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Chapter 16

The activity started the next morning, and got a little frenzied as the day wore on.

Mr. Romany and the Rigger spent a few hours dividing up the games, arguing about who got which. Monk decided that he had no confidence in Mr. Ahasuerus' ability to get the proper food for his animals, and drove his bus—aliens and all—into a nearby town to pick up two hundred pounds of meat from a rather surprised butcher shop. One of the trucks had to be unloaded when it was discovered that the strippers' costumes, which were going with Thaddeus, had been packed under the specialty tent, which was staying with Mr. Romany. Big Alvin got drunk and had to be restrained when he started breaking windows in a number of vans and trailers. Stogie's schnauzer got loose and didn't turn up again for almost two hours.

But finally, by late afternoon, all was in readiness, and Thaddeus announced that his division of The Ahasuerus and Flint Traveling Carnival and Sideshow would be ready to move out in ten minutes. He then rounded up a number of men from Romany's division to accompany him so they could drive the vehicles back after his group had left.

I had spent most of the day alone in the trailer, trying to work up the courage to ask Thaddeus to take me with him. Once or twice I got as far as the door, but then I remembered that he wouldn't even take Big Alvin along, and I knew there was no way I could convince him that I could earn my keep.

So I stayed where I was, and counted down the hours and the minutes.

I even considered going over to Monk's bus and throwing myself on Mr. Ahasuerus' mercy, but I knew he had more important things on his mind than the future of an ugly little hunchback who had trouble speaking, and I couldn't bring myself to face the finality of a negative answer. I guess deep down I thought that as long as he didn't officially turn me down, there was always the chance that he might change his mind at the last minute. I wondered what odds the Rigger would give on it.

The drive to the shuttlecraft took about forty minutes. When I felt us come to a halt I looked out the window and saw that we were in a large clearing, surrounded by a snow-covered forest. The wind was blowing the finely powdered snow through the air, and even though we were less than fifty yards away I couldn't make out any of the huge craft's features. It looked more like a grounded submarine than anything else I could think of.

I saw the aliens, most of them wearing coats and wrapped up in blankets, begin the short trek to the ship, and then Monk started unloading and moving his animals. I wiped the fog off the window, hoping for a last look at Diggs and the Dancer, when I felt a sudden cold draft.

Thaddeus was standing in the doorway, hands on hips, looking mildly irritated.

"Well?" he said.

"Well what?"

"Aren't you packed yet?"

"I thought I'd keep on living in the trailer," I said. "Unless you've given it to someone else, that is."

"What the hell are you talking about? You're coming with us."

"Me?" I exclaimed.

He snorted. "You see anyone else in here?"

"But . . . but what can I do? You said everyone has to earn his way."

"Everyone will," Thaddeus assured me. "Especially you."

"I don't understand."

"I'm going to be too damned busy running this carnival to do anything else. I mean, Mr. Ahasuerus is a nice guy and all, but you can fill a library's worth of books with what he doesn't know about operating a business." He paused. "Well, how about it?"

"How about what?" I asked.

"You've always wanted to be a barker, haven't you?"

"Yes, but . . ." I started tripping on my tongue again and couldn't get the words out.

"Mr. Ahasuerus tells me that a hell of a lot of the worlds we're going to visit communicate by telepathy. So," he said with a smile, "unless you stammer when you think, you've got yourself a job."

"Do you really mean it, Thaddeus?" I managed to say.

"Would I lie to you, you ugly little dwarf?" he said gently.

It took me less than a minute to fill a suitcase with all of my worldly belongings. Then I put on my coat and followed him through the cold Vermont snow to the waiting spacecraft.

THE END

 

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Framed