From Shadows to Starlight

Memories

Chapter Forty

“A waif on this earth, sick, ugly, and small, condemned from my birth and rejected by all, from my lips broke a cry, such as anguish may wring, Sing—said God in reply, Chant poor little thing.”—Toru Dutt, from a translation of a French poem by Jean-Pierre de Béranger.

Memories

                Emilian left the tent when he was sure his parents and two sisters were asleep. Barefoot, he moved through the quiet, empty camp as quickly and noiselessly as he could. As he approached the opposite end of the camp he began to hear the chattering of the monkeys in their cages, and the snoring of the ancient lion in his. Their traveling fair didn’t have as many animals as some—the only others they had were a talking parrot and a few well-trained dogs, but they had something none of the other fairs had. At least that’s what Emilian had heard. He hadn’t yet laid eyes on the new member of their camp—his parents had forbidden him to go near the cage.

            He had overheard some of the men who worked with the animals. They said the newcomer would make them richer than they’d ever been before. Emilian had heard many other things, too.

            He’d heard the newcomer was a devil.

            Or at least half-devil.

            How did they ever catch a devil? Young Emilian wondered. Maybe tonight he would find out. He had to see this creature for himself.

            As he made his way toward where the devil-child was kept, Emilian noticed that the monkeys had grown silent. The lion had woken from his sleep and was staring at the cage on the other side of his.

            What could have gotten Cesar to wake up? The boy thought. There were no whips in sight to get the old lion off his feet.

            And then Emilian heard it.

            Somewhere, someone was singing a wordless melody. It sounded like a child’s voice, only it was nothing like the voices of any children Emilian knew. It was the sweetest sound he had ever heard.

            That was what had woken Cesar up, and had made the monkeys go quiet. Sure enough, they were all looking in the same direction the voice was coming from. But…surely it couldn’t be coming from the cage on the other side of Cesar’s.

            The devil-child was supposed to be kept there.

            Emilian ran past Cesar’s cage as fast as he could. Then, breathless, he found he stood face to face with the devil-child.

            Or not. The now silent creature before him looked much smaller than Emilian had imagined. Its form looked human enough, but it wore a strange cloth mask over its face that had three little holes cut out where its eyes and nose were. The moonlight helped Emilian get a good look at it, but he could not see its eyes, and that was unnerving. Emilian just stared for a while, until he could no longer keep his questions to himself.

            “What are you?” he asked.

            The creature did not answer; it only moved further back into the shadows.

            “I want to talk to you!” Emilian said in a loud whisper. “I’ve heard a lot about you. That you’ll make us all rich. All the animals love your singing…that was you singing, wasn’t it? Is that why you are here?” The boy wasn’t sure about that part. He had heard nothing of any newcomer singing.