Call of Water (Madame Tan's Freakshow #1) - Marina Simcoe Page 0,24
all of this was fake, one way or another. Still, it wouldn’t be easy to figure out how each of the exhibit was accomplished, which was challenging and exciting on its own.
“Humans cannot enter Nerifir,” Madame continued. “Luckily, I was able to acquire my collection, through means I would prefer not to disclose. Thanks to me, you can now view things that were never meant to be seen by a human eye.”
“Cool.” Fleur nodded, staring intently at the red snake-bird as it cleaned its feathers.
I wondered if she, too, was pondering the mechanics that went into the creation of the exhibit.
“Well.” Madame stepped out of the room into another short corridor. “Thank you for your visit. Radax will now show you the way out.”
She gestured in the direction of the tall, broad man with a full beard standing nearby. Just down the corridor, the open flap of the wall revealed the sunny outdoors.
“Is that it?” I wondered out loud. The group of the tents seemed to be larger from the outside than it turned out to be from the inside. “There must be more rooms in here,” I said softly as our group moved to the exit.
A puff of air brushed by my hand from a canvas overlap on my right, and I quickly yanked the fabric to the side. Secured both from the top and the bottom, the canvas stretched tight in my hand, creating a narrow slit.
Instead of the fresh air, another wave of the fragrant smoke reached me through the gap. The space on the other side was completely dark except for the glowing blue letters VIP. They were attached to the thick rope that stretched across what appeared to be the entrance to yet another room.
“Miss?” Madame prompted me impatiently as everyone had already left. Fleur was waiting for me at the exit. “It’s time for you to leave.”
“But what is in there?” I asked.
“The VIP area,” Madame replied curtly, her voice cooling off significantly. Her eyes narrowed at me. “Entrance by invitation only.”
“How does one get invited?” I asked, trying hard not to feel intimidated by her tone.
“That would require a certain level of income.”
“Like I would need to bring my tax statement or something?”
Fleur was waving at me from the exit, bouncing foot to foot and gesturing for me to hurry up.
“No,” Madame bit off. “But the ticket to that section costs much more.”
“Well, I would argue that twenty dollars is high enough already, just to see—”
“To see things not found on Earth?” Madame scoffed. “Hardly.”
I decided against pointing out that the show was over, and she could drop her magical kingdom act.
“So, what do you exhibit in that section?” I asked instead. “How much is the VIP ticket to get there?”
“Ten thousand dollars.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her mouth pressed into a hard line as she stared me down.
“What?” My face must have displayed my astonishment because clear satisfaction spread on hers.
“Please follow Radax to the exit,” she said, calmly. “Or I will be forced to make him physically assist you out.”
Chapter 10
“WHAT DO YOU THINK SHE is hiding in there?” I kept looking over my shoulder back at the entrance of the tents even after the burly bearded man with a spectacular full-sleeve tattoo escorted us out.
“Probably another bunch of handmade oddities.” Fleur shifted her weight from foot to foot.
“Handmade?”
“What? Do you believe any of those things are real?”
“Of course not,” I muttered, thinking back to the exhibits. “The shell must be plastic, and that tree branch looked like no plant life ever would.”
“The pig was amazing, though,” Fleur gushed. “And the bird.”
“Where do you think they came from? They did look rather realistic.”
“Not sure. Well, the bird could be a mechanical toy. The rocks, too, painted with some wicked glow-in-the-dark paint. The pig looked pretty real, though. I mean you touched it yourself.” She scratched her chin. “I don’t know. Maybe he is a result of some surgery done by a mad scientist? Do you need to pee?” She asked suddenly, stepping foot to foot again.
“Um. No.”
“Okay. Wait here then. I’ll use the stinky public bathroom, then we’ll go get some ice cream. It’s so freaking hot here today.” She waved a hand in front of her face, her smooth brown skin flushed from heat. “Doesn’t even feel like I’m in Canada.”
I walked to the side as Fleur sauntered toward the white portable washrooms, taking our backpack with her.