Randy McCombs and Mark Binkus were normally good kids, so sneaking off to the circus when they were supposed to be fishing at Snyder Creek felt like nothing short of international espionage. The Kohl Brothers Circus just finished a show in Wichita Falls last week and announced the next stop on their 1956 world tour would be Ripley Oklahoma, a small town about half way between Oklahoma City and Tulsa where the Cheyenne Short Line made a rail stop. When Randy first heard the circus was coming to Ripley, he couldn't ask his mom and dad fast enough if he could go.
***
“Now Randy, you know the circus is much too dangerous a place for a ten year old boy.” Helen McCombs wasn't one to say yes to anything at first, unless of course it was 'Mom can I do my homework' or 'Mom, can I help you clean up the kitchen', so getting permission to go to the circus would take a major effort. Helen put the clean dish she had been drying into the drain rack and picked another one from the warm sudsy water in the sink.
“Come on mom. I'm almost eleven and I'll take Binks with me so I won't be alone.” Almost everyone referred to Mark Binkus as Binks, although some of the kids at school added their own flair as in 'Binks stinks' or 'Come on Binky gnaw my winky', but more times than not, it was used it in the affectionate way nicknames were meant. Randy was only nine months older than Binks, but being more mature and about six inches taller, grew to think of Binks as a little brother.
“I'm sure Binks' mom will tell him the same thing I'm telling you.” She tussled Randy's brown, wavy hair with a damp hand.
"Don't,” Randy said, grimacing and stepping back.
“The circus is full of nothing but crooks, freaks, and con men,” Randy's dad proclaimed from behind the Ripley Gazette.
Trying to ignore his dad's proclamation, Randy pressed on. “But they have animals. Elephants, zebras, and even tigers.” Randy thought this would surely impress them into an about-face, after all, not even parents could resist the idea of seeing a real live tiger, but his mom only shook her head and his dad continued to read the paper.
Randy's mom put down her dish towel and looked at him. “I hear they are cruel to the animals Randy, and I've also heard the elephants are half crazy and are known to stampede the crowd.”
Stampede the crowd? Things were getting worse instead of better. “They have the elephants on chains, and how do you know they are cruel to the animals?” Randy asked, hoping to salvage any chance for a 'Yes' that may be left.
“You're not going,” Randy's dad said from behind the paper.
“But dad-”
Randy's dad put down the paper and glared at him. It was a glare Randy had seen before, a glare honed by serving four years in World War II, and Randy knew better than to stand against it. “You are not going and that's the end of it.” He stared at him a moment longer, apparently to make sure there were no more arguments, and then snapped the paper back up as if to emphasize the finality of his answer.
***
That was almost a week ago and with the circus packing up and heading to Springfield Missouri in the morning, Randy and Binks knew today was their last chance. It was late Saturday afternoon and unseasonably warm for the first week of October. Both boys wore jeans and nondescript white tee-shirts sporting various stains from the day's earlier activities. The sun still showed bright, but promised to fall below the horizon at precisely 6:58 PM. As long as they both got home before full dark, they figured they could get away with the big circus sneak off.
Even before Randy and Binks crested the hill on county road 113, they could hear the sounds of the circus. The classic pipe organ music, an amplified voice announcing the next show in the big top, distant laughter, shouts of excitement, and something else.
“Did you hear that?” Binks asked excitedly. He tossed aside the grasshopper he had been carrying and looked at Randy.
“Hear what?” Randy looked back at Binks with eyes almost as wide. The excitement built with each step and Randy even thought he caught the smell cotton candy riding the warm October wind.
“I think it was a tiger.”
“No way,” Randy said, raising his eyebrows and straining to hear for himself. “How do you know it wasn't a lion or a bear?” Just the thought it could be any of the three made Randy's heart beat a little faster.
“Because of the way it roared.” Both boys stopped and looked at each other. “Bears don't roar... do they?” Binks asked, a little less confident than he had been before.
“I don't know. I don't think they do.” They both stood where they were for a moment longer, contemplating what noise bears really made, then started back up the hill.
“Well, whatever it was, roared, so I at least know it wasn't an elephant. They trumpet.” Binks said this as if he were the world's authority of animal sounds.
“Speaking of elephants, my mom told me I couldn't go because the elephants will go crazy and stomp me to death.”
Binks laughed. “Yeah, my mom told me that in every show someone falls off the high wire and dies right before everyone's eyes.”
“What is it with moms anyway? They always think the worst is going to happen even when-” Randy stopped in mid sentence as they crested the hill. Red and white tops of the huge tents spread out before them like a mirage. A faint haze of dirt and sawdust hung near the ground, flowing and shifting with the breeze. Towering above the milling crowds, someone who must have been on stilts walked in long exaggerated steps. Randy and Binks looked at each other, then without saying a word, took off in a full sprint.
***
They stopped in front of a small white tent where a rough looking bald man with dark, bloodshot eyes sat selling tickets. His long black beard concealed most of his features, but not his aura of unfriendliness. Randy didn't like the man's eyes, not because they were bloodshot, it was something else. They reminded him of the picture of the shark he saw in his mom and dad's National Geographic magazine. Its round black eyes staring from the thin shiny pages while grinning its hungry grin as if it knew it would someday sink its triangular teeth into his flesh.
