Envious

“I just don’t know whether I should take the real job or go in every other day for the half-lame job.”

“They’re both jobs. Just take one.”    

“It’s not that easy!”

“What do you mean?” A clatter of plates and then the screeching of plates—

“What did I tell you about scratching our plates together?!”

A sound of flesh hitting flesh, and a crash of a body hitting the ground.

“You meant to do that, freak. Just to make me feel sorry.”

“Bye!”

In the next room….

“Did the ringleader hit her again?”

“Yes.”

“I’m out! I can’t take this abuse anymore.”

“Yeah—let’s go.”

“Kids, pack your things.”

“We are. We’re leaving forever.”

“Forever.”

The word freed her—metaphorically.

But he’d hit her again.

“I thought zebras had bad attitudes.”

“Well, this ringleader does. Let’s go!”

They ran, escaping the ringleader. He watched them go.

“Good riddance, stupid animals. You’re going to come back, or I’ll make sure you never escape again.”

Later that night…

“Mom, where are we going?”

“Keep hurrying, son. We’re going to make it to the mountains. We’re mountain zebras.”

“Let’s go, Brother. We’re going to make it. I think I can see the mountains from here.”

“Why were you doing the plates for him? Isn’t he a human? Can’t he do them?”

“As if!” Came the unison.

“Sorry.” The brother went silent.

“Let’s go. Hurry up!”

“You’re hurt, but so am I!”

“Well, you—”

“Always state or ask the obvious! Well, I’m asking, because we’re zebras.”

“It wasn’t me. It was his wife. He hit her. It wasn’t us. It wasn’t me. It was his wife. I’m escaping with you two because I don’t want you guys bullied anymore or killed. It’d be a worthless death.”

“But what about the other animals?”

“What about them, son?”

“We’re almost there!”

Back at the tent…

“Can’t believe you. You wouldn’t scratch one plate if those were yours!”

“I—I’m sorry. Can’t you just put something between them—”

“Can’t you? You’re so stupid, you’re asking me to do it.”

“Why do you beat your animals? They’re ugly the way their bruises stand out, distracting the audiences.”

“Shut up, woman! You know nothing about my performances.”

“I see it every night. And it’s awful!”

“Be quiet, or this whip will be the last thing you’ll ever scream about after it hits you.”

“No! I will never—”

“Shut up—”

He disappeared, and a whip was hanging out of his end, its snakelike appearance causing his wife to scramble up and distance herself from the ring leader. He glowered at her, trapping her.

“Why? Why are you doing this to me? I thought you married me for love. Seems you need another punching bag to hit besides those poor animals!”

“Aw, be quiet, you freak.”

“I’m not a freak.”

Much later, in the wee morning…

“Mom, I think I see the—”

“Mountains, yes, up ahead! Shut up, son.”

The son made a U-turn, dismissing his mother and sister forever.

“Fine.”

I’ll go and make this a day for me! He dashed, intent on saving the wife from her wicked husband. He dashed, talking to himself, imagining the wife with him, talking. Them under the lights.

“Hey, how are you?”

“Good, good. You?”

“Good!”

“When’s the show?”

“You know when!”

Laughter. “How—”

The light grew brighter. “Why’s it so bright in here?”

The zebra broke his dream and came back into reality, narrowly crashing into the tent. Whatever! He’ll clean it up. The zebra let the tent come down, panic arising from the other animals, as the animals burst into noises of all kinds—giraffes, penguins, horses, other zebras, monkeys, bears, elephants, tigers, lions and other animals who scrambled out of the way like Miniature Poodles—apparently tore the ring leader from his evil towards his wife to stare speechless at the chaos.

“There!” The zebra roared at the ring leader, whose jaw was on the straw and dirt floor—or what was left of it after the animals dodged, flipped, spun, kicked and hurtled out of the way of each other and fled for the hills, literally. “Clean it up!”

The ring leader’s face grew purple with rage, and his whip went up high into the air, and cracked down onto a poor decorated horse, whose behind oozed blood. It was one of his other show horses, apparently in a cage on the train. It whinnied, but the poor beast couldn’t anything.

“They saw the gun.”

The zebra, who had dodged the ring leader’s fury as he bolted towards him and followed the ring leader towards the train, where some of the other animals stay at night, saw it all. He had jumped when the wife, who the zebra saw coming towards him, was walking towards him.

He smiled. “Hey—get out of here. Like my mother and sister.”

“I said, ‘He has a gun.’ Didn’t you catch that?”

In the stall…

“Like your wife says, what makes you do this?”

“I…” The ring leader’s face became pinched. “I…was worked almost to death by my father. My father, who worked himself to death as a ring leader’s workman, ordered me to work.” He scoffed. “He was a weakling. Nothing I did pleased him. I worked day and night, rain or shine. I did it all, pulling the ropes to open the tent, hauled the barrels of hay into the tent to feed you stupid horses. Why I did it? Don’t care. How I wrapped myself in such glory as these ring leader clothes, now that’s a celebration to remember!”

The whip cracked, and a whinny emitted from the horse.

Outside the tent…

“Remember the gun?”

“Yeah—that’s why they put up with it. It’s not worth dying over.”

The wife shook her head, and the zebra went over and softly put his nose under her chin to raise it. “Hey—don’t be sad. You have us, the animals.”

“Yeah—well, I’m not much of a person. More like a whipping post.”

“Yeah.” The zebra looked away. “We all are.”

That night…

“Now,” the ring leader called to the audience all around the tent, “a show you’ve all been waiting for!”

As the show happened and the ended, the zebra saw the ring leader mercilessly whipping his own animals almost to death, it seemed. The zebra screamed, and bolted towards the ring leader. Cackling, he whipped around, the whip deadly close to the zebra’s face.

“Hey!”

The wife yelled, almost distracting the stupid man. He raised that whip, but there was a banging of a cage, and out burst the show horse! It galloped, and—crack! Down went the ring leader, a huge puncture of a blood-oozing wound staring right at the grinning horse.

The wife ran over. She felt his neck pulse. It wasn’t moving. She nodded. “Thanks, Athens.”

“Anything for the real circus ring leader!”

The zebra dashed up, breaking just before her. “You can run this circus, too. Along with us. Let’s get everyone cleaned up.”

They did, getting all the animals back. Everyone was thrilled to pass by the gravesite of the ring leader. Everyone that is, except the zebra’s mother and sister.

They never returned.

The zebra didn’t care. He was adopted into a new family.

Just like the wife and her new husband and stepchildren were.