Prince of Air by Ann Hood Page B

were attached to her hips. She had no legs at all. Realizing that he was pointing, he quickly dropped his hand. But he couldn’t stop gaping.
    â€œWhat in the world . . . ?” Maisie said under her breath.
    â€œThat’s Unthan,” Harry said. “The Legless Wonder. She’s one of the freaks,” he added.
    Maisie whipped around to face him. “Stop saying that!” she said angrily.
    â€œSaying what?” Harry asked, surprised.
    â€œFreaks,” Felix said. “That’s mean.”
    â€œBut that’s what they are,” Harry said, his face washed with confusion.
    â€œShe has a birth defect,” Maisie said. “She can’t help how she looks.”
    Harry shrugged. “Who said it was her fault? She’s a freak of nature. Good thing there’s circuses so she can work, ya know? Make a living for herself.”
    Maisie shook her head. “Harry, people pay to stare at her. They probably make fun of her. That’s wrong.”
    â€œNo, Maisie,” Harry said, growing frustrated. “You’re wrong. People are amazed by what she can do. And you should see the Armless Wonder! She shuffles cards and deals them with her feet. She even holds a pen with her toes and—”
    â€œStop!” Maisie said. “I don’t want to hear about it.”
    Felix, trying to make peace, quickly said, “It’s okay, Harry. We just don’t use the word
freaks
.”
    Harry looked at him, bewildered.
    â€œWe?” Harry asked.
    â€œUh . . . Maisie and me, I mean.”
    Harry laughed. “Then what do you call that?” he said, indicating the woman who had joined Unthan, the two of them talking together in the near distance.
    Maisie blinked hard. Was she really seeing what she thought she was seeing?
    â€œThat’s right,” Harry said, folding his arms across his barrel chest. “Myrtle has four legs. She has half of another person growing out of—”
    â€œEnough!” Maisie said, looking away from the poor woman.
    â€œIf you’re going to travel this circuit with me,” Harry said, “you’re going to have to get used to the freaks, ’cause they ain’t going nowheres.”
    With that, he headed off to the small train car that would be his and Dash’s home for the next week.
    â€œThey
aren’t
going
anywhere
!” Maisie called after him.
    Harry turned around, grinning. “That’s what I said!”
    â€œOooohhh,” Maisie said through gritted teeth. “Harry Houdini drives me crazy.”

    All the performers lived in old train cars parked at the edge of the field. Each car had been divided into thirds, leaving a small, cramped, dark area for a living space. It just fit two narrow cots covered with scratchy gray blankets and yellowed sheets, and one flat, square pillow. The floor was covered with sawdust. Maisie and Felix slept on the other side of Harry and Dash’s room, and they could hear Harry grunting as he did his push-ups and sit-ups early every morning.
    Everyone ate together in a tent they called The Dining Room. Long wooden tables with benches filled the tent. One of them held the food: vats of scrambled eggs for breakfast, soup and bread for lunch, meat and potatoes for dinner. Felix liked mealtime. He liked the camaraderie of the performers, the easy way they spoke to one another, joking and teasing. After the evening shows, everyone gathered in The Dining Room, passing around a bottle of whiskey and telling stories until late at night.
    Maisie quickly became friends with Felicity LaSalle. Felicity and her mother and little brother Francois had albinism, a condition that gave them chalk-white skin and chalk-white hair and pale-pink eyes. When Maisie had first seen them at dinner, she’d had to look away. But Felicity LaSalle came up to her afterward and asked if Maisie and Felix wanted to play pick-up sticks with her and