Freeks(52)
“As you all know, there was a police officer that came into the campsite this morning. He said he came here because they’d had a complaint.” She paused, clearing her throat. “I called in that complaint.”
A few people gasped, and Brendon cursed under his breath.
Gideon stood up slowly, and Jackie took a step back. He wasn’t as tall or as strong as Seth, but the scars on his back and arms proved that he never backed down from a fight. His hands were big and rough from years of manual labor, and he’d balled them into fists as he seethed at Jackie.
“You had no right to do that,” Gideon said, and Jackie flinched. He didn’t raise his voice at all, but the anger in his words was palpable.
“I did what I had to do to protect my family,” Jackie insisted.
“If you’re worried about your family, you come to me,” Gideon snarled. “You do not go to the outside! You do not bring them here!”
“Gideon,” my mom said quietly, in a vain attempt to calm him.
“I did go to you and you didn’t listen!” Jackie shot back. Her nostrils flared as she glared up at him. “There is something attacking us—targeting us—and you’re doing nothing!”
Gideon took a deep breath and unclenched his fists. When he spoke, his voice was restrained and tight. “What else would you have me do? We have precautions in place, and the tigers will be gone this afternoon.”
“I don’t feel safe here, Gideon,” Jackie admitted, and her shoulders sagged as she deflated. “I think we should leave.”
“I already told you, Jackie. You’re not a prisoner here. You and everyone else who wants to go is free to go.” He turned away from her and looked at the rest of us, sitting and watching. “But I cannot leave a paycheck behind here. I am staying until Sunday. The carnival is staying.”
With that, Gideon turned and walked back toward his trailer. There was nothing more to be said, so the crowd slowly broke up and went about their business.
My mom paused outside Gideon’s door, pulling her shawl more tightly around her shoulders, then she shook her head and walked to our Winnebago instead.
I promised Carrie I would help her gather anything she might need for herself or Seth later, then I left her with Roxie and hurried into my motorhome. Mom was sitting at the dinette, her worn tarot cards spread out before her.
Her brow was furrowed, and the creases around her dark eyes seemed to stand out more. She barely glanced up at me, but I saw that her eyes were the color of a stormy sky. Her long red nails tapped anxiously on the table, and I slid into the booth across from her.
“What do you see?” I asked, looking down at the spread of cards before her.
She gathered up the cards before I could get a good look at them, but I’d already spotted a few—The Devil, the Three of Swords, and the Moon. In their simplest terms, they could be read as bondage, pain, and fear.
“Nothing.” She shuffled the cards back into a deck. “They’re all nonsense. I haven’t been able to get a good read since we’ve arrived in Caudry.”
“Do you think we should leave?” I asked.
Mom sighed and stared down at the table. “Not yet. We only have a few more days, and if we do the things Gideon suggests, I believe we’ll be safe.”
“Jackie said that she thinks the creature is targeting us.”
“Creature?” Mom snorted. “You’re proposing a monster is hunting us?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, but it didn’t look like any coyote I’ve ever seen.”
“This place is playing tricks on all our minds.” Mom gestured vaguely to the air, then she reached across the table and took my hand. “I’ve been alive for thirty-seven years, and I have seen all kinds of things that defy the laws of nature. But I’ve never seen a monster. Only those that are misunderstood and mistreated.”
My mom had grown up during a time when men and women with deformities and extra senses had been kept in cages like animals. She’d told me horror stories about the abuses and exploitation she’d seen in other circuses and sideshows, things that Gideon strived to protect us from.
“Do you think it’s an illusion, then?” I asked.
“I don’t know, qamari,” Mom admitted wearily. “But what I do know is that while we’re here, you must stay safe. Don’t go out alone at night. I want you in this trailer, sleeping in your bed, every night by midnight. And if you must see that boy in town, do so in the afternoon. So far, daylight seems to have kept our troubles at bay.”
I nodded but didn’t say anything. Gabe and I’d made plans to see each other Wednesday at seven, but as long as I’d be back in bed by midnight, I didn’t see the harm.
31. strength
Seth Holden looked too large for the hospital room. The bandages around his chest and arms bulked up his already thick frame, and he was nearly six and a half feet tall, so his feet were pressed against the wooden footboard.
Roxie and I stood in the doorway to his room, unsure of how to proceed since Seth was snoring softly. Carrie was still at the campsite, packing up Seth’s things, and Luka and Hutch would be bringing her later. Roxie and I decided to visit Seth on our own, so we wouldn’t crowd him too much, but now we were beginning to regret our decision.