Pegasus: A Novel (13 page)

“I don’t know her name,” Lucas said about his brother’s admirer. “Her sister told
me. Her name is Rosie and she’s six. She’s from Czechoslovakia, but she speaks German
like us, pretty good too. I’ll bet her sister does too.” It was a definite plus in
Lucas’s mind, and he thought it might be to Toby too. He could see how quiet he was,
and was trying to cheer up his older brother. But Toby was nervous about their performance
too. He could see that his father was tense.

The handlers helped them tether their horses to a pole when they got into the huge
tent. A trapeze act was just finishing its rehearsal, and Lucas wondered if it was
Rosie’s father, but he heard them
speaking Spanish when they left, so he knew it couldn’t be him. And he thought they
were amazing as he watched them.

Another group came in after them, and Nick heard them speak Polish. A young woman
emerged from the group and did a low-wire act, which she practiced quietly, doing
a ballet on the wire, as a man in a wheelchair watched, and corrected her and told
her what to do. As Nick glanced at her, he saw that she had the face of an angel,
and the body of a fairy as she leaped into the air and then found her footing instantly
on the wire. He was mesmerized by her, and she never raised her eyes. She just concentrated
on what she was doing, and listened to the man in the wheelchair’s commands. Nick
thought he had never seen anything as graceful, and she looked like barely more than
a child, she was so small, but she had a womanly grace about her. He thought she might
be in her late teens. And then he turned his attention to the horses, and spoke to
Pluto in a low voice.

“You know this is important, right? We won’t get the contract if you miss the capriole
or the croupade. I’m depending on you. This is just as important as the night you
got back on your legs again on the ship.” The big horse nodded his head as though
he understood. And then Nick spoke to Nina, who was looking sleepy, and gave her a
similar speech. The Lipizzaners were decked out in their finest bridles and saddles
without stirrups and looked as elegant as their riders. The Arabians were already
prancing, in need of exercise, and didn’t seem skittish as Toby rode them one by one
around the ring. And he looked comfortable riding them too. Like his father, he had
been watching the girl on the low wire, being commanded by the man in the wheelchair,
but once he started to warm up the horses, he forgot about her. Then Nick rode Pluto
several times around the ring. The horse seemed ecstatic to be ridden again, and Nick
felt as though he and Pluto had bonded on the ship when he was sick. Ever
since, Pluto seemed to heed his every command and do whatever he could to please him.

Nick rode Nina after that, to warm her up, and then Toby got astride her when Nick
dismounted. They had given themselves an hour to loosen them up. And by ten o’clock
Nick knew they were ready. And just as he thought it, John Ringling North appeared,
crossed the ring to where Nick was standing, and shook his hand. Nick didn’t know
it, but North had never done that before. It was a sign of respect, and then he discreetly
took a seat in the stands, at a good vantage point to watch Nick and his horses perform.

Lucas put a recording of Mozart on a phonograph they had plugged into a light pole
next to the ring. And their act began with Nick galloping elegantly around the ring
on Pluto, going ever faster, and ending with the spectacular white Lipizzaner doing
a levade, where he stood on his hind legs and held the stance for a seemingly endless
time. The beautiful horse had never done it more smoothly or better, and then he hopped
easily into the courbette, where he moved forward in little jumps. Then Nick galloped
with him again, as Toby joined him on Nina. The two Lipizzaners looked like poetry
in motion, as they moved with infinite precision through their ballet, mirroring each
other’s movements perfectly around the ring. Nick dismounted just as Toby did, and
they left the ring, leaving both horses standing side by side, as Nick began the liberty
commands. They executed each movement and exercise with flawless precision, doing
exactly what Nick wanted. They didn’t let him down. And after half an hour of impeccable
exercises, Nick got onto Pluto’s saddle again and led him into the challenging capriole,
where the splendid horse kicked his hind legs out in midair, and then transitioned
instantly into the croupade, where Pluto literally flew through the air, with all
four legs tucked under his body, as though the powerful
beast were weightless, and he landed as gracefully as he had left the ground.

