by Amy Ephron
Tess remembered what Alexei had said to her. Touch the sky.
“I’m sorry,” said Tess, as if she was a fan. “I’m not meaning to bother you. You look so familiar. I know . . . I know you’re, I mean, well-known, well, famous, but you look like someone I’ve met before.”
“That’s not possible,” the older gentleman answered for her. “We’ve never been in this part of Wales before.”
Wales? Is that where they were? Tess wished she could remember her geography better. Wasn’t that a little country north of England?
Tess hit Max slightly with her elbow in his side and hoped he understood what she was asking. (Sometimes people kick someone under the table to quietly suggest to them they should be quiet—but in this case Tess was trying to signal Max to start to talk.) Max got the message. And began to talk up a blue streak.
Max looked directly at the gentleman. “Was that Welsh those people were speaking?” he asked. “That’s so interesting.”
The older man had the strangest voice, almost as if it was coming out of a megaphone. “People come from all over,” he said, “to visit Alberto’s Carnival Extravaganza. I’m Alberto,” he said, “in case you didn’t figure that out yet.”
“No,” said Max, “I’d figured that out. The biplane show is amazing!”
Tess leaned into Anna and whispered, “I’m Tess. I think I know your sister.”
Anna stood up straight and put her shoulders back. “That’s not possible,” she said, but thankfully she whispered, too.
“I thought you might say that,” Tess answered softly.
“What are you two talking about?” Alberto blasted at her.
“Oh, nothing, really,” said Tess. “I think—I think she’s extraordinary. Her performance was astonishing. I was just telling her how much I’d always wanted to touch the sky.” Tess knew the phrase would ring true to Anna. It’s what she’d written on the paper. It’s what Alexei had said to her. “And I was just going to ask how old Anoushka was when she first knew that she wanted to fly.”
Tess could see the instant understanding in Anna’s eyes. “Anoushka.” Nobody knew she was called that except her family. But her reaction was completely unexpected.
“No one calls me that except my family, and that was a long time ago. Sometimes fans know too much about you.” Anna became instantly distant and pulled herself up as if she was about to leave. But then she noticed something about Tess.
“You’re wearing the leotard,” she said.
Tess nodded.
“What leotard??!” the older man chimed in, practically shaking the table he was speaking so loudly.
“Don’t you remember?” asked Anna. She was lying now, too. Thinking as fast as she could. “One year Lorenzo made leotards and sold them to the kids who came to the show. She has one on. I haven’t seen one for years . . . See the silver sparkly star? They’re real fans. I think they’re funny, Alberto,” Anna announced emphatically. It was obvious from what Anna had just said that he knew Lorenzo. Max noted that Alberto was an Italian name, too, and wondered if the man was related to Lorenzo.
“The two kids?” Alberto said, pointing to them. “Funny?!!”
“Can’t I bring them to the trailer? Just for a little. Julian won’t mind. He always likes company. This is Alberto,” she introduced them. “Max, Tess.”
Alberto barely nodded.
Anna changed the tone of her voice, softer now but with an edge. “You know it always takes me a little bit of time, Alberto, to wind down after I’ve done an air show, and it might be fun to have a couple of kids around for a second who have a lot of energy and excitement. Julian’s my guardian,” she explained to Tess and Max. “And I’m sure he’s already started dinner. Are your parents here?” Anna asked them.
“No, they dropped us,” said Tess, which wasn’t really true at all. Aunt Evie had dropped them. But where exactly she’d dropped them and how long ago that was, was a question that was up for grabs.
“And, for sure, they won’t be back for hours,” Max added. It did worry him and Tess felt the same, that Aunt Evie had probably returned to the carnival, or at least the site of the carnival where she’d dropped them, and by now she might be nearly hysterical.
Alberto still hadn’t agreed.
Then Anna said, with an ever softer edge to her voice, “You want Anna to perform tomorrow, don’t you, Alberto?” She asked it tauntingly, referring to herself in the third person. “Well, then, Anna wants Tess and Max to have dinner with her tonight.”
