The Fortune Teller's Fate

by Audrey Berger Welz

  ¯¯¯

  Marvin contacted the three other circus owners who’d been there in Atlanta at the infamous card game, and seen Big Jim’s underhandedness firsthand, and told them about our plan to bring the elephants home. Though they didn’t quite understand why we would go to all this bother, they respected Vladimir and wanted to honor his memory, and they disliked Big Jim, so they were happy to join in.

  The month of October, each of them sent a handful of workers to local churches near where Big Jim and his circus would be performing. They mingled with the congregation and complained every chance they got about the wickedness of this man and the drunken company he kept. “He’s been recruiting our boys to drink his liquor and work his stills. Boycott Big Jim!”

  Once the word got out, it didn’t take much for the townsfolk to take up the cause. They picketed Big Jim’s circus and home until I heard he had to confine himself to his house.

  The protests in every town Big Jim’s circus traveled to grew larger, and by early November, just before the end of circus season, he was forced to close completely.

  We had to find a way to continue to pressure him; however, the citizens had created a momentum, and they went up Grandfather’s Mountain and found where Big Jim lived and continued their shouting. When Big Jim tried to sneak out to discuss business at the Old English Inn, they followed him, and they didn’t stop this harassment until 1938.

  “We don’t want no clown and dog killer in our town!” they shouted. “His drunken men want your daughters!” “He’s a fake, and so is his circus!”

  I bet that last insult bothered him more than any other.

  At Marvin’s request, Henri, the circus owner from Baton Rouge who’d exposed the dealer and helped Vladimir in Atlanta so many years before, sent his son-in-law, Juliette’s husband Patrice, to assess the situation and help broker a deal. Patrice would attempt to buy what was left of Big Jim’s circus with some of my money from the jewels. If he put together a solid deal, and it went through, we would then sell the circus back to Patrice and Henri at a bargain-basement price. This way, they could expand, and we could bring home Bess.

  “Big Jim’s not going to need an elephant where he’s going,” Henri told Marvin and me. “Besides, he needs the money to pay for his defense, but this Larry is a wild card!”

  Big Jim’s pending jail sentence hadn’t made him any less arrogant, though, and he turned down the first offer Patrice made.

  “He’s pretending he’s not the skunk everyone knows him to be. But I think reality is just around the corner,” Henri told us the next time he called. “Our Patrice is keeping a very close watch.”

  ¯¯¯

  For weeks we heard nothing, and poor Marvin had to listen to me fret.

  “What if Patrice can’t broker the deal, and something happens to Bess?” I sat up in bed, unable to sleep. “What if he’s willing to sell everything off except her? What if he catches on that we’re the ones who want to buy him out?”

  “Calm down, Donatalia,” Marvin said, yawning. “Henri and Patrice are on top of this. Besides, they have an extra incentive—they are not doing this for you or me or Bess, they are doing this for Vladimir.”

  “Let’s hope it works.”

  “O ye of little faith,” said Marvin. “When did that happen?”

  When he said that, I felt ashamed. But I still tossed and turned.

  The next morning, Henri telephoned to let us know that Patrice had made another offer, at a very fair price. But Big Jim, greedy as ever, and with an exaggerated sense of his own importance, turned him down again. “I’m sorry,” Henri said. “We’ll approach him again soon. Don’t give up.”

  I thanked him, though I felt crushed.

  “It’s just the beginning,” Henri said, trying to cheer me up.

  Not for me, I thought. I’ve been plotting this for years. Then something else struck me for the first time. What if Emily and Bess didn’t remember me? Or worse yet, what if in my memory I’d romanticized them and what they meant to Spade and me, let alone each other?

  I shared my fears with Marvin, as I did everything else.

  “Since when did you quit trusting your instincts?” he asked. “I’ve never known another person who’s more perceptive than you. Stop it, Donatalia!” he said, quite sharply. “You know what you’re doing!”

