Babe looked down at the stationery, pen, and inkwell Sarah had given her when she excused herself from lunch after that horrible morning. She’d shown her how to fill the pen with the ink using the delicate glass eyedropper. She examined the dropper and the pen—so small, so delicate—in her large hands, then picked up her stub pencil. She clumsily began to write, sounding out the words as she wrote.
An hour later, she exhaled heavily, stood up and stretched, then took the three pages of large, scribbled writing over to Euclid. “You got a minute?” she asked the ape, reaching in to pet him.
He opened an eye, then went back to sleep.
“Tell me if this is okay,” she said. “I don’t spell good but she knows that.” She brought the lamp closer and read aloud to Euclid.
August 1, 1896
Dear Rosa,
How are you? I am fine. No I am not fine. I am sad. We are at a nice house. I sleep in a barn. Ha ha. Like home. Lotty is happy with her aunt. They are a like. Small.
Guess what? Euclid come back. I do not know how he run from Renoir. He is fine. But Jupiter got sad. He would not eat. Guess what I done. I let him go free. He run off and is happy I hope. It hurt seeing him go, but I done right by him.
Lotty and me got in a big mess. Egypt got gun shot so she run wild and we got to pay what she done so we got no money. The law man said she might have to be killt. So me and Lotty are scardt.
The people here say I gots to do school come fall. Lotty says she likes learning at school and she is happy. I cannot do the school, Rosa. I am done with school and am scardt to get teased by youngins again. Youngins is the worst teasers. There is a nice man here. His name is Cleve. He was a carnie and says he can teach me my grades but I am dumb so I want to go away.
Did you find a big house? I was keeping money so I can come see you but it is gone.
I do not write so good and I am sorry. I hurt all over. My bones make cracks and they hurt. I am bigger too. Can you write to me? Can I come see you?
Your friend,
Babe Killingsworth
She looked over to Euclid, now vaguely interested. “Wipe that worry off your face, ol’ man. Your Babe ain’t going nowheres without you.”
46
“Well, at least we can still work on the creek,” Lotty said, brushing caked mud off Egypt. “But you, my dear,” she said into Egypt’s eye. “You are hereby confined to quarters. No more out and about for you.”
“Don’t seem fair, huh?” Babe asked. “Us slipping up, her having to pay for it.”
“After looking at the list of damages, we’ll be paying for ‘us slipping up’ for a long time!” She turned and looked up at Babe. “By the way, thank you.”
“For what?”
“For never saying ‘I told you so.’ You were against taking Egypt the whole time.”
Babe smiled. Things hadn’t been overly friendly between the two girls lately. “Well, I did go on record.”
Lotty tossed the brush at Babe and laughed. “You can be so annoying!”
“What time did Denny say him and his buddy was going to meet us here?” Babe asked, gazing through the barn door.
“Nine. Denny said the only reason Hank was showing up was to see the rampaging elephant.”
Babe smiled. Showing up probably had more to do with a broken camera than meeting an elephant. Just then, Denny’s dog, Aces, came springing into the barn, full of glee. Babe grinned watching her—tail up, nose down, dashing about the barn, smelling this, smelling that.
Babe knelt down and called out, “Here, Aces girl! Come see your Babe!” Aces bounded into her arms and Babe gave the dog a good tussle about her ears. “Nice to get away from them pups, huh?”
“At least somebody’s happy around here.” Lotty smirked. “Where’s Denny?”
“You still talking to him after . . . you know?” Babe asked, nodding her head toward Egypt.
“Well, he didn’t shoot Egypt. He had no idea what was going to happen!” she defended.
“Thought you’d be mad and giving him ‘one of these,’” Babe said, showing her upraised fist. Babe knew her answer when Lotty’s face lit up like Christmas as Denny entered the barn.
“It’s safe, Hank,” Denny said. “Come on in.”
Hank slid into the barn. His eyes landed on Babe and he looked away. Babe walked over to meet him—for the second time.
“Carlotta, this is Henry Hannity. But we call him Hank. And you can call her Lotty,” Denny said. “The giant’s name is Babe.”
