“Don’t fret. He knew what he was doing. All long-time members of the commune have been warned.” She walked toward Kelly Carter, took his hand, and led him away from the crowd. He shuffled behind, like a man in a drunken stupor.
“Is Homer right? Are we forever cursed like the carnies?” I asked.
“Whether we are or not is out of our hands now, only the Creator of the angels knows our fate. No curse has power over his will.” Flower said. With her free hand, she took mine, and we three walked toward the metal arched gate.
Chapter Fourteen
Kelly Carter
As I approached the archway; the memory of how my hand pressed against the barrier unable to pass through played over and over in my mind. The air I breathed filled me with despair. Would it block my way—like before?
Homer yelled after us, “Phoenix’s power has almost peaked. You are forever trapped here with the damned.”
I whispered to myself in an effort to quiet my nerves, “This time will be different. This time Flower is holding my hand.” I closed my eyes and forced one foot in front of the other. With my eyes shut, the rancid smell of the stale popcorn and burnt grease filled my nostrils.
Another step.
I pushed negativity out of my mind.
“Look what you’ve done,” Mr. Dark growled. “There’s no use trying again. We’re doomed.”
“No one asked you,” I silently replied, clinging to the fading threads of hope.
Another step.
Flower gently squeezed my hand. Usually, her touch sent waves of warmth up my arm. I could hardly feel her grip.
My leg felt like lead as I lifted it to step again.
Calypso called out, “Boy, when you bounce off the barrier like the last time, come and see me. I’ll make a man out of you.”
My limbs grew heavier with each step, but my feet went numb. I tripped, staggered, and fell. After face planting into the gravel, I looked up at Flower. From her optimistic vantage point, my depression must have been painfully obvious. I wiped away the tiny pebbles sticking to my skin and clothes.
Homer and his dancing girls thought my clumsiness the funniest thing they had ever seen. They howled with laughter.
“The baby doesn’t even know how to walk,” Homer crowed.
“Come to me baby, I’ll kiss it and make the boo-boo all better,” Calypso yelled before she burst out in riotous laughter.
Flower whispered, “Arland, don’t listen to her. Have faith. You must have faith. Faith is our doorway of escape.”
“I don’t think I can do it. I tried, but the charm is too strong,” I professed.
She reached down, “Then take my hand and trust in my faith. If yours is too weak.”
I clasped hands with her. She helped me to my feet without letting go, and we started our march toward the gate.
Another step and another, my chest pained with anxiety. I couldn’t look.
Eyes tightly closed, I breathed in and the smell of the meadow flushed the staleness from my senses. I opened my eyes. Jimmy, Rose, and Roger ran my way with beaming smiles.
Jimmy reached me first. He lifted me off the ground and all but threw me in the air like I was a four-year-old. Rose and Roger welcomed Flower with exuberant hugs. Next, Roger grabbed me up in such a grip I could barely breathe; I certainly didn’t think he had so much strength in his skinny frame.
Rose threw her arms around my neck and landed a kiss right on my lips. I thought I might faint.
For the first time since opening my eyes again, I looked around, seriously studying my surroundings. Mr. Carter wasn’t with us.
Even though everyone else stood hugging each other, Flower wasn’t. She didn’t even smile. She stared at the metal arch with tears in her eyes.
Kelly Carter stood under the arch. With a bewildered expression, he stared at his hand sliding across the invisible barrier.
Flower had been holding that very hand
“At the last moment, he pulled away,” she muttered.
Quizzically standing there, he looked up at us, then back toward Homer and Calypso. A sinister grin spread across his face and he slowly returned to stand with the crowd watching the Hoochie Coochie Show.
I turned to Flower and exclaimed, “You couldn’t get him out?”
She wiped at her cheek. “He couldn’t find the faith.” She stiffened and sadly pressed her palms over her eyes, clearing her vision of remaining tears. “I think he intended to stay.” She turned to face me. “Not everyone wants to be saved.” Joy turned to sorrow as we stared back at him.
As true as her statement was, it didn’t make us feel better about having to leave him.
