The Show to End All Shows by Cary Fagan

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

Sullivan, Clarence, and Lilly stood on the grass looking down at Napoleon. The contraption certainly looked more than a hundred years old. The ornate lower cabinet, polished oak with handles of brass, was clearly the work of a master carpenter. From it rose the upper body, a wood-and-wire frame clothed in the hand-sewn uniform of a French general—a blue coat with gold epaulettes and a scarlet sash. The face under the boat-shaped hat was carved of wood and had the hollow stare of a ventriloquist’s dummy. But the automaton’s condition also made it look old, for the wood was banged and scuffed and worn, the costume was faded and threadbare, the face chipped and scratched.

“Master Melville,” Lilly growled. “Master of what, I’d like to know. How about I make him a master of being punched in the nose?”

“Why not?” Clarence said. “You’ve already given him one in the eye.”

Lilly looked again at Napoleon. “You actually crawled into that dirty pile of junk every night?”

“I fixed the odd rip here and there,” Clarence said defensively. “I touched up the face, too.”

“Must have taken you all of five minutes. How does it open?”

“There’s a hidden latch. I’ll show you. You press it like this and then tip the whole figure. It’s on a big hinge.”

Lilly bent over to see inside the cabinet. “Doesn’t look very comfortable, even for someone who can fit in.”

“It’s not. It’s hard on your behind and your back. Your knees, too. And the air gets pretty stale.”

“Lovely. And nobody can see you when you’re inside? Even when the doors of the cabinet are opened?”

“You have to change position. See, when this door opens, you have to lean forward. But when the door beside it opens, you have to pull up your legs.”

“What’s this lever? And this bit of wire?”

“I don’t know, they never worked.”

They closed up Napoleon again. Lilly crouched down and put a finger to its nose. “You know, when I found that handbill in the door the other day, I got really excited. I thought that maybe this time I would get to play against Napoleon. I thought he really was an automaton. I thought the key really did wind up springs and gears. Isn’t that weird? I mean, there are super-smart computers that can beat world chess champions. Why would anybody be excited about a musty old bunch of clockwork? But I was.”

“You’re not the only one,” Sullivan said. “The audience loves Napoleon. I never really thought about why. Maybe it’s the same reason that people like to see Freddy doing magic or me throwing things in the air. They still want to be amazed. Computers are too complicated, nobody understands them. But the stuff we do is different. It takes old-fashioned skill, I guess.”

“So are you going to do it?” Clarence asked Lilly. “Operate Napoleon, I mean.”

Lilly blew out between her pursed lips, making a sound like a deflating balloon. Then she shook up her own hair with her hand, as if she were trying to shake up her thoughts.

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