Hank stepped delicately over to Lotty. “Why, you’re as bitty as that Logan midget!”
“She’s bitty and I’m big,” Babe said. “Now we got that settled, let’s get to work.”
“Okay, so where’s this elephant everyone’s been yammering about?” Hank asked.
“She’s on that side of the barn,” Lotty said. “We want to keep her quiet.”
“You mean I came out here and I can’t even see the elephant? My old man wasn’t keen on me working out here in the first place. Now I don’t even get to see the dang elephant?”
“Maybe in a few days,” Lotty said. “Tell him, Denny.”
“Quit bellyaching. It’s just an elephant. Come on, we’re burning daylight. Let’s get down to the stream and show these girls just how stupid their idea is.”
Denny led the way out of the barn, followed by Hank. Babe raised her fist again, Lotty shook her head and followed the boys out.
“How many years do we have to get this done?” Hank asked, shading his eyes, surveying the landslide up and down.
“Miss V says she’ll give us one month,” Babe replied. “In and out of our own chores.”
“That’ll be after Labor Day!” Hank ran his hand through his unruly red hair.
“Fitting,” Denny mumbled.
“Hey, Franklin, you said just move a few yards of sand and rock,” Hank went on. “You didn’t say we were moving a whole mountain!”
“Look, these girls have it in their heads that they—we—can do this,” Denny said, picking up a shovel and tossing it to Hank. “So let’s just dig in and show them how impossible it is. You know women,” Denny said, as though the girls weren’t standing right there. “They don’t understand these things.”
Lotty and Babe looked at each other, then both cast eyes to the heavens.
A short time later, Babe and Lotty stood aside, watching the two boys try to outdo each other, digging, loading wheelbarrows, hauling, shouting orders. When the girls had pitched in, they got all sorts of reasons why they shouldn’t or how wrong they were going about things.
Babe grinned ear to ear. “Remember that story you read to us, Tom Somebody?”
“Sawyer. Yes, what about it?”
“Remember that part about whitewashing the fence? How ol’ Tom made it look like fun and then all them boys wanted in on it?”
“Yes, but . . .” Then Lotty’s gloved hand went to her mouth to stifle a giggle. “Oh. Say no more! Just watch this. I’m going to make Tom Sawyer look like a rank amateur.”
She fixed her bonnet, then strolled over to Denny, who had a large rock halfway out of its resting place. Babe watched them talk and gesture. Never had she seen Lotty’s smile so fetching.
“What did you tell him?”
“Oh, that I thought him being so big and strong and manly, that he should be in charge.” She fanned her face with her drawn-up plans. “Just used my feminine wiles.” She winked at Babe, then raised her fist in the air and added, “For when ‘one of these’ won’t work.”
“Where can I get me some of them feminine wiles?”
“Don’t ask me. They just showed up.” She shrugged her wee shoulders. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I could go for some lemonade.”
Babe looked after her in amazement. “Feminine wiles, huh?” She looked at Denny and Hank, now working in harmony to unearth Denny’s rock.
She grabbed a pickax and found her own rock to unearth.
47
�
�Say, I better get going! Those newspapermen will be at the gate at ten.” Cleve gave himself a look in the dining room mirror, adjusted his tie, and trimmed his hat. “How do I look?”
“They’re coming to interview me, not you, Cleve,” Miss V said. “I’m still not sure you calling that reporter was a good idea. Not after all the trouble Egypt stirred up.”
“That’s why I called him, Miss V. We need good publicity and we need it now.”
“Well, I hope you’re right. Maybe once people know about my problems up here, someone will step up and help.”
“And they should, after all the good you’ve done this community. All the men you employed. Not to mention your Donation Days,” Sarah chimed in.
“I better go escort them in,” Cleve said.
“Remember, Cleve,” Miss V said. “I’ll decide what they need to know and what they don’t need to know.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll keep my trap shut.”
He left and Miss V climbed down off her chair and headed to her room. “Guess I better gin and tidy up myself.”
When it was just Babe and Lotty in the dining room, Babe said, “What do you think about it?”