“Exactly what happened while we were away?” Flower asked. “I expected you guys would sleep until we returned. I mean…you all were so tired and we’ve only been away an hour.”
Rose spoke up, “Kelly… I mean Mr. Carter came over to the car and woke us. He was excited about being here and wanted us to come inside with him to see the sideshows.”
“We didn’t know not to,” Roger added. “A little heads-up would have been nice.” He sighed. “Those beautiful girls were so friendly. They promised us…things.”
“Actually,” Rose added, “Jimmy didn’t want to go in without you two. He said he was too freaked out, but Roger,”—she cut her eyes his direction—“he called Jimmy a chicken.” She looked up to the heavens. “Why do men do the stupidest things?” Despairingly, she shook her head. “Well, after Kelly embarrassed him, he bucked up and went with them.”
It finally registered what Roger had said. I jerked my head in his direction and asked, “Those girls promised you things? What kind of things?”
He started to say something, then looked over at Rose and Flower. “I’ll tell you later, but I’m not sure it’s physically possible.”
Jimmy said, “They hypnotized us. I’m sure of it. They wanted us to stay inside the barrier.”
Startled, I asked, “How do you know about the barrier? I found out about the curse only a little while ago.”
“I don’t know nothing about no curse,” Jimmy said, “but the dancing girl’s hips told me I would never leave the carnival.”
Frowning, I suddenly had a mental image of their belly buttons growing lips, talking, and sticking out little pink naval tongues.
Roger exclaimed, “I don’t know if it was some kind of sign language or what, but I could understand every wiggle they made, like words.”
Flower faced Rose. “You didn’t go in?” Her expression showed how completely puzzled she was. “I mean…I’m glad, but why?”
“I knew better, but the truth is I didn’t obey,” Rose said with her eyes locked on her shoes. “I went in with Jimmy. As soon as we passed the carousel, the guy with the dancing girls stopped us.”
“That was Homer, I think he’s become one of Venus’ minions,” Flower said, “and, those girls aren’t human. They are Nymphs.”
“The one chasing us is named Calypso,” I said. “I heard Homer call her name.”
“Calypso?” Flower asked.
“Yeah,” I replied. “That’s what they called her.”
“I’ve heard of her,” Flower replied. “Calypso is a particularly nasty character. She’s a Nymph, dedicated to Venus, and she is empowered more than the rest of her kind. They are all gifted, if you want to call it that, or blessed by their angel to entice men with their carnal movements and sexy dancing. But Calypso is far more dangerous—she is so powerful she was mistaken for a goddess.”
“She is definitely endowed,” Roger enthusiastically replied.
I corrected, “Flower said empowered, not endo—”
Roger laughed, “I know what she said.”
“Whoever they are,” Rose added, “they led Jimmy and Roger over to the sideshow where they both stared like fools at those belly dancing chicks. I tried to make them come to their senses, but nothing I did worked. So, I left and came here to wait. You showed up a few minutes later.”
“Rose, you were there with us. Why didn’t you get hypnotized too?” Roger asked.
I laughed and interrupted, “That’s easy. Even I know the answer—she’s a girl. The dancing girls couldn’t put her under their spell because they have power over men. Flower said so herself.”
Flower gave me an approving nod. Despite having to leave without Kelly Carter, it felt good being together again. Reunited, we walked across the meadow back to the van, but somehow nothing looked as perfect as it had when we arrived. Alongside the van, a red AMC Gremlin sat half in the grass and half on dirt. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it as we drove away. It would be there forever.
Inside the van, Flower found a pen and some scraps of paper to write on. She made us keep quiet while she wrote out the angel’s prophecy, recreating it word-for-word. She scribbled a few lines onto the paper and stopped, turned to me, and asked if I remembered a line or two. When we had it as close to verbatim as possible, she pulled away from the meadow and down a dirt road. It only took minutes before she turned off the dirt road onto one with a fresh coating of asphalt.
“I’m starving,” Roger bellowed.
“It has been a long time since we ate,” Flower replied. “I think we could drive into the real Eudora and get a bite before we get back on the road.”
