FIVE
“Hello. I’m...hello.”
As soon as she spoke, Eloise wished that she hadn’t. She had covered the last few steps of her journey from the front of the carnival to the back with startling speed, enough that she knew her mother would have thoroughly chastised her for it had she been present.
With each step, she had been sure that she was doing the right thing, that she absolutely had to talk to this man. She wasn’t worried about it, not really. She’d talked to men at her parents’ parties and in school without any kind of issues at all. In her experience, it was always the man who acted awkward and didn’t know how to handle himself, not her.
She was as naturally flirtatious as she was stubborn and it made talking to the opposite sex a breeze. The fact that she was so stunning that she was better looking than every man she’d met up to that point didn’t hurt, either. Not that she was vain about her looks. She didn’t actually realize that her beauty made conversation so easy for her, instead taking it for granted the way young people so often did with that sort of thing.
It had been that brand of confidence she’d been armed with when she stopped right in front of the most beautiful man she’d ever laid eyes on. It had stuck around just long enough for her to get her greeting out before cruelly abandoning her. After her hello, she just stood there, feeling like a fool, and also feeling quite rude for interrupting the men's conversation.
At the same time, she couldn’t seem to make herself leave. She just stood there, each moment of silence that passed making her insides scream for some kind of rescue. That rescue finally came in the form of Penelope, who had finally, gracelessly, caught up.
“What in the world is the matter with you? Didn’t you hear me calling your name?! Because I was, you know. I was calling you and asking you to slow down. The way you were walking, one might have thought you had caught on fire or something.”
“You were calling for her, were you? That must make you Eloise, then. I didn’t hear any other name being shouted out.”
“Yes! I’m sorry, yes. That’s right. My name is Eloise. I wanted...I don’t know, to say hello. To introduce myself, I suppose.”
The beautiful man’s friend rolled his eyes while, behind her, Eloise heard Penelope’s snort of disgust. She cared little about either reaction. All she was concerned with was the reaction of the man she was talking to, and he wasn’t annoyed by her intrusion at all. At least he didn’t seem to be. She couldn’t be sure, but he was engaging in the conversation. She figured she could take that as a positive sign, at the very least.
“I guess you didn’t have to.”
“Didn’t have to what?”
“Introduce yourself. Your friend here did it for you.”
“Well I can assure you that was not my intention,” Penelope broke in, pushing herself between Eloise and her point of interest with more assertiveness than she usually displayed. “Not at all. It was quite the opposite, if you must know. My friend was headed in the wrong direction. We were planning on going to look at the animals.”
“You’re in for a treat, then,” the gorgeous man’s friend interjected, the bored look still plastered firmly on his face. “The tigers haven’t eaten in two days. They’ll be extra feisty tonight. I’m sure they’ll put on a good show for you ladies.”
“That’s terrible! Not the animals, then. But something. Something other than this. Come on, Eloise, let’s go.”
“No.”
“Come on. This isn’t funny anymore.”
“What’s the matter, miss?”
“I’m sorry, are you talking to me?”
“I am,” the massive man with the startling eyes answered with the crooked beginning of a smile in one corner of his mouth. “Who else?”
“I’m sure I don’t know. And my name is no concern of yours. We aren’t staying and we won’t be making your acquaintance.”
“Townie girls,” the bored one muttered under his breath, “always bitches. You know that, Archer. You’re wasting your time.”
“I told you!” Penelope practically shouted, her voice so shrill, it was almost painful to listen to. “I told you they were all heathens. Let’s go!”
Eloise whirled around to face Penelope, choosing to ignore the insult that had just been lobbed at them both. Her face was hot and probably bright red, her whole body tingling with anger. Never in her life had she been so embarrassed by another person. For the first time, she was legitimately humiliated to be associated with a person, and that person happened to be her best friend. All thoughts of sparing the girl’s feelings were gone. As far as Eloise was concerned, Penelope had earned herself a little dressing down.
“I’m not going anywhere. If you want to leave, you can go on your own.”
Penelope’s mouth gaped open, her eyes filling with tears. She looked shocked, the kind of shocked a girl would be after, say, a strong slap to the face. Eloise supposed that, in a way, that was exactly what it was. As a general rule, Eloise had always been careful with Penelope, careful of her feelings. She knew she was the more delicate of the two of them, whether or not she was willing to own up to it. The times when Eloise was harsh with Penelope were few and far between, which only made this public admonishing all the worse.
“On my own? But you brought me here, Eloise. I’m only here because you made me come.”
“That’s right, and now you’re free. I release you of your terrible duty.”