“Well, it isn’t as though getting photographed is anything new to us, Babe. After all, we’re a curiosity. And trust me, it’s not for postcards.”
“Handful of kids carving up a hillside. Guess that’s pretty dang curious,” Babe said, taking cookies off the plate and putting them in her pocket.
“Well, if it can help Miss V, then why not? Face it, Babe, you and me will get articles written about us for the rest of our days. No matter where we are, no matter what we’re doing.”
“Yeah, but whose business is it we’re here?”
“Did you really think you and me could hide an elephant, an ape, and even a bear probably out there someplace stealing pies off of windowsills?”
Babe smiled at the vision of her Jupiter stealing pies. “No. Guess not.”
“Denny!” Sarah shouted from the kitchen. “You are not wearing that sweater! Now get a clean shirt and collar!”
Sarah popped into the dining room. “What do you think? This blue hat with the peacock feather or this yellow that shows my hair better?” She turned around. “Any of my tattoos show?”
Babe, Lotty, Sarah, Denny, and Miss V stood on the front porch as Cleve rode ahead of the reporter’s buggy. With great to-do, he introduced everyone. Babe was reminded of Cleve’s show-business background, the way he gestured grandly, shouting play-to-the-gallery words.
Babe was used to wide-eyed, wide-mouthed looks of amazement, awe, even fright. She stood, nearly seven feet tall between the two dwarfs, barely six feet tall put together.
“Let’s get that,” the reporter said to his cameraman. “Those three on the porch.”
“Head to toe?” the man with the camera asked.
“Yes, we want to show their full size.”
The cameraman shrugged his shoulders, picked up his camera tripod, and went into the center of the yard to get Babe in full frame.
“Good! Now, hold still . . . Wait! You there, yes, you with the fancy hat. Could you . . . ?” He signaled Sarah to stand aside. “And you, son, you! Move aside. Just the giant and the midgets.”
“Dwarfs!” everyone on the porch yelled.
Next, they escorted the newspapermen to the barn, Denny leading the way and jabbering about his role in their excavation adventure. Babe was pretty certain the reporter didn’t care anything about the creek or Miss V’s problems by the questions he wasn’t asking. Instead, he wanted a photograph of all of them now standing with the animals—Miss V, Euclid, Egypt, Lotty, and Babe.
“Now, we heard that elephant went on a rampage. What can you tell me about that?” the reporter asked.
Miss V quickly put his mind to rest about that, but to be on the safe side, didn’t let the cameraman close with his flash pan.
“And you say there’s also a bear?” the reporter man asked, pencil on a notebook. “I was told he was a man-killer and you just let him go out there to ravage the countryside?”
“Worst he’s done is stealing pies,” Babe said flatly, having never met a reporter she liked.
They took some more photos, then they took the entire troupe down to the creek. Waiting for them was Hank, also cleaned up, hair slicked back, posing between two shovels stuck in the sand.
A few days later, Denny came galloping in from town, a dozen Medford Mail newspapers flapping out from his saddlebags. He handed the papers to everyone on the porch. The article’s headline read:
CIRCUS FOLKS AND MONKEYSHINES
AT THE OLD LOGAN MILL
ROGUE ELEPHANT SAFELY CONTAINED
Babe didn’t bother struggling to read the article. She knew it would poke fun at all of them. But Miss V was satisfied—it accomplished what they hoped it might. Within days, boys from town showed up, sleeves rolled up, shovels and picks over their shoulders, horses, wagons, skids—anxious to help out and gawk at the dwarf and giant working with the elephant.
48
A few times a week, Babe, Lotty, and Denny showed off their work to Miss V and the Franklins. It was a good time for Babe to bring Euclid out to give him air and let him run and climb. They brought Miss V down in the pony cart, since the walk was too much a strain on her heart. They were all worried about her—the money, the mill, the landslide, and the extra food for the sudden rush of volunteers.
Also each evening, the prospector, Mr. Luckett, walked his side of the creek, measuring the shoreline, sometimes panning for gold or running water through his sluicing rig.
