A Magician Never Tells His Secrets

My mom drove me up to the carnival the next morning. We didn’t cry, all our tears were spent the night before. And besides, despair and anger had subsided to excitement. I was no longer angry at Tori. I had learnt long ago that it was increasingly difficult to stay mad at her for any period of time, especially when something big and thrilling was about to happen.
We got to the fairground at seven thirty, in time to see that it no longer resembled a carnival. All the stalls were packed up, the tents all taken down, the rides packed into mammoth trucks which were already heading down the highway. Caravans were attached to cars, some of which were already driving out of the grounds, dirt swirling in farewell.
There was only forty or so people left in the grass, some hugging others goodbye.
“Victoria! Megan!” Shouted a loud voice. I saw Mary waving to us energetically. I kissed my mom goodbye and she walked back to the car. It was a simple goodbye, but I felt like I was about to explode again.
“Okay, so you’ll be riding in the car with Daw,” she said, pointing to a girl with long, haywire black curls. She had her back to us, but upon hearing her name she turned around. My eyes were as wide as dinner plates as I saw her face. She was beautiful, no doubt about it. Her skin was a dark, Eastern Asian tan, though her features, her eyes and lips, resembled those that were Caucasian. Her eyes were dark and round and warm. Her figure was thin, but perfectly proportioned.
But that wasn’t what held my attention. Her neck was wrapped in gold, which made it long and thin. I had seen people like her on the discovery channel, giraffe women. Not only that, but her face was covered in artful piercings. She had five sets of gold bridge piercings which covered the length of her nose, a gold septum ring and a labret. Even her eyebrows were fractioned into thirds, with three piercings on each brow.
“This is Daw Dahkling,” Mary said, oblivious to mine and Tori’s shock. Daw smiled, showing glittering white teeth. Frankly I was surprised she didn’t have gold there either.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hey,” I mumbled. Tori was still gaping in shock. I cleared my throat. “I’m Meg. And this is Tori.”
“Nice to meet you,” Daw trilled, still grinning.
“You too,” I said genuinely. She seemed really nice.
“So you’re Anton’s new assistant,” she said to Tori. “I don’t envy you. Anton runs a tight ship.”
Tori nodded, still at a loss for what to say.
“I – sorry,” I began, embarrassed. Why did Tori need to be so close minded? I was beginning to see Daw’s weird appearance as very becoming.
“It’s okay,” Daw laughed. “I’m used to it. That’s why I’m in the freak show, after all. I take it all as a compliment.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “I didn’t even know freak shows existed anymore.”
“Not the ones with people born deformed,” Daw said seriously. “That’s just wrong. But we’re freaks by choice, so it’s okay.”
“Who else is in the show?” I probed, interested.
Daw laughed again, a pretty, tinkling sound. “There are the contortion siblings. Then there’s me and Liam. Liam Aloysius. He’s the blade man.”
“Blade man?” I asked, trailing after her as we walked to the group of other carnival workers.
“Uh huh. He swallows swords, juggles knives, lays on nail beds, that sort of thing.”
She pointed to a brooding man young who was leaning against a trailer, smoking a cigarette. His brows were thick and arched downwards. His dark brown hair was messy and sat above a lightly freckled face.
“Wow,” I said again. “You’re all so young.”
“Yeah,” Daw agreed lightly. “That’s really the way the carnival works. The full-time workers are almost all young. A lot of us joined before college, like you, right?”
I nodded and she continued. “Yeah, well most of us were employed because we didn’t have anything to really tie us down. No full time work or children or spouses. When the workers decide to settle down they quit, because very few people want to start a family on the road. Then younger people are hired, and the cycle begins again.”
“Oh,” I said, understanding. “I see. So that’s why Peter said there are a couple of families employed by the carnival.”
“Yep,” Daw said, happy I was keeping up. “Some people, when they want to start a family, decide they love Magic and Mischief too much. So they stay on with us, sometimes marrying other employees, and having their children work here too. A good example are the Shi’s. Mayling and Shaoran. They’re the contortionists, brother and sister. Their parents have worked here for years.”
“That’s so cool,” I commented. “How many people are in the carnival?”
“Permanently? There’s just about thirty.”
“Thirty?” I gasped. “Surely more. Who runs all the rides and stuff?”
“We hire new people every state we go to. They’ll stay with us for about two weeks and then when we move states they’ll go back to their other jobs. Most of the rides are easy enough to learn the art of running. It’s the performers that we couldn’t do without.”
I nodded, thinking my head would pop from all this new information.
“When do we leave?” I said after a moment of comfortable silence. Daw checked her wrist watch.
“We should get going now actually; you’ll be riding with me and Peter. But first, I should probably introduce you to everyone. I’ve spent so long yakking about nothing,” she laughed apologetically.
I looked around at Tori, who still seemed uncomfortable in Daw’s presence. I nudged her as we walked over the grass towards a little knot of people. I saw some carnival workers, the ones who were waving goodbye and leaving in cars which didn’t have caravans strapped onto them. They were the ones who’d be replaced when we entered a new state. But the performers stayed on, permanently.
“Hey, everyone!” Daw called waving her hands over head. “This is Meg and Tori! They’re the new workers who’ll be hanging around with us this summer. Let’s all welcome them into the family.”