Sapphic Cowboi (10 page)

It was fascinating to watch as they got
animals, wagons, and gear on the train that was there just for the
circus. Two cars were put aside for Maggie but she found like the
other rail road car that she could fit fine in the one and told
Perry that someone else could use it. She took down the separators
with Ariana’s eager assistance which surprised her since the other
woman looked so frail and delicate. They put the separators that
made stalls onto the side in case she needed them for something
else. Spreading hay on the ground she quickly filled the feed bin
and the water bin, this one didn’t have the luxury of pumped water
from under the car in a reservoir so they hauled buckets from a
pump beside the depot, Perry and a few of his roustabout friends
helping to make it quick work.

“
Hey, I have an empty barrel
if you need it too” Perry offered and Maggie gratefully accepted
knowing they might need extra water between traveling
spots.

“
We’re off to Indiana!”
Ariana told her excitedly.

“
Have you been there
before?” Maggie asked.

“
Oh, I’ve been all over”
Ariana answered. “Except for school I’ve traveled with Daddy and
Grandpa all over this country, even into Canada!”

Maggie marveled at that, this was her first
foray into traveling and while she had loved the shows she was also
overwhelmed and still trying to get her footing.

“
Ariana, your Daddy is
looking for you!” a gruff voice called.

They looked up from where they were sitting
on a bale of hay chatting and waiting for the last of the gear to
be stowed, the horses were all set except for this last bale,
Ariana was petting Feathers head as they chatted.

“
Okay, okay” Ariana answered
as she stood up and Maggie recognized the man who was Cecil and
Carlton’s father and whom she had yet to be formally introduced to.
“It’s been a pleasure speaking with you” she said politely to
Maggie.

“
It was nice talking to you
too, thank you for your help” she answered pleased with having made
a friend her own age or thereabouts. She was still intimidated by
Ariana, she was the most sophisticated woman she had ever met, but
she was pleasant, put on no airs, and made Maggie feel welcome. She
watched as she walked away towards the front of the train. The man
on his own horse who had barked at Ariana watched her watch Ariana
thoughtfully.

“
All aboard!” was called all
down the train and Maggie effortlessly picked up the remaining bale
and took it aboard with Feathers trotting along beside her. A
couple of the roustabouts helped her stow the ramp below the car
and she hopped up to close the sliding door. Using a lantern
carefully in the darkened box car she set up her bed on a couple of
bales of hay. She could hear and feel the activity all around the
cars.

“
Hey” a voice called and she
looked up to see a face peering at her from one of the sliding trap
doors on each end of the car so you could travel from car to
car.

“
Hey” she answered holding
up the lantern trying to see more clearly.

“
Perry sent me to ask if you
want to eat with us” the voice asked.

Pushing aside milling horses she made her way
towards the voice. Holding up the lantern she saw it was one of the
clowns she had come to know and enjoy. She couldn’t remember his
name though. “I’d love to eat, I’m so hungry I could eat a horse”
she joked knowing he would appreciate it. His response was a
resounding laugh. She hung the lantern on a hook on the wall and
blew it out, making sure it was out as hay and a flame could have
dangerous results. The horses were taken care of, Feathers was here
to guard them and her gear, and the horses would stomp on anyone
who they didn’t know. Already the crew knew not to mess with
Maggie’s Mustangs as they were calling them despite her
protestations that they weren’t mustangs.

Maggie followed the man carefully from car to
car. All of the other animal cars had dividers and cages. The
animals were behind them and it left passageway for them to go
through the cars safely.

“
I hope no one tries to get
into my box car” Maggie said as they went along.

“
They can go over” the man
told her as he pointed upwards where she caught a glimpse of
someone trotting on top of the car as she went over the hookups
between two cars.

They soon arrived in a car that was obviously
a sleeping car with beds stacked three and four on each side. A
section at the end was for a potbellied stove and a delicious smell
of soup was coming from whatever was being cooked on top.

Maggie was greeted by all and was soon
chatting with others including Perry.

“
Well your first shows are
behind you, what do you think of them?” she was asked.

Maggie smiled and told them how overwhelmed
she had been feeling and how much she had enjoyed the applause.
They smiled at that, everyone enjoyed the applause.

“
Yeah, wait until you get
booed, that isn’t pleasant” someone else put in. Then they
discussed some of the bad shows they had done over the years, the
hostile crowds, and the bad weather. It painted a really dismal
picture but Perry assured the newcomer that it wasn’t all good, it
wasn’t all bad either.

“
I heard they were going to
feed that zebra to the lions if it got any more fractious” someone
commented and that started a whole new train of
conversation.

As the train pulled out and they chatted the
evening away Maggie felt a part of their ‘family.’ Having lost her
own and been alone for so long it was nice to belong.

“
How did you like Martha?”
someone asked with a grin.

Maggie didn’t answer but that was answer
enough for several of them as they told tales about her temper
tantrums, Maggie learned that she was having an affair with Carlton
(she was shocked, in her world women didn’t have sex outside of the
bonds of marriage), and she found out other salacious gossip that
she didn’t really want to hear. She was deciding to leave when
someone asked her about Ariana.

“
What about her?” Maggie
asked wondering at the inquiry.

Several looks were exchanged but no one was
forthcoming.

“
I saw her helping you and
was wondering if she was going to take Martha’s place?” tongue in
cheek one of the roustabouts asked.

Maggie thought he was joking “no, she was
just helping me get my horses settled, that’s all” but she missed
the meaningful looks the other shared and the conversation soon
changed to something or someone else.

