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Rudy stood birth watch with only one other man, not a local but a perforement in a meadow at the Halloway Farm He called himself Beezo Curiously, this proved not to be his clown name but one that he'd been born with: Kon-rad Beezo

So as destiny, that what happens just happens, without purpose or ue otherwise

Beezo was married to Natalie, a trapeze artist and a member of a renowned aerialist family that qualified as circus royalty

Neither of Natalie's parents, none of her brothers and sisters, and none of her high-flying cousins had accoht, and as always the show o on

Evidently the aerialists kept their distance also because they had not approved of one of their kind taking a clown for a husband Every subculture and ethnicity has its objects of bigotry

As Beezo waited nervously for his wife to deliver, he ments of his in-laws "Self-satisfied," he called them, and "devious"

The clown's perpetual glower, rough voice, and bitterness made Rudy uncomfortable

Angry words plumed fro" and, poetically for a clown, "blithe spirits of the air, but treacherous when the ground is under them"

Beezo was not in full costue clothes were in the Eht polka-dot plue figure nonetheless

A bright plaid patch blazed across the seat of his baggy brown suit The sleeves of his jacket were comically short In one lapel bloomed a fake flower the diameter of a bread plate

Before racing to the hospital with his wife, he had traded clown shoes for sneakers and had taken off his big round red rubber nose White greasepaint still encircled his eyes, however, and his cheeks reed, and he wore a rumpled porkpie hat

Beezo's bloodshot eyes shone as scarlet as his painted cheeks, perhaps because of the acrid s drink ht be involved as well

In those days, s rooars by way of celebration

When not at his dying father's bedside, poor Rudy should have been able to take refuge in that lounge His grief should have beenparenthood

Instead, both Maddy and Natalie were long in labor Each ti for hi through pack after pack of unfiltered Lucky Strikes

As druhtning shuddered through the s, Beezothe blue vinyl floor, from pink wall to pink wall, he smoked and fumed

"Do you believe that snakes can fly, Rudy Tock? Of course you don't

But snakes can fly I've seen the They're well paid and applauded, these cobras, these diamondbacks, these copperheads, these hateful vipers"

Poor Rudy responded to this vituperative rant with ue, and sye Beezo, but he sensed that a failure to coer

Pausing at a storm-washed , his painted face further patina ted by the lightning-cast patterns of the strea, Rudy Tock-a son or daughter?"

Beezo consistently addressed Rudy by his first and last names, as if the tere one: Rudytock

"They have a new ultrasound scanner here," Rudy replied, "so they could tell us whether it's a boy or girl, but we don't want to know We just care is the baby healthy, and it is"

Beezo's posture straightened, and he raised his head, thrusting his face toward theas if to bask in the pulsing storht "I don't need ultrasound to tellme a son Now the Beezo name won't die when I do I'll call hireatest of clowns"

Punchinello Beezo, Rudy thought Oh, the poor child

"He will be the very greatest of our kind," said Beezo, "the ulti He will be acclaimed from coast to coast, on every continent"

Although Rudy had just returned to the maternity ward froy seemed to swell each time the storm flashed in his feverish eyes

"He will be not merely acclaimed but immortal"

Rudy was hungry for news of Maddy's condition and the progress of her labor In those days, fathers were seldom admitted to delivery rooms to witness the birth of their children

"He will be the circus star of his time, Rudy Tock, and everyone who sees him perform will know Konrad Beezo is his father, patriarch of clowns"

The ward nurses who should have regularly visited the lounge to speak with the waiting husbands werethemselves less visible than usual No doubt they were uncory bozo

"On rave, I swear my Punchinello will never be an aerialist Beezo declared

The blast of thunder punctuating his voas the first of two so powerful that the panes vibrated like druuished-throbbed dimly

"What do acrobatics have to do with the truth of the human condition?" Beezo demanded

"Nothing," Rudy said at once, for he was not an aggressive entle and humble, not yet a pastry chef like his father, e of fatherhood, wished to avoid being severely beaten by a large clown

"Coedy, the very tools of the clown's art-that is the essence of life," Beezo declared

"Co a little joke, including his own trade in the essence-of-life professions

This slare, a look that see time

'"Coood bread,"" Beezo repeated, perhaps expecting Dad to admit his quip had been inane

"Hey," Dad said, "that sounds just like ht have passed for my father's

""Hey, that sounds just like me,"" Beezo rowl: "I told you I'ine"

Rudy thought he could feel his chilled heart beating sloinding dlown under the influence of that wintry gaze

"My boy will never be an aerialist The hateful snakes will hiss Oh, how they'll hiss and thrash, but Punchinello will never be an aerialist!"

Another tsunaain the lights were more than half drowned

In that glooht hand glowed brighter, brighter, although he held it at his side, as if soer lips

Rudy thought, but could not swear, that Beezo's eyes briefly glowed as bright and red as the cigarette This could not have been an inner light, of course, but a reflection of so

When the echoes of the thunder rolled away, the brownout passed As the lights rose, so did Rudy rise from his chair

He had only recently returned here, and although he had received no news about his wife, he was ready to flee back to the grim scene in the intensive care unit rather than experience a third doohts in the company of Konrad Beezo