"You touch Mamon, and I swear to God I'll kill you!"
Luis had dragged himself to his feet. "You shoot him then, it's him or me, Ruda."
Ruda had taken his whip, the whip Luis's grandfather had used, and, for a second, he thought she was going to use it on him. Instead, she laughed in his face.
"Watch me! Just watch me, Luis."
From the trailer window, he had seen her stride to the practice arena. Luis heard her shrill voice instruct the old hand who had been with Grimaldi for thirty years, heard her give the order for Mamon to be released into the arena.
Ruda had wheeled the old, well-worn plinths into the center of the ring, and then stood waiting, hands on her hips. The massive lion moved slowly and cautiously through the makeshift barrier tunnel from his open cage. Luis inched open the window to hear her. Her voice rang out, a high pitched calclass="underline" "Mamawwwwwwwwww, Mamawwwww UP... YUP YUP... Mamon... come on, angel... good boy mama's angel."
Mamon swung his massive black-maned head from side to side and then, to Luis's astonishment, reared up onto his hind legs and walked toward Ruda, his front paws swung toward her. He kept on walking toward her and then, as she called out to the animal, he turned, as if dancing for her. Her high-pitched voice called out a rolling 'Rr' sound — "REH! rey, REH... REH..." — and then Mamon jumped onto the red plinth. After steadying himself, he cautiously tested the plank, a thick wooden board balanced between the two plinths. Carefully, cautiously, right front paw patting the plank, he still balanced himself, and she now called: "HUPPPPPPPPPPPP! BLUE... BLUE... M'angel!"
The animal trod the narrow board toward the blue-based plinth. He eased himself into a sitting position, his thick tail trailing the ground as he perched.
Ruda moved closer and closer to the blue plinth, until she was close enough to be within the lion's territory. Only another trainer would know this was, in actual fact, reasonably safe. The animal sitting on the plinth, needing all four paws to give him balance, is unlikely or unable to attack, his hind quarters overhanging due to the position of his tail. If he attacked from a seated position, he would automatically lose his balance.
Luis couldn't take his eyes off Ruda as she moved in close, and then audaciously turned — leaving her back within a half foot of the animal. She never stopped talking, whispering encouragement, as she then knelt down on one knee, her head beneath the massive cat's.
Ruda gave a high-pitched command: "UP... UP... GREEeee GREEEE..." The green-based plinth was five feet in front of her.
She was encouraging him to leap from one pedestal to another, from the red to the green.
Mamon lifted his front paws and balanced himself on his hind legs on the pedestal. All his muscles strained as he made a flying jump, right over Ruda's head, onto the green pedestal.
She ran to him and gave him a tidbit, rubbing his nose. She then looked to the trailer window with a small, tight smile on her face. Finally she lifted both her arms, giving the final command for Mamon to head out of the arena.
Ruda gave a mocking bow to the small group of onlookers who applauded her, as Luis slunk away from the trailer window.
The word spread fast that the great Luis Grimaldi had lost his nerve. They joked that his wife had taken it from him.
Grimaldi staggered slightly as he left the trailer now. The rain had not ceased and the ground was muddy. He made his way toward the rehearsal tent. The cashier who had talked with Ruda earlier that morning called out to him. He turned bleary-eyed toward her large brown umbrella.
"I can give you the advance, Mr. Grimaldi, if you come over and sign for it." Luis had not the slightest idea what she was talking about, and stumbled over to her.
"Your wife wanted an advance on your salary. If you need it, I've come back from the bank, I just require your signature."
Grimaldi mumbled incoherently, and she passed on, turning to see him slither and slide against one of the trailers. The cashier shrugged, disinterested; his drinking problem was well known.
The big man mumbled to himself. Not content with taking over his act, Ruda was trying to steal his money! He was going to face her, and nothing was going to stop him.
Ruda had made the boys dismantle the cage arena twice, and re-erect it. She timed them to the last second, and even bolted and heaved two of the walls herself; the whole operation was to take less than two minutes. This was tough going, the arena cage was very heavy and unwieldy, the tunnel sections even heavier. As they took it all apart for the third time, they moaned and muttered to one another, out of "Madame Grimaldi's" earshot.
Mike asked if they were to use the new pedestals, stacked outside the ring. Ruda pursed her lips and shook her head. "No, I'll do that first thing in the morning when I'm fresh. Let's just do the easy routine today, give them some exercise, and tomorrow we'll have a real crack at it. So for now, it's the herd, then the leap, followed by the roller roll."
Ruda called up to the electrician. "Can you give me a few spotlights, in the usual places, just to keep them on their toes, red, green, and blue formation?"
A voice answered that he would rather have it be on her toes than his! A few spots came on and off. Ruda shaded her eyes, calling out to the technician again.
"The most important one is directly after the leap, Joe. Last time it was a fraction late."
Ruda paced up and down, her head shaking from side to side as she relaxed her shoulders. There was to be no music, this was simply a warm-up to get the cats used to the new place. It also kept the animals on their mettle after a long night's traveling; it would calm them.
The cages were now lined up, ready to herd in the animals. Ruda gave a look around the ring and did not see Luis, but two of the boys had already placed their chairs at either side of the arena, to watch over the act. They carried no guns; they could, if needed, break up trouble by creating noise and yelling.
"Okay, Mike, let's go for it!" she ordered at the top of her voice.
Ruda used the small trapdoor at the side and entered the arena, then turned back to head into the animals' entrance tunnel. When the act was live, she always entered from the tunnel itself, straight into the ring, as if she were one of the cats.
As she headed down the tunnel, she double-checked that the sections were bolted, bending her head slightly where the bars joined at the top. Midway she signaled to Mike to release the cats on the count of ten, to coincide with the opening music bars. She tightened her thick leather gloves, her voice hissed... one... two... three... As she reached nine, she spun around, running into the arena, back down the tunnel into the wide caged arena. She carried only her short practice stick. She wore old trousers, a shirt knotted at the waist, and the used black leather boots, caked with mud and excreta. They had not seen a lick of polish since Luis had given them to her.
The cats were now released; any second they'd be heading in. Ruda paced herself; she bowed to the empty auditorium — she practiced every move to be performed in front of the live audience. Arms raised, she could feel the ground shudder as the animals charged down the tunnel. She felt a rush of adrenaline. She loved this moment, when the sixteen tigers hurtled into the main ring, as though frighteningly out of control, because she knew the cats understood who was their leader, which place each was to take. Ruda backed to the wall of the arena and picked up a heavy double-sided weighted ladder. The cats whirled around, forming a wide circle around her, as she stood in apparent nonchalance next to a small ladder plinth. They were loping, moving faster and faster...