Elephant Song

NINETEEN

When Little Will opened her eyes, Packy's tired face was looking back at her. It was just like after the crash. She reached out her hand and touched Packy's. The boss elephant man squinted at her. "Little Will?"

Her mouth was dry and she wet her lips with her tongue. "Packy." She squeezed his hand as another face came into view. "Pete."

Shiner Pete knelt on the floor next to the sleeping cushions. "How'do you feel?"

Little Will closed her eyes and thought. For some reason, the question wasn't an easy one to answer. Her eyes opened and she smiled. "Hungry. How's Reg?"

Packy nodded. "In the pink."

She frowned first at Packy then at Pete. "You two are up."

Packy snorted and looked at Pete. "I guess you're right, Pete. You got yourself a real fortune teller in this girl."

"The last I remember, I was up and you two were flat in the sack."

Packy raised his eyebrows and looked into her eyes. "You mean the time you struggled out of your sickbed for the sole purpose of kicking poor old Packy's ass?"

Little Will's face grew hot. She nodded. Shiner Pete took her other hand and held it. "That was five months ago."

"Five months."

"It's Payday, the fifth of Layup."

Little Will pulled upon the hands that held hers until she was in a sitting position. The effort made her stomach swim. "I want to go to the kraal and see Reg. Then to the lake. I just want to scrub myself until I bleed, then stretch out in the sun. And food. Mountains of food."

Pete reached back and his hand returned holding a cup of cold broth. Little Will's lips eagerly sought the cups's edge, and she quickly took a large swallow. About to take another, she frowned. "I... I think I'm full."

Packy laughed and shook his head. "Your stomach's shrunked down to the size of a pea. You'll be able to eat more later."

She took a tiny sip of the broth, choked it down, then returned the cup to Pete. As Pete replaced the cup, she looked at Packy. "If it's Layup, then there's only a few weeks until The Season."

"That's right. Still nobody's going to Tarzak 'cause of the bug. But we've been building stands here in Miira. By the Boolabong, Little Will, we got us a Great Ring right here in Miira."

Little Will frowned as she tried to remember something. "I had a dream. Ming. I was in Tarzak, and Ming... Ming's dead." She looked at Pete.

"We haven't heard anything like that. Goofy Joe was through just yesterday, and he didn't say anything about Ming being exed."

She placed her hands on Packy's and Pete's shoulders. "Help me up. I want to see Reg."

Pete took her hand and reached beneath her left shoulder, pulling her to her feet as he stood. She looked down at the boss elephant man. "Packy?"

He smiled and shrugged. "Pete'll help you up to the kraal. My legs; they don't work so good. Cookie Jo'll be by in a bit to help me out."

Horror crossed Little Will's face. "Did it... is it because I kicked—"

Packy laughed and shook his head. "Hell no, girl. You were so weak you couldn't've killed a fly with that kick." He pointed in the direction of the kraal. "Robber got spooked by a storm about two months ago and she walked around on me a bit. I always said Robber was a pain in the ass, but..." He shrugged and held out his hands.

"Packy, your still boss elephant man?"

He nodded. "You're damned right I am. And you better get your act together fast, snippit, 'cause we got another road to do. We're cutting through to the Miira-Kuumic Road from Porse. It'll take almost three days travel off the trip from White Top Mountain to Tarzak." He frowned. "I suppose Kraut's gonna try and pay us off again with those damned BB's of Mootch's. But I guess as long as they buy things in Tarzak—"

"BB's? The road gang was paid off for the mountain road with BB's?"

Packy sighed as his eyebrows went up. "Like the man once said to me, 'If I was smart, I'd be in the treasury wagon.' "

Little Will shook her head as Pete helped her out of the door. "All that for a handful of BB's."

Pete laughed. "Hey, we got bags of 'em—thousands—for the job. And we've already paid off the Sina fishers with 'em, and iron from Kuumic—"

"BB's!" Little Will glanced at Pete. "Mootch Movill must have billions of those things. I love you, my man, but with your brains you could be a bullhand too. BB's!"

Shiner Pete shook his head and helped his wife up the incline to the kraal.

By Put Up of The Season the fifth, Little Will and Pete put on a feed for Waxy and Mange to mark the occasion. Packy and Cookie Jo couldn't be there. Packy was down again with the bug and Cookie Jo was caring for him. There would be a Season in Miira. A lot of people didn't have the bug; but there would be a pall on the event. A lot of people did have the bug; for the third and fourth time. Dot the Pot was also in bed.

