JoJo's

JoJo’s

The year 1968 was a leap year, and it started on a Monday.

         That June, the following events occurred:

         •          June 3 – Radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol as he enters his studio, wounding him.

         •          June 5 – U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Sirhan Sirhan. Senator Kennedy dies from his injuries the next day.

         •          June 8 – James Earl Ray is arrested for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

         •          June 13 – Josephine Hanratti finds the corpse of Jordan Humbert at JoJo’s Cavalcade & Circus, a traveling show performing in Atchison, Kansas.

***

Josephine Hanratti was not part of the eponymous JoJo in JoJo’s Cavalcade & Circus. She was in fact the child of Joseph and Joanna Hanratti, the stars and founders of JoJo’s. Together, they trekked throughout the Southwest, the Midwest, or really anywhere that would have them, setting up for a week or two, a month at the longest, bringing with them a motley crew of animals, rides, workers, performers, and carnies. They trucked and dragged and danced their way back and forth through deserts and cornfields and even over a few mountains. They were always in motion, always heading somewhere. 

Home for Josephine wasn’t a place. It was the smell of popcorn and butter, fried dough, hot pretzels, hot dogs, sticky sweet cotton candy. It was the smell of manure and straw.  It was all sorts of warm, musty, sweet, and sour odors from the lions, elephants, dogs, and horses; the aroma of oil and grease from the lubricants on the rides; metallic odors from parts that screeched and grinded; vomit on the ground outside the faster rides. Home was caked on make-up half sweated off after a long day under the lights. It was burnt peanuts, laughter and screams of joy and fear. Josephine could fall asleep in the elephant hay or inside the clown car, or in the arms of the bearded lady who had helped deliver her into the raucous world, and not think she was missing a thing. Her home was people; clowns and fortune tellers, lion tamers and acrobats, magicians and technicians, liars, thieves, Samaritans, and angels. They all bumped over the Great Plains of America together, seeking fortune, fame, fun… and freedom.

***

         The stack of hay feed exploded as Josephine burst through it. She broke her stride only briefly to eject some hitchhiking strands from her mouth.

         “Sorry!” She called without looking back. Had she turned to utter these words to the man whose work she had just interrupted, she would have been treated to a string of curses and a rude gesture, but not before the man was yet again interrupted by another figure darting through his work. Instead she had continued sprinting round the corner and was currently dodging her way through the main tent where several lions and elephants were currently tromping about.

         Josephine sprang up and over a lion, her back foot just barely grazing it’s mane on her decent. She darted under three adult elephants and skirted around the baby which succeeded in spooking them all into a trumpeting mess, leaving a rather impassable situation behind her. She let loose a barking laugh as she continued to dart forward through the early morning campground. She barely noticed the flurry of activity she was running through: rides being assembled, tents being raised, attraction stages rising from the ground or descending from the side of a caravan. She dashed in and out of the fairway games, knocking over the milk bottles in one and sending the guns flying in another. She recklessly darted through the half built machinery of the wooden roller coaster and the newest attraction, a ride which spun people about in fake rockets until they puked and went by the name of “Turbo.” Josephine swept past Carolina, the bearded lady, a dozen or so clowns, Magnifico the Magnificent, Madame Rioni’s fortune tent, and Lisa, an acrobat.

         By this time Josephine was certain she had lost her pursuer, but as she flew past the Ferris wheel she turned back to check. She swore as she turned and saw that despite her best efforts, she was still very much being chased. She poured on speed, determined to get away. Her breath was beginning to come ragged and-

         “Gotcha!”

         Josephine’s arm was yanked to a halt, while the rest of her body attempted to continue in its previous direction.

         “Ow! Jor-” she began. However, when she saw who had her arm she paled and closed her mouth.

         “Listen up, girly, I dun care one lick whose devil child you may be. I and my kin got this job to do work and have it be done, and not to be pickin’ up the mess of some snot and her pet nigger.” Kip Larson glared down at her as his grip bit into her arm. He was a hired townie, employed to help where they were short on staff. In his meaty grasp Josephine felt like a tooth pick. He loomed tall and greasy and sweaty and fat and smelled worse than the elephants had. “Let’s take you to your ma and pa. See if’n they might like to straighten you out.”