The people who had watched him, handlers and a handful of acrobats, gasped when they
saw it. Pluto had been exquisite, and Nick looked like the most elegant rider in the
world astride him. The performance had been perfect, and Pluto took a bow, as Nick
sat erect and took off his top hat in the direction of John Ringling North, and then
Nick and Pluto left the ring, and he dismounted. It had been a grueling performance
for rider and mount, but Nick knew that neither of them could have done it any better.
It had been the best that Pluto had ever given, and Nina had done extremely well too.

As Nick stood there, breathless with excitement after his performance, stroking Pluto,
John Ringling North left the stands, and came to where Nick was standing. North was
wearing jodhpurs and riding boots and carrying a crop with a silver handle, and he
was beaming.

“They’re the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. And perfectly trained. They’re as
good as the Lipizzaners I saw at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Welcome to Ringling
Brothers, Mr. Bing.” He smiled broadly at him and held out his hand, and shook Nick’s.
He turned to look at Pluto then, barely winded by what he’d done. He was powerful
and young. “He really does fly, doesn’t he?” And then he turned to Nick again. “That’s
it. That’s his name. Pegasus, the flying horse of Greek legend. And Athena,” he said,
glancing at Nina. “You have your act, Nick. They’re perfect. Welcome to the Greatest
Show on Earth. You’re worthy of the name.” And with that, he took an envelope out
of his pocket and handed it to Nick. “I’ve already signed it. You do the same, and
drop it off at my office. I want you in the center ring as our second act after the
tigers, in the first performance after the winter break. You’ll open in Madison Square
Garden.”

And then he turned to Toby with a warm smile. “Good work, son. You looked great,”
he said, and Toby beamed. There were tears in Nick’s eyes when John North left. They
were safe, they were home, he had a job. And Pegasus and Athena had been born. He
smiled as he turned to Pluto and tried out the new name. The horse whinnied as though
he were laughing, but didn’t seem to mind.

“Thank you,” Nick whispered, as he stroked his head. “Thank you, Pegasus, for taking
care of us. I won’t let you down. Sorry about the new name.” But the newly renamed
Pegasus just tossed his head and whinnied again, as though he approved. And as Nick
turned to lead him from the ring, he saw the elfin girl from the low wire standing
beside a post, half hidden, where she had been watching him perform. She had enormous
vibrant blue eyes, like his own, and a halo of pale blond hair. Her eyes met his for
a minute, but she didn’t smile, she just stared at him, as she had at the astounding
horse, and then she seemed to float off and disappear, and she was gone. She was like
a vision, as though he had imagined her and not really seen her, a benevolent spirit
that was observing him.

“Pretty girl,” Nick said casually to one of the handlers who was helping them get
the horses back to their tent, to cover the fact that he had been staring at her as
intently as she had watched him.

“She’s a Markovich,” the handler said with a shrug, as though that would explain everything
to Nick, but it didn’t. He knew nothing of circus lore, or the names of the performers,
except for the few Lucas had met. “They’re Polish. They’re all crazy. High wire. Without
a net. Her father’s in a wheelchair. He killed her mother that way—she was a beautiful
girl. They’ll kill her too. She was just practicing on the low wire today. She works
up there,” he said, pointing to the top of the tent. “The crowds love it. I think
it’s a terrible thing to do to a young girl. He doesn’t care,” he said about her father.
“He does it to
thrill the crowd. And if she winds up in a wheelchair like him, or dead like her mother,
he thinks it’s fine. She has four brothers who do the act with her. Her aunt’s in
a wheelchair too. I can’t watch them. They make me sick,” he said as they left the
tent.

“What’s her name?” Nick asked, intrigued by what the handler had said.

“Christianna. Christianna Markovich. She’s the grand finale, the last act before the
parade at the end. It keeps people in their seats till the end of the show, waiting
to see if she’ll fall and die.” The way he described it sounded grim to Nick.

“She looks like a child.” She appeared to be about fifteen when he saw her at close
range.