As Little Will and Pete brought the food to the table, Waxy and Mange sat upon their cushions. Waxy spoke without looking at Mange. "You looked at Dot yet?"

Mange grinned and nodded his head. "I looked at her." Waxy's eyebrows went up and he faced the vet. "Well?" Mange's grin disappeared and he shook his head. "I don't see any way around it, Waxy."

Waxy looked at the table and sighed. "Damn. That woman's strong as a damned bull!" He shook his head. "Never thought the bug'd get her." "It didn't."

Waxy frowned at Mange. "Headaches, cramps, dizzyness—if it's not the bug, what is it?"

Mange plucked a tungberry off of a plate and popped it into his mouth. "Dot's pregnant." He chewed on the fruit, swallowed it, then faced Waxy with an impassive expression. "We know what causes that, now."

Waxy stood and ran from the room into the street. Mange looked up at Little Will. "I'm sorry about that. It looks like only dinner for three."

Little Will grinned as she dropped onto her cushion and faced the vet. "Mange, are you sure?"

The vet nodded. "It's nice to hand out news like that once in awhile. I bet Waxy is crowing his way around the planet right now." He chuckled once, then his expression grew somber as Pete took his place at the table. "Everything you two told me has checked out. When Goofy Joe came through Miira last time, he told about them planning to rebuild the Great Ring in Tarzak out of cut stone. That, and Ming is dead. They don't know the cause. Goofy Joe came straight here after he found out, so there's no other way you could have known. This means that you two can use your thoughts the way you said you could. It's not brain damage."

Pete nodded. "Well, that's good news—as far as it goes."

Little Will frowned as she munched upon a tungberry. "When we were both sick, we tried to contact one of those monsters we saw before in the Great Muck Swamp. Pete couldn't get to its thoughts, but I think I did."

Mange's eyebrows went up. "And?"

Little Will shrugged. "I can't explain it. It felt me, and... and it was surprised. Just surprised. It was curious in a way, until I spoke to it. Then it just ran off into the swamp screaming like a little kid."

Mange chuckled. "I bet you scared the eggs out of the thing."

Pete and Little Will laughed. Pete pointed toward the door with his thumb. "Where's Butterfingers?"

Mange shook his head. "It looks like he's got the bug, too." Mange snorted. "At least I don't have tungberry pits all over the table."

Pete frowned. "He doesn't like the pits?"

Mange shook his head. "He likes the sweet part, but that sour shot from the pits he hates."

Little Will held her hands to her temples. Pete looked at her. She looked up Mange. "Mange, this is... like I told you when I saw the rocks coming down on Pete and the bulls. It's the tungberries."

"What's the tungberries?"

Little Will leaned forward. "Mange, it's the tungberries. That's the cure for the bug!"

Mange smiled and shook his head. "We tried that. A lot of troupers have died who ate tungberries by the bushel."

"The pits, Mange! Did they all eat the pits?"

Mange sat back and rubbed his chin. "I don't know." He held out his hands. "It still doesn't explain why the newborn babies on the Central Continent don't get the bug. They eat tungberries, but I've never seen a kid that liked the pits. It's an acquired taste."

Little Will frowned, then looked back at Mange. "Did you ever see a kid spit out the pits? They don't crack them for the sour taste, but they don't have any teeth, either."

Mange studied Little Will. "So they swallow the pulp and the seeds whole." He looked down at the table top. "And just about everyone has the bug on Midway, including the kids, because... they don't have tungberries at all over there!" He looked again at Little Will. "Maybe. Just maybe." He picked up the plate of tungberries and began squashing the grape-sized fruit with his hand. Then he picked out the small handfull of pits from the mass of pulp then stood up and grabbed the jug of sapwine.

Little Will looked up at Mange. "How are you going to try them?"

"Butterfingers McGuinea pig."

The vet turned and ran into the street. Shiner Pete looked at his wife. "It looks like our dinner party is playing to an empty house." He broke some cobit. "I sure hope the tungberries are the answer."

Little Will looked down at her food, then turned her head and looked through the doorway at the night. "They'll work." Images danced in the darkness. "I see other things, too, Pete. What are we going to be without the bulls?"

"We'll be man and wife. There are other things you can—"

She faced him. "I mean the bullhands! What will they be without the bulls?"

Pete shook his head. "Just like everybody else." Little Will stood. "You don't understand." She walked out into Miira's dark street and headed toward the kraal. She walked the incline, climbed the fence, and studied the shadows. She whispered to herself. "Without the bulls, we are nothing."

