Orphan Eleven Read online

  Please could you ask if any of your girls is named Lucy with a sister named Dilly, then when my Lucy raises her hand, you can send her to me. I know you say it is difficult to keep track of your girls, but my Lucy will never forget she’s a Sauvé.

  If you do this, there will be one less orphan to worry all about, one less orphan to feed. Please could you help me find my sister?

  Yours truly,

  Dilly Sauvé

  February 18, 1939

  Home for Friendless Children

  Riverport, Iowa

  Dear Mrs. Mackinac,

  It is not possible that I’m mistaken about Lucy going to your orphanage. I know my mama’s handwriting. I know the kind of paper she wrote on & how she put one word next to another. My mama’s letter said Lucy was at the Home for Friendless Children. Mama would not make a mistake about this.

  If she is not at the Home for Friendless Children, then when did she leave and where did she go? You must know the name of each child at your orphanage, when they arrived, how long they stayed & where they went after. If you could search your records for Lucy with the red hair, Lucy Sauvé, then I will know where to look next.

  It is more important than any other thing in the world that I find her. If you’ve ever had a sister, you’ll know how I feel.

  Yours truly,

  Dilly Sauvé

  February 22, 1939

  Dear Lucy,

  Remember how I picked you up at school every day & brought you an apple slice with cinnamon? Remember how Mama would sew us new dresses from our old ones and we would laugh when people said how beautiful our dresses were. They thought we had $$ because of Mama’s clever hands.

  I would do anything to talk to someone who remembers the things that happened to us. I can tell stories about our life to the girls in the sewing shop, but that’s not the same. When I tell them, it’s like looking through a window at a warm fireplace. But when I write to you, we are both sitting together warming our hands on the fire.

  Our life was not fancy when it was just you, Mama, and me. But I didn’t know how happy we were back then. I didn’t know how easy it would be for our lives to fall apart.

  Mrs. Sokoloff says I’m supposed to be a mensch, which is Yiddish for a person who does good. She says a mensch would forgive Thomas Slater for what he did to us. But how do you forgive someone who doesn’t think he did even one thing wrong?

  Where are you, Lucy? I don’t know where to look anymore.

  Love,

  Dilly

  Jabo was mistaken. Lucy’s quiet was an important part of her. The elephants liked her this way. The problem was people. Jabo and Grace needed to get used to Lucy. She would need to convince them. That was all.

  Lucy dunked the sparkly dress in the washbasin while Nico filled her in on what he’d learned. Diavolo was the only one of the three owners who traveled with the circus. He wasn’t liked by most of the Saachi folks, but he had a knack for finding talent. The person who really ran Saachi’s was his wife, Seraphina. And Seraphina had a special place in her heart for Jabo.

  Lucy worked the small bits of barf from between the sparkles and baubles and scrubbed the bottom with cold sudsy water.

  She wiped her hand on a towel, took out her paper and wrote.

  Can Diavolo get rid of me?

  Nico’s head seesawed back and forth. “He thinks he already has.”

  Lucy nodded and Nico continued, “After the performance on Sunday, they’ll pack the train and make their first jump to Blue Creek. We’ll go with them, if we have apprenticeships.”

  If we don’t?

  “We get left behind.”

  You?

  “Me too,” Nico said.

  Lucy shook her head and wrote, Your apprenticeship?

  “Oh, my apprenticeship? Dunno,” he mumbled, averting his gaze.

  Lucy touched his chest with her soapy finger.

  Nico looked everywhere except at her.

  Maybe he didn’t want her to know what he was trying for in case he failed. Or maybe he was having trouble deciding what to try for.

  Lucy rinsed the dress in the bathroom sink, then wrung the water out of it and hung it next to Jabo’s small trousers on one of the clotheslines behind the train cars.

  She wasn’t sure what to do about Nico. But her next step was clear. She had to win over Grace.

  * * *

  —

  At supper, Lucy headed for the roustabout table. “How’s my favorite OOFO?” Bunk said as the waiter set a plate of chicken, corn on the cob, and biscuits in front of her.

