“Oh God,” Ruby said. “Did you tell him it was only until Merrick comes up with a new act for you?”
Lilly nodded, a burning lump growing in her throat. She had tried to tell Cole that no matter who saw her naked, she was still the same girl who came to him in the menagerie at night. She was still the same girl who snuck into his sleeper car when no one was looking, and followed him into the fields to make love beneath the stars. It was hard enough knowing she was being forced to appear naked onstage, but the thought of losing Cole was more than her heart could bear. He wasn’t a prude by any means, but what would he think of her after she revealed herself to the world?
“And?” Rosy said. “What did he say?”
Lilly’s eyes filled. “He said he needed some time alone and walked away.”
“Jeepers,” Ruby said. She dabbed a tissue in the corner of Lilly’s eyes to stop her makeup from running. “Well, he can’t be mad at you for it.”
Lilly shrugged.
“You know,” Rosy said, applying lipstick to Lilly’s lips. “Some men find it exciting to think about other men ogling their woman’s body.” She winked playfully and grinned.
“Yeah,” Ruby said. “For some reason, the thought of dating a cooch show girl gets their engines running. In case you hadn’t noticed, practically all the single men in this dog and pony show are after us.”
“That’s right,” Rosy said. “And some of the not-so-single ones too.” The twins giggled.
Lilly loved them for trying to make her feel better, but it didn’t work. “I only want one.”
Ruby grabbed another tissue. “Aww, don’t cry, sweetie. He’ll come around.”
When the twins were done putting on the makeup, Lilly thought she looked like a clown. But she didn’t have the heart to tell them that. Besides, she didn’t care. Maybe the audience would think she looked like a clown too, and her career in the girlie show would be over before it began.
Now, her mind raced as she sat in front of the mirror, trying to figure out how she could sabotage her act without getting caught. Nothing came to her. She was supposed be over in the cooch show tent already, waiting in the wings. She got up and pulled back the dressing tent door to peer out. Maybe she could make a run for it. But one of Mr. Barlow’s strongmen kept guard outside, protecting the girls and watching for rubes trying to sneak a free peek beneath the canvas walls.
Across the narrow passageway, the cooch show tent glowed red, and Ruby’s and Rosy’s silhouettes danced and wiggled across the stage. Snare drums and a trumpet played sexy music, and men hooped and hollered for the twins to take it all off. The longer the music went on, the rowdier the men got.
“You ready?” the strongman said to Lilly.
She steeled herself and stepped out of the changing tent, her limbs trembling. The strongman led her over to the back of the cooch show tent and pushed aside the entry flap. She swallowed the acid in her throat, went inside, and followed a short, dim corridor to the wings of the stage, where three overturned crates, two with cushions and one topped with ashtrays, glasses, and bottles of liquor, sat against the back wall. Watching from behind the curtains, her face grew hot as the twins shimmied across the pockmarked platform in G-strings and lace brassieres, a string of red lights illuminating their rouged faces. Like everything else they did, they moved and danced in perfect unison. Then they stopped and leaned forward, shaking their shoulders and covering their breasts with their hands. The men hollered and groaned.
“Show us what you got!” a man yelled.
The twins straightened, pouted coyly, and shook their index fingers back and forth.
Then the snare drum rolled and the twins faced each other and slid each other’s bra straps down from their shoulders. They winked at the audience, rotated on their tiptoes, bent over again, and let their breasts swell forward in the loose cups of their brassieres.
“Come on,” another man shouted. “I paid good money for this!”
The twins shrugged, turned away from the audience, and reached behind their backs to undo their bra clasps. In perfectly timed identical movements they glanced over their shoulders, winked again, and let their brassieres fall to the floor.
“That’s it!” someone shouted.
“There you go, girls!”
“Turn around, honey!”
The twins spun around with their hands over their nipples, opened their red-lipped mouths in mock surprise, and took their hands away, letting their breasts drop. The men whooped in delight.
“Lord have mercy!”
“Sweet Jesus!”
The twins did another quick little dance, then curtsied and ran off the stage, smiling and blowing kisses to the audience. The men cheered and whistled and clapped. Lilly’s neck and chest ignited with a strange mixture of shame and panic. She was next, and she didn’t think she could go through with it. On the opposite side of the stage, Josephine sauntered out from behind the curtain and asked for a big hand for Rosy and Ruby. The men hollered and applauded. The twins hurried down the stage steps, entered the wing, and stopped beside Lilly, laughing and out of breath.
“You look gorgeous,” Ruby said.
“Like a movie star,” Rosy said.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Lilly said. She was starting to feel dizzy.
Onstage, Josephine raised a hand to quiet the men.
“It’s your lucky night, fellas,” she said. “Because we’ve saved the best for last. Tonight you’re going to see something you’ll never forget, something so shocking you’ll be talking about it for weeks. This one is so special, boys, we’re asking you to pay another quarter to stay. I can’t say any more than it’s our last girl of the evening, and you won’t want to miss her. Just hand your quarter to that fella right there, and he’ll let you stay for this final act. That’s it. Just one more quarter and you’ll see something you’ll be talking about for the rest of your lives.”
“Listen,” Rosy said to Lilly. “The first time’s the hardest. But once you see those men turn into little boys at your feet, you might like it.”
“I doubt it,” Lilly said.
“Just remember what we taught you,” Rosy said. “Start with a slow, sexy strut, and make sure you smile.”
“And play with your hair a little,” Ruby said.
Lilly nodded, suddenly incapable of speech.
“And now,” Josephine announced to the audience, “our very own, the beautiful, the alluring, the angelic, the virginal Miss Lilly Blackwood!”
Lilly stood frozen, unable to put one foot in front of the other. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, blocking out all sound. Josephine grinned like a wolf, one arm outstretched, and waited for her to come up the steps. Lilly’s vision start to close in and the ground swayed beneath her feet.
“Go on, Lilly,” Ruby said. “You can do it.”