The beginnings of the things Little Will saw that night unfolded as the years passed. By The Season the sixth, the Porse Cutoff had been constructed. The success of the tungberry experiment had everyone eating the things—pits and all—and shipments of fruit and tungberry plants being sent to Midway. By The Season the seventh, the "bug" had been eliminated, and the Momans prepared once again to hold the celebration in the Town of Tarzak. As she rode Reg across the delta bridges, Little Will again saw the roadside watchers counting the bulls. They counted seventeen. Ming had died in Tarzak, the two Emerald Valley bulls had sickened and died from eating the poisonous spring ferns that grew up north, and one of the three bulls in Kuumic had died in a mine accident. There were a total of nineteen bulls left upon Momus.

During Put Up that night, they learned who had survived the bug; who had died. Duckfoot Tarzak, Leadfoot Sina, Fisty Bill Ris, Grabbit Kuumic, Dogface Dick, Cholly Jacoby, Madam Zelda, and many others passed into memory.

That night Spats Skorzini introduced himself as the Master of the Great Ring of Tarzak, and introduced Warts as the Master of the Tarzak Priesthood. The spielers in Tarzak were calling themselves barkers; the candy and fizz butchers were calling themselves merchants; and the canvasmen and razorbacks were calling themselves roustabouts.

The bullhands were still bullhands.

On the way back to Miira, Chilly Ned's bull, General, went outlaw, killing three hostlers and two children, and had to be executed. The only method available to them was an ancient one. They anchored General's back legs to some trees, and then attached a strong team of Perches to a slip-ringed chain around General's neck. To Little Will the strangulation of General seemed to take forever. The execution filled everyone's mind, and no one noticed Chilly Ned walking off alone into the darkness.

Sixteen bulls made parade in Tarzak for The Season the seventh. The two Kuumic bulls still lived, and then there were eighteen bulls upon Momus. Passing onto the Big Lot were Amazing Ozamund, magician; Packy Dern, boss elephant man; Stretch Dirak, advance car manager; Electric Lips, barker; Ptomaine Tilly, candy butcher; Skinner Suggs, boss hostler; and Chilly Ned, bullhand.

Before they had left Miira, the bullhands elected Little Will boss elephant man—Master of the Miira Bullhands.

On Put Up, the Master of the Tarzak Priesthood disclosed the official religion of the Moman priests. A survey had been conducted, and the priests had agreed in advance to take on the religion of the majority. The majority preference was "no preference." And the Master of the Tarzak Priesthood spake: "In accordance with our agreement in Porse, then, the priesthood's official religion is the majority's: No Preference. It might be time-saving to take notes of rituals and prayers supplied by those with religious afflictions in case the need of such rituals and prayers pops up in the future."

And Poge Loder stood and spoke from the Miira section of the Great Ring. "I want to know about profanity. A priest shouldn't go about talkin' the way Waxy does."

Warts studied upon the request, then replied to Poge. "Among other complaints, I have pondered the use of the name 'Momus' as an oath, and I see little objection. Momus was an ancient mythical Earthling deity specializing in ridicule. The Governor named this planet after that deity as a joke. Hence, I cannot see how using the name as an oath would constitute blasphemy. Since we are officially No Preferencians, I can't imagine what would constitute blasphemy.

"However, along with your complaints, Poge, I have received many complaints concerning the use of certain words by priests, and these complaints do not all come from the religiously distressed. At burials we should have no more send-off phrases such as 'Give 'em hell, you son of a bitch,' 'When you get there, save one with big knockers for me,' 'You were a beautiful bastard,' and 'Death sucks.'

Warts turned to the other members of the Moman Priesthood standing in the ring with him. "I would add that in recording pregnancies and births, the proper word is fetus, not 'watermelon' or 'loaf of bread'; the word for womb is not 'the old patch' or 'oven,' and the process by which this event accrues is not to be referred to by the expression you are currently using."

Waxy placed his arm upon Turtlehead's shell. "Could you please go up into the Miira stands and explain the proper pronunciation of our trade to old Poge?"

"Why?"

"He seems to be missing the goddamned point of what the hell it is to be a damned priest. That's why."

"The proper pro—"

"I know. I know. But tell Poge. He needs it."

Turtlehead moved off into the cut-stone steps of the Miira blues.

Warts cleared his throat and addressed the Great Ring. "In answer to the question put to me by many of you, the invention of the telephone has been postponed for lack of interest."

On The Season the eighth, they learned that Jingles McGurk, Goofy Joe, and Mootch Movill had taken on apprentices, and were demanding new job titles. From that day on, loan sharks were to be known as "cashiers," gossips as "newstellers," and liars as "storytellers."

