The Fiery Ring (35 page)

But the watchers and Joy saw it, and in a flash she threw herself forward. She stepped behind Chase, her back to his, and called out, “Brutus, get back!”

Brutus snarled and continued to approach. She reached out with the small stick and called in a harsh voice, “Back, Brutus! Up!”

Chase had whirled around just in time to see the huge cat sulkily turn and climb back up on his perch. Brutus roared defiantly and lifted a paw to show that he was not defeated.

The crowd broke into a wild ovation.

Chase, being a natural showman, reached over suddenly and grabbed Joy, gave her a kiss, and bowed before her. “Take a bow quick. You saved my bacon. It’s great theater.”

Joy felt foolish, but she bowed and held her hands up in recognition of the applause.

“That’s enough. Let’s get ’em out of here,” Chase said.

The two of them sent their charges to the tunnel one at a time and then stood together in the center of the cage, holding hands with both arms raised. They both waved and smiled as the applause rolled on and on.

When they stepped outside the cage, Stella was there to greet them. She ignored the crowd and everyone else and threw herself into Chase’s arms. “You were wonderful!” she cried and gave him a kiss. This brought another roar from the crowd, even though they did not know who she was.

Joy turned instantly and left the arena. She had barely gotten back to help Doak get the cats quieted when Chase appeared. He came to her with a smile on his face. “You
were the best!” he said. “Thanks for saving my life.” He put his arms around her and would have kissed her if she hadn’t pushed him away.

“Go get your hugs and kisses from Stella!”

A hurt look crossed Chase’s face. He said nothing but turned away, and when he was out of hearing distance, Doak said, “He was just tryin’ to tell ya how fine you were, Miss Joy. Why you want to treat him like that?”

Joy felt tears rise in her eyes, but she blinked them away. “He’s got a woman.”

“No, he ain’t,” Doak said firmly. “You ain’t seein’ clear, Miss Joy. I’m plumb disappointed in you.”

Joy wanted to tell Doak he was wrong, but in her anger and hurt, she couldn’t speak, so she just turned and walked away stiffly, the triumph of the performance having been spoiled by the scene between Stella and Chase.

****

After the evening performance, Dan invited Joy to take a drive with him. The evening performance had gone better than the afternoon performance. The cats had cooperated, and they had received a tremendous reception from the crowd. But afterward Joy had been cool toward Chase, saying no more than was necessary. Now she wanted to get away from the circus and readily accepted Dan’s offer.

The two of them drove around the streets of Atlanta until they found a café that stayed open until midnight. As they sat down, Dan winked at the waitress and said, “What have you got for a celebrity?”

The waitress, a small, perky-looking blonde with enormous blue eyes, stared at him and smiled. “Are you the celebrity?”

“Me? No. She is—Miss Joy Winslow, the most famous and daring wild-animal tamer in the world.”

“Aw, you’re puttin’ me on,” the waitress said doubtfully. “She ain’t no animal tamer.”

“Sure she is.” Darvo reached into his shirt pocket, pulled
out some tickets, and gave two of them to the girl. “You come out tomorrow night with your boyfriend, and you’ll see this young lady here in a cage with thirty wild tigers and lions. It’ll scare you to death.”

“Gee, I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars!”

Joy smiled at Darvo. “This is the real hero here. This is Captain Dan Darvo, the human cannonball. Shot out of a cannon, he flies a hundred and thirty feet through the air into a wet sponge.”

The two had fun teasing the waitress, and after she had taken their order, Dan slumped down in his chair. “After a show I always feel pretty limp, don’t you?”

“Absolutely boneless,” Joy nodded. “But you’ve been at it so long.”

“It never changes. Something can always go wrong. Why, last week I nearly got crunched between Nell and Alice. I got in the wrong place, and those two bulls just about crushed me.”

The two talked show business for a while. Dan was enjoying his return to the human cannonball act now that his broken bones were completely healed and Travis had left to go to Bible school. He was grateful that Joy’s brother had been able to fill in like that, but he was glad to have his old job back. After their food came, Dan dug in with enthusiasm. He saw, however, that Joy was not eating, and he asked, “What’s the matter, doll?”

