by A. J. Marcus
Stan beamed as he settled the camera back on his large shoulder. “Sure. And he’s nursing. How cute is this going to be?”
Over the background din of the faire, Tandy’s screams carried loud and clear. Ed spun around to see the newswoman staggering away from the fence where Tahir, the oldest of his camels, had an odd look on his face.
“Come on,” Ed said to Stan, who had turned his camera away from the serendipitous scene of the elephants to the frantic newswoman. As Ed watched, Tandy clawed at her hair, pulling off her wig. She shook it in front of Tom’s face.
“Look at this!” she screeched. “Look what that camel did to my wig!”
A large dollop of camel spit rolled from the fake black hair onto the ground. The woman jumped back so it wouldn’t hit her shoes.
“This is ruined!”
“Now, Tandy, this is one of the hazards of doing fieldwork.” Tom’s voice was low as Ed swung the gate open for Stan.
“Hazards of fieldwork? That nasty beast just ruined my best wig, and you call it a hazard?”
“Hey, it didn’t bite you. Remember that one newswoman that got bit by the dog she was interviewing? This could’ve been a lot worse.”
“Camel spit comes out without too much work,” Ed said as he got close. “If it’s washable, just—”
“Washable? Washable? Wigs are not washable!”
“Oh, please,” Tom said, suddenly losing his polished attitude. “I know a drag queen who can get that fixed right up for you.”
“I don’t need no drag queen handling my hair. God almighty, what’s gotten into you, man?” Tandy turned, still holding her wig a safe distance from her body, and stormed off toward the front gate. Every so often she started another tirade at high volume.
Ed stood there, unsure what to say or do.
Tom smiled at him. “I’m sorry about that, Mr. Costa.”
“Hey, it was my camel. If I need to replace it, let me know.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Tom held up a hand. “The station has a budget for just this sort of thing.”
“I missed the camel,” Stan said with a shit-eating grin. “But I got the whole meltdown after her scream. This will make great footage at the
Christmas party.”
Tom grinned back. “Mr. Costa, if we need anything else, we’ll be in touch. I guess we’re not going to get to interview the jousters today.”
“Tom, you’re never going to get her to go anywhere close to an animal story again,” Stan said, lowering his camera from his shoulder. “I don’t care who tells her she’s got to do it.”
“If you need anything, just let me know,” Ed said. Tom waved as the two men turned and headed toward the front gate in the wake of confused patrons who’d stopped to watch Tandy storm through the fairgrounds.
For a moment, Ed’s feet didn’t want to move from the spot. He could only imagine what the evening news was going to look like. They still had one more news crew to come through. He wondered how to keep them away from the camels. Turning back toward the corral, he remembered Adrian’s dream and wished he could be there now, flying through the air sucking on the man’s cock while gentle, relaxing flute music filled the air.
Chapter 19
All during the day, Adrian played with the new music as he stood out in front of the ceramic shop peddling his wares. As had become their custom, Jade and Mel showed up several times to dance as he played. They always gathered a crowd, and people were responding well to the new music.
“This new stuff is really incredible,” Jade said as they finished up their first dance after lunch. “I mean, it’s like nothing I’ve ever heard before.”
Mel nodded. “It’s almost like you’re channeling the Earth herself into the tune. I can feel so much in the notes.” She wiggled her hips, sending the little silver coins and bells jingling. “It makes me want to move.”
Adrian smiled. “Good, that’s what I’m after. This is some of the stuff I’m getting from Cara. I think it’s supposed to be both motivating and soothing, all at the same time.”
Jade giggled. “Speaking of Cara, did you hear that one of the camels spat on the newswoman?”
“Was that the scream I heard?” Adrian asked. “I had just gotten back over here from lunch with Ed. Had a few people around at the time, or I would’ve gone and checked.”
“Yep, sources say she ripped her wig off and ran screaming from the festival site,” the green-clad dancer continued. “We’re trying to get an eyewitness. Haven’t had time to go ask Ed about it.”