We entered the town on a road called Church Street. I wasn’t sure we were even in a town, there were more grass and trees than buildings. Now and then we could see a shopping center or some houses. After driving several miles on Church Street, to my surprise, Flower pulled over into a newly built Sonic Drive-in. Even Flower ordered a hamburger.
“What happened to the vegan diet?” I asked.
“I’ve eaten different kinds of food in my lifetime,” she answered. “Some would make your skin crawl. Like for example, down in Mexico, they put fried crickets on ice cream.” She smiled. “It actually wasn’t bad. Who knew crickets added just the right amount of salty to the sweet.”
Frowning, I turned my nose up and said, “I’ll stick to Sonic burgers, thank you.”
As I sat in the van lost in thought, things just didn’t add up right—something kept bugging me. I couldn’t see the complete picture. Maybe what bothered me was the dream I had about the traveler in the desert. In my dream, the guy stayed by the pond only because he thought he couldn’t make it to the next stop in his journey. He took the word of the raven without proof. Something about that was becoming more upsetting every time I pondered it. What if the traveler challenged the raven? Would he die? What if another traveler came by and offered him help? Another thing and possibly the most puzzling was why was Flower’s teenage photograph in the traveler’s pocket?
Anyway, I had no idea as to the true identity of the traveler? In my dream it was me, but without a doubt, it was misleading as everything else in my crazy mixed-up world. I had to put all of it out of my mind. I had no way to unravel that mystery. I would be happy if only I could discern which part of what Phoenix said was true and which was a lie.
One thing was for sure, Phoenix must have loved Flower an awful lot. After all, he gave up his freedom to be with her. Too bad he didn’t ask her if she wanted all his devotion. I couldn’t even imagine her being the housewife to one of Lucifer’s cronies. Suddenly, I got a visual of Flower wearing a swing dress, pearl necklace, and high heels while vacuuming Lucy and Desi’s apartment, and Phoenix coming through the door yelling, “Flower, I’m home.” I shuddered.
Finally, a bouncy, bow-headed teen with dental braces glided our way on roller skates. She balanced a tray full of sacks and drinks, slid to a graceful stop, and mounted the tray on the edge of the van’s driver’s side window. We were all more than ready for it; everyone reached and snatched theirs from where Stoney held the bag. I have to admit, there in Eudora, I had the best burger, ever. Maybe because I was so hungry, or there could have been other reasons.
When we finished, we sat in the van drinking our sodas. “Why do you think the Sheriff was at the carnival?” I asked.
Roger sat up straight and said, “I bet he’s the reason we almost got turned into Hoochie Coochie boy toys.” He shuddered.
Jimmy added, “I don’t know exactly how it happened to us. One minute we were fine, walking by the carousel on our way to find you two, and—bam—the next thing I remember is standing in front of their sideshow. I don’t remember Rose going back to the van. Nothing seemed important except to do what the girls wanted.”
Rose asked, “And, what did those hoochie chicks want?”
“They never actually talked to us,” Roger explained. “Like we said before, their dance was a language. They were talking to us without using words. The last thing I think they said was a hip shimmy that yelled, ‘You love us. You love us. You must obey us.’ The next thing I remember was being pushed into Jimmy and Rose.”
Flower tapped the steering wheel with her index finger. “Homer’s dancing girls, his Nymphs, used to serve Phoenix, but I’m thinking now they have been loaned out to Venus. At least I know Calypso is in league with her.” She thought, then added, “What the girls said to you boys in their dance moves is not important. Actually, I think it would be best if you guys kept it to yourselves. Some things do not need saying.”
She looked up to her rearview mirror and spotted me in the far back of the van. “As for the Sheriff, maybe he really was there for a payoff. It would be like his new persona to put the squeeze on a cursed bunch of carnies, but I think his payoff was getting to see the angel Phoenix. I’m guessing the Sheriff’s new master has something she wants Phoenix to do for her, or maybe he has some information she needs.”
She put the van in gear and pulled away from the Sonic. Finally, we were headed back to the commune. To me, it felt like I was finally going home.