“Oh, nothing,” she said, picking idly at a french fry.

“You’re out with a good-lookin’ guy like me, the best date in the whole circus, and you’re down in the mouth? I know what’s wrong with you.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.” Dan took a big bite of the steak before him, chewed it for a moment, then swallowed. “You’re sad because you know you’re never going to get me to marry you.”

Joy couldn’t help laughing. “Well, you’ve got some ego, Dan Darvo. I’ll say that for you.”

“I’ve got your number, Joy. You’re the marrying kind. Not what I’m looking for.”

“I know that, Dan, but you’ll find a woman you’ll really fall for someday. Then you’ll marry her and live happily ever after.”

“Do you really believe that storybook stuff?”

“It can happen. Look at Pete and Ann.”

“You got me there. They’re just like honeymooners all the time, but folks like that don’t come along very often.” He picked up his coffee cup, swirled the black liquid around, and stared into it, then finally looked up with a serious expression. “You’re wasting your time with me, Joy. I like you, but it’s pretty clear that your heart’s someplace else,” he said softly.

Confused by this, Joy said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do.”

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“No, let’s talk about this. You’re in love with Chase, and you’re mad because Stella is trying to draw him in.”

Joy could not answer for a moment. “Is that what everyone’s saying?”

“Not everyone’s as smart and as observant as I am.” Dan smiled. He put his hand over hers and squeezed it. “You can tell Uncle Dan. It’s just between us. Think of me as your father.”

“I don’t think I’d trust you quite that far, Dan. Besides, what if he still loves her? He certainly acts like he does.”

“You’re a pretty smart girl, Joy, but I think you’re reading him wrong.” Dan released her hand and picked up the cup again, but he did not drink from it. His face serious, as it rarely was, he said, “He doesn’t love Stella.”

“He’s got a funny way of showing it. He’s at her trailer all the time.”

“You think that’s because he wants to be there?”

“Of course.”

“You’re wrong about that. Look, I know Chase pretty well.
I knew him before, and there was a time when he would have stuck his head in the fire for Stella. He was crazy gone on her, but let me tell you. I don’t know how to say this exactly, but it was a thing—well, it was a thing of the flesh. They were on fire for each other, and I guess Stella still is. She’s got a lot of passion in her, and she wants to kindle the ashes up again, so she’s out to build a fire in her old flame.”

Joy stared at Gypsy Dan. There was a deep wisdom in his eyes, and she knew he understood people. He had told her once that he was a real gypsy, that he could read the fate of people in their palms. She did not believe this, of course, but she believed that his natural intelligence and years spent in the midst of the circus world had given him special insight. “I think you’re wrong, Dan. I think he loves her.”

“No, he doesn’t, but she does have a power over him. You think a man can just walk away from a woman when she doesn’t want him to?”

“Of course.”

“Well, you’re wrong about that. I don’t know what it is, but a man can be the strongest guy in the world. He can weigh two hundred pounds and be able to pick up the back end of a truck, but a little woman weighing a hundred and ten pounds can make him do anything she wants him to. Women have that kind of power over men, and Stella’s using it. She’ll get him, too, if you don’t wake up.”

Joy stared at Dan. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean you’ve got to use what you’ve got, babe. You’ve got the advantage. You work with Chase every day, and he feels something for you. It’s obvious. Right now he’s in kind of a daze. Oh, I know he’s gotten off on some religious kick, and I think it’s real, but from what I understand even God’s good guys get in trouble. You remember your brother preached about Joseph when that woman was after him? She tried everything she could, and most guys would have fallen right into it. Joseph was smart to run away, but Chase can’t run.
This is his life. So if I were you, I’d wiggle a little curve at him and flutter my eyes. That’s what I’d do if I were you.”

“I wouldn’t want any man I’d have to trap or chase.”

“You don’t have to trap him or chase him, but you have to give him a sign. Let him know you’re interested. Chase doesn’t think of you as his woman because you haven’t given him a sign. Give it to him, Joy, give it to him.”