“That’s not what I was trying to say!”
“It doesn’t matter one way or another, because I'm staying right here. I’m going to get my fortune read.”
“But you can’t! What would your parents think?”
“Truthfully? I don’t have the first clue. What I do know is that you’re being very rude to these gentlemen.”
“Me? He called us a filthy word!”
“He did, because you were being nasty. Penelope, I would love for you to stay, but only if it’s to have fun. If you’re just going to be hateful, it might be better if you did just go. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine right here where I am.”
Penelope’s face worked, an entire range of emotions cycling across her features at lightning speed. Eloise was sure she would continue to fight back, but she said nothing. All at once, she looked deflated. It hurt Eloise’s heart to see that and to know it was because of her own words, but she didn’t take any of it back. The way Penelope was acting didn’t sit well with her and she wouldn’t pretend that it did. Penelope must have known it, too, because when she looked at Eloise next it was with defeat.
“Fine,” she answered dully, “have it your way. But don’t expect me to lie for you. If your parents happen to come over and find me at home instead of here with you, I’ll tell them exactly what you’re doing. I’ll tell them that you chose the company of heathens and criminals over your very own best friend. And the next time you think to ask me to go along with one of your little schemes, don’t bother. I can already tell you that I won’t do it.”
Penelope turned around with as much dignity as she could muster and then stalked back towards the entrance. Part of Eloise wanted to call out to her, to do what she could to make amends without making it appear that she agreed with any of Penelope’s sentiments, but she kept silent. It was humiliating enough to have had this argument in front of two very attractive men she didn’t know from Adam. She had no desire to draw it out any further. As it was, she could hardly stand the thought of looking at them, either one of them. That was how bad she felt about the insults Penelope had hurled their way.
“I’m so sorry.”
“What for?”
“For the things she said, of course. She’s not a bad girl, honest, she’s not. She’s just got some unfortunate ideas about the world.”
“But they aren’t your ideas, are they?”
“Of course not!”
“Then there’s nothing for you to be sorry for.”
“She can be a little sorry, can’t she? I mean, it was her friend, after all. And she was a nasty creature.”
Eloise’s eyes flitted towards the beautiful man’s friend, who looked like he was finally enjoying himself some for the first time. He didn’t seem like the nicest “creature” himself, and there was something about him that put the hairs on the back of her neck on end. She couldn’t say exactly what it was, which was probably why she ignored it.
Whatever it was, it settled as a feeling of discomfort deep down in her gut, the part of her she had learned she must always listen to. Also, just because she had told Penelope off didn’t mean she was alright listening to someone else do the same.
“You weren’t exactly Prince Charming, you know.”
“I wasn’t, and I never will be.”
“I’m just say—”
“Hey, Archer,” the friend, who was once again bored, interrupted her in mid-sentence, “we gonna get up to anything tonight? Or did you plan on just hanging around the tent all night?”
“I’m staying. Gram put me on duty.”
“Sounds like your bad luck, not mine. I’ll catch you later, brother. Try not to get yourself into too much trouble.”
He made a point of looking at Eloise when he made the last comment, which only set her to blushing all over again. Whether he noticed it or not was impossible to say, because after clapping his friend on the shoulder he sauntered off, no doubt in search of something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
That left Eloise alone with the object of her fixation for the first time, and her heart began to jump wildly inside of her chest. What was she supposed to say to him, this man she had never even met? Why were her insides, her heart and her gut, rebelling at the mere sight of him? She longed for someone to ask, a girlfriend with more information than she herself had, but there was nobody like that around for her.
For one thing, she had just run off the best friend she had and highly doubted Penelope would be interested in being called back for consultation. Then there was the fact that Penelope had probably even less experience with the opposite sex than she had herself.
Even if she had somehow managed to get Penelope (whose current location she had not a clue about) to come back and confer with her, and even if she’d been able to conduct that conference in a sly enough manner so as to avoid alerting the man in front of her as to the conversation’s content, Penelope would likely be zero help whatsoever.
Eloise was really, truly on her own, and hadn’t that been what she wanted? To be let loose in the carnival with the freedom to explore the world in a way she’d never been able to before? Well, here she was, doing that exact thing. It was her opportunity to prove to herself that she was more capable than Penelope, her parents, than anybody gave her credit for. It was the opportunity for her to live her life somewhere inside of her own terms.
“What’s the matter, girl? Cat got your tongue?”
“I’m sorry?”
“You’re just standing there,” the strange man answered back with a slightly bemused look on his face, “looking like you’ve got something you want to say. So, I asked if a cat’s got your tongue. Maybe you don’t know the expression?”