  Lucy sighed with pleasure.

  Rib and Bunk laughed.

  Lucy buttered a biscuit, keeping an eye out for Diavolo.

  “Seem a little nervous, kiddo,” Bunk whispered.

  Lucy nodded.

  “No apprenticeship yet,” Rib guessed.

  “Got on the wrongest possible side of Diavolo,” Nevada whispered.

  “Is there a right side?” Rib asked.

  “But Baby took a liking to her.” Bunk winked at Lucy.

  “Baby,” Rib groaned.

  “Kind of embarrassing when an elephant is smarter than you, Rib,” Bunk said.

  “Smarter than the performers. Baby learns her act faster than they do,” Rib said as Nico and Doris joined their table.

  Bunk spun his corn cob under his butter knife. “Nico, my man, did you find the advance man’s office?”

  Nico nodded, his eyes on his plate.

  “Get your telegram sent?” Bunk asked.

  “Telegram? Who’d you send a telegram to?” Doris asked, unrolling her silverware.

  Nico stuck his biscuit in his pocket. “Frank and Alice,” he mumbled.

  Lucy frowned.

  Doris’s eyes bulged. Her fork froze in the air. “Why?”

  “Tell them where I am,” Nico whispered.

  Doris got a forkful of chicken. “Frank and Alice don’t care.”

  “Now, now, Miss Doris. You leave Nico alone. We love who we love,” Bunk said.

  “You didn’t meet Frank and Alice,” Doris said.

  Lucy had to agree with Doris. She didn’t know how Nico could still care about Frank and Alice.

  “Did Frank telegram back?” Doris asked.

  Nico straightened up. “Yes.”

  “What’d he say?” Doris asked.

  “They can’t come. They’re busy.”

  Doris raised her eyebrows at Bunk as if that proved her point.

  Bunk shrugged.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Rib said, “I heard Nico practicing his grind. The boy has a gift.”

  Lucy didn’t know what a grind was, but by the time she wrote her question, the conversation would have moved on. Her way of communicating didn’t work well in a group. People didn’t pay attention to the expression on her face. People’s eyes followed the person who did the talking. Nobody waited for her to write.

  Nico’s eyes lit up. “Want to hear?” he asked.

  “Course we do,” Bunk said.

  Nico wiped his mouth, pasted on the sleek mustache Jabo had given him, and stood up. “Ladies and gentlemen,” his voice rang out, “inside are sights and sounds beyond your wildest imaginings. There are men so tall they can reach upstairs without climbing a single step and women who can ride two horses at the same time. Ladies fly through the air held by ribbons. Horses perform ballet on two legs.” The words slid out of his mouth as if they’d been buttered on both sides.

  Now Lucy understood. A grind was a word song that made you want to buy a ticket. Lucy grinned at Nico. His eyes glowed at her approval.

  “I’d say you have a future here, my man.” Bunk nodded to Nico. “And Eugene’s certainly found a sweet spot.”
r />   “Very sweet,” Rib agreed.

  “He came to us,” Bunk said, “but the boy smelled like corn bread. Pretty clear where he belonged.”

  “Never hurts to have a friend in the pie car,” Rib said.

  “Never does,” Nevada agreed.

  “Well, I’m going to be an acrobat,” Doris announced.

  Bunk and Rib exchanged a worried look.

  “I haven’t lost all my chances the way she has.” Doris directed her thumb at Lucy.

  “Got to get her talking is all,” Bunk said.

  “Let’s tickle her,” Rib said as Diavolo and Seraphina swept by. Lucy slid under the table.

  “Where’d she go?” Rib asked.

  Lucy waited for Diavolo and Seraphina to take their places at the head table, then she crawled back onto the bench. She had just swallowed the last bite of biscuit when Diavolo returned with Jabo in tow.

  “I thought we had agreed your OOFOs only get three chances,” Diavolo said, his eye on Lucy.