“I hope he’s okay.” Adrian glanced over at the crowd in the ceramics both. He should be playing, but he wanted to see Ed now. It was still a couple of hours until final cannon. I can’t wait that long. “I’m going to go check on him.”
Mel pulled a small pocket watch out of a blue bag at her waist. “We’ve got about fifteen until we’re due on stage. Do you mind if we go too?”
“Nah, come on. I shouldn’t stay too long. Give me a sec to tell Paul where I’m going and that I’ll be right back.” Adrian settled the strap for his panpipes around his neck and headed for the shop’s counter, where his boss was assisting a customer.
Paul looked up as Adrian approached the counter. “What’s up?”
“Taking a couple of minutes to go check on Ed,” Adrian explained. “There was some commotion over there a bit ago. Won’t be long.”
Paul nodded. “Okay.”
Mel and Jade stood by the lane waiting for him as he hurried out of the booth area.
“That a ‘Capella group is starting their last song,” Jade pointed out. “We’ll need to hurry.”
“You gals don’t need to come if you don’t have time,” Adrian said.
“Nah, this is good gossip,” Mel replied as they all fell into an easy fast walk toward the elephant ride. “We always have time for good gossip.”
At the elephant ride, Ed stood in front of Cara with Ciro at his mother’s side. The look on his face wasn’t his normal relaxed working look. There was a dark set to it that said he was trying to get through the day. Adrian hurried up to the fence.
“Ed, you okay?”
Ed glanced over at his name. His eyes were dark and broody. He shifted his broad shoulders. “We’ll see. Did you hear the screaming?”
Adrian nodded. “We were busy or I’d have been here sooner.”
The dark look on Ed’s face softened for a moment. Adrian wished they weren’t both at work and he could take the man in his arms and hold him for a while. Is this what it’s like to put someone else before myself?
“I think the whole faire heard the screams,” Mel said, a questioning edge to her voice.
“Great.” Ed’s face darkened again. He glared toward one of the camels. “Tahir spit on her. She didn’t like animals in the first place.” Clive indicated that the passengers were loaded. Ed tapped Cara on the trunk with his wooden cane and set off on his pass around the corral.
Adrian and the belly dancers followed along the fence. “I hope everything turns out okay. If you need me before cannon, you know where to find me. I’ll be down as soon as I can after cannon.” “We all will,” Jade said.
“Thanks, guys,” Ed muttered, just barely audible over the background din of the faire. “You mean a lot to me.” For a second, his sad brown eyes caught Adrian’s. The flutist wished he could stop the world for a moment and make the man’s sadness go away.
“See you later,” Adrian said as they reached the part of the fence they could follow along and Cara turned away from them, starting down along the back wall. Ciro paused, waved his trunk at them, and trumpeted his high baby trumpet before trotting after his mother.
“So why on earth did they send a newswoman out who was afraid of animals?” Jade asked as they walked back down the lane to their respective destinations.
“Who knows,” Mel replied. “She’s probably low person on the totem pole and got sent out on the shit story.”
Adrian shook his head. The cera
mic horns shifted, as they did sometimes when he got sweaty. He reached up to slide them back in place and tighten down the leather strap. “I just hope it doesn’t affect the way the story comes out.”
Jade glanced back toward the elephant ride. “Damn, we forgot to even ask which station it was and when the report would air. After this performance, I’ll go see what I can find out. I can probably get someone to record it for us so we can see how he looked.”
“Sounds good,” Adrian said. On the gypsy stage, several of the other belly dancers were already getting started. “You gals need to hurry. See you after cannon.”
“We’ll be here.” Mel smiled. “Without bells on.” She swayed her hips and walked off awash in tinkling.
