That was not her baby.
Fourteen years ago...
The whistling tones of a calliope organ rang out from a speaker mounted over the carnival gate, the playful notes tripping up and down the musical register with a spirited energy. The kids from Franklin Elementary buzzed with anticipation, whispering excitedly to one another as they fidgeted in two semistraight lines. The music seemed to feed their enthusiasm and fray their patience.
As she approached the gate, ten-year-old Delilah Marlow clutched her brown-bag lunch and stared at the graceful form in front of her. The woman handing out tickets wore a red sequined leotard with a black feathered hat, black stockings, and shiny black slippers. Her lips were painted bright red. Her blue eyes practically glowed beneath dramatic sparkly lashes and thin dark eyebrows that ended in a jewel-studded curlicue at each of her temples.
She was the most glamorous thing Delilah had ever seen.
Here you go, sweetheart. The costumed woman handed her a shiny slip of red paper. Delilahs gaze lingered on the sequins and feathers as the woman handed tickets to each of the other five fifth graders in the group, and to Mrs. Essig, their young homeroom teacher. You all enjoy your visit, and remember to look but not touch. Especially you! She patted the brown spikes sticking up all over Matt Fuquas head. With that hair, you might just be mistaken for a werewolf pup!
The other three boys laughed and elbowed Matt, but fell into a sudden awed silence as another woman in red sequins passed bywalking on her black-gloved hands. Her tiny waist was bent backward at a severe angle, so that both of her bare feet dangled over her head, her toes nearly touching the top of her skull.
Delilah couldnt stop staring.
Shelley Wells linked her arm with Delilahs as they stepped through the gate and into the carnival. How does she do that?
Shes a circus freak. Matt marched past the girls as if he owned the whole midway. My dad says some of them are just as weird as the monsters they got in cages.
Mrs. Essig hurried to catch up with him, shooting an apologetic glance at the red-sequined woman. Theyre human, she whispered fiercely as she grabbed the back of Matts shirt to keep him from wandering down an offshoot of the main path on his own. Thats all that matters.
Matt pulled free of his teachers grip. Are we sure theyre human? My dad says sometimes you cant tell just from lookin. Remember the reaping?
Mrs. Essig nodded stiffly, but Delilah knew their teacher didnt actually remember the reaping, and neither did Matt Fuqua. Only old people actually remembered the reaping, and most of them didnt like to talk about it, because theyd all known someone whod died. Or killed. Or been taken.
Remember the reaping? wasnt just a question. It was something parents said in hushed voices. Something priests advised while they made the sign of the cross. Something politicians shouted from behind podiums. Remember the reaping was a warning not to let history repeat itself. A reminder for humanity not to let its guard down.
Remember the reaping was an American way of life.
The teacher rubbed her forehead and pinched the bridge of her nose. Delilah recognized both gestures. Mrs. Essig was getting another headache.
Matt shrugged, oblivious to his teachers discomfort. My dad says you have to be careful who you trust, because the reaping could happen again.
According to Delilahs father, Matt Fuqua was just smart enough to be dangerous. Others whod warranted the same description included congressmen from the wrong side of the aisle and that eight-year-old from Memphis whod figured out how to put his mothers car into Neutral before he realized he couldnt reach the brake.
Just smart enough to be dangerous, it turned out, wasnt really very smart at all.
For the next hour, Delilah and her classmates wandered along the crowded sawdust-strewn midway, clutching their lunches and staring in awe at every vibrant spectacle they passed. They didnt have access to the entire menagerie. The owner had generously offered a complimentary midway preview for all of the local schools, with the hope that curious parents would later attend the whole carnival at full price. But what they did see was enough to impress even the most jaded fifth grader.
Along with the tantalizing scent of the food carts and the game booths boasting all the bells and whistles, costumed circus performers gave abbreviated demonstrations to cheering children and stunned teachers. A man in a red velvet jacket and dramatic black eyeliner swallowed a series of swords on a small dais, while Delilah rubbed her throat in empathy. Five acrobats in red-and-black sequined leotards formed an inverted pyramid, their bodies bent and twisted into complicated shapes. And set back from the midway, behind velvet ropes to hold the audience at a distance, a man and woman in matching top hats and shiny red-and-black costumes juggled lit torches and breathed fire into the air.
