“Go on!” Cole shouted at Lilly “Take JoJo and get out of here!”
Lilly urged Pepper toward the exit, trying not to trample anyone, and yelled for JoJo to come too. When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw Cole yank the bull hook from Mr. Barlow’s grip and throw it over the bleachers. But JoJo refused to leave Cole, no matter how many terrified animals and panicked rubes bumped into him, or how many times Lilly called his name. When she neared the exit, she looked back one more time. A draft horse knocked Mr. Barlow off his feet and Cole climbed back on JoJo. She watched for as long as she could, then leaned forward and flattened her body close to Pepper’s head so the low doorframe wouldn’t knock her off. At last, they were out of the big top.
Praying Phoebe was safe in the train and Cole and the rest of the elephants were behind her, she steered Pepper toward the other side of the midway. Wind and rain shrieked all around, beating against her skin like bullets, and the sounds of ripping canvas, snapping wood, and screaming people filled the air. She squinted against the rain and looked back at the big top just as the colossal tent lifted off the ground, the canvas twisting and turning like rags inside a washer. The last of the rubes scurried out of the rising entrance and ran left and right, their hands on their heads, their faces knotted with terror. Ropes and stakes pulled out of the dirt and the wind tore the roof apart seam by seam, leaving the poles and rigging suspended in the air like a giant black web. The sidewalls were torn to shreds; then the entire tent rose in the air and suddenly vanished, as if plucked from the earth by a giant hand.
Several hundred yards away, a black, rotating funnel roared toward them—wood and trees and dirt swirling around it like twigs and grass being sucked into a whirlpool. Horror filled Lilly’s mind, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away. She felt the rumbling growl of the approaching twister in her stomach, and the wet, green musky smell of dirt and vegetation filled her nostrils. This is it, she thought. I knew happiness was too good to last. I’m sorry, Phoebe. I hope you never forget how much I love you. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the funnel lifted off the earth and got smaller and smaller and higher and higher, hanging from the sky like an elephant’s trunk before disappearing into a churning black cloud. When it was over, Lilly let out her breath and fell forward on Pepper, limp with relief.
Cole and JoJo stopped beside her. “Are you all right?”
She pushed herself up and nodded, too shaken to speak.
Within minutes, the wind died down and a yellow shaft of sunlight peeked over the horizon, as if God had flicked on a giant switch. Everyone stopped running and looked around with dazed, exhausted expressions, surveying the damage or searching for loved ones in the crowd. Some stood rooted to one spot, mumbling and staring, rivulets of blood running in their hair or down their arms and legs, their clothes ripped and torn. Shoeless children wandered aimlessly, crying and calling for their parents.
Debris littered the lot—popcorn boxes and ripped flags, soaked streamers and torn posters, soggy stuffed animals and overturned ticket booths, wet straw, boards, and rope. The freak-show banners had been torn from their moorings and now hung from their corners, sagging like giant tablecloths across puddles of mud. Dolly the World’s Most Beautiful Fat Woman, Mabel the Four-Legged Woman, and Penelope the Singing Midget came out of the freak-show tent, eyes wide, mouths gaping. Behind the big-top area, the back lot had been stripped clean. The menagerie tent was gone, along with several animal cages and wagons. The ground was strewn with straw and shovels and rope and wood and bent metal.
The rubes and performers and handlers and roustabouts viewed the wreckage in shocked silence, amazed and stunned and relieved to be alive. Mr. Barlow stormed through the middle of it all and made his way toward Lilly and Pepper, limping and wet, one sleeve torn from his red jacket. He gestured furiously, waving her away and yelling at her to get Pepper out of there. Lilly didn’t understand why he was so angry. She had saved Pepper’s life. Then, for the first time since escaping the big top, she looked down at the bull. At first, she couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. Then she realized why Mr. Barlow didn’t want Pepper to leave the big top, and renewed dread filled her chest.
Wet paint ran off Pepper’s head and back, trickling down her sides in white streams, her gray skin showing through in mottled blotches.
“Let’s go,” Lilly said to Pepper and Cole. “We have to get out of here.”
But before they could turn and leave, a boy pointed at Pepper and shouted, “The Albino Elephant is fake!”
Several other rubes noticed and stared, slack-jawed.
“The damn thing is covered in paint!” another voice called out.
Mr. Barlow turned to face the rubes and held up his hands. “Hold on now,” he said. “I can assure you The Albino Elephant is real. The white paint only enhanced the natural paleness of her skin.”
Several men marched toward him, their hands in fists, their faces contorted in anger.
Lilly turned Pepper away and steered her toward the train, trying to remind herself that she and Cole had just missed being killed by a tornado, and how lucky they were to be able to go home to their daughter. Right now that was all that mattered. But another storm was brewing in the distance and, this time, she didn’t know if she’d be safe.
*
It took a full day to clean up after the tornado ripped the Barlow Brothers’ big top from the earth, during which time the local police had to keep the rubes off the lot. Word had spread like wildfire that The Albino Elephant was fake and the locals wanted their money back. And after so many had nearly lost their lives during the tornado, they weren’t above using their fists to get it. It took another half day for Mr. Barlow and Merrick to convince the sheriff that The Barlow Brothers’ Circus wouldn’t be back.
In the meantime, rumors spread among the performers, freaks, trainers, and roustabouts that The Barlow Brothers’ Circus was finished. Between the exposure of the fake albino elephant and the loss of the big top and menagerie tent, there was no way Mr. Barlow could recoup and reopen. Not this season anyway. They were all out, all over. The blowdown had done them in.