Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish Read online

  ‘What?’

  ‘Fly,’ said Effie.

  ‘Like a pig.’ Gus laughed.

  ‘Trapeze, stupid. I’ve been doing it since I was six. One of these days I’ll do a triple somersault and then I’ll be set. Everyone wants you when you can do a triple. I’ll get a job with a real circus. Ringling or some really big American mob. I’ll tour the world, get in the circus hall of fame – all that stuff.’

  ‘Isn’t this a ‘real’ circus?’

  Effie looked uncomfortable.

  ‘Sort of.’ She avoided looking at Gus as she spoke.

  ‘Well, I don’t reckon it looks like much of a circus. Nothing very incredible about this set-up. Pretty crappy, falling-apart kind of circus if you ask me,’ said Gus.

  Effie flushed and turned on him. ‘Well, who asked you?’ she spat. ‘What would you know about it, anyway?’

  Gus stood up slowly and brushed the grass from the seat of his pants.

  ‘I better get back to my grandmother,’ he said.

  ‘And that’s another thing. Do you have to keep saying, “my grandmother, my grandfather”, like you own them or something? They’re Doc and Nance first.’

  ‘Yeah, I know that.’

  Effie screwed her face up as she looked past him to the parking lot.

  ‘Dad and Hannah are back,’ she said, pushing Buster from her lap and racing towards a man and woman who had just pulled up and were unloading something from the back of a ute. Gus reached out to Buster cautiously and tried to scoop the small dog up into his arms. Buster bared his teeth, turned and trotted after Effie. Gus pulled at a stalk of grass and stuck it in his mouth as he watched the girl and dog disappear into the big top. He wasn’t sure whether he’d just made a new friend or an enemy.

  5

  THE SCENT OF CIRCUS

  Gus didn’t know what to do with himself. Everyone was busy doing something. He knew he should make himself useful but he didn’t want to get involved with any of it. He sat in the big top and watched the three tenthands, Gazza, Pikkle and Mac, spread fresh sawdust around the ring and check the rigging and equipment for the evening show. It was hot and stuffy but anything was better than being stuck in his grandparents’ caravan.

  ‘Hey, Kylie, grab us a couple of beers, will ya?’ called one of the men.

  Kylie was cleaning out the fairy-floss machine that stood just inside the tent door. She looked up and smiled but went on with what she was doing, ignoring the request. They took turns in calling out to her, trying to get her to chat to them but finally they gave up and turned their attention on Gus.

  ‘You with us for long, kid?’ asked Gazza.

  ‘Hope not,’ replied Gus.

  ‘Most kids would be happy to hang out with a circus, even a scrappy mob like Zarconi’s. What’s your problem?’

  Gus said nothing and picked at the flaking paint on the bleacher.

  Gazza sat down next to him and wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans.

  ‘So what do you like, if you don’t like circus?’

  ‘Swimming,’ said Gus quietly.

  Gazza laughed. ‘You’ll be lucky to even get a shower while you’re travelling with Zarconi’s.’

  ‘Is that why everything smells bad around here?’ asked Gus.

  Gazza lifted up his arm, sniffed his own armpit and then pretended to faint. Gus tried not to giggle but it slipped out. Gazza opened one eye and tickled Gus on his stomach.

  ‘You’re pretty scrawny for a swimmer. Don’t look like there’s enough meat on you to keep you warm in a sauna. But the old man will change that. He’ll get you slogging your guts out in no time and that’ll put some muscle on ya. Gets blood from a stone, that Doc O’Brien. When I signed up down in Victor Harbor, I thought, “Great – circus, a bit of adventure and you don’t have to work straight hours,” you know – but I tell you, it’s bloody hard work for piss-all money.’

  After the tenthands left, Gus lay down on the bleachers and put his head in his hands, looking up through the hazy half-light. He could see thousands of pinprick holes in the tent roof and small patches where the canvas had been repaired.

  Shafts of sunlight slipped into the tent through the gaps around the poles. He tried to imagine his mother up there, her body an arc of shimmering pink, but all he saw was her pale face against the white hospital pillows. He was still thinking of her when Effie jumped onto the bleachers making them shudder. She stood over him with Buster draped around her neck like a fur stole.

