Chapter 1
Slack Jack and the Dog Faced Girl
Slack Jack thumbed through the yellow pages that sat next to his cell phone as his left elbow rested on the folding steel table. His posture seemed uncomfortable as well as being intermixed with the look of anguish that spread like an ancient storm across his pale features. Small traces of white face paint could still be detected along his hairline and set deep into the wrinkles that creased his forehead. The dilapidated sideshow carnival was about to begin its breaking down of the stages and moving on to Cincinnati, but the Dog Faced Girl lay dead in the travel trailer behind him....He searched the pages until he found the mortuary section, and then his shaking finger strolled down the list of undertakers, but there was no listing for the special care and burial of sideshow freaks. He wanted the Dog Faced Girl to be prepared with the utmost respect for they had lived and loved together for the last 29 years on an endless journey across North and Central America. They had met in Los Angeles in 1975 when they both were auditioning as extras for the film, The Lost Carnival. But he could only admire her from a distance, because no one loves a clown.......Except a clown killer.
He was a big man.....Six foot five and around two hundred and fifty pounds. But he always loved Lilly without question, even though their statures were somewhat skewed in proportion, her three foot ten inch frame never ceased to excite him. His thoughts never strayed from her beauty, even though many other women tried luring him into what they had determined would be a full night of nocturnal bliss. But found to their persistent but discontented hearts that sooner or later, the clown was indeed dedicated to the Dog Faced Girl.
Slack looked past the yellow book for a moment as he heard the roustabout's shuffling feet from a distance, Ben finally stopped in front of Slack's folding steel table....
"Yo Slack, whatcha gonna do with Lilly?
Slack found Ben's usually smiling weathered black face with a downward solemn frown, his bloodshot eyes reflections of a life of hard labor and addictions to alcohol and carnival whores.
"Can't get myself to call these outsiders Ben.......They won't know nuthin about how to treat Lilly right. I have a mind to keep her in that old tuba case I have strapped to the top of the travel trailer, then bury her myself on our next job setup through Boise, you remember how she loved that shit hole. God only knows why.
Ben looked off towards the sun setting over the smoke spewing refinery off the west belt road. He stuck his hands deep into his pockets and began to shift his cock and balls from side to side.
"Yessum, she lubbed Boise for shore."
Ben wandered off shaking his head, his shoulders hunched and his pace slow. Slack found himself drifting back into dreams of Lilly and the life they had shared, her blond hair which she always kept short and her big eyes always looking into his, emotions relayed without ever having to speak a word. He thought of two old shoes, one a bit tattered with holes in the sole and the other lost, never to be found.
Slack felt like a stumbling fool even out of makeup and dress, and it mattered not whether he was on stage. The essence contained in the other half of his personality followed him like a persistent black fly. Even out in pubic he could sometimes see the clown within the reflection of a store front window, except the face would become distorted and painful……And to him some what evil in appearance, only adding to his already lonely existence. But that had all changed when he met Lilly, at first he was fascinated by the nature of her presence, she could fill a room with its beauty. Her soft voice spoke to him from a distance, almost as if a dream carried him through her world. But he was petrified at first to even approach her, for his tall gangly frame would surly frighten her away. But he did eventually gain the composure he needed, and introduced himself at a large farewell party after the carnival films completion. He remembered the event as if it were yesterday……It seemed like true torture to begin with, but Lilly soon eased his clumsy introduction, and the conversation soon moved into the art of being.
“It’s good to meet you Slack, I do love your work……Are you living here in Los Angeles, or have you traveled from out of state?”
Her large blue eyes looked into his as he searched for the words that seemed to become much to abstract and jumbled to be picked from the small intellectual tree of his existing knowledge base.
“Yes, originally I grew up in a foster home in Eugene, Oregon, but my birth certificate says I was born in San Francisco, how about you Lilly, where are you from?”
The sweat began to roll off his forehead as he thought maybe his subject matter was to sordid and detailed for a first encounter, but he felt as if he had known her forever, and his comfort level had risen far beyond his expectations.
“I’m from Buffalo Slack, gray skies and wet concrete, its got to be the most fucking dreary city in the fucking world…..I just love it here in the California sunshine though.”
She smiled, and took his large hands into hers.
“Let’s sit at that empty table over in the corner Slack, I want to know all about you.”
Lilly squeezed his hand as slack stood up, and she slowly led him over to the dark corner table. He wanted desperately to ask someone to pinch him, but he truly never desired the dream to end.