Alberto immediately nodded.
“That’s settled, then,” said Anna, and she took off.
“Come on,” she said to Tess and Max, who were a little surprised at this performance but quickly and willingly followed her before Alberto could say another word.
Anna whispered to Tess and Max, as they were walking away, “Don’t think badly of me. Sometimes I have to act like a ‘star,’ throw a little fit, in order to get him to do what I want. I don’t normally refer to myself as ‘Anna.’ I don’t want you to think I’m full of myself in that way. It’s been hard. Trying on me. I have to keep my wits about me all the time. If they had their way, they’d keep me totally locked up.” She didn’t explain who “they” were.
“Come on, then.” Anna was walking so fast, taking extra big strides, that it was difficult to keep step with her. “Quick,” said Anna, to Tess and Max. “We don’t want anyone to see us. Are you sure your parents won’t be coming back for you soon?”
“That’s one of the things we wanted to talk to you about,” said Tess.
~ CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN ~
the traveller’s wagon
They followed Anna across the dirt pad and onto a wild grassy field. They turned down a road that ran through even more familiar deep, green grassy fields dotted with white and purple flowers. There was a trailer parked ahead that also looked oddly familiar. Strangely, it did look a lot like what Aunt Evie had called the traveller’s wagon they’d seen parked by the side of the road in Devon. Remarkably like it. It was elaborately painted, carved from wood, with yellow wooden somewhat mismatched wheels, the front wheels were smaller than the back ones. It was beautiful, very ornately crafted and painted, with gold and green curlicues that edged the roof.
Standing freely next to it, not tethered or roped in any way, unsaddled, was an exquisite black mare whose illustrious pedigree Tess could only imagine. Drop-dead gorgeous, if a horse can be drop-dead gorgeous. She was a very large horse but quite lively for her size, delicate, graceful, and there was an antic look in the horse’s eye as if she recognized Tess immediately as a kindred spirit.
Max’s eye was caught by the traveller’s car. “It looks like the wagon we saw yesterday,” said Max. “Doesn’t it, Tess? Well,” he added, “it looks newer somehow. But it’s kind of the same model.”
“The same as what?” asked Anna, who hadn’t quite heard what Max had said.
Tess repeated Max almost exactly. “It looks like a wagon we saw yesterday,” Tess explained. “I think it was yesterday. Maybe the day before? In Devon,” she added.
“Is that where they are?” asked Anna. “Devon? Is that where Alexei and Tatiana are? Devon-by-the-Sea?”
Neither Max nor Tess knew exactly how to answer that question.
“Well,” said Tess, choosing her words carefully, “that’s where we first met them.”
Anna didn’t pursue this line of questioning, at first. Instead she said, very excitedly, “Tell me how they are,” smiling when she said it. “Tell me anything you can. Are they okay?”
“Spectacular,” said Tess.
“Sensational,” said Max.
“They were amazing,” said Tess, “and they took us in. Incredibly kind, well, sort of,” she added.
Anna laughed. “Yes, I could agree with that. Mostly they’re very kind, but they can be a little,
well, ‘bratty’ is not the right word . . . ‘daring.’ And I don’t just mean daring. Sometimes they can almost be confrontational, in a daring kind of way. But they don’t mean any harm by it. In a way, it’s part of their charm. I miss that.” She’d started to say “them,” but she’d changed it to “that,” sounding very sad and wistful as she said it. “I miss that easy way we had of playing, even when we were performing a high-wire trapeze act. It was always a little like playing . . . I miss them.” This time she said what she meant.
The black horse locked Tess in a stare, and she felt compelled to wander over and touch the horse’s nose softly. The horse bowed her head.
The owner of the traveller’s wagon was outside, too. Julian. He laughed when he saw Tess playing with the horse. “She needs a good riding,” he said to Tess, almost as if he was tempting her. “She’s a show horse,” said Julian. He corrected himself. “She was a show horse. I retired ’er. She is made for better things than pulling this trailer. But I trailer ’er when we travel long distances.”