Maggie carefully made her way back through
several cars to her own, someone had offered to take her up top but
the thought of the moving train and keeping her balance caused her
stomach to tighten and she decided to pass through the cars
instead. She struck a match in her own boxcar and lit the lantern.
She hated the idea of having a lit lantern to see by in the box car
but she didn’t have anything else as she made her way carefully to
where she would sleep. Feathers greeted her, his tail going thump
thump thump on the boxcar floor. She made a walk through checking
the horses and found everyone settled in okay before making her way
back to her bed and hanging the lamp on a nail in the wall she blew
it out and pulled off her boots to go to sleep.

The train rumbled off through the night and
in the final box car, the caboose sat the Bigelows discussing the
last show.

“
You think she’s gonna be
able to hang on until we find a looker to go with her act?” their
father asked Cecil.

“
She broke Martha’s
shoulder, whose gonna want to work with a crazy bunch of horses?”
Carlton put in.

“
She didn’t break Martha’s
shoulder; she broke it from falling off the damn horse drunk!”
Cecil returned hotly and turning back to his father “I’m sure she
will do fine. The act looked fine without a looker and it will only
look better when we find someone, anyone!”

“
I just think the
advertising we did in advance is gonna go to waste if we don’t find
someone soon, people are expecting it!”

“
We’ll find someone, we’ll
find someone” Cecil assured his father and crossed his fingers
under the table.

“
Let’s look at the schedule
and see what we have there” he pulled the papers to him.

“
The take increased for the
last show with the zebra act and the horse act” Cecil pointed out
to his father.

“
We are going to have to
have more advances on Chicago when we get up there” Carlton
commented as the three of them went round and round discussing
business, ideas, and money.

Maggie was pleased with the money she was
receiving from her shows. The circus provided her with a suit, the
tuxedo for shows, they provided the horses with hay and grain. She
stopped at a bank and got her cash money sent to her bank back
home, one of the few that had reopened after the crash of 1929. She
trusted her bank, had grown up with everyone who worked there. She
also knew if anything happened to her that they would take care of
her place until someone else came along, she had told Frank at the
bank she wanted Peter to have it all if she didn’t come back.
Everyone thought it was because she was sweet on Peter, many had
thought they should marry and combine the two farms, her father as
well at one point, but Peter, although he was attracted to Maggie,
knew she didn’t love him. She was his best friend though and he
could love her from afar without it ruining their friendship.

Maggie had worried about keeping money with
her even if it was hidden in her saddle. Perry and several others
had warned her of light fingers and she was already missing a comb
she used on the horses but that could be from just misplacing it.
So she thought to transfer the money was the best idea and she
swallowed her fears, painfully signed her name where the bank
teller told her to and received a receipt for the cash she gave
him. She stared uncomprehendingly at the receipt as the bank teller
condescendingly explained it to her. It was humiliating but she did
it anyway.

They did a few small shows, two nighters,
where they got in late one night, worked all night to set up, and
did business the next day with a show that night, breaking it down
afterwards to get on the train and go on to the next stop. These
types of shows were exhausting to everyone involved. But the money
was there and they couldn’t afford to pass it up. Best were the
shows where they had a couple of days’ worth of shows and carnival
for the spectators to spend their money at.

Maggie was surprised how much time Ariana was
giving to helping her. She claimed she loved horses but didn’t know
that much about them. Maggie, eager for a friend her own age gladly
told her anything she wanted to know about them.

“
I heard someone ask if
these were from Arabia?” Ariana was brushing Ashes who was nibbling
at the sleeve of her dress showing her affection and ruining the
fabric at the same time but Ariana didn’t care.

Maggie chuckled, not only at the question but
at Ashes antics, he was such a flirt. “No, these aren’t Arabians
although I wouldn’t mind getting a touch of that in their
bloodlines. These are mostly Friesians with a bit of Mustang in
them at one time and a few unnamed breeds but we carefully bred
them until they were all blacks with the stamina and size you see
here.”

“
We?” Ariana swatted at the
playful Ashes as he nibbled at her neck tickling her.

“
My granddaddy, my daddy,
and myself, we’d been breeding horses for over eighty years between
us” Maggie told her proudly.

“
How’d they feel about you
going off to join the circus” Ariana said with a smile, every kid
wanted to join the circus.

“
They’re dead, they didn’t
say a word” Maggie grinned at the distasteful joke and then laughed
when Ariana wrinkled her nose at her.

They were both enjoying their friendship and
Ariana was ecstatic when Maggie taught her to ride properly.

“
Keep your elbows in, you’re
not going to fly on him” she told her as she let her ride Shwartzie
with her saddle.

Round and round in the pen they now carried
for the horses, not every event had a convenient corral or paddock
available, it was one of the things the horses hauled from the rail
car to wherever they were setting up for the show, the second car
put aside for the horses now kept gear such as the temporary
fences, a wagon to carry the fences, ribbons, feathers, and other
festive ornaments for the horses, hay, and grain. There was room
for more and Maggie wasn’t sure what they would need but at every
show Cecil had brought them more things to attach to the horses
either in the form of bridles, halters, or other leather
contraptions. They had broken the horses into two groups as the
full dozen was too overwhelming he felt except for the really big
venues and it gave the six left out of that show something to look
forward to as they would be used for the next one.

“
How am I doing?” Ariana
asked.

“
Real good considering what
a girl you are” Maggie teased her. Ariana was a good sport and
hadn’t balked about riding astride versus riding side
saddle.

“
My balance is improving
too” Ariana told her later as she rode without a saddle, astride,
and then sitting sideways.

“
Schwartzie is giving you a
good ride cause he adores you and you keep bringing those carrots”
Maggie joked but she was happy with her friend’s
progress.