  ¯¯¯

  April showers brought an abundance of May flowers, and my garden was beginning to look like a rainbow of colors, almost as beautiful as my mother’s once was. I kept a small path open down the middle and placed a chair there, where I’d think about whatever came to the surface. Sometimes it would be Marvin, another day the queens, Kyle Jr. or Scarlett, Emily or Bess. But lately my thoughts kept turning to Bella and sometimes even to Hervé. Europe was sounding more and more like a teapot about to blow its top, and it worried me.

  On fronts other than nailing down Big Jim, things were moving along. Harsita and Roman had finished building the elephant barn, which also had room to store the gilded carriages and other circus paraphernalia that we’d been keeping in the back pasture. And the zoo that owned Emily had started negotiations with Marvin. I was a nervous wreck, fearing that if the word got out, it could sabotage our plan. Big Jim, I assumed, would be on high alert and waiting for a trap. I tried to keep busy, letting Marvin, who was a bit more detached, pound on the doors of city hall and work to get our permits. “Soon, Donatalia, soon,” Marvin would say when he returned, but my patience was wearing thin.

  Just when my spirits were at their lowest, the phone rang. Patrice was on the other end, speaking rapidly in French. “Je pense que je l’ai fait, Donatalia,” he said. “I think I’ve done it!”

  “Larry’s agreed, too?” I asked.

  “It appears so,” he answered. And we both hooted and hollered, as Americans do. Usually we would both be too refined, but in this case our excitement won out over manners.

  “I should know by noon tomorrow if Henri is the new owner of Big Jim’s circus. If he is, we would be honored to bestow upon you your old friend Bess in honor of Henri’s friend Vladimir.” I could feel his smile across the phone wires. “Make sure you’re ready to take her. If this happens, it’s going to happen fast.”

  I immediately shouted out to Marvin, “It’s happening!” In turn, he shouted out to Harsita, who shouted out to Roman.

  “Let’s double-check our work,” Roman said. “No, triple-check it!” And they all ran out to the elephant stable with me close behind.

  It had been eight years since I’d seen either Emily or Bess up close. So much had happened since then—death, new love, a depression to dig ourselves out of, dreams both realized and lost. I had held onto this dream for so long, and now it might come true. But just as I felt this surge of happiness, a fear just as strong rushed in. Everything I had worked for might get washed away.

  “Donatalia,” I said out loud, “calm down.”

  Then, out of nowhere, I felt the spirit of Irina envelop me, and I regained my focus and became still. She told me to look closer. At first I didn’t understand what she meant, but then I saw the face of the man at Big Jim’s circus, the man they called Larry, and I remembered his eyes, but mostly his grin. It had been years, but I would never forget those eyes from the bottom of the staircase staring back at me as I turned white in pain. I started to shake and felt certain he had laid a trap. But why? And after so many years it didn’t make sense. But then it did make sense to me. All the cards, it had to be him! I was as frightened as I had ever been.

  “Donatalia,” I said out loud again. “Calm down!”

  I took a long, deep breath, savoring the smells of Savannah, the grass, the rich soil, a hint of tobacco. I didn’t know what kind of sick trick this man wanted to play on me or why, but as I looked out at the magnificence of my land, I realized that all I had was because of what he had done. I felt an unshakable peace a
nd my fear subsided.

  I wondered how long it would take to get reacquainted with Emily and Bess. Harsita and Marvin would retrieve them by train, and I’d be waiting at the farm to greet them. I told them to be especially careful, that I had placed Larry as someone I believed might be looking to get revenge. I reminded myself I was doing the right thing. “They won’t be cooped up, they’ll have fresh air and exercise, Harsita and each other,” I reassured myself.

  The next morning, we all hovered near the phone. Every time it rang, whether it was my party line ring or my neighbors, my heart pounded like a jackhammer. So I’d take a deep breath, then I’d pick up the receiver just in case the operator had been mistaken, but Marvin could tell by the look of disappointment on my face that it wasn’t Henri or Patrice.

  Tick, tick, tick… It was twenty past twelve. “Where are they?” I asked.

  “Something might have come up,” said Marvin.

  Tick, tick, tick. It was ten to one, and I was beginning to give up hope.

