Tiger Boy and the Witch Girl: Final Chapter Preview
I know it's been almost a year and this STILL isn't the full update but life has been lifing bigtime. I hope this keeps you sated for a bit while I finish wrapping it up. Usually my previews are 1000 words but since I've left you hanging for so long I'm giving you 2300, roughly half of the full chapter, enjoy!
Saturday, One week from now
He tastes ashes and sees stars. There’s blood around his head and radio static in his ears, but none of that matters right now, all that concerns him is finding his wife.
The fire broke out so fast, too fast. There’s no other explanation besides it being premeditated, and the only one who would do such a thing has been haunting his thoughts for weeks. He thought maybe when the time finally came and Caulder confronted them about the stolen tiger and stolen boy, it would be something of a relief, at least then the worry could be over and done with, but he was wrong. He’s never been more worried in his whole life.
“Kory,” he says out loud, not sure whether it’s a whisper or scream or some impossible combination of both. The smoke stings his eyes but not so much as the bitter tears. He won’t entertain the idea that she is gone, not for even a second.
A mansion is not so unlike a circus. On the outside, it’s a place of great merriment, where seemingly no troubles can exist, only the rare and exotic findings the world over that most can never truly touch. In the case of both circus and mansion, much effort is required to keep them at their best and most shining, and only one ever truly felt worth it to Kory. Turning a mansion into a circus feels like the sort of happy compromise she so longed for as a child.
They spend half the day adorning the grand ceiling with ropes and pulleys, and hauling in equipment from the cargo hold down at the rail yard. It’s more work than necessary to put on a free show for Manda, her husband and a full house of Manda’s business associates, but it’s also the most energized Kory has been since she got here. Perhaps she could finally make Manda understand that not a shred of her passion was wasted by leaving this life behind, that all of the right things fell into place.
Kory always wanted a sister that she could also consider a best friend, the kind that she could share all of her secrets and hopes and dreams with. Manda was never that, always too caught up in her own ambition to waste time with the comparative frivolity of sisterly bonding. And perhaps Kory was partially to blame for them never being closer. Just as Manda never understood Kory’s yearning to leave convention behind, Kory never understood Manda’s steadfast trudge toward that very convention.
Once she leaves again, toward Haly’s next destination, it may be a long while before she finds herself back here. Philadelphia isn’t her home anymore, and in fact, she’d argue that everywhere except Philadelphia is. But Manda is always her sister, the La Feu’s are always her family.
When their guests are all situated in the grand ballroom, the costumes are donned and positions are taken, the calliope player riffs on the baby grand and the lights spill down from the ceiling. Kory waits on the balcony as the clowns and acrobats and Tim backflip and twist their way into the center of the room in their flamboyant sparkles. Dick, in his blue suit and top hat, bounds out to the center a moment later, waiting for the hearty applause to quiet before announcing the opening act, Kon The Superboy Vs. a brave volunteer. It takes only half a beat before several hands launch into the air, allowing Conner to have his pick of who to lift into the air by the seat of their chair, with one hand. It has to be someone large enough to impress the crowd, but not so large that it could result in a twisted back. Ultimately, he chooses Manda’s Husband Ahmal, a tall and strapping gentleman who is nonetheless lighter than 250. Conner wanted so badly to hate the man, having immediately developed a rather adorable crush on Manda, but it took exactly three rounds of cards for Conner and Ahmal to become fast friends.
Kon lifts Ahmal into the air, tilting him back just enough so that the man won’t go sliding off and the crowd erupts into another round of applause, while Ahmal lets out a big, huffing laugh, laced with the faintest hint of wavy nerves
“Put my husband down this instant!” Manda bellows from the crowd, her cracking smile betraying the authority in her tone. Kon obliges, taking a few steps forward and setting him right back down in the front row.
Next up is Jinx the Magician sawing Gar in half. Later, The Red Hood throws knives at a spinning platform with Jinx in the center, his vision obscured by his crimson hood.
Then, when the crowd is properly riled up, it’s time for The Amazing Starfire to take the stage. Gar tilts the light up so that it catches her on the balcony, blinging against the pink and purple gems and sequins on her costume. She stands on the banister, preparing to jump, but she could simply stand there for hours and have the crowd in the palm of her hand.
It’s hard not to lose one's speech at the sight of Kory in all of her bedazzlement, and in fact, even without it. The crowd is hushed and still, staring up with wide eyes in anticipation. She looks poised, confident, as though she’s done this a million times, when in fact she’s only ever dreamed of grabbing hold of that chandelier midair. Earlier, they checked and double checked that it would be secure enough to resist the weight of a grown human, and yet, there’s a sting of unease as she lifts one graceful arm above her head in a starting pose, holding for applause, and dropping it to her side again. After one last pause for anticipation, she leaps.
It was a perfect performance, a perfect night. Every last reservation Manda once had about her sister’s choice to embark on her insane path melted away when her hands connected to the bars of that chandelier. It simply clicked in that moment, the freedom Kory so longed for and why, what it looked like. The woman swinging and spinning from that oversized light fixture after a flawless, death defying jump, would never have been satisfied in Manda’s shoes. For Manda, negotiating deals and cutting ribbons and working the room at society parties on the arm of her equally accomplished husband was all of the freedom she ever needed. Being Black in America is difficult enough, choosing to make it harder by rejecting proper society never made much sense to Manda. But now, it makes all the sense in the world. She tells Kory as much when they’re setting the house right again before their departure the next morning. She tells her she understands, and that she always should have.