Only twelve bulls made parade that year. Four had to be retired; too weak to make the trip to Tarzak. Little Will had remained in Miira along with Mange Ranger and Shiner Pete. Before the bullhands returned to Miira from The Season, Mange placed into Little Will's arms a baby boy and a baby girl. She named the boy Johnjay, after John J. O'Hara. She named the girl May, after the month that used to begin every show—a long time ago.

Shiner Pete asked his wife if now the future of the bullhands looked so bleak. Little Will did not respond. The baby boy appeared to have mental powers that dwindled hers. She could not imagine what Johnjay would become.

The baby girl, May, was crippled! She would never have the use of her legs. Mange was sorry. Pete accepted it. Little Will stopped probing the future. The answer had come to her long before. For the bullhands there would be no future. The elephant song would die. What, if anything, would replace it, she could not imagine.

But she knew one thing: while the bulls lived, the bullhands lived. She took her gold-tipped bullhook and held it within arm's reach of her baby, Johnjay. He touched its coldness, withdrew his hands, and cried.

Deep in the Great Muck Swamp, Waco Whacko knelt before the mound beneath which were buried the five Ssendissian eggs. As he tested the moisture of the soil, he spoke.

"Hanah will have our baby in a couple of months."

"It is what we have all waited for."

"She should go back to where Number Three went down. There are people there that can help her. And I want to be with her."

"No."

Waco stood and looked down at the mound. "What do you mean, no?"

"The meaning is clear."

"You would not let me go with her?"

"Neither of you will leave us. Hanah shall have the child here."

Waco looked down the hill toward the shack. "This is foolish! What if the child dies?"

"Then you and Hanah will produce another. We cannot risk you leaving us."

He looked back at the mound. "What if they both die? It happens often with human births if the proper help is not available."

The eggs were silent for a moment. "Waco, if they both die, you will find another female. With her, then, you will produce another child."

"And if another female doesn't come along?"

"Hanah will stay, Waco. Both of you will stay." The eggs appeared to talk among themselves for a moment. Then they spoke again. "It is time you were told, Waco."

"Told what?"

"You will never leave here. Hanah will never leave here. We shall keep your child, and your child's descendants, until we are free of our shells. Don't try to fight this, Waco. We are strong enough now to prevent you from harming us. We can kill Hanah."

Waco walked down the hill toward the shack. When he was midway between the shack and the mound, he turned back. "We have loved you and cared for you night and day for years. Why don't you trust us?"

"We are only babies, Waco." The thought-hiss of Ssendissian laughter came from all sides. "We do not know any better."

At the feeling of more laughter, Waco's hands turned into fists. He began storming up the hill. "It's time you were taught better!"

A huge hand of nothingness swatted Waco to the ground. He pushed himself up from the ground, touched his hand to his mouth, then withdrew it and looked with astonishment at the blood upon it. "Damn you!" He looked up at the mound.

"If you do this, it will cost you our love. Don't you understand that?"

"We do not need love, Waco. What we need are keepers. You taught us that."

The huge hand of nothingness swatted Waco's face, bowling him backwards toward the shack. Again and again the force struck until Waco was unconscious.

The eggs called to the shack. "Hanah Sanagi. Come and collect your mate."

Dull-eyed and listless, Hanah emerged from the shack. She stumbled at the eggs' direction until she stood over Waco's bleeding form. She looked down at him and half-smiled, half-cried. "I told you. I told you."

The eggs spoke to her. "You will have the child here, Hanah."

"I know." She squatted and began cleaning the grass and dirt from Waco's cuts. "I know."

"The child will be a female. Her name is Ssura."

Hanah looked toward the mound, confused. "Her name?"

"Her name is Ssura. It means guardian. And she is ours. We are already in her mind."

Hanah placed her hands upon her swollen abdomen, bowed her head, and was sadly amused to think that the biggest favor she could do for her child would be to kill it.

"We are in your mind, too, Hanah Sanagi."

She sighed and returned to cleaning Waco's cuts. "I know. You never let me forget."

On The Season the eleventh, Little Will brought Johnjay and May to Tarzak. Eleven bulls made parade. By The Season the fifteenth, there were only eight bulls. On The season the twenty-first, there were two bulls in the parade. Seven others were in the Miira kraal too old, too weak, to travel to Tarzak. On The Season the twenty-eighth, the only bull to make parade in Tarzak was Reg.

Little Will walked alongside the animal, and they were followed by Johnjay carrying May, and by the remaining bull-hands of Miira.

On The Season the twenty-ninth, the bulls and the bullhands of Miira were absent from the parade.