Sad, another tragic death. Remember: my ‘classic’ stories were written when I was young and silly. More old stories here.
The carnival was bustling with the noise of the early-evening throng. The oppressive heat seemed to make the whole scene appear unreal as if in a dream or an old painting about to wear through – revealing the blank wall underneath.
Every night it was the same. Except tonight the freak show was receiving unusual attention partially due to the excellent hawking of Bob Edwards, and partially due to some new attractions that had not yet been seen in this town.
Actually, the crowd-drawing attractions – the tattooed lady, the elephant boy, the bearded lady, a family of midgets (not actually related) – had been with the carnival for years, but were only seen along this seldom-used northern route during exceptionally hot summers such as this one.
Joshua, the elephant boy, hated crowds – especially this one. There were no familiar faces, and they didn’t seem to treat him with the awe and respect that he received along their traditional route. He studied the faces anyway, catching what names he could, and storing them away for when they would next travel this route.
Joshua had an extraordinary memory. He knew by heart the names and layouts of all the cities along the carnival’s summer and winter runs. He could recognize all the faces he had seen and put names to those whose names he had heard in previous years. He remembered events as far back in his childhood with the circus as could be verified, and could tell you what shows were the best draws in any given city. The manager of the carnival, T. Farmer, had been meaning to work up an act using Joshua’s fantastic memory, but had never gotten around to it.
For that, Joshua was glad. The less attention he got, the better. He was content to lead his simple life and think about the woman that he saw in his dreams and assumed to be his mother. In his dreams she would come to him, take him in her arms and say she was sorry for leaving him, and the two would live happily ever after.
She had probably left him for some good reason, Joshua thought, and all would be well when she found him again. His dangling nose between his far-set eyes would crinkle up in excitement when he thought of the new, normal life he would then lead. And this might even be the night because the occasional glimpses of the town had convinced him that he had been here before as an infant. So he kept searching for that very special face in the crowd.
As the evening wore on, the crowd began thinning and Joshua had nearly given up, when … there she was!
She seemed to have aged more than Joshua’s fifteen years, and was much smaller than he remembered, even smaller than he was now. Speechless, he had reached out his hand for his mother as she passed, but she shrank back with a look of recognition and horror in her eyes, and had hurried out of the tent.
Joshua was momentarily paralyzed as tears came to his eyes. It all came back to him in a rush – how she had discarded him, not caring if he lived or died, in an abandoned lot when the carnival was in town. And also how Mr. Big, the midget, had found him lying there half dead. Joshua shook his head to clear it of its stupor, and dashed out of the back of the tent. Mother!
Joshua searched frantically for her and caught a glimpse of her receding form hurrying between two tents toward the back of the lot. As he ran after her, he noticed he had a tent stake in his hand. He reached her and brought the stake crashing down upon her head.
They found Joshua an hour later rocking back and forth, cradling the bloody head of his mother’s body in his lap, and repeating almost apologetically over and over again with tears once again in his eyes: “Elephants never forget, Mom, elephants never forget…”