maintenaance worker, all alone, making like an airplane. But the
running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.
AND THEN EDDIE stopped running. He heard something. A voice,
tinny, as if coming through a megaphone.
How about him, ladies and gentlemen? Have you ever seen such a
horrible sight?.. ."
Eddie was standing by an empty ticket kiosk in front of a large
theater. The sign above read
The World's most Curious Citizens.
Ruby pier's Sideshow!
Holy Smoke! They're Fat! They're Skinny!
See the Wild Man!The sideshow. The freak house. The ballyhoo hall. Eddie recalled
them shutting this down at least 50 years ago, about the time television
became popular and people didn't need sideshows to tickle their
imagination.
"Look well upon this savage, born into a most peculiar handicap.. ."
Eddie peered into the entrance. He had encountered some odd people
here. There was Jolly Jane, who weighed over 500 pounds and needed
two men to push her up the stairs. There were conjoined twin sisters,
who shared a spine and played musical instruments. There were men
who swallowed swords, women with beards, and a pair of Indian
brothers whose skin went rubbery from being stretched and soaked in
oils, until it hung in bunches from their limbs.
Eddie, as a child, had felt sorry for the sideshow cast. They were
forced to sit in booths or on stages, sometimes behind bars, as patrons
walked past them, leering and pointing. A barker would ballyhoo the
oddity, and it was a barker's voice that Eddie heard now.
"Only a terrible twist of fate could leave a man in such a pitiful
condition! From the farthest corner of the world, we have brought him
for your examination—"
Eddie entered the darkened hall. The voice grew louder.
"This tragic soul has endured a perversion of nature—"