Everywhere the children turned, a new spectacle awaited, each more extravagant than the last. But the real draw was a series of stunning hand-carved and brightly painted circus wagons that had been hauled out to line the midway. Each wheeled cage displayed a different cryptid the children had only ever seen on television, the internet, or in books. Handlers in black slacks and bright red shirts stood by, ready to answer questions or prod creatures into displaying their bizarre and sometimes unsettling features.
The first wheeled cage held a brownie, a small gnomelike creature with a long nose and pointed ears, which Matt labeled boring and Shelley pronounced cute. Another held a cockatricea miniature dragon with dark, unsettling eyes that stared up at them from its rooster-like head. The creature had scales that glittered with each elegant movement of its long whip of a tail. Its sharp talons clicked against the metal floor of the cage, and Delilah stumbled backward when it opened its curved beak and let out a terrible crow.
The exhibit most popular with the boys, other than the woman who could twist her body until she was standing on her own skull, was a dog with three heads, each growling and snapping at the other two. As they watched, a woman in a sparkly red bustier and black skirt tossed a bloody hunk of meat into the cage with an artistic flourish. The boys in the audience cheered as each third of the dog fought viciously over the single dinner all three mouths had to share.
All Delilah could think was that the dog must have been awfully hungry to keep stealing food from itself.
While the rest of the group remained spellbound by the savage snapping dog, Delilah wandered toward the next wagon, where a cluster of kids from another school had gathered. She had to push her way to the front of the whispering, pointing crowd, and her first glimpse of the creature in the cage stole her breath. It was like nothing she had ever seen. Or rather, it was like several things Delilah had seen, but never in such a seemingly random compilation of mismatched parts.
The cryptid was the size and general shape of a lion, its body covered in smooth golden fur ending with a long, slim, tufted tail. Each of her four paws was wider than Delilahs whole hand, but even more incredible was the huge pair of eagle-like wings growing from the creatures back, its feathers fading from dark golden brown at the base to nearly white at the tips. Yet what really caused the commotion was the fact that the creatures front feline paws grew up into deeply tanned human arms and shoulders, which supported an equally human neck and a human head with long, dark hair.
From the biceps up, the creature in the cage looked like a normal woman.
Mesmerized, Delilah glanced at the plaque wired to the front of the wagon. Sphinx, it read. The cryptid was a forty-three-year-old sphinx named Hecuba, whod been taken from her mothers nest on a Greek mountainside just weeks after she was born.
Delilah tried to imagine the creature in her natural habitat. Flying across the Greek countryside on huge powerful wings. Swooping to catch a goat or lamb in her razor-sharp claws, then taking the prize up to a massive nest on the side of a mountain. That would have been incredible to see.
Could Hecuba remember any of that life? Delilah couldnt remember anything from when she was only a few weeks old.
The sphinx turned in her tight quarters, ready to pace several steps to the other end of her cage, but when her gaze met Delilahs, Hecuba froze. Her eyes were gold and round like a cats, and the left one peeked at the child through a curtain of dark hair. But no cat had ever looked at Delilah like Hecuba was looking at her. No bird had either.
The sphinx glared at her the way her mother did in church, when Delilah kept clicking the ballpoint pen but couldnt be scolded during the prayer.
The sphinx was looking at Delilah as if she wanted to say something.
Hecuba blinked, then continued pacing, but every time she turned toward the fascinated child, their gazes locked and Delilahs curiosity was piqued again.
Can we ask her questions? she asked the sphinxs handler, a large man in jeans whose thick arms were crossed over a simple red employee T-shirt. There were no top hats or sequins for handlers assigned to the most dangerous cryptidsnothing that could distract from the safety regulations.
Questions? The handler frowned down at her, as if he found her request very odd. You can ask anything you want, but dont expect an answer. She dont talk. Even if she could, itd probably be nonsense. Having a human head dont mean she has a human brain.
Delilah decided to give it a try anyway, because what other kind of brain could be inside a human head? She stepped closer to the cage, but stopped when the handler stuck one arm out to keep her at a safe distance. Hecuba? she said, and the sphinx stilled when she heard her name. Do you remember Greece?
The sphinx blinked, then narrowed her eyes at the child. A human tongue peeked from between her dry lips to wet them, and Delilahs pulse quickened. Hecuba was going to answer. She, Delilah Marlow, was going to be the first person in history to carry on a conversation with a sphinx!
