THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW
Copyright 2012 By Teel
This is a roughdraft of a novel in progress.
Please do not reprint or repost without premission.
-7-
The next morning when Alan woke up he felt sick. This was no real surprise. He always felt sick the next morning after eating the meatballs Fred made. Alan always ate too much of them and regretted it later.
He sat up and read from an novel he started the night before. He thought he might feel better after a little while.
Twenty minutes later he was still feeling a bit sick. He decided that maybe a walk in the morning air would make him feel better.
He put on the clothes that he took off the night before and went out.
Alan walked away from the apartment house and toward the strip mall where the carnival was located.
Walking in the morning air made him feel better and he started thinking about the Mexican food joint that he had nachos at the day before.
He thought he could buy a couple of large burritos. One for breakfast and one for lunch later in the day.
As he walked into the parking lot of the strip mall he saw Kaligari at his truck. The hood was up and Kaligari was working on the motor.
It was still about 20 minutes before the taco joint was to open. Alan decided to say hello to Kaligari.
“Hello Mr. Kaligari. Are you having motor trouble?”
“How's it going? I'm not having motor trouble. The cooler isn't working.”
“Has the alien body thawed out?”
“Oh no. I covered it with plenty of ice last night. A matter of fact I want to go over to the store and get some more ice to pour over it. Do you mind keeping an eye on the truck?”
“Sure.” Stated Alan who wondered why anyone would trust a stranger to watch their stuff.
“Great. Can I bring you back anything from the store?”
“A snicker bar would be nice.”
“Sure I'll bring you a king size one. What's your name? I forgot it.”
“Alan.” He was sure he did not give him his name the day before.
“Okay Alan I'll be right back.”
Kaligari open the cab of his truck and pulled out a red child's wagon. He walked away pulling it with him.
Kaligari left the hood up over the motor. Alan looked down upon the motor for a minute like he knew something about car motors. He use to do that with his friends back before he realized that he was never going to be the kind of guy he could fix his own car.
Alan got his first computer when he was 15. He worked on it and decided if he needed a car fixed his father could do it for him.
Alan walked around to the side of the truck. He looked at the sign painted on the side of the alien. Alan wondered if Kaligari painted the sign himself. He seem like the kind of guy who would do it himself.
He wondered if Kaligari made that thing in the crate or if someone made it for him. If it was a man made item it was a great one.
But a rubber or plastic thing would not have to be buried in ice.
With the ice in mind Alan was now sure that the thing was some sort of an animal that was butchered and sewn together to look like some sort of an alien being from beyond Earth.
“Here's your candy bar.”
Kaligari handed it to Alan as he walked up to the truck. He was pulling the red wagon he left with and there was three large bags of ice cubes piled on it.
“Thanks.” Alan was hungry for something at that point. It was a king size candy bar.
“Come up and see the alien Alan. If you go now you can beat the crowds.” He laughed at his own little joke.
The back of the truck was not as cold as it was yesterday when Alan was there with Fred.
Kaligari pulled back the plastic cover over the crate after removing the tacks that held it down over the crate.
The truck was filled with an odd smell. Kaligari who was use to it had no reaction but Alan was surprised by it. The alien thing had a fishy look about it but the smell was nothing like fish. Or in fact any animal that Alan could thing of.
Kaligari poured the new ice cubes into the crate over the creature and the half melted ice that was already in there.
“There you are Jackson. Do you feel better now?” Kaligari asked the thing in the crate. He seem ready to hear an answer.
“Jackson? You call it Jackson?”
“Yes. He reminds me of my great uncle Jackson. He was my father's uncle. He ran a hot dogs stand in San Francisco for 42 years. He grew to hate hot dogs. He wouldn't eat one to save his life.”
Alan looked at the face of the alien thing. He could not see how that inhuman face could remind anyone of someone. He wanted to get a look at this great uncle of Kaligari.
“Well I got to get going. Good luck fixing the problem with your cooler.”
“Thank you. I'm not too worried about it. At the next town I know someone who could fix it pretty cheap. I'll just use ice till then.”
“Good bye.” Said Alan as he left the back of the truck.
The smell of fresh air hit him as he walked back into the parking lot. The smell of the thing in the truck had given him a strange feeling.
As Alan walked back toward the apartment he thought about how he wished he had said to Kaligari: Okay enough bullshit. How the hell did you make that thing? Is it animals sewn together or some rubber thing?
When Alan was in his late teens he had wanted to make sci fi movies. He would have liked to have shot a movie using a creature like the one Kaligari had in the back of his truck.
-8-
It was a slow day for Kaligari and his sideshow. Only about a dozen people came by to stare that the creature he had on display.
At nine o'clock he put out the closed sign.
He walked over to the crate.
“Sorry Jackson. Not too many people this stop. But that's alright the next stop is going to be better. Lots of people are going to come and see you and know that there's people like you out there.”
Kaligari felt a little sad. He wished there was a way to let more people know about his discovery.
He tried calling TV news and the papers but no one came to see the creature.
One guy from a local news station did a short interview with Kaligari laughed openly at him and kept asking him if people really believed he had a space alien in his truck.
He looked at the melting ice surrounding his creature. He decided that he should get some more to cover up the thing before he went to bed.
Kaligari locked the doors of the truck and once again got his red wagon and walked toward the store a couple blocks over where he could get a few bags of ice.
His plan was to get the ice and go to sleep. He was planning on pulling out early in the morning and driving down to the next stop of the rundown little carnival.
About halfway to the store he spotted a small beer joint. Kaligari decided to stop here and have a beer and then go to the store.
Three hours later Kaligari left the bar. He walked back to the carnival. He forgot his red wagon which he left in the bar and he forgot to get more ice.
Once he got back to the carnival he got into his truck and pulled his blanket over himself and quickly fell asleep.
