Ruda double-checked the props. Next she went to the meat trailer and asked if all the cats had eaten. She was on her way to Mamon's cage when she remembered the time. The public would soon be starting to line up. As she started back to the trailer, suddenly her head felt as though it would burst open. She gasped with pain and leaned against the side of a trailer. Ruda forced herself to carry on, telling herself she hadn't eaten. That's what it was, she had to have something to eat.
Torsen arrived at Freda's apartment building, ran his fingers through his hair, and rang the bell. She opened the door before he had finished buzzing. She had her coat over her arm, and her purse in her hand. Freda asked whether his use of the patrol car meant he was on duty. He shook his head. As they drove off he explained they were to pick up his sergeant and a girlfriend.
The two couples talked animatedly, looking forward to the show.
"How was my father today?" Torsen asked Freda.
"Well, he was very well at breakfast, but then it was snowflake time again."
Rieckert asked what she meant, and Freda explained, pulling a little bit of tissue from her purse, licking it and sticking it on the end of her nose, then blowing it off. "He does it for hours until the floor looks like there's been a snowstorm."
Rieckert laughed, nudged Torsen, and said it could be hereditary.
Torsen seethed. He would have to speak to Freda about this snowflake business, it wasn't funny. As Rieckert started to mimic his father in the backseat, Torsen got more and more uptight.
"If it were your father, you wouldn't think it was funny! It is not funny!"
Rieckert blew a fragment of tissue off his nose. "I agree! But it's one hell of a hobby!"
As the baron and Helen continued walking, they passed one of the circus ads. Helen stopped dead and looked at the face surrounded by lions. Louis turned back as she pointed to Ruda Kellerman's name. "Ruda," she repeated, and then ran to hail a passing taxi.
Louis was a step behind her. "Why a taxi? The man said she was walking!"
Helen bent down to the driver. "The circus, please take us to the circus!"
The parking lot was filling up: Crowds walked from the train stations and buses deposited parties near the fenced perimeter. Children waited impatiently to have their photograph taken while they sat on top of the elephant. Clowns passed leaflets and sold balloons. Speakers blasted music, and two majorettes in red sequined costumes paraded up and down banging their drums.
Ruda sat in the bedroom wearing her boots and white trousers. Her body wouldn't stop trembling. She pressed her hands together. They were wet with perspiration. She had never felt this way before, and she was beginning to get frightened. Luis ran into the trailer.
"Standing room only, it's pandemonium out there. Come and see the crowds, they're about to use the laser beams, it's one hell of a sight... come and see!"
"Luis, something's wrong with me, look, I'm shaking, I don't know how to stop it!"
He took her in his arms. "It's just nerves. They are coming to see you, Ruda. Look — your face is on every poster, your face, your act.
Ruda heard the roar of the crowd as Luis opened the trailer door.
"Jesus Christ, Ruda! Look at the laser beams. My God, I've never seen a show like this, that old bastard knows how to draw the crowds!"
High in the sky, in brilliant colors, the lasers wrote:
Rebecca quickened her pace, buffeted along by the crowds heading toward the circus. Even if she wanted to turn back she would find it nearly impossible. She had an overpowering urge to run. Suddenly, the stream of people ahead began pointing upward to the laser beams. They gasped and called out, still surging forward, now with faces tilted skyward. But all Rebecca saw was the name Ruda. She could hear a child's voice calling out, screaming "I'm here, I'm here, I'm over here." Lost among the milling people, a little girl screamed for her mother, but to Rebecca it was a sign, a symbol. She had to get to the front of the crowd. "Let me through, please, please let me pass..."
Ruda stood in the open door of her trailer, staring at the sky. Slowly she looked back to the crowds. Thousands of people were milling around, eating cotton candy, carrying balloons, surging toward the massive triple-ringed tent. There was someone else there, too. She could feel it with every nerve in her body.
Rebecca stood with her face pointed at the sky, her head spinning at the blazing name: Ruda Kellerman! She began to head frantically toward the trailer park. A man at the gate was about to stop her, then waved her through with an apology. He thought she was Ruda Grimaldi.
Luis looked up with a proud smile and turned to Ruda. She stood motionless in the open doorway.
"Are you okay, honey?"
She stared ahead. He asked again if she was all right, but she didn't answer, she couldn't. She didn't hear him, because standing within yards of her was Rebecca.
Rebecca could not move, she could hear no sound, no voices, nothing. All she had eyes for was Ruda, framed in the doorway. The sisters had not seen each other in forty-four years.
Luis was not sure what was happening. He could see the tall elegant woman, but from far away he couldn't really distinguish her features. "Who is it?" he asked, as Ruda stepped down from the trailer. He watched as the woman moved closer and closer. She moved into the lights of the trailer windows.
Shadows played across her face, but he caught a glimpse of her eyes. They were Ruda's eyes, and he knew then. He was dumbstruck. All he could do was stand and look on as Ruda and the woman approached each other, oblivious to everything that surrounded them.
There was one step between them. They were the exact same height, but Ruda was more powerful. Her body blocked Rebecca from Luis's view. He moved sideways, but all he could see was Ruda's back. It was as if she were protecting her other self.
They did not speak as their hands moved to touch each other's face. But they said each other's name in their minds, in unison, as they melted into each other's arms.
Way past their heads, past the parking lot, out on the road leading to an entrance, Luis saw the ominous blue flashing light of a police car. "Please, dear God, no," he thought. "Please don't let them have come for Ruda, not now, not tonight."
Chapter 19
They lay together like long-lost lovers, devouring each other's face with their eyes.
They felt the wild beating of their hearts. They had so much to tell each other, to ask, and yet they could not break from the embrace. Little by little Ruda released her hold on Rebecca, then rolled over to lie on her back. She felt Rebecca shudder.
"No, don't, don't cry, please don't."
It took all Ruda's willpower to let go of her sister. She moved away from the bed and reached for one of the posters on the wall. She turned to Rebecca, holding it up for her to see.
"This is me, Ruda Kellerman."
"I am..." Rebecca's lips trembled. She couldn't say her name.
Ruda held out her hand. "Come. Come with me!"
Hand in hand, they looked at the photographs on the walls. Ruda pointed, speaking softly, in odd descriptive sentences, and then their psychic communication began.
"Chicago, London, Florida..."