“No, I mean, yes. Of course, I know the expression. I—what’s your name?”
“What now?”
He looked a little taken aback by the rapid change in conversation, which made Eloise smile. That was what she was looking for. She was definitely happier with him having that slightly shell shocked expression than knowing it was plastered across her own face.
Talking to this guy made her feel like she was on unequal footing, and she’d never felt that way in her life, not with a man or a woman. There was something about him, the little voice in the back of her head kept insisting despite her best efforts to shut it up, and that something felt like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life.
It was a something that could be dangerous to her, she knew that without having any hard evidence as to why. It was something that could change everything if she didn’t turn around and go back home, only she didn’t want to do that. Playing with fire, her mind repeated like a broken record she couldn’t, wouldn’t stop. Playing with fire and you know it. She did know it, felt deeply in her bones that there was something seriously different about this man, but she couldn’t have cared less.
She just stood looking up at him with that almost cocky smile on her face, enjoying the look of this big, strong man looking uncomfortable. Perhaps he sensed that there was something different about her, as well. Perhaps.
“Your name. What name do you go by?”
“Archer Grant. What’s it to you?”
“Now, that’s not a friendly answer. The next part is where you ask me the same question. I’ll save you the trouble, though, seeing as I’ve just asked your part of the conversation for myself. I’m Eloise, Eloise Wright.”
“Right. Nice to meet you, Eloise. Now, what are you doing, standing here all on your own? Might not be the safest thing, a pretty thing like you.”
“I can take care of myself very well,” Eloise answered quickly, hoping this Archer didn’t catch the renewed blush at the sound of him calling her pretty, “and I wasn’t on my own, if you’ll recall.”
“That’s right. She left pretty unhappy, didn’t she?”
“She did.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go after her?”
“I am. I don’t know that she’d want to have me go after her right now. This is better. I’ll talk to her again later on, once things have cooled off. Besides, she wasn’t acting well. She must learn that. And then there’s my own curiosity.”
“Curiosity, huh? Curiosity killed the cat, now. You know that, don’t you?”
“I do,” she answered back, wondering why it was that he kept referring to her as a cat, as if he knew something of the deeper part of what she was. “And I don’t give a damn.”
“Just so long as you know. What is it that’s got your curiosity peaked?”
“Why, this!” Eloise exclaimed, gesturing with her arms to the eclectic set up before her. “All of this. What is it that you do here?”
“Fortunes, Eloise. We deal in fortunes in this place.”
Eloise began to laugh, then stopped abruptly. Instead, she peered into Archer’s face, searching for some sign of humor to let her know that he was only trying to pull her leg. There was nothing. If he was messing with her, he was doing a fantastic job of hiding it.
That should probably have drawn up some red flags in her brain, but instead it had the exact opposite effect. Now Eloise’s curiosity really was peaked, and nothing in the world would have drawn her away from Archer and his mysteries now.
“Fortunes, huh? So, what, you can look inside of my brain and know what’s happened? What’s going to happen?”
“No, not like that. But the fortune telling is real. It’s something that’s been passed down in the Grant line from generation to generation. It’s one of our talents, I suppose you could say, although some might say it’s a curse.”
“Why would it be a curse?”
“Because. People don’t like what they don’t understand. More than that. They fear what they don’t understand. That makes having an ability most would consider supernatural a very dangerous thing. People do stupid things when they’re afraid. It’s something to be careful about. Although something tells me you don’t need me telling you that. I get the impression that’s a lesson you’ve been given before.”
Those eyes of his seemed to be looking straight through her, to the parts of her that were supposed to be secret from everyone but her parents. Could he really see into her the way he claimed? It certainly felt that way, but there was a part of her that simply couldn’t believe that.
Even knowing what she did about life’s oddities, even though she was so much a part of the world most people would never believe, she herself couldn’t really fathom that something like fortune telling could be anything aside from phoney.
Later she would think about that moment and marvel at her own naivete, but in that moment, she believed herself to be untouchable in the way that all youth believed themselves to be untouchable. It was the same lie young people all over the world told themselves before doing something potentially dangerous to themselves.
“I’ve been taught all sorts of lessons, more than any girl would want. What I haven’t done is have my fortune read. That’s something new.”
“So, then you’d like a reading, would you?”
“I think I would. I’d at least like to see what it’s all about.”
“Ah, I see.”
“See what?” she asked hotly, beginning to grow annoyed by the all-knowing expression Archer had adopted at her expense.
“You. You don’t believe it’s real, not yet. Not to worry. You’ll see. We’ll have you believing soon enough.”