Waco nodded and Fireball's face disappeared. The snake charmer closed the box, but remained sitting upon the locker.
The sickness. God, the sickness.
Fifteen years before, Buns Bunyoro had brought it on. And now, Bullhook Willy. Waco remembered the Arcadia wintering grounds in a distant place called Florida. In another time, another place, another dimension.
Waco had been reading when someone knocked upon the door to his van. Waco opened the door to see the boss animal man, Pony Red Miira, standing on the lot.
"Waco, you know we went to pick up those two new bulls this morning. It was a mess. The freighter crew exed one bull and cut up the other one."
The snake charmer stared at the boss animal man, his face and heart frozen.
Pony Red looked down. "Buns got it. I'll be by later to gather up his things." The big man thrust his hands into his trouser pockets, turned, and walked toward the elephant barn.
"Sorry."
Waco closed the van's door and returned to his reading.
Later that evening there was another knock upon the door. Waco looked at his book, realizing that he had been looking at the same page for over two hours. He put the book aside and opened the door. The new bullhand that Buns had taken under his wing, Bullhook Willy, climbed the steps and stood in the open doorway. "Buns got exed. Thought you'd want to know." Willy looked up at Waco.
"I heard." Waco nodded toward Bullhook's bandaged hand. "How's the mitt?"
"Okay. We had to winch that one bull out of the freighter. Caught my hand between the cable and deck. Bone Breaker fixed it up'n gave me something for the pain."
Waco cocked his head toward the interior of his van. "Come in if you want."
"I just wanted to say how sorry I am."
Waco dropped into an easy chair and clasped his hands together. "Don't be sorry on my account, Bullhook."
Willy sat down in a chair facing the snake charmer. "He was your friend, wasn't he?"
"That's what he called himself." The snake charmer's deep black eyes studied Willy. "I have no friends—no human friends."
Willy looked down and shook his head. "Why'd you live with him then? And for ten years?"
"He paid rent." The snake charmer reached out a hand and stroked a passing python. "His conversation was enjoyable." He sat back. "Do I sound a little cold to you?"
Willy slowly nodded. "That's the word: cold."
Waco closed his eyes and leaned his head against the chair's headrest. "I never let myself become friends with a human. The human is the only animal that ever disappoints me." He opened his eyes and looked at Willy. "I haven't had much contact with nonhuman intelligent aliens, but I imagine that they, too, will disappoint me. Buns went and committed suicide today, or the next thing to it. By doing so, I suppose you think he is some sort of hero. I don't. Although I do not include myself among them, there are those who have an affection for Buns. Buns cheated them. Buns is a cheat. He is a human and a cheat. I expected nothing more from him; I expect nothing more from any human."
Bullhook Willy sat quietly for a moment, and then he swung his bullhook from his left hand, stood and turned toward the door. "I better be getting back to the barn. I start trying to break in that bull tonight."
The snake charmer stood and walked Bullhook Willy to the door. As Willy reached the bottom step, Waco spoke. "What is the bull's name?"
"Ming."
"How old are you, Bullhook?"
"Eighteen."
"Do you think you can handle her?"
Willy shrugged, then ran the fingers of his good hand through his hair. "I don't know. That's not good, is it? Poison Jim used to say that you have to know you can do it. If you don't the bull can tell."
Waco nodded. "Animals can read humans a whole lot better than humans can read animals. Does Ming have you scared?"
Willy licked his lips, shrugged, then nodded. "Now she does. Out there on the airfield I didn't even think about it. There wasn't time to think. But... since then I've had some time."
"Good. You keep thinking, Bullhook. It works the same with any animal. You think, watch, and study. You study Ming until you can read her—understand her. When you understand her, you'll know what she wants, what she needs, and what you have to do. Once you understand her, you won't be scared. Don't make your move until then."
Willy rubbed his chin, then dropped his hand to his side. "Waco, did you know Poison Jim? You two talk a lot alike."
Waco shook his head. "Just to talk to years ago when he was with O'Hara's. But all animal men know the same things. The ones who don't either wind up dead or killing their animals."
Willy nodded and turned toward the barn. "Thanks, Waco."
"Bullhook?"
Willy turned and looked back at the snake charmer. "Yeah?"
"If you want you can move out of the barn and stay here."
Willy's eyebrows went up. "What for?"
"Ten credits a week."
Willy shrugged. "Why not? I'll go get my kit."
"Not tonight." The snake charmer half-turned back into his van. "Tomorrow. Move in tomorrow. Tonight... tonight I have some thinking to do." Waco went inside, closing the door behind him.
And then there came the sickness. Waco had cried and swore to the universe that he would never again love.
And now Bullhook Willy was broken and gasping upon the surface of a planet that didn't even appear in any of the star charts. And the sickness was again upon the snake charmer.
In the box upon his lap were the eggs of five of the twenty Ssendissian snake telepaths that Waco had brought to the show. The eggs were all that remained of the Ssendissians. And the eggs were conscious, feeling their own special sickness for their dead parents.
Waco stood and left the compartment. When he again stood upon the planet's soil, he looked at the huge lake that began far down the slope from the wrecked shuttle. Beyond the lake was a forest, or swamp. But no humans; nothing to love.
He began walking toward the shore.
THREE
On the evening of that first day, across the huge lake, into the thin edge of the swamp just visible beyond it, the sun was setting. Packy Dern sat on the dew-weighted grass with his arms wrapped around his knees. The few clouds in the sky were black-red edged with gold placed against a sky as scarlet as blood. And, lordy, there had been plenty of blood.
He closed his eyes and held his head down for a moment. "Hell, yes." He lifted his head and looked at the near shore of the lake. The vee-shaped trough cut by the menagerie shuttle's belly began there. It ended in the trees far to his left. To the right of the trough were rock-capped hills. To the left was a ravine cut by the exiting waters of the lake as they flowed downhill toward the south. Considering the alternatives, Fireball had made a great landing.
A practical landing, too.
Bullhook Willy and the thirty-two other troupers who had died had been laid out in the short stretch of trough a hundred yards from the shore. There weren't any dozers or shovels with which to dig graves. And after the bodies were arranged at the bottom of the trough, all those who weren't injured gathered on the two sides. The boss animal man had stared at the bodies for an instant and then began kicking clods of dirt and grass into the cut. The two hundred and twenty-six troupers standing with him then became animated. With feet, hands, sticks and tears they covered the dead.
Packy shook the image from his mind. Without looking at it, he picked up the mahogany-handled, gold-tipped bullhook that was on the grass next to his own steel and rubber affair. With the warmth of the fine wood against his rough hands, he remembered. Poison Jim Bolger used to carry that hook before his trunk was put on the lot. Poison Jim was a lush, and nobody wants a bullhand with a nose like a fire alarm in control of tons of pachyderm.