  “Yes, sir.” Jabo nodded. “But there are extenuating circumstances. Special talents, if you will.”

  Diavolo crossed his arms. “Either we have rules or we don’t.”

  “Ordinarily I’d agree with you, but…”

  “She wasted my entire morning, Jabo. I find her on the train and I’ll have her red-lighted. Am I making myself clear?” Diavolo asked.

  “She’s only a child. I really don’t think—” Jabo said, but it was too late. Diavolo was already gone.

  “What does ‘red-lighted’ mean?” Nico asked Jabo when they were back in Jabo’s home.

  “It means you’re asked to leave the train in a rather primitive fashion. You’re left on the tracks watching the red lights of the caboose as it pulls away. Kicked off, if you will. But, Lucy, don’t despair. Grace will come around.” Jabo pulled on a fresh pair of striped socks. “Still, I think it only prudent that you stay out of the cook tent until you get squared away. Eugene, can you make sure Lucy gets meal baskets sent here?”

  “Yes, sir,” Eugene said. Eugene was the only one of the four of them who had an apprenticeship for sure. Nitty-Bitty had given him a route card, which listed where the circus would be going and when. You only got that if you had a secure place on the train. After Eugene got his route card, he stood straighter and smiled more often, and the aroma of chocolate followed him wherever he went. Lucy watched him wistfully.

  Jabo nodded. “You’re a good man, Eugene.”

  “I need my costume by seven tomorrow,” Doris whined. “And you were wrong about these.” She tossed the red clown noses on to Jabo’s bed. “I don’t want them.”

  Jabo ran a comb though his hair. “Let’s not put our tigers before our elephants, Mademoiselle Doris. Nobody auditions in a costume.”

  “Well, I am. You said you were gonna help me.” Doris glared at him.

  “I’m doing my best, my dear. But it isn’t reasonable to believe you’ll be chosen for an acrobatic apprenticeship without—”

  “My hair is growing!” Doris stamped her foot.

  “Your hair poses no problem.” Jabo set his comb down. “It’s practice you’re lacking. Years of it, I’m afraid.”

  Doris frowned. “Well,” she huffed, “I can always work in the cook tent. That isn’t hard.”

  Jabo pursed his lips. “First, there isn’t room in the pie car for two apprentices. But more importantly, it is unbecoming, undignified, and uncharitable to demean the skills of a fellow OOFO—your brother, as I understand.”

  Doris shrugged. “Eugene can convince Nitty to take me on, can’t you, Eugene?”

  Eugene said nothing. Jabo shook his head.

  * * *

  —

  The next morning when Lucy woke up, she saw the breakfast basket Eugene had brought for her. She pulled back the checkered napkin and discovered sugar-shake donuts warm from the fryer and a mason jar of apple sauce.

  Jabo had gotten Eugene right. He was an ace in the hole.

  Lucy wanted to thank him, but he was already gone. Only Nico was here.

  “Thought I’d walk you to the elephant house,” he said.

  After a quick breakfast they headed to Water Street, passing white horses, a clown, and a lady on stilts carrying birdcages in each hand.

  Everyone was in a hurry, the air buzzing with excitement, like the orphanage on Christmas Eve when the girls would each get a small bag of Christmas candy. The first performance of the season was just four days away, and then the entire circus would be loaded onto train cars. The train would be their home for the next five months. Last year they gave performances in sixty-five towns.

  There wasn’t much time to win Grace over. And Lucy didn’t want to think what would happen if she didn’t.

  When Lucy and Nico got to the river, they spotted a line of men waiting outside the camel house.

  Lucy threw a questioning look at Nico.

  “They’re the guys who are brand-new to circus work. First-of-Mays, they’re called. Grace is hiring. Bunk doesn’t have much time to help with Baby. He has to supervise loading the train.”

  Grace sat in a canvas chair in front of the camel house. One by one the men approached, hat in hand. Lucy wished she could hear the questions Grace was asking. When the interview was done, the man would either walk away or join another line near the camel house.

  Nico pointed to the second line. “Must be the guys that made it to round two.”