Roger asked, “What? The freaky Sheriff has a master—and it’s a she…I mean a woman?”
“She is not exactly a woman,” I responded.
Confusion was written all over Roger’s face. “What do you mean? Trust me, I’ve seen those old paintings of Venus, and all her parts were in the right places.”
I explained, “She is an angel like Phoenix. Her name is Venus and before you ask. Yes, Phoenix said, she’s the same one from the ancient myths. The people in those times only thought she was a goddess.”
Roger scowled, “Those paintings didn’t have wings on her. We could sue for false advertising. As far as I’m concerned, she looked like a goddess.”
“Can we go back so I can meet her?” Roger begged. “Angel or not, imagine meeting the goddess of love herself. Now, that would be an adventure.”
“It would for sure since she has turned into an angel of death named Ishtar.” I gave him a sarcastic glare. “You still want to go back and meet her? She’d cut your throat with one razor-sharp fingernail and not even bat an eyelash.”
Roger gulped.
Flower turned onto Highway 10, going east. “We don’t know if Venus was there or not. I didn’t see her.”
“She might have been there in disguise,” Jimmy said. “She’s a tricky one. Remember all those stories about how she would disguise herself as animals?”
I scowled and wondered how Jimmy knew the stories about Venus. He must have been paying more attention to our world history teacher, Mr. Bertarelli, than I thought he did. Ancient Greece was old man Berti’s favorite subject to get sidetracked on.
“I think you have her confused with Zeus.” Flower replied.
“Was Zeus an angel too?” Roger scratched his head as he asked.
“These aren’t mere angels, but fallen angels,” Flower added. “There are two kinds.” She sighed and pressed her forehead with her thumb and index finger. “The tribe of Malach are the fallen angels and the tribe of Engel are the ones who still honor God.”
“Yeah, they’re mentioned in the prophecy you wrote down,” Roger said.
“How do you know all this about angels?” I wanted to know.
“Phoenix, of course, there is nothing a
fallen angel likes better than to talk about themselves and their kind. Before the carnival went under the curse, we had many talks.” Flower turned the wheel and merged with traffic heading south.
I explained to the others how Flower’s father owned the carnival. I went over the reason Phoenix fell from grace and how he cursed himself by accident. Everyone listened, wide-eyed.
“Please don’t tell the residents of the commune any of this. It’s a past I would have never brought up except… How can I say it?” she stammered. “The coming of the prophet made it necessary.”
I corrected her. “No. It was the possession of the Sheriff that made it necessary. That guy needs a good exorcist.”
“So, he is possessed. I knew it,” Roger said.
“The Sheriff is dead. This thing wearing a sheriff-suit is pretending to be him.” I thought about what I said and wished I’d not said it so direct and scary, but how else could I have explained it? Jimmy had freaked out before over smaller things.
To my surprise, Dugan replied, “So, if I slugged the sheriff-suit, I wouldn’t actually be hitting the sheriff but a monster?”
“Right, but everyone would think you hit the sheriff and they’d file charges on you,” Flower said. “He’s not human, but we still have to give him the respect we’d show any Sheriff—for now.”
Jimmy shrugged and took out his pack of cigarettes, tapped one out, lit it, took a deep drag, made a grimace, and stubbed it out in the van’s ashtray. As if he’d never seen it before, he examined the half-full package, wadded it up, and threw it under the seat.
I chuckled to myself. Maybe Jimmy decided to give up smoking as a resolution after his near-death experience. Coming face to face with my own mortality sure shook me up.
I yawned. Tired, I stared out the right side window of the van. On the horizon, the sunset glowed with scarlet, purple, and gold. Strangely, it reminded me of Phoenix. He had called me a child. Maybe he was right. What the angel said made sense, and it sounded like the truth—still, I didn’t trust him. Maybe he wanted to taunt me by making things up. Maybe the scripture he quoted wasn’t meant for me at all, and he had already allied with Venus. What if there was no Book of Uriel? There were a lot of maybes running through my mind, and some of them included questions about Phoenix’s loyalties. I had a few suspicions about Flower too.
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