  “Maybe you should do something to keep your mind occupied,” Marvin said. “They’ll let us know when they have news.”

  “What if they call and I don’t hear them?”

  “I know you well enough to know you won’t be out of the phone’s reach.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere, though I will make us both sandwiches.”

  Doing something with my hands and mind helped to pass ten minutes at most, eating the sandwich another five.

  Tick, tick, tick. It was two twenty, and I was giving up.

  “If not today, perhaps tomorrow,” Marvin said—and just then the phone rang, and it was my party line ring. I stood frozen, afraid to answer it.

  Marvin looked at me. “Pick it up, Donatalia.”

  On the other end of the party line, Charlotte Lou Ellen Barton, whose family owned the farm next to ours, Madgerie Smith, whose husband owned a trucking company, and Winifred Cornelius Martin, one of Savannah’s socialites, were all listening in. “Tu es pret?” Henri asked. None of the other women—well, except for Winifred, perhaps—understood what he’d said, but when I answered, “Oui! Oui! Oui! Yes, I’ve been ready for years!” They all comprehended that answer immediately.

  Marvin got me a tissue—I’d started to cry—and picked up the phone. “How can we ever thank you?”

  “You and Bella thanked me many years ago with the gift of a horse, and that sweet horse recently died of old age. I heard Kyle has a mare for sale that I believe would be perfect for our granddaughter. Maybe you would ask him not to sell her to anyone but us?”

  “Please consider Fiona, our dapple gray, our present to you. An elephant for a horse and a circus—I think we both have gotten a good deal.” Then Marvin put the phone to my ear so we could share the receiver.

  “I’m sorry I’m calling so late,” Henri continued. “But negotiations didn’t start on time, Patrice said, and once they got going, he couldn’t take a break. It would have weakened our position. So as grueling as it was, he kept pushing on until we had what we wanted.”

  At that moment, Patrice joined the conversation, having just walked into the room Henri was calling from. “You know Big Jim had no intention of selling Bess with the circus,” he said. “He planned on keeping her for himself. But I told him our deal had to include her, or all bets were off. Even then, he was ready to let the deal fall apart. We were at a standstill. I was actually headed for the door when, without Big Jim’s permission, his partner Larry shouted for me to stop. He asked if I minded taking a fifteen-minute break so he could talk to his partner.

  “Those fifteen minutes felt like they lasted forever, and I found myself in the middle of a storm. They were screaming and yelling at each other, Larry saying, ‘You’re willing to lose money when it’s not your own,’ and Big Jim answered him by throwing the vase in the office on the floor, and I heared it break into a hundred pieces.

  “This Larry guy seemed to understand the absurdity of it all. Although it was clear they both had wanted to seek revenge on Vladimir, he finally slapped Big Jim, then shook him saying, ‘Don’t you see that you won? Vladimir is dead and his poor mother Lillya probably doesn’t even know! It’s over!’ And with that he walked back in, sat down, and said, ‘You got a deal.’ Big Jim followed and nodded ‘yes,’ clearly disappointed as if he had misjudged his partner’s hatred of Vladimir.

  “You can imagine how relieved I felt, but I didn’t want to show it. I stayed businesslike and detached until I left the office. I’d hoped I could come through for you and my father-in-law. I’m so happy I did.

  “Bess will be ready by Friday. Can you make that work?”

  “Donatalia would move a mountain to bring Bess home,” Marvin said.

  Patrice laughed. “I think she did.”

  Chapter 52

  Friday couldn’t come soon enough—but all of a sudden, it seemed like it was coming on like a runaway train. Bess would be here in the blink of an eye, and we still had to secure Emily. I had another mountain to move, and fast.

  The zoo that had Emily was headed into bankruptcy and the city was seeking donations. The upkeep of an elephant wasn’t cheap. Emily’s daily diet could make a rich man go broke. But I had a Russian treasure chest, and for Emily, I was willing to use it.