Three people stood in front of them and the last of the three looked like someone they both knew. “I've seen her before,” Binks whispered. He wiped away a small bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face.
“That's Mrs. Bitterman from our church,” Randy whispered back.
As if she heard the whispering, Mrs. Bitterman glanced over her shoulder and looked at Randy and Binks. Both boys immediately looked down, as if the dust on their sneakers had suddenly became a concern. A slight crease developed in her brow, like she was trying to place them, but thankfully the rough looking man in the small tent gave her an impatient 'Next', which caused her to turn around. She handed the man her fifty cents and walked into the crowd, never looking back.
“That was close,” Randy said, quickly stepping up to the tent to avoid having the rough man yell at him too. He handed up a crumpled dollar bill to cover Binks and himself, which the man unceremoniously grabbed from his hand while pushing two tickets to the edge of the wooden shelf attached to the tent. The man looked down at them and smiled. Randy could see a large number of small white teeth nested in the scraggily beard surrounding the man's mouth. They looked like broken porcelain in a bird's nest.
“You boys have fun, and maybe I'll see you later.” The rough looking bald man with the scraggly beard grinned at them. There was nothing nice in his wish for them to have fun, and the 'Maybe I'll see you later' sounded like a threat.
Randy took the tickets off the shelf as quickly as he could, being careful to avoid touching the man's hand. Then they practically ran around the small tent, not saying a word until they were out of hear shot.
“Man, that guy was creepy,” Binks said, looking over his shoulder. “What do you think he meant by maybe I'll see you later?”
“I don't know. He was probably just messing with us,” Randy said, trying to keep his voice steady. He didn't want Binks to know how badly the man had scared him. He thought of the small white teeth and how it looked like there were way too many packed in the man's mouth. Randy and Binks jumped back as a child of about three ran past squealing hysterically, quickly followed by a woman yelling for Jonnie to come back here right this instant. Shaking off the weird feeling, Randy decided it was all just a result of his feeling guilty about lying to his mom and dad. “Let's just forget about that guy and get some cotton candy.”
“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Binks said, his eyes brightening.
They stopped in front of the cotton candy stand and starting digging into their pockets for a nickel. The lady working the counter had hair almost as pink as the cotton candy and was much friendlier than the man at the admission tent. Wearing a genuine smile, she handed them each a white paper tube covered with threads of sugar magically spun in the large silver tub inside the booth. She told them both to have a good time at the circus, and then turned her attention to a rather large lady who had been standing behind them.
Walking away from the cotton candy stand, Randy pulled off a large wad of the pink cotton and pushed it into his mouth marveling at how quickly it melted into almost nothing. Pushing in another piece, he watched as people milled about, talking and pointing at the various attractions. The smell of sawdust laced with the underlying smell of animal droppings, which Randy would later wonder if he had actually smelled tiger crap, hung in the air.
On their right, a series of large tents lined both sides of the midway, ending at the big top where the main attraction played out. A large sign hung above a series of tents fronted by a raised platform constructed to prevent anyone from seeing in from the ground. The bright red and yellow words painted on the sign read 'You Have to See It to Believe It. 'Snake Boy' 'Rubber Man' 'Goat Woman' 'World's Fattest Man'.
Binks having already consumed his entire tube of cotton candy wiped his hand over the front of his shirt, adding one more artistic stain to the canvas of the day's adventures. “Whoa,” Binks said, staring at the sign. “Snake Boy? Goat Woman? Let's check it out.” Binks headed in the direction of the long platform where ten or fifteen people, some pointing and some whispering in the person's ear beside them, were making their way down the row of tents.
“Wait a minute,” Randy said, grabbing Binks' arm. “It cost fifty cents.” He pointed toward a small wooden structure displaying a sign that read 'The best fifty cents you will ever spend'. “If we do that, we won't have enough money for the big top show, and besides, we might be able to sneak a look through the back of the tents later.” Randy held his voice down as he said this and looked over his shoulder, not wanting to admit it, but sure he would see the strange man with the way too many teeth smile standing right behind them.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry. Step right up folks, because the main show is about to start.” The announcer's voice rolled down the midway and across the open fields. Both boys looked toward the big top. Small red and white flags snapped soundlessly on the huge tent's peaks.
“Yeah, you're right. The animals will be in the big top anyway,” Binks said, tossing down his cotton candy tube. “Let's go.”
They hurried past the freak show tents, weaving in and out of the crowd as they made their way to the big top. Randy glanced at the billboard by the tent housing the goat woman. It depicted a large woman with at least two chins and was the ugliest woman Randy had ever seen. A thin wiry beard hung from her square chin, large thick horns protruded from the sides of her head, curling back before twisting toward the front of her face. Yellow eyes with black rectangular pupils looked back at him with the same dead look as the rough man with the way too many teeth smile. Fifty cents wasn't the only reason Randy didn't want to see the freaks in those tents.
“Randy, come on. We're going to miss it,” Binks yelled.
Randy blinked. He hadn't even realized he had stopped. He looked at Binks, who was waving for him to come on. Turning from the yellow eyes, Randy ran to catch up.
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