The Boy in the Box by Cary Fagan

Author:Cary Fagan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tundra Book Group

OVER the next week, Sullivan learned the routine of Master Melville’s Medicine Show. The caravan traveled during the night so that if it passed through any towns or villages it would be less likely to draw attention. Occasionally a person, unable to sleep, might glance out a window, or a worker sweeping the side-walk or closing up a tavern or baking the next day’s bread might look up and see this strange apparition of horse and caravan passing by. But the next day, it would seem like a dream.

Shortly after dawn the caravan would stop by a clump of trees between two fields, or an empty lot — some unattended place not too far from where people clung to the outskirts of a town. Master Melville would rouse the players out of bed, breakfast would be made and served, and then Master Melville and Frederick would take bundles of handbills and set out in opposite directions, placing them at people’s doors. The others would work on their routines, or lie under a tree day-dreaming, or find another way to pass the time.

Esmeralda had some old schoolbooks — arithmetic, history, science — and she would give lessons to Clarence. And when she was done she would spend time with the gray horse, brushing it, checking its hooves for stones. The Melvilles had no name for it, but the kids called it Soggy, short for Soggy Biscuit, after the famous racehorse named Seabiscuit. The gray was no racehorse, but all of them, even Frederick, liked to pat his nose and talk to him and offer him treats. Esmer-alda paid him the most attention, though, and Soggy always raised and then lowered his big head when she came near, wanting her to talk into his ear. The horse tolerated Master Melville, understanding that he was, indeed, his master. He did not like Mistress Melville and whinnied nervously when she came near. But he loved Esmeralda — that, Sullivan could see.

Slowly Sullivan came to believe that Master Melville had lied to him and that he had been deliberately entrapped. He, like the others, was being held against his will. But surely some of the things Master Melville had told him were true, and so Sullivan spent his time scheming how to get away when he felt that the time was right — that is, when enough time had passed for his father to recover from the shock of his disappearance and supposed drowning. And also when he had figured out how not to be a financial burden on his parents. But getting away . . . that was the main thing.

First, he considered jumping on the horse and riding off. Only he didn’t know how to ride a horse and would probably get thrown and break his neck. Next, he considered sneaking a note to somebody in the crowd that said: Help! I’ve been kidnapped! Take me with you! But wouldn’t people think it was part of the act? They might even show it to Master Melville.

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