Ha! Someone shoved Delilahs shoulder, and she stumbled to the left. When she turned, she found Matt Fuqua leering at her. Did you really think it was going to answer you? Matt and his friends laughed at Delilah while her cheeks burned.
Mrs. Essig quietly rounded up her group and announced that it was time to eat their bagged lunches.
As they headed down the midway toward the petting zoo, which boasted a picnic area and hand-washing station, the parade of performers and exhibits continued. Matt stepped into the path of an acrobat doing backflips down the sawdust-strewn path, and if Mrs. Essig hadnt pulled him out of the way, he would have wound up tangled in a knot of bendy limbs and sequins.
Shelley whispered into Delilahs ear that Mrs. Essig should have let him go. Death by circus acrobat would have been the most interesting thing ever to happen to him.
The petting zoo was a fenced-off area at the end of the midway. Inside, a series of small open-air pens had been arranged across from a collection of long folding picnic tables. Mrs. Essig claimed the end of one table for her six field-trip charges and shooed them toward a hand-washing station at one end of the exhibit.
Delilah dropped her lunch bag on the chair shed claimed, then followed Shelley toward the boxy plastic sink and soap dispensers. While the boys splashed each other and used more paper towels than they actually required, Delilah and Shelley wandered slowly past the enclosures, oohing and aahing over the young beasts on display.
Instead of the usual collection of lambs, piglets, and newborn bunnies, the menageries petting zoo held werewolf puppies, a centaur foal who pranced around her pen with hair the color of wheat flying out behind her, and the most adorable little bundle of white fur identified by the sign hanging from its pen as an infant yeti.
There was also a young gianta three-foot-tall toddler wearing a folded tablecloth as a diaper. The giants forehead protruded grotesquely and his legs were knobby and twisted. After a second of staring at him, Delilah decided that the huge toddler was much more scared of the taunting children than they were of him.
Shelleys favorites were the werewolf pups. The plaque hanging from their pen said that they were five years old and had been born right there in the menagerie. They had a baby sister, according to petting zoos nannya woman in black overalls and a stained red apron. But the infant was still too young to be separated from her mother, so Shelley and Delilah would have to come back with their parents to see the full display at night, if they wanted a glimpse at the only baby werewolf in the menagerie.
At the last pen before the hand-washing station, Matt and his friends had gathered, wet fingers still dripping, and were shouting to be heard over one another as they stared into the pen. Whats going on? Shelley said, elbowing her way through the small throng of boys with Delilah at her side.
Theres no sign, so were taking bets about whats in the pen, Matt explained. Ive got a homemade fudge brownie up for grabs, from my lunch, and Elías is throwing in a candy bar.
Delilah peered into the pen and discovered the source of the mystery. Three forms sat at the back in a semicircle, facing away from the crowd. The one on the left was the smallest and the one on the right was the largest, but all three wore what seemed to be threadbare nightgowns. Without their faces visible, their species was a total mystery.
I say theyre cyclopses, Matt declared.
Delilah shook her head. Cyclopses are giants.
Actually, theres a pygmy species native to a small island near Greece. Neal Grundidge pulled a used tissue from his pocket and swiped at his runny nose. Theyre people-sized.
They could be satyrs, Elías said. We cant see their feet from here.
Hey! Matt shouted, gripping the pen with both hands. Hey, turn around! We paid for freaks, so show us some freaks!
This field trip is free, Shelley reminded him, but Matt only wedged one sneakered foot into the pen and climbed up a foot.
Get down! Delilah whispered fiercely, as the nanny started toward them with clenched fists and narrowed eyes. Youre going to get us all in trouble.
Were not leaving until you turn around, freaks! Matt shouted, propelling himself another foot up the six-foot fence.
The creatures on the right and left of the semicircle hunched even closer to the center, but the one in the middle slowly began to turn.
Delilah held her breath, and Matt dropped onto the ground but clutched the fence with both hands. All six of the classmates watched, spellbound, as the form in the middle stood on human legs and feet and turned to face them. Long dark hair hung over her face, obscuring the source of her monstrosity, and silence fell over the fifth graders as they waited, frozen.
Finally the girl in the dress lifted one human-looking hand and pushed her hair back to reveal...