“A much bigger snake. Better not to let her out in the car. I’ll show her to you later—if you’ll be willing to work with me.”
* * *
Ada burst out laughing when he told her about the circus. It was like a joke, she said. Wasn’t it every parent’s nightmare? A girl running away with the circus?
They were sitting at a Formica table inside the service station in front of two beers and slices of congealed pizza.
“Why a joke? I’ve worked with the circus for twenty-five years. I’m a professional,” he said, seemingly hurt by her sarcasm. “It’s a wonderful way of life. We are artists. Performers of the highest class. We come from different parts of the world and we’re also a very close-knit family. You can be part of it too. My previous assistant has left and I need a new partner for my show.”
He had become very serious. For the first time Ada felt he had some authority, after all. Maybe she had underestimated him because of the badly dyed hair and the flashy clothes.
“What kind of a show?”
Andor waved his manicured hand.
“Now it’s called the Bandhra Fakhir. I come out in a Rajasthani outfit with a turban and my assistant has to pull out the snakes one by one from the boxes, going from small to big, while I play a flute like a snake charmer and she dances with them. The Burmese python comes out last—that’s the grand finale of the show—and it curls all around her body. It’s seven feet long and the audience always goes wild at that point because they think it’s a constrictor.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Oh, no! I’ve had my snakes for many years. They are all used to being touched, and they are very gentle. The Burmese python, especially. She’s the one inside the large box. Her name is Snow—she’s an albino.”
Andor was getting more and more excited.
“Wait till you see her. She’s a beauty.”
Something clicked off again in Ada’s eyes. “What’s the pay?”
“Food and shelter, plus thirty thousand lira per performance. You won’t have any extra expenses.”
Ada hesitated, uncertain.
“I’ve never been in a show. I mean…in front of an audience.”
“That’s not a problem at all. I can teach you in one afternoon. Basically all you have to do is dance to the music and learn how to handle the snakes.”
“But I’m not a dancer…”
“It doesn’t matter, Ada—you just have to come forward, moving your hips in rhythm. I’m sure you can do that, can’t you? Think of belly dancing…or of any ancient, beautiful dance. All you have to do is look confident and exotic—the snakes do the rest. It’s terrific, I promise you. The crowds go crazy. It’s very, very exciting.”
More than terrific, the description of the Bandhra act sounded vulgar and somewhat pathetic, but the idea of handling snakes excited her. It was a great story that would impress anybody. And besides, she was always looking for ways to make some money.
* * *
That same night they stopped in a motel near Canosa, on the edge of the Tavoliere plain, in northern Puglia. Andor asked for two single rooms right away, and Ada was relieved. She had expected him to linger at the concierge and find a lame excuse to get a double. She’d already planned a way to extricate herself—she wasn’t going to have sex with him; that was a given, and besides, she knew how to defend herself in certain situations, had learned that in her days of traveling and hitchhiking on her own—but Andor’s propriety pleased her.
She helped him carry both crates up to his room. He closed the door and sat on the floor, next to the big trunk. He fiddled with the lock, and winked at Ada as he opened the lid. Ada gasped as Snow raised her head slowly, her body a luminous pattern of pure white and gold that grew thicker in the middle, till it became as large as one of Ada’s thighs. Ada glanced at Andor expectantly and he nodded in return as if to give her permission to touch the snake. Ada moved her hand cautiously, until she brushed Snow’s scales with her fingertips. She noticed how smooth and slippery they were to the touch—like silk, she thought—and again she felt the same incredible firmness, pure energy packed into an abstract shape. Most of the python’s body was still curled up in knots, each coil sliding in a different direction in the attempt to unfurl, so that inside the trunk there seemed to be more than just one snake. She tried to hold Snow around the middle, where her body was the thickest, but she couldn’t clasp her fingers around it—it was way too large. She looked again at Andor, exhilarated.
“She’s so heavy, I can hardly lift her!”
He laughed. It was lovely to see her genuine enthusiasm.
“She weighs about ten kilos; she’s just a baby. She will weigh four or five times that once she grows.”
Snow was indeed like a fantasy—a creature from a fairy tale, a beautiful monster fabricated in a dream—and yet there she was, so real and alive, moving under the touch of Ada’s fingertips.
“You can do it,” he said. “You are a natural.”
“How do you know that?” Ada asked, and for the first time she felt she could maybe trust this strange man, so unlike any person she would ever consider taking up with.
Andor didn’t answer. Instead he just extended his hand.
“So? Is this a done deal? Are we partners now?”
Ada took his hand and shook it.
* * *
Later, after they had something to eat in a small trattoria across the street, they went back upstairs to the room and Andor opened a duffel bag, pulling out a tangle of shiny fabrics.
“These belonged to Zara, my ex-assistant. They might be big on you but we can have them fixed.”
There was a full bayadere costume, with a golden bra and embroidered harem pants in a semi-sheer material, a tiny black and silver top, a full pleated skirt in bright green and red stripes that sat low on the hips. There were anklets with tiny bells attached, gaudy earrings made of plastic and chunky bracelets studded with fake gems. She kept pulling out these small treasures one by one, mystified.
“What are these?”
“These are the costumes we used on the show. But if you like, we can have some new ones made for you. I’m thinking of maybe doing something different, with more of a modern feel to it. But for now these will do. Try them on.”
The thought of undressing in front of him bothered her, but deep down she knew that all those offerings must come with a price. She wasn’t particularly prudish, had no problem taking off her clothes in front of her friends—they had spent months in Greece, all of them naked on the beach—but showing her tits in front of an older man was a different matter.