  ‘I was wondering where you’d got to,’ she said.

  ‘Glad someone was,’ he replied.

  ‘Sooky-sooky-la-la. What a baby! You want everyone to make a big fuss of you just ’cause you’re new.’

  ‘Not everyone.’

  ‘If you mean Doc and Nance, they’ve got better things to do than worry about whether you’ve got a snotty nose. Doc’s gotta take care of Kali for one thing. She’s pretty important.’

  ‘More important than his own grandson?’

  ‘God, what a wimp. There’s nothing wrong with you, and she’s gotta do the show tonight.’

  ‘I thought your dad was meant to look after her.’

  ‘Well, he does mostly but Doc has a way with sick animals. That’s why he got called Doc in the first place.’

  ‘Well, he makes me sick.’

  ‘Blah, blah blah,’ said Effie, with her hands on her hips. Gus glared at her, but she laughed.

  ‘I’ve gotta do some training. You can watch if you like,’ she said and she bounced down into the ring and started stretching.

  ‘Is Vytas gonna train too?’ he called out.

  ‘Vytas?’

  Effie flipped onto her hands and walked around the ring. ‘He only does the dental act these days. He was a top flyer once but he’s a bit past it. He does clowning and magic – he’s always going on about magic stuff.’

  ‘What’s a dental act?’

  ‘Don’t you know anything?’ She flipped back onto her feet. ‘Wasn’t your dad in the circus?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Gus slowly.

  ‘What do you mean, you don’t think so?’

  ‘My mum was,’ said Gus, blushing. ‘She did trapeze.’

  ‘Well, she probably did the dental act with Vytas. He’s been with Zarconi’s forever. I hope I don’t have to do it with him tonight. I hate it. In weather like this, he gets really sweaty and drips all over me. Yuk!’

  ‘What exactly does he do in a “dental act”?’

  ‘Oh, you know. He puts a bit in his mouth and clamps down and it has a trapeze attached to it and I do stuff on the trapeze. They call it the dental act because he’s holding me up with his teeth.’

  Gus was still trying to picture this when a small woman came in, dragging a mat behind her. She was only a little taller than Effie, but she had big muscles that rippled under her black leotard. Her dark hair was cropped short except for a wispy curl on the nape of her neck and all the lines of her face were strangely angular.

  ‘’Allo, Gus,’ she called out and waved to him.

  ‘Hi,’ he replied.

  ‘We have not met but I know all about you. I am Hannah.’

  She smiled and Gus caught the flash of a gold tooth. He liked her instantly. Something about her – the husky voice, her confidence.

  ‘You like to do some warm-ups with us?’ she asked.

  Gus had always got firsts in school athletics. He felt his energy returning at the thought of showing Effie a thing or two and he leapt down into the ring to join them. They did all kinds of stretches, and then Hannah used a long pole to unhook a low trapeze.

  Effie leapt up to grab the bar. She hooked her legs around it and bucketed inside out.

  ‘This is called the bird’s nest,’ she said, arcing her back and making a cradle shape with her body. Suddenly, she dropped from the bird’s nest into an ankle-hang, and her long hair swept the ground.

  ‘I thought you were gonna land on your face,’ said Gus.

  Effie stuck
her tongue out at him and reached up between her knees to grab the bar again.

  ‘Would you like to try?’ asked Hannah.

  Gus nodded.

  ‘Okay,’ said Hannah. ‘First, you make your hands firm and dry. You rub a little bit of rosin on them here – like so. Especially when it is hot, you get greasy – you know, sweaty. Your grip, it must be sure. Okay, now up you go.’

  Gus felt loose and warm right through his body. He reached up to grab the bar. Just as he closed his hands around it, he heard a roar from behind.

  ‘Oi! Get off that,’ bellowed Doc. ‘Hannah, the boy’s not to muck about with the gear.’

  Gus let go of the bar and dropped into the sawdust. Doc strode across the ring towards them and grabbed Gus by the collar. Hannah looked alarmed and held her hands up in the air as if she were surrendering.

  ‘He just wanted to try a little,’ protested Hannah.

  ‘I don’t want the boy messing around with the trapeze. Is that clear?’

  ‘But Doc…’ began Hannah.