  First in line was a tall guy with green suspenders; then came a man with freckles and a cowlick. Last was a young guy with soft pink cheeks and big doughy ears.

  The second stage of the interview had to be meeting Baby. That would probably happen behind the elephant house. Lucy had just written a note to Nico suggesting they move so they could see the second part of the interview, when she heard footsteps behind her.

  Doris.

  Oh no. What was she doing here?

  “Hi,” Doris whispered.

  “I thought you were auditioning,” Nico said.

  “This afternoon.”

  Last night Doris had said the audition was first thing in the morning. Had the time changed? Or was she lying?

  Audition? Lucy wrote.

  Doris scowled at Lucy. “I just said it’s this afternoon.”

  “You can’t stay with us. Baby doesn’t like you,” Nico said under his breath.

  Doris’s eyes grew small and mean.

  “If you don’t get the acrobat spot, how about drummer? Musicians sit with the performers. You’ll like that.”

  “I want to wear a pretty costume,” Doris said.

  “We can’t promise that,” Nico said.

  “Well, what can you promise?” Doris asked.

  Nico and Lucy exchanged a look.

  “I hate when you do that,” Doris said.

  “Do what?” Nico asked.

  “Have a private conversation.”

  “We didn’t say a word.”

  “You know what I mean.” Doris scratched her scalp. “You even nod like you have secrets.”

  “Look, we’re trying to help you,” Nico said.

  “It doesn’t seem like it,” Doris growled. “All of us or none of us, remember?”

  Nico nodded.

  Doris’s eyes found Lucy’s. Her face softened. “You owe me a song.”

  Lucy crossed her two pointer fingers and moved them to her heart—the sign of the orphan swear.

  Doris made the sign back.

  “Okay, I’m leaving. I know Baby doesn’t like me. Just don’t forget you promised to sing,” Doris whispered to Lucy, and then she slipped away.

  Lucy and Nico stole around the side of the elephant house to where Baby was splashing in the watering hole and Jenny was rocking from foot to foot. Grace’s big dog, Tiny, was
sitting on an elephant stand watching the elephants, as if he were on guard duty. Lucy and Nico ran behind the hay bales and shifted them until a small hole opened so they could see. Then they settled down to wait for Grace. A few minutes later she made her way around the pond, the first-of-Mays following.

  When Baby saw Grace, she splashed over to the side of the water hole and reached her trunk out.

  “Hi, Baby,” Grace cooed.

  The little elephant lumbered toward her.

  “Say hello, Baby,” Grace said.

  Baby lifted one foot in the air, and flipped it up and down like a wave.

  Grace offered her a sugar cube. Baby set her foot down, picked up the cube with her trunk, and fed it to her mouth. Lucy marveled at how delicate an elephant’s trunk was—it could pick up a tiny sugar cube. But it was strong, too. Lucy had seen Grace stand on Jenny’s trunk.

  Grace had the men stand in a line facing Baby.

  “Okay, Baby, you decide,” Grace called, and Baby made a beeline for the freckly guy, her trunk burrowing into his pocket.

  “You got food in there?” Grace called.

  The freckly guy tried to bat Baby away. “No, ma’am.”

  But Baby had found an apple. She popped the apple into her mouth, crunching happily.

  “You are excused, sir,” Grace called out.

  “Why?” the freckly guy asked.

  “Did I ask you if you had food?”

  He nodded.

  “And what did you say?”

  “That’s not food. It’s my dinner,” he grumbled, turning to leave. Baby followed. And the freckly guy began to hurry. Baby trotted. He broke into a run.

  “Stop, Baby!” Grace shouted, and the elephant came to a halt, her eyes on Grace.

  Grace beckoned and Baby came back to her.

  “Anybody else have food?” Grace barked to the other first-of-Mays.

  “No, ma’am.” Suspenders and Pink Cheeks shook their heads. But Suspenders was creeping backward. “You got other work, ma’am? Don’t think I want to mess with a half-crazy elephant.”