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By Root 336 0

of paint, rolled canvas, ropes and a rack of costumes. At one end a space had been cleared around a little portable stove on which an iron kettle steamed, and around this, on boxes and rolled-up canvas, several people were seated having tea. They stared at Anji, not entirely welcomingly. She lowered her eyes, embarrassed at intruding and unsure where to look, for every one of the tea-drinkers was physically extreme. She had glimpsed the bearded woman who was advertised outside, a hugely fat man covered with tattoos, a pinheaded woman, a midget and a man with neither arms nor legs smoking a cigarette. She wasn’t paying these people for the privilege of gawking at them; she had trespassed into their privacy.

‘What’s this then, Hugo?’ said the bearded woman suspiciously.

‘Micah hurt a chap.’

There was a general murmur of sympathy; Micah was apparently not well liked.

‘I’m sure it’s not bad,’ said Anji, as much to reassure herself as them. ‘My friend’s been ill.’

Everyone was moving around, piling up some rugs and blankets for a makeshift bed. In Hugo’s arms, the Doctor hung bonelessly limp, as if he might suddenly flow to the floor in a puddle. Anji had never seen a human body sag like that; no human being had that sort of muscular-skeletal frame. For a frightened instant, she felt more kinship with the man with no limbs than she did with the Doctor.

‘Consumptive, is he?’ said the bearded woman.

‘Oh no,’ said Anji, though, looking at the Doctor’s white, thin face she understood the diagnosis. ‘He’s had an operation,’ she continued, feeling as if she were babbling. ‘It made him weak. Thank you for your kindness.’

Hugo carefully laid the Doctor on his back. His coat fell open, and Anji saw smears of blood on his shirt. Scale must have ruptured some of the operation incisions. ‘It’s nothing,’ she blurted in relief. ‘Just some burst stitches.’

An examination by the bearded woman confirmed this. She looked curiously at the hard, dead-white keloidal ridge on the right side of the Doctor’s chest. Anji stared too. She had never actually seen Sabbath’s surgical handiwork. She felt slightly ill.

‘What’s up, then?’ said Fitz in her ear.

‘Where’ve you been?’

‘Had to reassure this copper everything was all right. Is it?’’

‘I think so.’

As if to confirm this, the Doctor opened his eyes. He looked around, then followed everyone’s gaze to his chest: ‘Hm.’

‘ “Hm”?’ said Anji. ‘That’s all you have to say?’

‘Oops?’ tried the Doctor. ‘Oh, gosh?’

‘Smart lad, en’t he?’ said the bearded woman, unimpressed.

‘I am, in fact, quite intelligent,’ said the Doctor. ‘You’re not seeing me at my best. Tell her,’ he said to Fitz.

Fitz said to Anji, ‘I think he’s still a bit woozy.’

‘Hello,’ the Doctor said to everyone. ‘Sorry to have interrupted your teabreak.’

‘Imagine you’d like some tea yourself,’ said Hugo. ‘And maybe a doctor.’

‘Neither, thank you.’ The Doctor sat up, pulling his coat shut. Fitz and Anji started to protest, but he stopped them with a glance. ‘This looks much worse than it is. It’s very kind of you to have looked after me like this. Thank you again, Mr...?’

‘Hugo Little, at your service.’

‘Stage name?’ said Fitz. Anji kicked his ankle. The giant looked affronted.

‘Never have chosen anything so obvious. But it’s the name my father left to me, and I’m proud to keep it.’

The Doctor’s beautiful manners had surfaced. He introduced himself and Anji and Fitz to the others. The bearded woman was just Vera, but everyone else had a title: Henrietta the Narrow-Minded, Reginald the Colossus, Rudy the Dynamic Diminutive, and Wobry the Human Serpent. The Doctor seemed to know something about carnival life, as he did about so many unexpected topics, and he talked shop, particularly with Hugo and Vera, about the rigours of touring, the changes in fairs since the steam-powered rides had come in, and the arbitrary and idiotic regulations imposed by village councils who knew nothing about the practical realities of running a fair. Everyone had tea. Wobry was curious about India and Anji was sorry to have to disappoint him by explaining