Circus Summer (Circus of Curiosities Book 1) (12 page)

            I turn to Zachary. “I have to see my mother. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

            “Do you want me to come with you?” he asks. I didn’t expect that.

            I shake my head. “We’ll be fine. We’re always fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

            “Okay,” Zachary says.

            Thomas smiles, putting an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him as we walk off. I look back and see Zachary watching us go, a look of concern and worry clearly in his eyes.

Chapter
13

I
head home with Thomas, walking with him back through the town to my house. It’s good just walking with him like this. I always feel so safe when he’s around.

            “What are you thinking?” Thomas asks.

            “I’m just thinking about how much I like walking back with you.”

            He looks like he doesn’t quite believe me. “I bet you’d rather walk with Zachary Niles though.”

            I laugh at that. “Thomas, anyone would think that you’re jealous.”

            He doesn’t answer as we head back. I try to hurry, because I want to get back to Mom. If she has been acting strangely then I want to get back there to make sure that she’s all right. It isn’t long before we’re back and I step back through the front door, looking for her. It isn’t my mother I see first though.

            Dr. Dex is there. He must have left while I was still working on my performances with the trainers to get here. He’s standing in the middle of the living room, and he just looks so strange here in that strange long coat and those black leather riding boots of his. He’s taken off the top hat he wears for performances, and is holding it in one hand as he looks around the room. It doesn’t make him fit the place any better. In the middle of the Circus of Curiosities’ big top, he might look normal. Here, he just looks strange. Especially with my mother asleep on the couch.

            “Hello, Leela,” Dr. Dex says. “Did you have a good day of training? I trust my assistants have been working you hard.”

            I can’t help staring at him. “Why are you here?”

            Dr. Dex shrugs. “Your family is your reason for being in my show. It seems only fair that I should come see them.” His voice grows softer as he continues. “Plus, Kinley was a close friend of mine when we were younger.”

            He actually steps over to take my mother’s hand, raises it to his lips, and presses it against his cheek. My mouth is almost open in surprise. Just how close were they when they were younger? It’s kind of hard to think of my mother ever being my age, not because she’s particularly old, but just because she’s my
mom
. But she was once my age, and from what everyone says, look a lot like what I looked like now. The same thing kind of applies to Dr. Dex. He must have been just Dex once, young and excited, just enjoying life in Sea Cliff, but it’s kind of hard to imagine. Yet I find that I can imagine the two of them together if I try. Both of them, my age, holding hands like they are now.

            I’m not here to think about the past though. I’m here to check on Mom. I go over to her. She’s asleep, but she looks peaceful, not as ill as she is sometimes. I look over at Thomas, who is standing at the entrance to the living room, looking back at me.

            “Tell me what happened with her,” I say. “You said that she was acting strangely. What happened?”

            “I don’t know what to say,” Thomas says. “It was like she was seeing something that wasn’t there and reacting to that. Like she was having some kind of hallucination.”

            Mom doesn’t have hallucinations. At least, she’s never said anything about them if she does. This is new, and that makes small trembles of fear dance along my skin. I don’t know what’s happening to her, but whatever it is, it’s getting worse too quickly. I look at Dr. Dex, not because I think he’s really a medical doctor, but simply because I hope that he might have some idea of what’s going on.

            “You say that you’ve known Mom a while. Have you any idea what’s happening to her? Has she ever seen things before?”

            He shrugs, not looking entirely comfortable. “I have theories, but nothing solid. I’m as curious as you are about what’s happening to your mother.”

            “I’m not curious,” I snap back. “I just want to make her better.”

            Dr. Dex shakes his head. “I know, Leela, and I’m sorry I can’t help. This is the first time I’ve seen Kinley in years, remember. I’m more than a little surprised it turned out like this, but I don’t know what it means. Not yet.”

            Not yet? What does he mean by that? What game is he playing? What
does
he know? There are so many questions I want to ask him, but Dr. Dex puts a hand to his head like he has a headache.

            “I need to get back to the circus, Leela. I’ll see you again tomorrow. It was good seeing Kinley again, and meeting your brother.”

            He starts for the door, but I move to cut him off. I can’t let him leave that easily. “Wait,” I say, knowing that he has to know more than he’s letting on, but not knowing
how
I know that. Maybe it’s just that Dr. Dex gives me the impression of keeping secrets about so many things. Maybe it’s the way that he seems to almost see through people, reading them the way Zachary says he can. “Do you know what’s going on with Mom? Please, if you do know, you have to tell me. You can read people, can’t you? So can you read Mom to find out what’s happening? None of the local doctors can figure it out, so if you know
anything
…”

            “I’m sorry, Leela.” Dr. Dex smiles sadly and moves me aside. “I can’t tell you what you want to know. I’m not really a doctor, not the way you’re thinking. And yes, I can see more in people than most, but all I see right now is that you need to spend some time with your mother, your brother, and your friend here.” He puts on his hat as he leaves, looking back at me strangely as he does it, almost wistfully. “Cherish the time you have with them, Leela. With the circus, we never know how much time that will be.”

            He goes then, and I look around, not knowing what to do. Thomas takes me in his arms, folding me into a hug that shouldn’t do anything, but somehow manages to make things feel better anyway.

            “What’s this for?” I ask.

            “Because you look like you need it. And this is because
I
need it.”