Somehow that made Max feel better. If the horse was “trailered” when they went long distances, in other words she was put in a horse trailer that was pulled down the street or highway attached to a car, then maybe, maybe they were in this century, after all.
Tess was stroking the horse’s nose again, both her and the horse’s eyes locked in a loving stare.
“She likes you,” said Julian. “She doesn’t like everyone. Sometimes she can be quite a handful.”
“My dad says that about Tess sometimes, too,” said Max.
“Max!” said Tess, sort of annoyed.
“Sorry,” said Max, “but he does . . .”
“Julian, I want to introduce my new friends Tess and Max,” said Anna. “They know Alexei and Tatiana.”
“Really?” said Julian. “They know the twins. I would say that’s odd or . . . coincidental.”
It was funny to hear coincidence used that way . . . As if coincidence was a quirk, or luck, or an unlikely twist of fate that seemed sort of improbable. From what Tess knew about England and their past experiences, there were high odds, as Aunt Evie would say, of having a coincidence.
She looked at Julian inquisitively, trying to figure out what she thought his relationship was to Anna. Guardian. That was what she’d called him. What did she and Max know? That Anna had been rented out to another carnival. That part was clear and this was probably the carnival she’d been rented out to. Wasn’t it?
It was equally hard for Tess to guess Julian’s age. He was tanned from the sun but had almost no lines on his face, so it was difficult to tell if he was twenty-five or fifty or older. He had long brown, almost chestnut-colored hair that fell straight to his shoulders. It was clean and shiny, though, almost as if it had been blown dry or he’d been to a beauty shop or a barber that day. His manner was friendly but a little bit distant, at least to them, so far. He looked like the type of person that didn’t talk much. Her mom would probably peg him as a loner, like that guy Franny went out with for a while who used to disappear for weeks at a time and take long solo canoe trips down rivers. It was clear Julian was quite protective of Anna. Guardian. How did he become her guardian? Tess had some questions of her own.
Tess still couldn’t quite figure Julian out. He was obviously outdoorsy. He lived, at least at the moment, in a wagon, he had a horse, and he was expertly standing over a fire pit that it looked as if he’d dug himself (which he had) in the ground and lined it with stones. There were blue and yellow flames kicking up over the rocks, and a makeshift grill had been placed over it.
There were metal folding chairs, painted deep green, quite heavy as if they were made out of cast iron. Their color almost blended in with the deep green grassy field where they were placed just outside the old-fashioned wagon, and the chairs had iron legs that ended in elaborate silver six-pointed stars. The chairs’ legs seemed to have a sprinkling of glitter in the silver paint, and they sparkled, not a lot but just enough to be noticeable.
Tess whispered to Max, “Magical outdoor furniture?” But Max didn’t laugh. He’d almost had enough of magic for the day.
There was a square dining table with similar legs, the six-pointed glittery stars, three points up, three points down, and almost rectangular, oddly shaped for a star. And who could guess what the top of the table looked like, as it was covered in a white-and-red checked tablecloth. Tess noted it was cotton. She also noticed that Julian was wearing somewhat old-fashioned clothes, but it was clear he was eccentric. Or maybe that was the theme of the carnival. Note to self: ask Anna what the theme of the carnival is.
“Really? You know Alexei and Tatiana?” Julian repeated, after thinking about it for way more than a minute. “And how did you come to know them?” he asked. For a moment, he sounded very British or else he was playing with them.
“It’s a long story,” said Max.
“A little complex,” added Tess.
“Really,” said Julian. It was more like a statement than a question. “I’m quite sure Anna and I would both love to hear it.”
~ CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT ~
the story according to tess and max, or at least what they told to julian and anna
Tess told the story and Max just listened quietly as his sister was sort of a master at it. Telling a story and leaving out parts that she thought might get them in trouble or be difficult to explain.
