HIGH STRANGENESS-Tales of the Macabre (2 page)

Mrs. Goffreid turned and ran for the exit at the end of the lon
g hallway between tents. Behind her she heard derisive laughter but never knew if it came through her ears or her thoughts.

#

A beautiful girl in a tight, red sequined dress came to hold the flap aside and gestured the next in line, the little man, to ente
r the hallway to view the exhibit. He smiled nervously and glanced back at the others, shrugging his shoulders. The flap closed behind him. He could smell odd scents--an antiseptic, hot cotton candy swirling in a metal tumbler, sauerkraut, and Old Spice a
f
tershave.

He was very sensitive to scents and brought out a handkerchief from his pocket to cover his nostrils. He walked down the hallway toward the lighted exhibit without fear. What was to fear? This was just another freak in a mildly entertaining side
show. Nothing to be afraid of...

He came up on the glass enclosure and almost ran away. He saw the two-headed man and his mouth tightened into a thin line of disapproval. "What in the world?"

"I assure you we are of this world. Nothing alien about us," the
smiling head said, giggling and nodding his fine head. Next to his cheek the dead head hung chin to chest, drooling spit down the nice suit, the orbs of the eyeballs rolling behind closed lids.

Hello, my fine freak friend. Your name is Harvey. In your chu
rch they call you Deacon Harvey. And the people you burgle call you a black-hearted thief. You live a dual life to make up for how little you were born and how big you mean to make yourself, isn
’
t that so? Or do you not understand your motives?

Harvey's h
and lowered the handkerchief from his mouth. He stared wide-eyed at the creature before him. "What are you saying?"

"Oh, that's my brother. He does rattle on so, doesn't he? He knows all your secrets and I know none. I got the looks, he got the brains, wha
t can you do?"

Harvey glanced at the smiling man and winced with instant understanding. "You're inside my head."

"Oh no, no-no, not me. It's
him
." He jerked his head to the side, touching foreheads with his brother.

He's right, you know. He got the looks,
I got the gift. I have to be fed and half of what is on the spoon falls out of my mouth. I have no life except what's in my head. It's a vast landscape I roam all alone despite how close I am with this beast who carries me around on his shoulder. But let'
s
talk about you, Harvey...

"What a godless, unholy thing you are!" Harvey said, backing from the glass, preparing to scamper down the hall and away from the monstrosity.

I am godless? I am unholy? You pretend to be a devout Christian. You pretend to be a g
ood, upstanding citizen. You pretend everything, Harvey. You are so full of deceit it oozes out of your skin like sweat. You climb through windows in the night, you pad down hallways and up stairs that do not belong to you. You go through ladies' jewel bo
x
es and then you go through their underwear drawers. You are a despicable little man. You are a weasel and a liar of the first order! I, on the other hand, pretend nothing. I am an abnormal aberration of nature, a mistake locked onto a silly body with my i
g
norant brother for all of my days. Yet...yet I can see into YOU. I see how sneaky and dark your intentions, how disreputable you are; I am the one being on earth who knows what a sham you are and always will be.

"God help us!" Harvey ran for the exit fast
as his short legs could convey him. At his back he heard the laughter trail him like a ghost with a wild dog baying at its side.

#

The assistant lifted the flap and gestured in the third patron, a man with shifty, angry eyes and a tic that caused his upper
lip to lift and drop, lift and drop.

This man wore workman's clothes, dark blue pants and a short-sleeved shirt with his name in white script:
Jerry.

Once this man reached the glass, he almost turned away in order to run down the hall to find a way out, b
ut the smiling man's voice stopped him. He waited, shivering, hunching his shoulders.

"Oh, dear, don't be that way, don
’
t be so afraid! Now you've hurt our feelings. Hasn't he hurt our feelings, brother? And I wore my best suit tonight!"

Petty criminal.

"W
hat the hell did you say?"

The smiling man put out his hands in apology. "I said nothing, friend. I expect that was my brother."

Jerry stared hard at the inanimate head that hung on the shoulder, a horrible thing that only a demented God must have created
. "I'm a mechanic," he protested. "I'm no damn criminal."

Mechanic, my ass. You're a petty criminal these days, lifting purses from old ladies and their Social Security checks like the coward you are. But you were a big time criminal at one time, weren't y
ou, Jerry? You escaped jail after sentencing before they could ever transport you to prison. Disappeared twenty years ago. You killed your landlord, stabbed him with a butcher knife when he tried to throw you out of the building. Since then you've kept on
the move and changed your name a dozen times.

"You're a liar! Get out of my head!"

I know how you're going to end up, too, Jerry. Do you want to know? Are you brave enough to listen to what the future holds for you?

Apparently not. Jerry high-tailed it
down the hall as if he were on fire.

"Oh, don't be that way!" called the smiling man.

#

As the flap closed behind him, the tall thin patron sauntered down the hallway full of confidence and expectation. He had not been amazed or awed by the original sides
how freaks and hoped there was something grand, something extreme, or something horrific waiting behind the glass enclosure he saw lighted halfway down the narrow tented hall.

He stopped before the glass and his mind slipped gears. He thought of two-headed
calves and two-headed frogs. He could not think straight enough to take in what he was looking at behind the glass.

"Hello, there. We are so glad you've come to see us."

The thin man stared first at the smiling, handsome head and then the dead-looking hea
d with the rolling eyeballs moving behind the closed lids like fat ball bearings pushing and straining behind wispy cloth.

