Jack Joins The Circus

Just slip out the back, Jack

And get yourself free.

--Paul Simon, Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover

   "Sop your beans with bread, Jack!" his papa told him. "Sop 'em up! The preacher's comin' and mama needs the table to pray on. And wash your face and comb your hair when you're done. No, no, I can't be here. There's chickens to put up for the night and wings to clip for some who try to fly the coop."

   So Jack slipped out the back and caught up with us in the field behind the house as we were making our way toward the encamped Ringling Bros. Circus. That night, after the show, we double dared him to proposition The Amazing Chameleon Woman! We hid in the tall grass near her tent. At the canvas flap that was her door, Jack called softly, "Hello? Miss . . . uh . . . Chameleon? he stammered. She soon appeared, a varicolored latex skin-of-a-sort peeled loose from one shoulder. Holding a lantern before her, she maneuvered to get a good look outside the tent, her big eyes popping to see who stood there in the dark.

   "What do you want?" she snapped.

   "I'm here . . . for . . . the night," he stammered again.

   "What? You must be dreaming, sonny!" she hissed. And then, to the surprise of us all, grabbed his arm and pulled his skinny little ass inside. We waited . . . and slept. The next we knew it was dawn and the tent was down and folded and about to be taken away. The entire circus was being readied to move to the next town. There was no sign of Jack. Weary from waiting, we went home without him.

   Jack's mama was understandably upset when he did not come home. We had nothing to offer about his disappearance other than after we split up we did not see him again that night. His papa suggested he might have run off with the circus and we let it go at that. A few days later, Murphy told me that Jack had it planned from the beginning.

  "Had what planned?"

  "Getting out of Kansas! You know! He's been talking about it from the get-go! I mean, since we were kids. In fact, he dared me to go see that woman himself and I double dared him right back! He knew I would, that sneaky little sonofabitch."

   "Why wouldn't he just join and be done with it?"

   "Who knows? Maybe they had something going."

   Some say they saw Jack with the circus in the next town. A few swear they ran into him later that year on the east coast near Ringling's winter quarters. We never saw him in Kansas again . . . except . . . maybe . . . years later . . . at the funerals of some old friends.

glwarren,2014