When Joy got home that night she made an entry in her journal:

March 2, 1929

Dan took me out tonight and told me I should try to win Chase, but he’s not right. He doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does. Chase is still in love with Stella. He may not know it himself, but I know it, and I think she knows it. I can never let him know that I’m in love with him.

****

Two weeks later Joy celebrated her nineteenth birthday, but this time there was no time for a party. Several of the performers, remembering last year’s celebration, came by to give her a hug, including Chase. She thanked him for his greeting, but felt the wall that had come between them. She remembered, on her seventeenth birthday, how he had given her the fountain pen, and on her eighteenth the silver ring with the turquoise setting. She still wore the ring, and she used the pen almost every day, and it grieved her that they weren’t as close as they once had been. Their work brought them together constantly, but the closeness and affection they had shared at one time were gone.

She was even beginning to think that Gypsy Dan had been right. She could see now that Chase was fighting against his natural inclinations. Everyone was waiting for the time when he would go to Stella’s trailer—and not come out until
morning. That had not yet happened, and Joy was fiercely grateful for it.

****

All that spring and into the summer, the big-cat act went spectacularly well, so well in fact that a well-known weekly news magazine, the
Mid-Week Pictorial,
took pictures of Joy and Chase and put out a big spread. Everybody read the
Mid-Week Pictorial,
so the circus began playing to packed-out crowds as people came to see the famous duo.

Joy was excited by the attention she had gotten in every town now since the magazine had pictured their act and written a lot of nonsense about them and their private lives. She took great delight in the performances themselves. The coolness between her and Chase had not improved, however.

They arrived in Springfield, Illinois, on July tenth. They were scheduled to be there for five days, and the people of Springfield turned out in huge numbers. Every performance, even the matinee, was a straw crowd—every seat full.

After the last performance on their second day in Springfield, she had come down off of Ruth and started toward her trailer when a voice caught her attention. “Miss Winslow—!”

She turned to see a tall middle-aged man approaching her. The well-dressed man took off his hat, revealing his bright red hair with some streaks of gray in it. Joy was accustomed to people seeking her out after every show, but she was tired and purposed to cut the conversation short.

“My name is Tom Winslow. You don’t know me, but I think we may be related. Are your parents Bill and Elaine?”

Joy responded, “Why, yes. Tom Winslow—you must be my dad’s brother.”

“That’s right. I met you when you were about six years old, but I haven’t seen you since. I’m sorry about that.”

“My dad talked about you a lot. He said you two were real close when you were young.”

“That’s right.” Tom Winslow shook his head sadly. “One
of the griefs of my life is that after Bill left home, we never saw each other again—and we never wrote. How are your parents?”

“You didn’t hear?” Joy said, stunned that he would not even know about her family’s deaths. “My parents and younger sister were killed in an automobile wreck—over three years ago on my sixteenth birthday.”

Shock ran across Winslow’s face. “I’m so sorry to hear that,” he murmured.

People were crowding around trying to get Joy’s attention. “This isn’t a good place to talk,” she said, “but I would like to talk with you.”

“That’s why I came. I read the article about you and your partner in
Mid-Week Pictorial,
and I wondered if you were my niece. I had to come to find out for sure. Could we go out and have a late supper maybe?”

“That would be fine.”

****

Joy found herself liking Tom Winslow very much. She learned a lot about him while they ate. He was a lawyer, she discovered, and his children, James and Miriam, were the same ages as Travis and she. He told her about some of her other relatives. “My sister Betsy is married to a man named Wesley Stone, and they have a son named Heck. My sister Lanie is married to Lobo Smith. Their son, Logan, was an ace in the war. Shot down twenty-nine planes.”

“Why, I’ve read about Logan Smith! They called him Cowboy Smith.”

“That’s him. We’re all very proud of Logan. He married a Frenchwoman named Danielle Laurent. They’re very happy now living in this country. And, of course, there’s my brother Phil. He was always a favorite of your father’s. They were very close, but Phil and his wife live in France most of the time. He’s a famous painter now. And that leaves my brother John. He married a woman named Jeanine Quintana. They’re
missionaries in Africa and have two children.” He leaned forward and said, “So you really have a big family.”