Free The Nine Pound Hammer by John Claude Bemis Page B

rang out as the lid popped open. Two bare feet could be seen sticking up from the interior. The feet pulled back into the trunk, and then a figure emerged, standing up slowly. At first Ray could not make sense of what he was seeing. It looked like a jumble of chains wrapped around a potato sack, no taller than three feet.
    Something was erupting from beneath the small bundle of chains. It reminded Ray of a butterfly emerging from ametal chrysalis. Then in one moment the chains went from taut to loose and rattled down into the box. What remained was a pretzel of a figure. Ray couldn’t believe anybody could get so tangled up. It looked like somebody had gotten twisted up in some horrible piece of machinery. He had to look carefully to distinguish a leg from an arm, a shoulder blade from an ankle.
    Si was tied up with her arms wrapped around her back until they emerged from either side of her waist. But her torso was also tied to her legs, which were wrapped over her shoulders. How had she gotten those chains off? Ray wondered. How had she opened the box? Come to think of it, how did she fit in that tiny box in the first place?
    Si rolled forward out of the lacquered trunk, careful not to tip it as she exited. With her feet firmly planted on the stage, Si rose and began slowly winding around like a miniature carousel. It seemed that at any minute she would reach the point where her waist could twist no further and she would pop in half. The ropes began loosening from her torso. Twisting back the other direction, Si worked the ropes off her back until they collapsed at her feet. In a bizarre spiral, her shoulders surfaced from between her knees, and she rose upright to the whistles and applause of the audience.
    Nel called out to the audience, “Does anyone have a handkerchief we might borrow?”
    A man wearing a gold badge on his collar extended ahandkerchief up to Nel. “Thank you, sir,” Nel said, inspecting the square of blue cloth. “ ‘H.M.’ Your initials here in the corner?”
    The man nodded and mumbled, “Henry Mulvey.”
    “Thank you, Sheriff Mulvey.” Nel then showed the handkerchief to Si. She gazed at it and then turned her back to the audience.
    “Sheriff Mulvey, I’m going to hand back your hand kerchief, and if you would, give it to someone in the audience.” Mulvey nodded and then walked through the crowd. “Is someone else in possession of the napkin, sir?” Nel asked. Mulvey came back to the front of the stage and nodded.
    Si turned and walked to the edge of the stage. The audience watched her curiously, and as she jumped from the stage, the crowd backed a few steps from the exotic-looking girl. Si wandered through the audience until she reached an elderly lady in a cottage cloak. Si nodded at the woman’s sleeve.
    Nel called to the lady, “Dear woman, do you have Sheriff Mulvey’s square?”
    A smile broke out on the woman’s face as she produced the handkerchief from the cuff of her dress. Cheers and applause followed Si as she returned to the stage.
    Ray’s eyes were drawn to Si’s dark hand. It swirled with slight sparkles, like lightning bugs in twilight.
    *  *  *
    Ray laughed as Conker lifted a fat woman up in a chair one-handed.
    “Ray,” Nel hissed for the third time, batting Ray’s head with his fez. “We’ve nearly reached the denouement and I need you to go retrieve more tonics. There’s a boxcar toward the back of the
Ballyhoo
. You’ll find the extra supplies of tonics. We’re dispossessed of the
Johnny Chapman’s Apple-flavored Arthritis Anodyne
. Can you remember that? Get a dozen bottles and some tins of the
Chief Joseph’s Nasal Naphtha
. They’re all labeled. Hurry! After Marisol and Redfeather, we’ll be bustling with customers. Run!”
    Ray looked once over at Conker as the giant lifted four people effortlessly, each pair clinging together to a bench ten feet above the stage. Sorry to miss the rest of Conker’s performance, Ray dashed off the back of