“She’s older than she looks. She’s twenty-one. She’s been in the circus since she
was born. They’re one of the oldest circus families here. There’s another high-wire
act that’s been here for four years. Czechs. Big rivalry between them. The others
work with a net most of the time, so the Markoviches treat them like dirt,” he said
with a grin.

Nick was beginning to learn about the circus and the people he now lived with, the
intrigues between them, the jealousies and the dangers, but he had been struck by
the ethereal-looking girl he had seen practicing, commanded by what must have been
her father. Her eyes had electrified him, and then she had disappeared. He wondered
when he’d see her again, and if he’d have the courage to see her act. It horrified
him to think that she worked without a net and might fall. And even more so to think
that her own father was willing to take that risk.

He and Toby fed and watered the horses, and Lucas helped them, after the handlers
left. He had been excited to see his brother and father performing, and even more
so when one of the handlers had
taken him to see the elephants afterward, and he got to sit on one of them. His new
life was full of thrills and wonders for him. And as they walked back to their trailer,
still in top hat and tails, Nick felt suddenly more at ease, among the odd people
walking past them. Several of them smiled at Nick and the boys, and Lucas waved at
the dwarf he knew, who was standing with a group of his friends in the distance. It
wasn’t a bad place to have landed after all, just very different. Rosie was sitting
on their front step, waiting for Lucas when they got home.

“Where’ve you been?” she asked him, in English this time.

“My father and brother had to work,” he explained in German, and she nodded, and Nick
noticed then that she had brought an older girl with her, who was obviously her sister.
She gazed at Toby adoringly as he blushed beet red. He looked very handsome in his
top hat and tails.

“This is my sister Katja,” Rosie said, lapsing into German, as Toby tried to look
nonchalant and couldn’t pull it off. He looked mesmerized by the beautiful girl Rosie
had brought with her. She was wearing a simple blue dress, she had dark hair, long
graceful legs, and looked like a young ballerina. When Toby started talking to her
in German, her face lit up. It was an international community of dozens of nationalities
living together, a microcosm of the world.

Nick invited the sisters to join them at the mess tent for lunch a little while later,
and the girls went to ask their parents and then returned and said they could. They
were very well behaved and very polite to Nick as the five of them chatted in German
on their way to eat. Katja was fifteen, like Toby, and they had only been with Ringling
Brothers for four years, since she was eleven, she said, so her English wasn’t as
good as her little sister’s, who had spoken it since she was two. They had been with
a circus in Czechoslovakia and one
in Germany before that, until scouts found them and brought them over to the States.
Katja said she liked it very much, better here than at their old circus in Europe,
and Rosie didn’t know any life other than this.

“They’re very nice to us here,” Katja said to Toby, and he was fascinated by her.
She was a very pretty girl. She told them her father was training her on the trapeze.
Their family were the Markoviches’ archrivals, Nick realized as he listened, and the
girls’ mother was the other high-wire act, but she usually used a net in her act,
unlike the Markoviches, who never did. Nick realized he had a lot to learn about the
intricacies of the circus, what these people did, the risks they took, and how they
lived.

He slipped away from lunch for a few minutes to drop off the contract he had signed.
He left it at John Ringling North’s office, with one of his secretaries. He was one
of them now. He had been reborn. He even had a new name. Nick Bing. And so did Pluto.
He was Pegasus, the flying horse, and he was worthy of the name. Their new life had
begun that day.

“I had a letter from Toby today,” Marianne said to her father mournfully, three weeks
after they had seen them off at the ship, and her father looked at her in surprise.
Germany and all of Europe were still reverberating with the stories of the destruction
on
Kristallnacht
, and the people who had disappeared, all of them Jewish. It had proven to Alex and
Paul how wise they had been to urge Nick to leave quickly. They were both relieved
to know that he and the boys were safely in Florida now. They had nothing to fear
there.

“Already?” Alex answered her. “He must have written to you the moment he arrived.
I had a telegram from his father when they landed in New York, to tell me the horses
were all right, but I haven’t heard from him since. How are they?”

“Toby sounds sad. It was the day they got to Florida, and he said everything there
is very strange.”