Circus of the Queens by Audrey Berger Welz

Author:Audrey Berger Welz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Published: 2017-11-09T23:34:21+00:00

Chapter 30

Emily kicked over a bucket, making a tinny jangling sound. I went and picked it up. “Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques,” I sang, hoping this simple French song would soothe her. A storm was blowing in, and she’d begun to panic. She still associated a hose and water with the poachers who dragged her away.

“Don’t be afraid,” Spade told Emily, but the elephant kept pacing in her stall. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to stay in it or kick her way out. “We need to keep singing, Aunt Donatella.”

Emily sounded a fearful trumpet. “Frère Jacques…” Spade and I began to sing together. By the fourth round the soft, monotonous sound of our voices had calmed Emily down.

Emily had become more trusting as time passed. She and Bess were rarely apart, and I was happy that she had found such a good friend.

Bess reacted to water in the exact opposite way. Rain seemed to invigorate her. Bess loved to get wet. “Look how she catches the drops running down her face.” In the time it took for me to say this, Bess had stuck her trunk in a bucket and splashed Spade and Emily. It was the kind of joke she liked to play on us.

Emily had begun to take jokes like these in stride. Even the nervous twitch above her right eye had disappeared. But not until Harsita arrived did she really begin to sparkle.

An Indian boy of seventeen, Harsita came from a family that lived with and for elephants. His father was a mahout, an elephant trainer, and had slept next to his elephant in India for twenty years before he died, when a boulder came crashing down a hill and hit him on the head.

A British businessman employed Harsita’s aunt Lilu as a housekeeper. After the accident, Harsita’s mother agreed to let Harsita work for him, too. The businessman had holdings in the States, especially New Orleans, and when he decided to move, he brought Lilu and Harsita.

The businessman had invested a small portion of his money in a circus. Unfortunately, it went belly-up, but several of his past employees found work with Vladimir, and he took note of this. When he heard that the Circus of the Queens was coming to Lafayette, he decided to see what he could do.

“I asked a few of the fellas if they would arrange an introduction for Harsita the next time you came to Louisiana,” he told Vladimir. “You see, I’ve come to like the boy, and I feel bad for him. His aunt Lilu says that he misses his father and their way of life. I thought coming here might cheer him up. But mostly I’m hoping that with your permission, he can visit your elephants, Emily and Bess.”

“Where is the boy?” Vladimir asked.

“He’s over there by the fence, trying to be patient. I’m told he has an abundance of that quality when it comes to those giant creatures.”

Vladimir motioned for the boy to come over. “I hear you like elephants.

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