“Look at that crazy old coot,” Miss V said, looking down at him, kneeling now, swishing water out of a pan, inspecting it, tossing it out, and doing it all over again.
“Well, he isn’t the one trying to move a mountain,” Sarah said. “Come on, Miss V. It’s getting cold. Let’s get you back home.”
“I’m fine, Sarah, quit fussing! I like coming here, seeing how far the kids have gotten.”
Babe looked around for Euclid and called out for him.
“He’s just over there,” Lotty said, pointing. “I see his head bobbing.”
“Don’t want him going too far,” Babe said. “Denny, call in Aces and maybe they’ll both come back.”
“Never thought I’d see the day when a chimp and a dog would keep such fast company,” Cleve said.
“Euclid’s no dummy,” Babe said. “He knows carnie dogs. Aces ain’t no dummy, neither. Euclid drops her plenty of treats.”
“How’s that for a carnie act? The ape and his pet dog!” Cleve laughed. “If we ever go back on the road, Sarah, let’s remember that one!”
“Aces! Come, girl!” Denny called.
“Euclid! Come on back now!” Babe called.
Two heads popped up from the bushes. Aces barked and Euclid chirped as they raced each other back.
“What’s that you got there, Euclid?” Babe asked. She always knew when he was hiding something—sitting off to the side, ignoring her while he inspected what he’d found. He turned it over and over and then tasted it. “Hand that over,” Babe said, reaching her hand down to him. “Come on. You know I’ll get it one way or t’other.”
After a small tussle, Euclid handed it over, then sat, disgruntled, turning his back on her. “Spoilt sport,” Babe mumbled down to him. “What you reckon this is?” She held the small, round, metal box, then shook it. “Some sort of candy box?”
Cleve stepped over. “Let me see that.”
“Maybe I can jimmy it open,” Babe said, running her thumbnail along the seam.
“No!” Cleve shouted, grabbing it from her. “Don’t!”
“What is it, Cleve?” Miss V asked.
“Blasting caps! Whole box of them!”
Everyone but Babe took a step back. “What’re blasting caps?”
“Dangerous, that’s what they are,” he said. He placed the tin on a tree stump, away from the gathering. “Miss V, I don’t remember us using
any blasting caps. Do you?”
“No, never,” she said.
Cleve walked carefully, inspecting the brush where Euclid and Aces were sniffing around. He knelt down, tugged at something, then came back holding a couple of feet of wire.
“I think I know what caused the landslide,” he said.
“You mean, someone blasted it? On purpose? But why? Who would . . . ?” Miss V said. “Wait a minute! Who else uses those things around here but a prospector?”
She glared down at Luckett on his side of the creek. “You kids take the animals away. No telling what other explosives have been left here,” Cleve said.
Miss V stood up in the pony cart, opened the door, and jumped out. She lifted her skirts and started picking her way downhill.
“Miss V, where . . . ?” Sarah said, going after her.
“You know where I’m going!”
Everyone looked at one another, unsure of what to do. “You best come on, Miss V,” Cleve said. “I’ll go talk to him. You go back.”
Miss V ignored him and turned to Babe. “I hate to ask you, Babe, but could you carry me?” Babe looked back at the others. Should she?
“Babe, please!” She leaned down to pick her up. “No, I’ll just hold on to your neck.”
Babe gingerly took a few steps downhill.
“Thanks for doing this,” Miss V said. “My heart’s already going like sixty! I’m just so mad!”
Babe picked her way down the hillside and into the creek. Luckett kept swishing water in his pan. Finally, Babe stopped, her shadow darkening Luckett, who still didn’t look up.
“Any luck, Lucky?” Miss V asked as Babe swung her gently down.
“You’re trespassing,” Luckett said, running a hand through the sand in the pan. “And you’re in my light.”
Miss V stood next to Luckett and demanded, “What do you know about blasting caps?”
Still, he kept panning. “I know they go boom.”
“And what do you know about ‘going boom’ over there on my side of the creek?” She stood with her hands on her hips.
“Unlike you, I stay on my own side of the creek.”
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