  Doc held up one hand to silence her. ‘Not now, Hannah. We’ll talk about it later. You come with me, boy. You want to try something different? I’ve got plenty for you to try.’

  Gus looked over his shoulder as he followed Doc out of the tent. Effie was back on the trapeze, swinging through the warm dusty air, her black hair flying out behind her. Gus felt a wave of envy. He turned away and glared at the middle of Doc’s broad back. For the first time in his life, he discovered he could hate someone he hardly knew.

  It took Gus nearly an hour to muck out Kali’s truck. No one had bothered to clean it since she’d last climbed out of it. Huge, heavy turds stuck to the floor, some of them as big as watermelons – he had to blast them loose with a hose. His shoulders ached as he shovelled them into the trailer Doc had parked behind the truck. The air filled with a weird smell – a cross between rotting fruit and mouldy hay. Gus thought he might throw up or have an asthma attack. When he’d finished scraping dung off the walls and floor, he turned the hose on flat out and atomised the last little bits. The water pounded against the metal and ran in a waterfall out the back of the truck.

  Gus went back to his grandparents’ caravan sodden and aching all over. He ached inside as well.

  Nance looked almost sorry for him as he slumped on the couch. She cooked him up a plate of baked beans and toast and helped him pull off his wet boots.

  ‘You look done in. Come on down the back and have a kip. The show starts in a couple of hours – seven-thirty every night. You won’t want to miss that,’ she said.

  She led Gus down the length of the caravan to a tiny bedroom. A big double bed with a red satin bedspread took up most of the space. The curtains were drawn and the room glowed pink in the late afternoon sunlight. Gus lay down on the smooth silky cover and Nance draped a blanket over him. She brushed his hair from his forehead and bent down to kiss him.

  Gus didn’t want to be kissed but he was too sleepy to protest. If he shut his eyes tight he could imagine it was his mother. He could imagine that he’d never heard of Zarconi’s Incredible Travelling Circus.

  6

  SPINNING KNIVES AND THE DEMON FIRE-EATER

  Gus woke up and didn’t know where he was. He could hear tinny music blaring somewhere in the night outside. He sat up and pushed the curtains open. It was dark outside and the big top was glowing in the middle of the field.

  Gus fumbled his way to the caravan door, unsure where the light switches were and groped around for his boots. There was no one outside as he ran through the long grass towards the big top. Overhead, the sky was clear and studded with stars and the murmur of the crowd hummed in the night air. He lifted a flap of the tent and slipped inside.

  In the middle of the ring, in the spotlight, stood Doc. He looked bigger than ever. He had long black boots patterned with silver studs, a red satin cummerbund around his waist and a black sequined coat. To Gus’s embarrassment, he also had a pair of fake bushy black eyebrows pasted on his forehead. Slowly, Gus edged his way into the tent and sat down on the corner of a bleacher.

  ‘And now, the incredible Zarconi must stop for a snack,’ boomed Doc. His voice was so loud, Gus was sure you’d be able to hear it half a kilometre away.

  Nance wheeled in a trolley with a big silver tureen. She looked even less like a grandmother than before. She was wearing a green sequined jacket over a black leotard and tights, and her red hair was teased up in a great bird’s nest with a diamante tiara perched on top. She lifted the lid off the tureen and gestured Doc to try some.

  ‘Ahh, my favourite spicy brew,’ he announced, sniffing the soup and raising his fake eyebrows at the audience.

  ‘I’ll just cut you some bread to have with it,’ said Nance loudly, picking up a long black-handled knife and a white loaf.

  ‘Corny or what,’ muttered Gus.

  She tossed the bread and knife high into the air and began juggling. Gus resisted the urge to feel impressed.

  ‘Throw me another knife, would you, this one’s not sharp enough!’ she called.

  The blade of the carving knife flashed as it spun toward her.

  ‘Another!’ she cried.

  The knives became a cascade of spinning metal; bread and steel rising higher and higher above the sawdust. Nance’s hands were a blur of movement. Gus half expected to see her fingers sliced off when she missed a turn but she finished with a flourish, catching two knives in one hand and spearing the bread on the third. The house lights dimmed as she took her bow.