         “Hey, what you doin’ to Jo!?”

         They both turned and looked up to see that Josephine’s pursuer had caught up.

         “Jordan, just let it be.” Jo muttered as she attempted to free her arm from Kip’s grasp. “Go back to work, I’ll talk with you later.” Kip smiled, revealing his yellowed and half decayed teeth.

         “That’s right, nigger. Git back to your work. Do as your pretty little master says.” Kip spat a string of tobacco at Jordan’s feet and dragged Josephine off toward the main office caravan.

***

         “So… how’d it go, Jo?” Jordan sat before her, his dark arms draped over his knees. His eye brows were knitted together and his mouth hung in a slight frown.

         Josephine rolled her eyes and continued to try to kick a stone from the dry Kansas dirt outside her family’s trailer.

         “How do you think? They were all stern for a little, then they told off Kip for manhandling full timers, aka moi, then they sat me down for a four. course. guilt. buffet.” Josephine smashed her tan Keds into the rock as she spit out the last four words, knocking it loose. “They pretty much screwed my whole plan too. Apparently I’m no longer “responsible” enough to handle  working with Liam in his act. I’ve been reassigned to the stink-pit of the whole lot.”

         “Come on. It’s a temporary break from being ordered about by the great and mighty ‘Magnifico.’ Where’d they put you? Elephant shit removal?” Jordan half laughed the question. Josephine scowled.

         “They put me in the fun house.” She mumbled.

         It started with a few snorted giggles, before transforming into a full on belly laugh. Jordan was nearly in tears when Josephine tackled him. Her long, stick straight mane blinded him as she punched his shirtless chest. He grabbed her thin cotton T-shirt and attempted to pull her off.

         “Ow! Ow! OK! UNCLE! UNCLE!” He hollered, still spitting some of her hair out of his face.

         “Have some sympathy.” Josephine placed her head down on his chest and sighed. “I’d been practicing since Kansas City. Now I have to help crying kids get un-lost and break up a whole slew of spit-swapin’ townies.”

         Jordan raised a brow. “Oh? You didn’t seem to mind it when we were swapin’ some-“

         “Stop it! That’s different.” A blush rose to her face and she whacked Jordan once more for good measure. “I’m sorry about that monster, by the way. Dad nearly had a fit when I told him what he was calling you. I think he went off to fire him as soon as we finished our business.”

         Jordan remained silent, but nodded.

         “Don’t worry. He’s a pig. He’ll be gone. Dad likes you, and he’s always wary of townies. He’ll be fired and then you can just relax.” Josephine lifted herself up and delivered him a peck on the lips. He smiled at her, then returned his eyes to the cloudless Kansas sky, a hint of worry still traceable in the crinkles of his eyes.

         “…yeah. All right.”

***

         There was a plaque outside the police station reminding everyone that Atchison was the most haunted town in all of Kansas. Josephine couldn’t help but agree. She was no stranger to crime, bad deeds, trickery and general unruliness. She had watched people get pick pocketed, punched, get cheated broke in a card game, performers outright lie to folks to get a reaction or applause or a tip. But she was not accustomed to accidentally squelching into a puddle of blood from the corpse of a man in the middle of the fun house.

         “Sweetie, do you remember seeing this n-, this colored boy walk into the – er – the fun house?” The sandy haired cop had her alone in a room back at the station, and was quizzing her thoroughly.

         Josephine felt sick. Every time she took a breath she felt a sharp stabbing sensation in her lungs.  The room seemed too small, the chair to short, the desk too high. The florescent lights buzzed, seeming to mock her in her numbness.

         “Jordan.” She muttered, unsure if she had actually made a sound, and not particularly caring either way.

         “Hrm?” The cop leaned closer.

         “His name is Jordan. I saw him go in, but I’ve got no clue what time. It was about 5 minutes before my sweep. For lost kids and… the like.” The words felt like lead falling from her mouth. Everything was slowed down. Time was traveling through molasses.

         “Did you see anyone else suspicious enter? Another ni- er – colored man?”