            He kisses me suddenly, quickly, but still tenderly, his lips moving gently against mine. I kiss him back without thinking, and because at that moment, I needed it. It’s the kind of kiss that can only happen when two people have known each other as long as we have. It feels… natural.

            “I want to spend as much time with you as I can,” he says urgently. “But I don’t want to waste that time pretending. I want you, Leela. I want to be more than just your friend.”

            “I…” I don’t know what to say to that. The kiss was good. Even great. Even so. “I have so much right now, with the circus, and…”

            “I’ve already told you,” he says. “You should let me take your place.”

            “And I’ve told
you
that it doesn’t work like that,” I point out, stepping back from him. “Besides, I can’t let you have that kind of responsibility. You’re trying to look after me like… like we’re married or something.”

            The trouble is, just from one look at his face I know that if Thomas had his way, we probably would be married. We’d end up married, and living in a small house in Sea Cliff together, having kids…

            It’s a pleasant enough image. I’m not saying that it isn’t. The thought of being with Thomas is a good one, and the dreams he obviously has for the two of us are good ones too. It’s just that they aren’t
my
dreams. Most of my dreams include Zachary, and those are
good
dreams…dreams that leaves me wanting more of him. Although right after having kissed Thomas, it’s hard to think quite so clearly about that. After all, Thomas is good, and kind, and strong… why do things have to be so confusing?

            Why, when I need to focus on getting to the Center, am I thinking about either of them? If I’m going to get there and help Mom, I can’t afford to be distracted. Not by Zachary, not by Thomas. Not by anything. I force myself to step away from Thomas, heading for the hallway.

            “Where’s Mason?” I call out over my shoulder. “I should probably check on him now that I’m home.”

            “He’s in his room.” That voice is strong and assured, so much so that for a moment or two I don’t even recognize it as my mother’s. I turn around and she’s standing up, looking strong and healthy. In fact, right now, she looks like there isn’t anything wrong with her at all. Why?
How
? Does it have something to do with the things she was reacting to earlier? Is it just a temporary lull in whatever happened to her? Or does it have something to do with Dr. Dex’s visit?

            Right now, it doesn’t matter. “Mom?” I say. “Are you…”

            “I remember Dex,” Mom says. “He was here, wasn’t he?”

            I nod.
Does
this have something to do with him?

            Mom’s voice is still strong. “I heard his voice. I saw him, even though I was dreaming. He’s so much more handsome than he was when he was younger. He had always been, almost as handsome as your father. The three of us grew up together, and then he left. Now he’s so confident. It’s like he’s hardly the same man. He
was
here, wasn’t he? I’m not going mad?”

            “He only just left,” Thomas assures her.

            “No, not just now. I know he was here just now. I mean earlier.”

            “When, exactly?” I ask.

            “Earlier,” Mom repeats. “While you and Thomas were gone. I was here with Mason, and it was like I could hear and see him. We talked. Oh, he remembered so much about the old times. And afterwards, I needed to sleep. Then I woke up to find you here.”

            “Mom,” I say carefully, trying to make some kind of sense out of it, “Mason says that earlier you were talking to people who weren’t there. Was that what you saw when that happened? Was it Dr. Dex?”

            “He was here,” Mom insists. “I think I know when someone is here or not, Leela.”

            “Okay, Mom.” I have to agree with her. What else can I do? I look at Thomas though, and Thomas nods. It looks like he agrees with me. She saw Dr. Dex when he couldn’t have been there, because he would have been back at the Circus of Curiosities. So how did she see him?

            It can’t just be that she’s seeing things, can it? If so, why him? Why now? It doesn’t make sense. And there’s what Zachary told me about what he could do to consider, what Dr. Dex admitted to being able to do. If Zachary has a talent that lets him read people’s emotions and surface thoughts, then why can’t Dr. Dex have one that lets him communicate with people when he’s not there?

            Then there’s the question of how my mother got better. She’s looking healthier than I’ve seen her in months, if not longer. I don’t dare to hope that she might be cured, but it’s obvious that something happened to help her. Something that just happened to coincide with Dr. Dex’s visit. He did this. I’m not sure how, but he did it, and that raises the possibility that he might be able to do more.

            Whether that’s true or not, one thing is certain. He knows more than he’s letting on.

Chapter
14

M
onday is busy, because I’m back into the routine of school followed by training, with barely a chance to stop between them. Zachary is there when I arrive, and it looks like he’s been waiting for me.

            “Hi, Leela,” he says. “How’s your mom?”

            The truth is that she’s a lot better than she was. Whatever Dr. Dex did to her, it seems to be lasting. I want to tell Zachary all about that. I want to tell him all about what I think the Circus of Curiosities’ ring master did too, but I don’t get the chance. Dr. Dex is there almost as soon as I arrive, waving us inside.

            “There you are. Come in, come in, both of you. Everyone else is here, and we have a lot of training to get through. It isn’t long before the performances now, remember.”

            Sure enough, the others are there inside, waiting for us in the ring. Most of them look apprehensive as Dr. Dex splits us into two groups, the way he did the day the boy from the next town didn’t come back. The dark haired girl I didn’t recognize when they called her down into the ring that first night looks particularly worried to be in the same group she was in before. There are only four of them now, while our group is the same.

            It only becomes worse when Dr. Dex points to the slender, intense looking guy from out of town and announces that he’s in our group for the evening. Dr. Dex seems to notice that, because he nods to Ellis. “You’re in this group too. It needs one more, and you’re it.”