard. Heath was about to
interrupt, but she told him to stay quiet, then placed down the
next few cards over the others.

“I see much pain. You must stay close to the
light. When it is gone, you will be lost and alone. It is then that
you must beware of others around you. It will be then that the deep
secrets of the willow will find you.”

“What kind of fortune is that?” Heath
demanded when he saw the terror in my eyes. “You’re scaring
her!”

“I only tell you what the cards have to
offer,” she stated, and sat back in her chair, then she looked to
me, and her black eyes hardened and narrowed. “One day, you will
have to choose. Always follow your heart.”

“This is gibberish. We should have never
wasted our money on this,” Heath grumbled, helping me out of the
wagon.

It was still light when we returned to the
harbor. Heath had promised we would be home for supper.

“I will row as fast as I can,” he said. I was
quiet, flustered by our visit to the gypsy lady. I had thought
Ayden would be frightened and have nightmares, but it was going to
be me. She told me things that scared me all the way down to my
soul, and because I didn’t understand it, frightened me even more.
Heath tried to comfort me.

“She is just full of hocus-pocus. Don’t you
pay any mind to her, Lillian.”

Ayden didn’t like to see me so upset; for the
first time, he was genuinely concerned about me. He sat beside me
on the boat. “She is just a crazy old lady. She was probably,
probably—” Ayden thought hard for the word he was looking for.

Heath knew what he was trying to say. “The
gypsy was senile. That’s what she was.”

Ayden nodded in agreement and added, “Yup,
that’s what she was.”

While Heath rowed us home, I tried to calm my
nerves, but my trembling continued. Heath indicated with a quick
glance to Ayden that he should do something. I was surprised when
he put his arm around me and looked at me to see if it was okay. It
was. I smiled, and he smiled with relief, and the three of us
laughed.

“Thank you for making me feel better,” I
said.

“That’s what friends are for. We will always
be here to help make you feel better,” Heath said.

I kept my sights on our island and was
relieved when we finally returned safely. So was Momma.

Momma took a long-needed breath when the
three of us stepped foot on the island. She called us over, and we
hurried to sit down for supper. Ayden and Heath sat across from me
as we dined outside in the twilight of the warm summer evening. It
was near nine-thirty and still there was just enough light to allow
us to see outside. Occasionally, Momma and Opal served supper late,
usually on Saturday nights, when the next day was the Lord’s day, a
day of rest.

The food was delicious, as always, and since
Ayden, Heath, and I were all famished, we asked for second
helpings.

“I have never seen you eat so much, Lillian,”
Momma laughed.

“How far out of town did you kids have to
walk?” Edward asked.

“I would say only a few miles,” Heath
answered. “It was so much fun.”

“I even got to see something called a Siamese
twin,” I said.

“What’s that?” Momma asked.

Heath quickly explained what a Siamese twin
was. Momma and Opal seemed horrified—especially Opal. She hurried
off and knelt in the distance to throw up. Momma was about to see
to her when Opal returned to the table, her face flushed and not
looking well at all.

“I’m sorry. The thought made me ill.”

“You sure you’re okay?” Edward asked.

Opal smiled her reassurance and that put him
at ease.

“What else did you see?” Daddy asked, wiping
his chin with his napkin.

“We saw an old gypsy woman,” Ayden
announced.

Heath’s eyes flew open.

“What do you mean a gypsy woman?” Momma
gasped.

Ayden looked to me, realizing he had said too
much. The three of us quickly tried to think of what to say. Of
course, Heath knew right away what to do. He had to lie.

“As soon as we saw her in the woods, we
hurried away.”

Momma took a deep breath and closed her eyes,
then said, “Thank goodness. Those people are witches. You children
stay far away from gypsies.”

Ayden gulped hard as Heath looked at me. He
warned me to stay calm, that I had nothing to fear.

“I’m just glad you all had a good time and
got home safe.”

“Amen to that,” Opal added.

Heath, Ayden, and I asked to be excused. We
wanted to escape before anyone realized we were lying. Before I
went inside, I thanked Heath and Ayden and hugged them both. “That
was a close one,” I said quietly.

“That it was,” Heath replied, and with Ayden,
walked through the shadows of twilight, back to their house.

It wasn’t long before Momma came up for our
goodnight ritual. I was grateful to be safe in my room, on the
island, and under Momma’s love and care. No longer did I have
frightening visions of the old gypsy woman. Momma’s warm touch and
soft voice put all of my fears to rest.

“Did you really have a good time today?” she
asked as she began to brush through my hair. My hair had grown so
much since we first arrived. It hung past my hips. Momma’s hair was
only inches shorter, but she always kept it up in a bun until
bedtime. Then she spent hours brushing it after she brushed mine.
The only time she couldn’t was when she felt ill. Then I would
offer, but she would send me away so she could rest.

“I did, Momma. I hope the circus comes next
year. Then I want to go again.”

“When I was a little girl, I went to the
circus once. My daddy took me. I was about six years old.”

“What was he like, Momma?” Momma hardly ever
talked about her daddy, my grandfather.

“He was a handsome man, almost as handsome as
your daddy. I was his angel, and he adored me.”

“Does he still live in Savannah?” I
asked.

Momma sighed as she ran her fingers through
my hair. “My parents are long gone, Lillian,” she said, with a pain
in her voice I only heard when she infrequently remembered
them.

All I knew was that they had lived in
Savannah where he met my grandmother. I tried to imagine what he
looked like, for there were no photographs of them. We had none of
anyone in our family. I couldn’t imagine anyone as remotely
handsome as Daddy.

“What was his name?”

“Whose name?”

“My grandfather’s.”

“Thomas. His name was Thomas,” she said, then
cleared her throat and began to fidget. Then she removed herself
from the bed and told me to blow out my lamp.

Just before she turned to leave, she gazed
out my bedroom window, and after only a moment said, “Mrs. Dalton
is expecting a baby come spring.”