  Marvin, handling the negotiations, offered an additional 15 percent if the zoo would have Emily ready by Saturday. The board of directors agreed that it was in their best interest to push the deal forward. They even offered to help with transportation to ensure Emily’s safety. Jonas, who’d tended to Emily these past few years, would be there to hand her over to Harsita.

  But first we needed to bring Bess home. Harsita and Marvin accompanied Henri and Patrice to Big Jim’s circus. Now that the papers were signed, nothing Jim could do would stop the sale.

  ¯¯¯

  Marvin called me from the train station to tell me, “Everything’s fine. I’m bringing Bess home.” He’d arranged for a police officer to meet him at the station in Savannah and walk with them to the farm while directing traffic. Needless to say, the closer they got to the farm, the more attention they got and the more curious I became to hear about the details of their day.

  When Ben saw the men and Bess approach the farm, he had Polly pull me away from the kitchen, where I’d been nervously chopping watermelon and bananas to keep myself busy. I ran out to greet her. She was still the prettiest elephant I had ever seen. A crowd of children and a few of their parents were following her on either side, unable to resist her charm. Even after all she’d been through and the events of the day, Bess was patient, understanding, and gentle.

  When I gave her some of the fruit I’d cut up, she wrapped her trunk through my arm and got watermelon seeds all over my chest. Everyone burst out laughing, including myself.

  Like his father in India, the mahout who’d slept with his elephant, Harsita didn’t want to leave Bess’s side. After taking her for a walk around the grassy pastures of her new home, we sent the children on their way, saying Bess was very tired. Then Harsita gave her a bath and let Bess throw some water on him. It almost felt as if all of us had never been apart. At around ten or so, Marvin came out. We said our good nights, and I finally reluctantly let him drag me back into the house. Harsita planned to stay with Bess until morning, but we convinced him to come in for a celebratory toast. I wanted to hear how it had gone at Big Jim’s, so we all sat down in Marvin’s study, with its club chairs and art deco floor lamps with amber glass shades. Henri and Patrice joined us; they’d decided that they wanted to stay another day, to be there when Emily came home. Marvin lit a pipe, the rich aroma of the tobacco mingling with the smell of leather and old books, settled back in his chair, and launched into his tale.

  ¯¯¯

  “I didn’t want to upset you Donatalia. I wanted you to enjoy your victory, your reward, but things turned out to be a little mor
e difficult than what I’ve let on. Walking down the midway to where Big Jim’s animals are now kept, I had to look straight ahead. Many are just chained to stakes, but knowing that they will soon be with Henri made me feel a little better.

  “Big Jim was waiting for us and we suddenly found ourselves face-to-face with him. He planted himself about ten feet in front of us, stopping us cold with an icy glare and gritted teeth. Jail time and bankruptcy doesn’t seem to have made a dent in his inflated image of himself; he was dressed to the nines and puffed up like a tom turkey.

  “‘Well, well, if it isn’t Mr. Marvelous, and the boy who talks to the animals! Your Bess isn’t going to be worth much soon.’ Big Jim smirked and began to strut away.

  “Henri, never one to stop, went after Big Jim and got right under his nose. ‘If she’s even one pound lighter, I’ll make sure you regret this day.’

  “Marvin raised his glass to Henri, who looked a little abashed. ‘I have to admit, you’re a lot tougher than I would have guessed, Henri, from your man-about-town looks.’

  “It’s a good thing you weren’t there, Donatalia. Big Jim didn’t give two figs for the deal he and his partner had made. If he wasn’t going to have Bess, neither would anybody else.

  “Harsita was the sharp one, though. While Big Jim was busy trying to sidetrack us, he didn’t bother listening, but just hurried to find Bess. When he got to her stall, he found Big Jim’s partner Larry struggling with a young man almost half his age who was holding a giant syringe in his hand.”

  “I broke in,” Harsita said. “I lost all sense of self. I grabbed this man’s arm and told him to tell me what he was doing and to put down the syringe. He refused and started to struggle with me. Larry, who’s pretty old, caught his breath, then took hold of the man’s leg.

  “‘I’m a vet,’ the young man said.

  “‘Like heck you are!’ I shouted.