Lynda Plante - Entwined

Louis was a step behind her. "Why a taxi? The man said she was walking!"

Helen bent down to the driver. "The circus, please take us to the circus!"

The parking lot was filling up: Crowds walked from the train stations and buses deposited parties near the fenced perimeter. Children waited impatiently to have their photograph taken while they sat on top of the elephant. Clowns passed leaflets and sold balloons. Speakers blasted music, and two majorettes in red sequined costumes paraded up and down banging their drums.

Ruda sat in the bedroom wearing her boots and white trousers. Her body wouldn't stop trembling. She pressed her hands together. They were wet with perspiration. She had never felt this way before, and she was beginning to get frightened. Luis ran into the trailer.

"Standing room only, it's pandemonium out there. Come and see the crowds, they're about to use the laser beams, it's one hell of a sight... come and see!"

"Luis, something's wrong with me, look, I'm shaking, I don't know how to stop it!"

He took her in his arms. "It's just nerves. They are coming to see you, Ruda. Look — your face is on every poster, your face, your act.

Ruda heard the roar of the crowd as Luis opened the trailer door.

" Jesus Christ , Ruda! Look at the laser beams. My God, I've never seen a show like this, that old bastard knows how to draw the crowds!"

High in the sky, in brilliant colors, the lasers wrote:

Rebecca quickened her pace, buffeted along by the crowds heading toward the circus. Even if she wanted to turn back she would find it nearly impossible. She had an overpowering urge to run. Suddenly, the stream of people ahead began pointing upward to the laser beams. They gasped and called out, still surging forward, now with faces tilted skyward. But all Rebecca saw was the name Ruda. She could hear a child's voice calling out, screaming "I'm here, I'm here, I'm over here." Lost among the milling people, a little girl screamed for her mother, but to Rebecca it was a sign, a symbol. She had to get to the front of the crowd. "Let me through, please, please let me pass..."

Ruda stood in the open door of her trailer, staring at the sky. Slowly she looked back to the crowds. Thousands of people were milling around, eating cotton candy, carrying balloons, surging toward the massive triple-ringed tent. There was someone else there, too. She could feel it with every nerve in her body.

Rebecca stood with her face pointed at the sky, her head spinning at the blazing name: Ruda Kellerman! She began to head frantically toward the trailer park. A man at the gate was about to stop her, then waved her through with an apology. He thought she was Ruda Grimaldi.

Luis looked up with a proud smile and turned to Ruda. She stood motionless in the open doorway.

"Are you okay, honey?"

She stared ahead. He asked again if she was all right, but she didn't answer, she couldn't. She didn't hear him, because standing within yards of her was Rebecca.

Rebecca could not move, she could hear no sound, no voices, nothing. All she had eyes for was Ruda, framed in the doorway. The sisters had not seen each other in forty-four years.

Luis was not sure what was happening. He could see the tall elegant woman, but from far away he couldn't really distinguish her features. "Who is it?" he asked, as Ruda stepped down from the trailer. He watched as the woman moved closer and closer. She moved into the lights of the trailer windows.

Shadows played across her face, but he caught a glimpse of her eyes. They were Ruda's eyes, and he knew then. He was dumbstruck. All he could do was stand and look on as Ruda and the woman approached each other, oblivious to everything that surrounded them.

There was one step between them. They were the exact same height, but Ruda was more powerful. Her body blocked Rebecca from Luis's view. He moved sideways, but all he could see was Ruda's back. It was as if she were protecting her other self.

They did not speak as their hands moved to touch each other's face. But they said each other's name in their minds, in unison, as they melted into each other's arms.

Way past their heads, past the parking lot, out on the road leading to an entrance, Luis saw the ominous blue flashing light of a police car. "Please, dear God, no," he thought. "Please don't let them have come for Ruda, not now, not tonight."

They lay together like long-lost lovers, devouring each other's face with their eyes.

They felt the wild beating of their hearts. They had so much to tell each other, to ask, and yet they could not break from the embrace. Little by little Ruda released her hold on Rebecca, then rolled over to lie on her back. She felt Rebecca shudder.

"No, don't, don't cry, please don't."

It took all Ruda's willpower to let go of her sister. She moved away from the bed and reached for one of the posters on the wall. She turned to Rebecca, holding it up for her to see.

"This is me, Ruda Kellerman."

"I am..." Rebecca's lips trembled. She couldn't say her name.

Ruda held out her hand. "Come. Come with me!"

Hand in hand, they looked at the photographs on the walls. Ruda pointed, speaking softly, in odd descriptive sentences, and then their psychic communication began.

"Chicago, London, Florida..."

Rebecca nodded. Ruda would begin a sentence and Rebecca would finish it.

Their voices took on a childish lilt, and their words were no longer spoken only in English but in a mixture of languages: German, Polish, Czech, even in their own private language. Every movement was mirrored by the other. When Rebecca put her hand to her cheek, Ruda automatically touched hers. They were in a world of their own.

But the outside world was closing in. The showground was a heaving mass of bodies. The parking lot was jammed to the bursting point. There were lines of people waiting to buy ice cream and circus souvenirs. More lines formed by the ladies' and men's toilets, and the mass of ticket-holders surging toward the big tent entrance was four to five abreast.

Luis pushed his way toward the stream of cars. He could still see, about half a mile ahead, the police car with its flashing blue light. He had made up his mind what he had to do and say. He ran toward Inspector Heinz's patrol car.

Torsen was red-faced. Twice he had turned off the flashing light, but Rieckert had shouted that unless they used it, they would not make it in time for the opening parade. Rieckert was as excited as a child, urging Torsen on, poking him in the shoulderblade. "Go on, put the siren on, make them pull over."

Torsen banged the steering wheel. "Look, there are hundreds ahead of us. They won't start the show, it's not due to begin for another three quarters of an hour. We just have to wait like everyone else!"

Freda turned to the backseat. "He's right — we'll get there. They won't start the show before everyone's seated. Look up ahead, you think they won't let everyone inside first? Just sit back and enjoy the fireworks!"

Their car inched forward. It was frustrating to see passersby go past on foot. Then the line came to a complete standstill. Up ahead a car had overheated, and there were roars of laughter and calls of abuse as four young boys tried to push the car over to the side.

Far back in the long line of cars was a taxi. Louis and Helen began to think they should turn back; after all, it was a long shot. Yet Vebekka was looking for her sister Ruda, and a Ruda Kellerman was starring in the circus. There was a good chance...