Well, it is a rather delicate matter.
Why is that?
There are several parties interested in their incarceration — in prison or hospital. It would help me to have some background on them, something to help with a diagnosis.
Just so you know, Salazar said, I for one believe they are as guilty as fuck and there’s little you can say to prove otherwise. I am here because the doctor thinks you are key to this because one of the freaks is in love with you. He figures if they did this, whatever set them off is connected to you.
Fred smiled. Water?
Yes, Sunil said. Is there any truth to that?
I am just one of those women, Sunil. You know the kind.
No, I don’t.
The kind men want to possess but can’t, Fred said, and laughed deliciously.
You don’t seem that perturbed by all this.
All what, Fred asked. This little show you’re both putting on? If you had anything serious on the twins, would you be out here in the middle of nowhere asking for my help?
Sunil drained his beer. Why don’t I tell you what I think?
With that he launched into a recap of the twins’ arrest by the lake and everything that had transpired up till then. When he was done, he stood up and went to the bathroom while Fred went to freshen their drinks and get some snacks. They had an awkward moment at the door as they both reached it at the same time, but that was replaced by amazement when they stepped back onto the porch to find Salazar peeing over the edge.
Shit, he said. You came back faster than I expected. My bad. Old habit.
He zippered up and sat down. Fred passed him a new beer, careful not to touch him in the process.
What, he asked, picking up on her body language. You can work with freaks no problem, but a little public urination is a big deal.
Fred ignored him and turned to Sunil. First to address the love issue you brought up, she said. Yes, there was a time when Water and I were intimate. We were lovers for about a year until it became unclear to me which twin I was actually sleeping with. I mean, it was always Water’s body, but there were times when I thought I saw Fire in his eyes.
I understand, Sunil said.
But then I also began to notice Fire peering out at us from under his caul when we made love. The whole thing got too weird, so I ended it. Do you really think that somehow triggered a breakdown for them?
I don’t know. When did you stop seeing Water?
Eight months ago. But they continued to work here at the carnival all that time, until two weeks ago when they just left for Vegas.
What exactly did they do as King Kong, Salazar asked. I mean, did they wear a monkey costume or what?
Both Fred and Sunil contemplated correcting him, but then chose not to.
They were fire wizards, Sunil said. At least Fire was, as I understand.
That’s correct, Fred said, shooting him a grateful smile.
Like I know what the fuck that is, Salazar said.
Well, one of their tricks, Fred said, was to set a very long pole on fire and then throw it in the air. As it dropped they would catch it and it would turn into an albino python. Stuff like that. The audience loved their show, but then Fire grew bored of the magic. They were working on something akin to walking on water. I think that’s why they may have been at Lake Mead.
Because Criss Angel walked across Lake Mead, Salazar asked.
So you’re not a total waste of space, Fred said.
How long have they been with the carnival, Sunil asked.
Since they were twelve, Fred said.
And they spent the last few weeks just developing their new Jesus act, Salazar asked.
Not exclusively; there are no free rides here. They helped out with the midget boxing matches—
The what now, Salazar interjected.
The midget boxing matches. Ferocious fighters. I wouldn’t want to tangle with them. Anyway, that’s what they did, but since the show only comes on at midnight, they didn’t need to make it back here until ten. For the rest of the time they were just gone.
Gone where, Salazar asked.
Just gone.
You’re not very good at giving alibis, are you, Salazar said.
I wasn’t aware that’s what I was supposed to be doing.
Sunil saw where that line of conversation was going and headed off the argument quickly. What do you know of their early life? Before they joined the carnival. Do you know what caused their mutation?
Everyone in the carnival is mutated in some way, Fred said, and we all come from within one hundred miles of each other.
Ah, Sunil said. Downwinders?
Yes, Fred said.
What the fuck are downwinders, Salazar asked. Some cult of farty mutants?
Downwinders are people adversely affected by the nuclear tests in Nevada because they lived downwind from the test sites, Sunil said. The wind literally blew the radiation through their farms, ranches, and towns, infecting them with radiation poisoning.
Of course, as soon as we began to complain, the government did everything they could to hush it up, Fred said.
I’m still not sure I’m buying this Mulder and Scully crap about the government and nuclear tests that can harm its own people, Salazar said. I mean, this is America, for fuck’s sake.
That’s partly how it works, Sunil said. The clinical term is cognitive dissonance, and trust me, a whole country can be infected with it.
So you’re telling me that radiation sickness from one bomb set off in Nevada in the fifties infected thousands of people, Salazar said. Give me a fucking break.
We aren’t talking about one bomb from the fifties. I don’t think you fully appreciate how extensive the testing is. Most of the current nuclear tests are conducted at five-thousand-foot depths right by the water aquifers that give this entire area its water — I mean, all the civilian populations, Indian reservations, farms, all of it, except the military base, which has its water brought in, to this day. This is the water most of us grew up drinking, bathing in, and watering our crops and livestock with. So you can imagine, Fred said.
The scale of it is staggering, Sunil said.
I still can’t believe the government would knowingly go along with this, Salazar said.
People magazine ran an article on the 1956 classic film The Conqueror that was filmed on location near St. George, Utah. Between 1956 and 1980, ninety-one members of the cast and crew came down with cancers, including Susan Hayward and John Wayne, Sunil said.
Which side are you on, Doc, Salazar said to Sunil. To Fred he said: Look, our nuclear power is part of what makes this country great.
As long as you don’t have to pay for it, Fred said. I grew up in a town within the danger zone. I remember seeing a mushroom cloud. I was playing in an abandoned mine with some other kids when we felt this wall of hot sand blow through the tunnel. We rushed for the exits. We’d been told not to look at the explosion because the intense light would make you blind. But I had to look, I just had to, and it was beautiful, the colors were unlike anything I’d ever seen before or since.
You shouldn’t have been playing in an abandoned mine. Where were your parents?
Fuck you, Detective.
Thank you for being so honest with us, Sunil began.
But?
He wanted to say, But I feel like you aren’t telling me the entire truth. I feel like you are holding something back. Instead he said, But nothing. I was wondering if you ever met Selah.
Yes, when I was twelve. My father used to run this carnival before me. He was deeply religious and he believed it was his divine mission to take care of the deformed, so wherever we traveled we tracked down locals with deformities and offered them a life of dignity with the carnival.
So your father took Fire and Water from Selah, Sunil asked.