It’s all that Kory ever wanted to hear, and yet, the older sister can’t quite attach herself to Manda’s words. Upon finishing her act, a wave of nausea swept over the older sibling, and several minutes later, it has yet to ler up. She attempts to pay it no mind while Manda speaks her peace, but before long, a thin film of sweat coats her forehead, and her vision starts to go double. It wouldn’t be the first time spinning around in the air made Kory’s guts a bit twisty, but it invariably passed before long. This time though, it isn’t passing, and soon the only thing to do is rush out of the room with a hand clapped over her mouth.
As it turns out, becoming Rachel’s legal guardian is quite a bit simpler than the Grayson’s anticipated. If she were a baby, it may have very well been impossible, but a thirteen year old child with no parents, passed through more foster homes than she could count, was a different thing entirely. Her former guardian Mr. Adamson was found dead in a hotel room a week ago, and judging by Rachel’s short, clipped answers about her time with him, nothing of value was lost.
But as it turns out, circus children and standard education are not at all compatible. Kory and Dick’s crusade to get Rachel educated has led them to three options
A chance to meet new friends
Immersion in her studies with little distractions
No Rachel for four whole months at a time
Changing schools with each new stop
She gets to stay close and get her lesson out at traditional schools, the best of both worlds
The idea is complete insanity and no school worth their salt will go for it
Hire a teacher to travel with them
She can learn at her own pace
She can focus more on her interests, like writing and drawing
The expense, but of course that’s never been much of a problem for The Graysons lately.
They decide in the end to leave the option up to Rachel, and to the surprise of no one, she picks option three
“Are you sure?” Kory asks, even though she’s thoroughly relieved on the inside. “There won’t be much opportunity for new friends this way.”
“I hate new people,” Rachel says. “Except you guys, but you aren’t new anymore, not really.”
“Well that settles that,” Dick says. “As soon as we settle in Metropolis I’ll get a listing over to the newspaper office.”
It doesn’t take long for someone to answer the ad, a pretty young blonde recently graduated from Vassar, with designs on being a journalist. She appears on a Wednesday, carefully navigating around when Dick and the team labor away at hoisting the tent above the vacant lot that will be Haly’s home for the next two and a half months.
“They rejected my application,” Kara says at the interview. “Said I lack life experience, what better way to gain some than joining the circus?” she says with a slightly nervous laugh.
“Well, that’s not exactly what this is,” Kory says. We simply need a tutor for young Rachel. If she expects to attend college on time then there’s much catching up to be done.”
“I promise I won’t let you down. But if you ever need someone to fill in for Kon the Superboy I’m surprisingly strong,” she offers a wink, and Kory decides that she likes this girl just fine.
After the interview with Kara, Kory joins Rachel in the newly erected ticketing booth, where the girl is currently going over her idea for a new outside attraction. It’s a solid one in Kory’s view, but it must be workshopped first, just like anything else.
At Haly’s circus, there are the indoor attractions, taking place within the big top, and the outdoor attractions, smaller, more intimate stops on the way to the main event. Outside, there are card tricks, face painting, fortune telling and the like, not unlike a small fair.
While Rachel’s gift of second sight would have made her the ideal fortune teller, she has no desire to step on the toes of Haly’s resident psychic, Grodd, a rescue ape who can paint people’s fortunes at an accuracy rate of 78 percent (although it’s worth mentioning that the animal’s wild, colorful scrawl tends to be open to some interpretation).
Grodd loves painting as much as he loves the attention, provided no one's chaining him up and beating him until he learns to juggle, and Rachel would never want to take that job away from him. Besides, a Raven who can play checkers is pretty impressive too. Their rule against Animal acts can be amended in special cases, if no harm can come to the creatures or attendees in the midst of performance, Haly’s will allow it.
Kory insists on playing the first game herself. If she can do it without the relevant training, then any circusgoer can.
“What’s the matter Raven, you seem a little nervous, afraid I’m going to beat your tailfeathers off this time?” Kory taunts as she plays, skipping two of the bird’s chips and collecting them off of the board.
“Like to see you try,” the black bird squawks, lifting a chip with her beak and jumping three of Kory’s in one move.
“Dammit, how did she get so good?” Kory asks.
“Not much to do at old man Adamson’s, lots of time for us to practice.” Rachel explains glumly.
Kory laughs and makes another move, and for the next few minutes, Rachel simply stares, hoping Kory won’t notice how quiet she’s being. She’s been noticing things since the night before they left Manda's, the worry carried in Kory’s shoulders and eyes if never her smile. Rachel's kept her concerns to herself, not wanting to trouble her guardian after all of the good she’s done for her. But there’s a thickness in the air around them, even as Kory is every bit as effervescent and lovely as always.
“Why so quiet kiddo?” Kory says after a while. She’s starting a new game it seems, setting the chips on the board as she talks. Rachel didn’t even catch who won.
“Even more than usual. Everything okay?”
She doesn’t know, all she knows is that something has shifted, something big, and if it’s what Rachel thinks it might be, things are about to change even more. In ways none of them can imagine.
“Yeah,” Rachel lies. “Everything is great.”
“Don’t lie to me, I’ve had you less than a year but I still know you better than that. Tell me, you don’t have to say everything but at least tell me if there's anything I can do.”
She loves her, she loves her so much and it hits her harder every day. She’s fully convinced that nobody deserves happiness more than Kory and Dick. But will what she’s about to say give them that? Or just bring more dread? It’s the one thing she can’t determine.
She starts, carefully, “Kory, I know this might seem strange, but…
“But what?” Kory says, not too pressingly
She looks taken aback when the girl reaches forward and places her palm across Kory’s stomach. “It’s just, something has felt different since we were back at the house, like there’s more of you.”
“Do you mean to say I’ve put on weight,” Kory says with a laugh.
“I think you’re pregnant, Kory.”