         Josephine didn’t hear the question. Her mind had flashed back to the fun house. To the scene. To all that blood. To-

“Excuse me I need a bathroom.”  Everything sped up. She jumped to her feet and pounded out of the room, searching frantically for a toilet. She saw the door marked ladies and burst inside, making it to the sink just in time to empty her stomach of what little of her dinner remained. She stayed hunched over the sink till the convulsions subsided, then moved to the other sink to wash her hands and cool her face. She looked up in the mirror and had to clamp a hand to her mouth to suppress a scream. Blood. Everywhere. It coated her face, her clothes and her hands. It dripped from her hair and was caked up her arms.

And suddenly she wasn’t standing in the brick box of the police station anymore; she was lying face first in a puddle of blood, staring into the lifeless eyes of a dead man in the middle of the fun house. She  had spluttered and coughed as she tasted something salty and metallic dribble into her mouth. She had tried frantically to wipe the blood from her face, but her hands were also covered and she only succeeded in spreading it.  She had felt the warm sticky liquid seeping into her light cotton T-shirt and shorts. She had felt her own blood beating furiously through her ears. She had felt her stomach churn as she stumbled to her feet and tried to get away from the mangled corpse–  then she had hunched over and deposited her dinner a few feet from the body. And then she had screamed.

         “Hon, you ok in there?!” The blond cop didn’t wait for an answer and burst into the restroom to see Josephine collapsed on the floor, tears rolling down her cheeks. Josephine’s parents rushed in behind him. Joseph dropped to his knees and scooped up his sobbing daughter. He turned to the cop and regarded him grimly.

         “I am taking my daughter home now. You can come by tomorrow afternoon and talk with her more, if she’s feeling up to it.” He was still dressed in his bright red jacket, striking black pants, and riding boots. His fake mustache and top had both remained perched on his head and he stared down the cop without a single twitch.

         “How do I know ya’ll ain’t just gonna skip town on me?” He glared right back, though he flicked his fingers nervously against each other.

         Joe simply raised an eyebrow.

“My 16 year old daughter is obviously distraught. She had just witnessed the murder of a loved one, a part of our family, and she is in no state to talk. I am taking her home and I would think it rather unwise to attempt to stop me, considering the trailer attached my current mode of transport contains a lion.” With that, Joseph and Joanna marched their daughter out of the station, and then out of the most haunted town in Kansas and back to the collection of trucks and people they called home.

***

         Everything was different. The cheery and boisterous mood of the circus was nowhere to be found as rides that had barely been up a few days were dismantled and packed away. The animals were all sober and moody as they were ushered into cages and trailers. Clangs and clicks rang out in the eerie relative silence with which JoJo’s was dissected. Everyone seemed to whisper and mutter and glance around to see who else’s eyes were red from tears, or who still whiffed of alcohol.

         The investigation had been quickly concluded a few days earlier, when the police decided to take the easy route in the frustrating case and just blame the KKK, promising a crack-down on local activity. No individual had been charged and the case was considered closed, despite circumstantial evidence pointing to local man, Kip Larson. The police asked that JoJo’s pack up and leave immediately. It wasn’t a request.

         Josephine sat wrapped in a blanket on the steps of her family trailer. An unseasonably cold wind was sweeping through the camp, not that she had noticed. She had barely noticed the blanket being placed around her shoulders either. She didn’t notice much of anything. There was a great cracking, screeching sound as a connecting rail was pried off the roller coaster. Cracking… Josephine thought. Good. As she looked around, her home was no longer her home. Everything seemed broken. It seemed to be melting away. Turbo spoke of death as it moaned in protest of its dismantlement. The carousel horses looked sad and lifeless lying in a pile on the ground. People seemed to wander past one another, no one talking unless necessary. Everything was empty and wrong.

         It was my fault. She thought. I hadn’t made him chase me, if I had made him wait to come with me on my rounds instead of sending him in ahead…

         Suddenly it was too much to take. Josephine sprung up and darted back inside, slamming shut the door to her tiny room in the rear of the trailer. She collapsed in the middle of her floor, curled up as tight as she could manage, the blanket and her hair strewn about her haphazardly. She lay there and let the tears come for the first time. She let them fall and fall and fall, hoping that somehow they would fill the hole in her chest and water her home into being once more.