Adrian glanced back down the lane toward the elephant ride. Cara was just setting off again with a new load of passengers. The loading stand hid Ed from view. The dark, broody look on the elephant trainer’s face didn’t sit right on the normally handsome visage. He didn’t like the idea that the man was unhappy. As Adrian pulled the panpipes from around his neck and began playing, a thought hit him. When was the last time I really cared about something making someone else unhappy? Have I closed myself off in my music so that I forgot what it means to care about someone? I really do care about Ed’s happiness. The music that emerged from the pipes wasn’t the tune he’d planned. Something else came out, and after playing for a couple of minutes, Adrian realized he was mirroring Ed’s dark mood with his music.
The final cannon blast sounded over the faire. Several minutes before, the last joust crowd had swarmed toward the exit. A few people had stopped and bought things in the ceramic shop, but they’d left quickly. Paul came out and looked up and down the lane. Adrian joined his boss.
“They cleared out quickly,” the flutist said.
Paul nodded. “Might as well go ahead and close up. Go get your bins and get the instruments put up.”
Sebastian sauntered out. “So we get to go home?”
“We can close down,” Paul replied, walking back into the booth.
“I’m spending some time with Ed this evening,” Adrian said as he passed Sebastian.
His friend fell in step with him. “Yeah, you said something about that this morning. My coffee hadn’t kicked in yet, but I think you said something about playing some music. That shouldn’t take long.”
“They had some problems down there this afternoon with the news crew that visited,” Adrian said. He stopped and waited for Paul and Holly to get out the bins for the few items they needed to put up.
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Does this mean we’re going to be here for a while? Dio, when was the last time you cared enough about some guy to put me out to make him happy?”
Adrian stared at his friend for a moment, trying to figure out if he was angry or disappointed that Bastian was being himself. “I honestly wondered something similar earlier.” They made it into the back room and picked up the bins he needed. “The thing is, I do care what Ed is feeling, and I want to make him feel better.”
“Dio, Dio, Dio,” Sebastian sighed. “Do you need me to distract everyone for a few and give you time to pull him back into the woods and give him a blow job to make his day?”
“You really don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what? So something happened down there this afternoon. Can it be so bad that a quickie won’t make things better?”
Anger flared in Adrian. With his hands full of the empty bins, he pushed past his friend. “You don’t understand.”
Sebastian followed him. “So explain it to me.”
Adrian dropped the bins in front of his wall, turned, and glared at Sebastian. “Ed’s feelings matter to me. This is more than….”
“Than what?” Sebastian’s heavily groomed eyebrows rose up. “Than a short Ren faire romance? Dio, that’s all this is. In June, when this whole place shuts down, Ed’s going to load his kid and his elephants and go back to west Texas, and you’re going to what? Go with him? What’s in it for you out there? You’ll stay here in Dallas, or go to the next big city where you can resurrect your concert career. You’ve never had a relationship last more than a couple weeks. You get tired and move on, or they get tired of your self-centered attitude.”
Adrian stood there glaring at Sebastian. The feelings he’d felt earlier raced through him. Ed did matter to him. More than anyone else had since… since forever. He had no idea if their lives could mesh, but for the first time he realized that he wanted them to. No, he needed them to. Why can’t Sebastian see this time it’s different? Why can’t he be happy that I might’ve found someone? Is he jealous?
“Sebastian, go away.”
His friend stared at him. “What, how am I going to get home?”
“Right at this moment, I don’t care. But if you’re still here in a couple hours or longer, when I make sure Ed’s all right, I’ll make sure you get back to your apartment.” He turned away and began placing the pipes in the bin.
“But….”
Shaking with the attempt to restrain his anger, Adrian spun back toward Sebastian. “Bastian, go help Paul and Holly like you’re supposed to. Then find something to keep yourself busy, or go find a trick you can blow while speeding down I-35. But you need to stop talking before you dig your hole deeper than what I feel like getting you out of.”
When Jade and Mel showed up a few minutes later, Adrian had the bin full and had managed to stop shaking. Somewhere between putting the ocarinas in and getting the panpipes packed, he’d finally pushed his anger aside. Ed had enough to deal with without dragging Sebastian being a butthead into things.
“You heading down like that, or are you going to change?” Mel pointed to his gray suede vest, fake fur leggings, and horns.