  In the gloomy half-light, Doc waved a long-handled fork at the audience. It had a bit of rag bound on the end and he dipped it in the tureen and set a lighter to it. Long blue and gold flames leapt off the fork. Little reflections of flame danced in Doc’s eyes. He licked the fire as if he were tasting it.

  ‘Delicious!’ he roared. He tipped his head back, opened his mouth wide and closed his lips over the burning torch. One after another, he doused a whole handful of torches in his mouth. When the last one was extinguished a little bit of fire remained in his mouth and he relit the torches again.

  Gus licked his dry lips. For some reason, his stomach started hurting.

  Doc scooped a cup full of fire-water from the tureen and raised it to the crowd.

  ‘Cheers,’ he shouted.

  He tipped his head back and blew a long stream of fire into the air. The audience gasped and burst into applause as flames shot upwards and illuminated the whole tent with a fiery glow. Doc looked like some kind of demon as the spangles and studs of his costume glittered in the firelight.

  The house lights went up and Doc dabbed his mouth with a cloth and bowed. His face was redder than ever and the top of his head glistened with sweat.

  ‘And now ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Zarconi’s is proud to present the exotic, the majestic, Kali the elephant!’

  The music started blaring and Kali lumbered into the tent. She seemed to fill the whole of the ring with her swaying grey body and a ripple of excitement moved across the audience. A little girl near the ringside cringed in her seat and burst into tears. Other people leaned forward and gasped. Gus stared hard at Kali, hoping she’d look his way but she was intent on her performance.

  A man with thick dark hair stood beside her. He rested one hand gently on her side but in the other he held a short whip and a sharp metal prong. He cracked the whip and she did a shuffling sort of dance in time to the music. When the trainer bowed, Kali reached out with her trunk and curled it around his shoulder. The audience laughed nervously. There was something a little frightening about how small the fully-grown man looked beside Kali’s giant body. When he put the prong under her front legs, she stood on her back legs and towered over him, her trunk curling up towards the rigging. She trumpeted loudly and the hazy still air swirled, little particles of sawdust dancing around her head. Gus shivered. Her call was strange and disturbing in the confines of the tent.

  Kali’s act was the last for the evening and the c
rowd started moving out even before Doc had finished thanking them for attending. The tent emptied quickly. The performers all rushed around the front to try and sell the last of the hot dogs, fairy-floss and doughnuts, except for Kylie and Vytas, who led two small ponies into the ring and offered rides to the kids who were hanging on their parents’ arms and complaining that they didn’t want to go home. For a moment, Gus thought of asking Vytas if he could have a ride too, but then decided that if Effie saw him, she’d probably laugh at him.

  Gus wandered out the back of the big top, avoiding the crowd. Pikkle and Mac were already busy taking down the tent walls and loading gear with Gazza.

  Buster was busy yapping around their ankles. They tried to ignore him until he caught the cuff of Mac’s trousers in his teeth and ripped off a long strip of fabric. Mac swore and made a dive at the dog. Suddenly, Effie was there too. She had a turquoise leotard on with spangles all over the top part of it, iridescent in the glare of the floodlights. She quickly scooped up Buster and held him against her chest.

  ‘Don’t you dare touch my dog!’

  Mac glared at her angrily and snorted. ‘Just keep that mongrel out of my way. If he hassles me one more time, he’s gonna wind up under the wheels of one of these here trucks. Roadkill, for sure.’

  Effie flicked her hair over one shoulder and spun around so quickly she nearly bumped into Gus.

  ‘Hey, Gus, you missed the whole show!’ she said.

  Mac was still standing behind her, scowling. Gus stared at him and swallowed hard. The tenthand turned away and threw a handful of poles into the back of the nearest truck and then disappeared into the big top.

  ‘You worried about him?’ asked Effie.

  ‘He was pretty angry.’

  ‘He’s just a scumbag. Forget it. Why didn’t you watch the show?’

  ‘I did. I saw Doc and Nance and I saw Kali at the end.’

  ‘But you didn’t see my act! I looked for you too.’

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘Nothing much really – just some bareback riding. They were a pissy crowd – not enough of them. I reckon we should have left here yesterday but we had to wait for you and now Doc is kind of cranky about something and everyone’s busting to get on the road.’