"When I was in Pony Red's camp, he said the same thing."
Little Will looked up at the canvasman. "Goofy, what's it like in Tarzak? How're they taking all this?"
Goofy looked around at the grim-faced circle of listeners. "It's about the same all over. We're in the cart and there's no question about it. It's like everybody needed to hit someone, but that someone isn't around."
Snaggletooth scratched his head, then held out his hands.
"What about Rat Man Jack, the route man? Won't he send out someone when we don't show up on time?"
Goofy shrugged. "Snaggletooth, do you know what a parsec is?"
"No."
"Leadfoot sort of explained it to me. It's one bullzonkus distance, I can tell you that. Take ten and multiply it by itself thirteen times, then multiply it some more. Got that?"
Snaggletooth shrugged.
"Never mind. It's a bunch. It's about fifty or so of those things between Ahngar and H'dgva in the Tenth Quadrant. That's in a straight line, which we didn't take. Now, we could've gone anywhere in between, see? And those searches have to be done at sublight speed to do any good. On top of that, we could have gone off course anywhere in between, which we did. Add to that the possiblity that we just might have blown up, and there's not going to be a lot of enthusiasm for spending the next several centuries searching for us."
The listeners sat quietly for awhile. Packy picked up a handful of pebbles and began flicking them one at a time into the fire. "Goofy, we're almost through the gap. Stretch Dirak's gang from the north is only a couple of miles away. Fisty Bill Ris's gang and Cross-eyed Mike Ikona have roads connecting all of the Emerald Valley cars. If Fatlip Louie will have the road cleared from Tarzak, then all we have left is Pony Red getting down that cliff."
Goofy nodded. "That sound's good to me."
Dot the Pot looked at Packy, then looked at Goofy Joe. "And then what, Goofy? What then? We'll have a road from Ikona to Tarzak, but we'll still be stuck on this damned little mudball."
"Don't really know." He held out his hands. "We'll have to get some kind of act together. There's still Number Seven to get to."
Dot snorted out a laugh. "Another damned road." She pushed herself to her feet and walked from the fire. One by one the others got up and went to put in some shut-eye before the next day's hard work.
Goofy Joe sat staring at the fire for a long time, then he stood and looked around at the night. Little Will was still at the fire. He looked down at her. "This is sure a happy bunch."
She smiled sympathetically. "Because of that fault, we lost a week's work. Where are you going now?"
"I thought I'd cross the mountain here and spread the gossip to the gangs up north."
"Goofy, it's dangerous—to travel that way even when you have the light with you. At night you could kill yourself."
The canvasman rubbed a finger beneath his nose and then snorted as he let his hands drop to side. "I just don't want to hang around this bunch of sad sacks. I'm too easy to depress."
Little Will thought for a moment, then looked up again at the canvasman. "Goofy Joe, how long have you been with O'Hara's?"
The canvasman rubbed his chin and looked up at the stars. "Let's see. That was some after the war... must be about twenty-five—twenty-six years."
"You were there when my mother and father got married?"
"There?" Goofy Joe resumed his seat by the fire. "The world was there, Little Will. Little Joe, the show's chaplin, did the honors in the center ring. The boss elephant man marrying the Lion Lady. Mr. John gave away the bride, and Waco Whacko was Bullhook's best man." Goofy frowned. "I wonder where Waco is now. Anyway, that was an occasion. You should've been there... well, you know what I mean."
"Goofy, what happened to them? Why did they split up?"
The canvasman settled back upon his elbows. "The show's hard on a lot of marriages, Little Will. And you got to understand this thing between cats and bulls. They're natural enemies. You know that when a bull died it was usually cut up and fed to the cats."
Little Will nodded.
"Five tons of meat isn't to be sneezed at, prices being what they are... were. Anyway, after your parents got married, things were just fine until that stand in..." Goofy rubbed his chin. "That was in Richmond, North American Union." He nodded. "Damn, but that was one helluva night."
He sat up. "I guess you were only one or two years old then." The canvasman shook his head. "See, the Lion Lady's father, Humpy Ireland, he was a camel hand. Never did like the cats, old Humpy. But Kris wanted a cat act, and you'd have to know Kris before Richmond to know why she got everything she ever wanted. I never met anybody who was harder to say no to.
"Well, Humpy gave up his camel and became part of the Lion Lady's cat act." Goofy shook his head. "God, but Humpy was scared of those cats." He looked up at the stars. "The cats got Humpy in Richmond. Chewed him up so that there wasn't enough left to call spit. Kris stepped in and tried to stop it, but the cats were crazy and cut her up real bad. Took off half of her face."
Little Will gasped.
Goofy Joe held out his hands. "They fixed her up in the hospital, though. Remolded her face and sealed up her cuts like nothing happened. Both of them left the show then. A year later the Lion Lady was back with her act. We didn't see anything of Bullhook Willy until right before the City of Baraboo took to the star road. They must've separated in Richmond."
"But why?"
Goofy Joe stretched out next to the fire. "The most reliable gossip I heard was that Bullhook went crazy and tried to kill the cats. Those cats were more important to the Lion Lady than even her own life. I bet that's what happened, and Kris put Bullhook's trunk out on the lot."
The canvasman yawned and cradled his head against his arm. "That's why Kris killed herself, Little Will. The air on the Baraboo was bad, and her cats were suffering. I think one or two had already died. What I heard was that she killed the rest of them, then killed herself."
He lifted himself upon one elbow. "Hey, I shouldn't be talking this stuff. I'm sorry."
"I wanted you to, Goofy. I wanted to know."
The canvasman snorted and put his head back down upon his arm. He snorted again and closed his eyes. "Guess I'm about as cheery as the rest of this flipping funeral."
Little Will pushed herself to her feet, walked until she found Packy in the shadows, and cuddled in next to the boss elephant man.
"Mumph."
"Goodnight Packy."
"Mmph."
Little Will closed her eyes until the light from the fire sparkled and filled her vision. Bullhook Willy and the Lion Lady had been apart, but there had been a time.
Her mind called out a name: "Pete. Are you awake?"
"I'm awake."
"Pete, Nhissia once taught me how to share a memory. Can you do that?"
"I suppose so. What do I do?"
"Just open your mind as far as you can; as though you were listening as hard as you could."
"Okay. I'm listening?"
Little Will closed her eyes and brought back the beautiful starship—deep inside.
Most of the show's three thousand troupers were gathered in the main practice arena of the City of Baraboo. Those who manned the ship's stations listened to the intercom. Little Will sat in the crowded seats between Kristina and Bullhook. Little Will watched as, in the center of the arena, John J. O'Hara took a microphone from a propman and lifted it to his lips.
"The last two seasons were rough. Karl Arnheim had as many as six shows dogging our tracks at one point." He lifted a fist. "By damn, we met opposition with opposition and each time walked away with victory!"