“Daddy?” she cried in a weak voice. “I’m over here, Daddy!”
A dim light filtered in through the slats in the walls and fell over the metal bars of a cage. Straw stabbed her arms and legs, and the low thud of a powerful engine sounded in the distance. Then it all came back to her.
She was locked in a cage on a circus train. And Daddy wasn’t here.
Lilly’s eyes flooded and she sat up, her throat and chest burning, her neck stiff. When she could take a breath without coughing, she got to her knees and brushed herself off. Every muscle in her body hurt, her skin itched, and she had to go to the bathroom. Her belly felt like it was about to explode. She gathered the skirt of her dress around her waist, pushed her underwear to her knees, and squatted in a corner of the pen. Pee ran down the inside of her leg into one of her shoes. Now, not only was she dirty and cold, she smelled bad too. Using the already filthy straw, she did her best to wipe off her leg, then pulled her underwear up and sat in the opposite corner, counting the bars of the cage and trying not to cry.
The goats and llamas were lying down in their stalls, sleeping or munching hay. She peered between the slats in the boxcar and tried to look outside, but couldn’t see anything. Somewhere a whistle screeched. Then the boxcar shuddered and lurched forward with a jolt, and the train rattled forward along the tracks. The llamas and goats got to their feet and nervously looked over their stall doors. Lilly gripped the cage bars with shaking hands.
“No!” she screamed. “We can’t leave yet! My daddy is coming to get me!”
Little by little, the train picked up speed and traveled farther and farther away from Blackwood Manor. Lilly fell back on the dirty straw and sobbed, her head bumping against the cage wall. How would Daddy ever find her now? Terror and homesickness washed over her in violent, powerful waves. There was nothing she could do but wait and pray. Then again, Momma always said God would only answer prayers if they were sincere. Lilly had begged God to make Momma come back for her, but she never did. Lilly was still here, locked in this cage. If God didn’t think her prayers were sincere then, when would he?
*
After what seemed like a thousand hours, the circus train slowed, groaning against the brakes. The iron wheels caught and screeched, caught and screeched, and the pistons hissed longer and louder. Finally, the train came to a shuddering stop, and the shriek of releasing steam pierced the air. The goats and llamas stood and swayed on unsteady legs. Lilly sat up, trembling and scared and cold.
Outside, iron latches lifted, doors slid open on their tracks, and men talked and shouted. Ramps and chutes clattered to the ground. When the side door to the boxcar slid open, Lilly moved to the back corner of the cage and curled up in a ball, trying to make herself smaller. Sunlight burst into the car, revealing floating dust and hay chafe, and the outside sounds got louder. She squinted against the light and put her hands over her ears, shaking all over. The shape of a man appeared in the doorframe and climbed into the car. He stretched and yawned, then went over to one of the pens and looked inside. Gray stubble covered his weathered face, and a faded black derby sat tilted back on his head. He scratched one of the llamas behind the ears, then moved down the center aisle to check the other stalls. When he came to the one across from Lilly, he leaned over the door, his back to her.
Lilly crawled forward and clutched the cage bars in her hands. “Hello?” she said in a quiet voice.
The man startled and spun around. When he saw her, his eyes went wide. “Jumpin’ Jesus!” he said. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Lilly,” she said. “Can you let me out? Please?” She watched his face, waiting to see if he was afraid of her.
“What in tarnation are you doing in there, kid?”
Her heart thumped so hard inside her chest she could barely speak. Was he pretending not to be afraid, like Daddy pretended? Or was he brave because she was in a cage? She swallowed and found her voice. “They put me in here.”
The man took off his hat and scrubbed an age-spotted hand across his balding head. “Who put you in there?”
“A man with a moon face and a ponytail and someone called Viktor. He was . . . he was . . .” A burning lump filled her throat and she couldn’t go on.
“A monster?”
She nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks.
The old man put his hat back on and straightened, his brow furrowed. He stood for a moment, scratching his neck and thinking, then hurried over to the open boxcar door and yelled out, “Hey, Dante, come over here a minute, will ya?”
A few seconds later, a big man with a red beard climbed into the boxcar. “What’s going on, Leon?”
Leon pointed at Lilly and grinned, revealing crooked yellow teeth. “Look what we got here.”
Dante knelt down and peered into the cage. “Well, well, what do you know,” he said. “Looks like we got us a little stowaway.” He smiled and put his fingers through the bars to touch her hair. She scrambled backward into a corner, frightened and surprised at the same time. Maybe Momma was right. Maybe circus people were used to monsters.
“She said Viktor put her in there,” Leon said. He bent over to look at her. “And a man with a moon face and a ponytail.”
Dante straightened. “Best leave her be, then. We don’t need no trouble.”
Leon turned away and moved down the aisle. “I’m just here to feed the critters and get them ready to unload.”
“Please,” Lilly cried. “You can’t leave me here. My daddy is looking for me and I—”
Leon stopped and glanced back at her, his forehead lined with concern.
“Were you kidnapped?” Dante said.
Lilly shook her head. “Momma . . . she . . .” The words caught in her throat.
“What?” Leon said. He came back and knelt beside the cage. “What’d your mother do, darlin’?”
Lilly forced the words out. “She took money from the man with the ponytail and left me with him.” She broke down again, shoulders convulsing.
“I knew Merrick had something to do with this,” Dante said to Leon. “She belongs to him now.”
Lilly swallowed and gazed at him. “What is he going to do to me?”
“You mean you don’t know?” Leon said.
Lilly shook her head, her chin quivering.
“Merrick runs the sideshow for The Barlow Brothers’ Circus, The Most Amazing Show on Earth,” Leon said. He stood and pulled a bale of hay from the stack, broke it open, and divided it among the goats and llamas. “Looks to me like you just joined the circus, kid.”
“Leon’s right,” Dante said. “But don’t cry, it’s not so bad. You might like it here.”
Lilly cried harder.
Two more men climbed into the boxcar and Dante moved away from the cage. It was Viktor and the moon-faced man with the ponytail.
“Don’t scare her, now, boys,” the moon-faced man said.