I stepped up to run the museum, since Hutch was laid up, and Gideon began divvying up the workload to volunteers and allotting the tasks that nobody wanted. As things were being assigned, the crowd began to disperse so people could go to work.
The midway opened at eleven, but most of the sideshow acts didn’t start until the afternoon, with shows in the big tents. The only thing that should’ve been open already was the museum, but it didn’t pull in that much money so a couple hours closed up wouldn’t bankrupt us.
Della Jane made her way toward us, walking barefoot on the grass with her baby blue pumps in her hand. She greeted us with the warmest of smiles, but her eyes seemed to linger too long on our entwined hands.
“If I’d known you were coming out here today, honey, we could’ve rode together,” Della Jane joked.
As casually as I could muster, I slipped my hand from Gabe’s. I ran it through my hair, not because it was getting in my face, but because I was looking for an excuse to let go of Gabe’s hand. The look his mom gave me made me feel uncomfortable about the whole thing.
“I just wanted to see how Mara was holding up.” He motioned to me, and his mom’s eyes followed his hand, so her gaze landed on me.
“You must be happy about the big triumph today,” Della Jane said. “I know I am just thrilled that you’ll be around a few more days.”
“Yeah, thank you for all your help.” I forced a smile and ignored how tight her voice sounded when she said “thrilled.”
“Did you drive your Mustang?” Della Jane asked, turning her attention back to her son. “If you walked, I could give you a ride back to town.”
“Yeah, I drove.” He motioned toward the bright red sports car parked at the edge of the campsite, standing out like a shiny sore thumb. Then he glanced around at the folks working overtime to set up for tonight. “And I was thinking that I would stay and pitch in. It looks like they need all the help they can get.”
Della Jane frowned. “Your father was really hoping that you would help him at the restaurant tonight. Things have been busy, and you really haven’t been helping him much this past week.”
“If Dad’s short-staffed, Selena can step up,” Gabe suggested, with a bit of irritation in his voice.
“Selena didn’t want to be a part of the business. You’re the one that said you could handle the responsibility,” Della Jane lectured.
Gabe grimaced and shoved his hands in his back pockets as he stared off at some point above her head. “No, I said I might as well have something to do since you keep insisting that I put off NYU for another year,” he corrected her.
Della Jane sighed. “Family comes first.”
“I’m taking tonight off to help Mara,” Gabe replied with a finality that made his mom’s shoulders sag. “The restaurant will be fine without me until Sunday.”
Della Jane took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest, deciding on a whole new tactic to get her son to leave with her. “Gabriel, there is an animal on the loose. I just want you to be safe.”
Something passed across Gabe’s expression—something I couldn’t quite read, but it was dark and shadowy, taking all the light from his eyes.
“If it’s safe enough for them, it’s safe enough for me,” he said, meeting his mom’s hard gaze with his own.
Since there didn’t seem to be any room for her to argue, Della Jane only nodded. Her smile returned, though it wasn’t nearly as cheerful as it had been moments ago. She kissed Gabe on the cheek and made him promise that he’d be safe.
As she walked away, she cast a look back at me over her shoulder, and it sent a chill down my spine. I’d never seen another person look at me that way, but it was a look I recognized immediately. It was the same look I’d seen in the abused tiger Mahilā’s eyes whenever she saw someone she didn’t trust—terrified, angry, and eerily primal.
41. the star
“Step right up to the greatest show on earth!” Gabe called out to passersby.
From where I stood outside the Terrifying Curiosities & Oddities of Past & Present museum, I had the perfect vantage point to watch Gabe outside the big tent, trying to drum up business for Gideon’s magician act.
Gabe had taken one of Gideon’s old top hats and placed it carefully on his coiffed hair, and he’d gotten his hands on Luka’s devil sticks. He tossed the baton between two other sticks, bouncing them off one another and pinwheeling it about.
After he did an especially impressive trick—tossing the baton in a spiral up through the air before nimbly catching it with the sticks—the small audience around him began to applaud. Gabe bowed, then immediately began upselling them on a ticket to the show where he promised them that the real magic happened.