“Give me a sec. I’ll change when I get this bin put up.” He grabbed the lid for the tote and sealed it. They’d had a good enough day; the bin was only half full.
Back in the storeroom, Holly stopped him with a glare. “Don’t be too hard on Sebastian. He is who he is, and he’s a really good friend to you.”
Adrian sat the tote down. “I know. I’m getting past it now, and I told him I’d get him home after I make sure Ed’s going to be okay.”
“If you want, I can drive him home,” Holly offered. “We need a couple things from the store.”
“Whatever makes him happy.” Adrian shrugged as he grabbed the backpack that held his street clothes. “Just let me know. I’ll come looking for him or a note when I get done at Ed’s.”
Holly walked over to the door. “Okay.” She closed the door softly behind her, giving him the privacy he needed to change.
Less than two minutes later, he strolled out the door in his mundane clothes with his large flute in the carry bag over his shoulder. Since he was working the next day, he left the satyr garb in the storeroom. Sebastian looked up from where he was helping stow some of the display pieces far enough back that the big wooden doors could swing shut, but he didn’t say anything as Adrian passed.
“That was quick,” Jade said as they started off toward the elephant ride. “Are you sure you’re gay? I thought gay men took longer than women to change clothes.”
Adrian chuckled. “Only sometimes. One of the advantages of being a guy is I can look however I please.” In the distance, the elephants stood patiently while Ed and his helpers removed their conveyances. “So,” Mel said as they walked. “We just heard from Margaret.” “Who?” he asked.
“You know, Margaret,” the belly dancer sighed, “in the office. She kinda runs everything, although Big Bob likes everyone to think he’s the brains behind everything, but it’s really Margaret. If anything ever happens to her, this place is going to hell fast. Anyway, she said she saw the piece on the news a few minutes ago and everything looked great.”
“I’m sure Ed will be thrilled to hear that.” Adrian stopped just outside the fence. The three of them waited in silence until both the elephants and the camels had been stripped of their gear and Ed
turned toward them. Worry still clouded his rugged face, and he looked extremely tired.
“Hey, you guys.” The tired carried over into his voice.
“We’ve got good news,” Mel said. “I heard from Margaret. Unlike Adrian, I know you know who she is. Well, she saw the news tonight and said the piece looked great. She said they didn’t even know about the camel incident until Tandy left the site grounds. Bob got on the phone to the station. They understand.”
Relief washed over Ed’s face, softening it immediately. “Thank God.” He sighed and leaned against the fence.
Adrian laid a hand on his arm; the brown hair there felt good between his fingers. “Yeah, it’s all okay now. You can relax.”
Ed nodded and caught Adrian’s hand in his. “Thanks. And thanks for coming by earlier to check on me. It meant a lot.” He squeezed the hand and leaned across the fence. Adrian leaned in, and they shared a brief kiss. Adrian felt more of the stress seep out of Ed before their lips parted.
Something inside him swelled, knowing he could help the man relax.
“Hey, Daddy, did you hear about the news lady?” Eddy shouted as he ran down the lane.
It surprised Adrian that Ed didn’t jerk back from him as the boy hurried toward them.
Eddy barely paused in his run to squirm through the fence. “We saw her run screaming out the front gate. We were watching a wedding in the garden. Everyone stopped and stared at her. Do you know what she was holding? It looked like a black squirrel or something.”
A nervous laugh escaped Ed as he bent down and picked the boy up. “Eddy, Tahir had spat in her wig.” “What’s a wig?” the boy asked.
“Sweetie, a wig is fake hair,” Jade said. “I think in her case she didn’t like the hair she was born with.”
Brown eyes, so much like his father’s, grew wide. “Do you wear a wig, Miss Jade?”
The belly dancer laughed and fluffed her long red hair. “Nope, all this is real. The way I move around, I’d have to tie a wig on, and that would get uncomfortable fast.”
Eddy giggled. “That would look funny too.” “That it would, kiddo, that it would,” Jade agreed.