You are a mad man, but you know that, don't you, Davenport?

Davenport flinched. He knew immediately this voice came from inside his o
wn head. He frowned and growled low like a tiger going to ground, ready to leap.

I know what you
’
re thinking, but no, you can't get to us. This glass is impenetrable. There's a labyrinth between where you stand and where we are enclosed. If you tried, you'
d never find us before we disappeared.

"I could try," Davenport said. His eyes had gone cold as a stony beach in winter. "How are you talking to me in my head?"

Never mind that. You should be used to voices, Davenport. You've followed so many for so long.
They helped you escape the loony bin, after all.

"Mental facility," Davenport corrected.

Have it your way. The voices helped you do the research necessary and they taught you the techniques of faking medical degrees so that you could pass yourself off as a
physician. Quite an intelligent accomplishment for a mad man, Davenport!

"Who told you all this?"

"He knows everything." The smiling man grinned idiotically.

Davenport didn't even spare him a glance at the interruption. He kept his attention on the slobb
ering, blind head.

"Answer me, who told you these things?"

God? The Devil? Fairies under the fairy bridge? What do you care? I know you, that is what's important here. I know about the syringes of air you give to sick patients of other doctors on staff at
Bradbury Hospital. I know all about the satisfaction you get from your death-dealing. It enlarges your madness, it feeds it, and it makes you, day by day, year by year, into a proper monster.

"I'm not listening to more of this rubbish." Davenport turned an
d began to trot away. He heard the laughter mocking him and turned back in a flash. He rushed to the window and beat on the glass with both fists. "I'll kill you, you two-headed freak bastard! I'll find you and kill you both!"

The laughter rang now outward
ly and inside Davenport
’
s mind. Both brothers emitted gales of laughter that forced Davenport to cover his ears and run for the exit before his eardrums burst.

#

The assistant held the flap for the last paid patron for the show, smiling gently at the scraw
ny girl who ducked to keep her hair from being mussed as she sailed under the flap and into the hallway. She walked slowly, hands held together at her waist, elbows jutting. She wore a stalwart look, her eyes frosty and unfathomable, just as if she owned
t
he sideshow, the carnival, as if she owned the whole world.

When she reached the glass, she stood still, her expression unchanging. "Hello, freak," she said, sarcasm dripping from her tinny voice.

"Hello, dear." The smiling man inclined his fine head.

Who
are you calling a freak, you skinny, mean, murderous freak of a girl!

The girl stiffened even more, her spine rigid. Her lips turned down and her eyes blazed. "What did you just say to me?"

I called you a skinny. Mean. Murderous. FREAK.

Now she knew for certain the voice was in her head and yet it was not her own. She stared at the lolling head and watched the saliva leak out and drip like white honey to the man's gray suit jacket that was already splotched with it.

"Who are you?"

I'm you
r worst nightmare, MaryBeth. I can read your blackened and pitted mind. I know you're fourteen years old. I know when you were twelve, you pushed your older brother off the edge of the subway into the path of a coming train. I know it was ruled an acciden
t
. It was the same with your older sister when you were thirteen and she was seventeen. They said she had a weak constitution. They said she had allergies to foods. They never did an autopsy, lucky for you, wasn't it, MaryBeth? She loved mushrooms, didn't
s
he? So you found some yellow caps in the woods behind that looming mansion you live in and fed them to her. All to be sure you'd inherit the family fortune. All for your ambition, your greed, your...rage.

"I'm leaving now." MaryBeth's checks were as rose r
ed as if she were a rouged doll. She twisted away from the glass, but before she could hurry from the exhibit, the voice in her head shouted at her.

You should wait. You're the one I mean to tell the future.

She froze and turned her head on her skinny neck
to stare through the glass. The smiling man moved closer to the window, but she refused to be intimidated. She stood her ground, seething.

"You don't know the future. You're just a dumb freak playing a little game. I wouldn't even trouble to spit on you i
f you passed me in the street. You're garbage they forgot to take out. You're the fetus they neglected to abort. You're nothing and I'm not afraid of you. Either of you."

Not afraid? You will be, MaryBeth, just give it a little time. You see, I brought all
of you in here. I created your desire and curiosity. I brought in a woman who kills her many husbands for insurance money. I brought a church deacon who is a cat burglar and sexual pervert. I brought in an escaped convict who committed murder and now rob
s
little old ladies. And just before you, I brought a madman who is an imposter doctor. He gets his jollies by injecting unsuspecting patients so they die ugly, unnecessary deaths.

"Worse than me!" MaryBeth made a move to leave again. "What do I care?"

Not
one of them are worse than you, not a single one.

"How can you say that? They've killed too. They
’
re mad criminals, insane people, and murderers."

It
’
s true, they are, but your ambition is unrestrained, MaryBeth. It's so strong, it's the most dangerous of
all obsessions, don't you think? You were willing to kill family. You turned on your own blood. You weren't born with a conscience. Your heart is blackest of all, black as a cave deep in a mountain, black as the outer void beyond the universe.

"You are no
thing but a ridiculous freak. I don't have to believe a word you say. This is all a setup, some kind of trick. Now back off."

For the third time she turned to go, holding her bony shoulders back, her chin up, her head high.

They will exhume your sister, Ma
ryBeth. Your father suspects you. He's not as unobservant as you think. You're going to get caught, locked up, and you won't get out of prison until you are a very old woman. They will try you as an adult.