“We met them at another carnival,” she said. That part was true. “We saw them perform. And we, well, we liked them so much. Actually I met Alexei outside the blue tent and . . . and . . .” This is where it got tricky.
“Actually,” said Tess, “I’m a dancer, well, sort of a dancer, I’m not professional but I’m trained, I’ve taken a lot of ballet and . . . and they shouldn’t have, but”—she smiled a little when she said this—“he and Tatiana gave me a lesson in aerial ballet. And right before he threw me the first bar I caught, he said to me, ‘Touch the sky.’ That’s how I recognized your autograph . . .”
Max was impressed Tess had managed to leave out the scary parts, not tell about being hypnotized, or being at one carnival and somehow ending up at another, or having the carnival move with you and then running away to another. He just let Tess go on.
“When we saw them,” said Tess, “there was a poster on the side of the tent that said ‘The Breathtaking Baranovas,’ and there was a picture of the three of you. But there were only two of you in the act, Tatiana and Alexei. So Max and I asked, and I think they explained that you were working at another carnival for now. And here you are.”
Tess was impressed she’d figured that out. Figured out how to tell a story artfully and leave out so many secrets, without having anyone suspect. She wasn’t sure this was a talent she necessarily wanted to be that good at, but she did notice that, particularly when she went to England, it was a useful talent to have.
“Really,” said Julian. “And how did you manage to find us here? Did your parents bring you to Wales?”
Wales. That’s where they were. That made sense, sort of. Wales was across the ocean from Devon. Of course they hadn’t crossed the ocean to get there.
“Wales? That’s across the ocean, isn’t it?” said Max.
Julian ignored the question and asked Max one instead. “And what about your parents? Where are they?” asked Julian.
Max fielded this one. “I don’t think our parents know that we left.” Max hoped that this was true, although he was quite certain Aunt Evie had contacted them in Barcelona by now.
Tess’s mind was racing. Was there a way to present themselves as runaways? Did she think she could get Julian to buy that?
But before she could get further with this thought, Anna said, “It’s all right. You can tell us what happened.”
“What really happened,” Julian added, echoing what seemed to be his favorite word. It reminded Tess of Aunt Evie. Au
nt Evie often liked to say “really,” too. In fact, so often that Tess and Max sometimes laughed at her when she said it, but they weren’t laughing now.
Tess started at the beginning. Not the actual beginning but from the time when they’d been dropped at the carnival by Aunt Evie. Tess told the part about the Ferris wheel getting stuck and rescuing the little boy. She fudged a little bit on the part with Tara. She didn’t lie that they’d gone into the psychic trailer, but she didn’t quite tell the part about getting hypnotized. But she did say, though, it was almost like the carnival ran away with them.
Tess expected them to stop her there, when she got to that part, but Julian and Anna exchanged a look that indicated this didn’t surprise them at all.
She told about meeting Alexei and Tatiana and the aerial ballet lesson. She left out the part about the audience—that part seemed too strange—but she did explain about falling, free fall, missing the second bar, hurtling toward the ground, and time seeming to slow down. And then the swing dropped somehow, the pink satin swing hanging from silver ropes, and how she somersaulted into it sideways from the air.
She told them about the carnival closing for the night, being closed in, so to speak, and them not even knowing where they were.
Where had the carnival landed?
She explained how they’d spent the night in the tent with Tatiana and Alexei. And Alexei had told the story that their father used to tell to them at bedtime, which began, Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Anoushka, which is how Tess knew Anna’s childhood name. Then she told the part about Lorenzo giving Max the crazy job at The House of Mirrors. Anna and Julian exchanged another look as if they had an understanding of what that was, too.
And then Max jumped in. “And then in the very early morning,” Max said, “I took a little walk around and I found the strangest thing. Pine trees. We thought we were in the Alps. We thought that was where the carnival had landed. Tess and I went to school in Switzerland last year. But these pine trees weren’t planted in the ground. They had stands like we have sometimes for Christmas trees at home. And there were sheets over them.”