It wasn't so long ago really, but all that seemed to have been in another world to Sarah now, another life somewhere that she had lived through and was now ended, no more a part of her life now than night was a part of day, or one day a part of the one before. That was over, gone, past, and nothing counted any longer save the present. And each day that she lived now was one more to make up for the miserable ones that came before.
Sarah was truly happy now, she was finally doing something wild and exciting, just like all her girlish daydreams when she was in high school back in Utah, dreaming of a life somewhere filled with reckless deeds and adventure, instead of endless piles of dirty dishes and a smelly man's socks draped over the shower curtain. Ever since her first trip to the zoo as a kid, she had always had a special spot in her heart for animals, all kinds of animals, so when she spotted that ad in the classified section that blistering hot afternoon a month ago, it was only natural that she give it a try at least. Mr. Hawkins her boss now, said that it was her girlish enthusiasm and sincerity that landed it for her, but whatever it was, she was grateful. It had called for, simply, an "attractive young girl who loves animals for assistant's job with traveling zoo and animal show. See the American and Canadian west and get paid for it!" And now the job was hers, special assistant to Mr. Henry Hawkins at a hundred and fifty a week, all expenses paid. It was like a dream come true; Sarah was fearful of waking up and finding herself back in Blackjack with all those coarse, uninteresting people, listening to them talk of bits and derricks and barrels of oil until she died of old age, penniless and still stuck in that God-forsaken hole in the Mojave Desert.
But it was indeed all real, not something she had fantasized out of sheer desperation. She had gone to see Mr. Hawkins, riding into town with Mr. Parker when he went to get the mail and supplies, and she never went back, not even to get her clothes. Mr. Hawkins hired her on the spot, and she swore old Mr. Parker to secrecy, as no one had seen them leave together. Her new boss seemed quite concerned about her marriage difficulties, and he even offered her an advance on her first week's salary so that she could buy a few new clothes and not have to spend another second with that coarse slug of a husband back in Blackjack.
She did take the time to write her husband a letter, though, which was probably more than he deserved. Mr. Hawkins mailed it for her in Las Vegas when he had to drive up there on business. She could just imagine Jamie, red-faced and blustering, clad most likely in work jeans and steel-toed boots, storming into Las Vegas and demanding of someone, probably the first policeman he spotted, that they return his wife before he got really mad and wrecked the whole place. Jamie was like that, though he certainly had contained it well enough when he was courting her; he thought a wife was just another piece of property, like a monkey-wrench or an old comfortable pair of shoes, so he treated her accordingly. As near as he could figure it, being the wife of Jamie Olsen was a distinct privilege, something to be thankful for, and that should be enough to satisfy any woman. Nice clothes? Tenderness? A good life? Hell, that was for dudes and rich folks, not for Jamie. Hard dirty work and chasing the rainbow was all he knew, all his father and his father before him ever knew… and Sarah hoped he would be happy with it now that he had it all to himself.
They were on the road now, somewhere north of the Canadian-U.S. border and rolling further toward the oil field and construction camps of the Northwest Territories. It was ironic, in a way, that Sarah had escaped from one oilworkers' town and was heading for another, but it wasn't the same this time. She was on the move; the show's schedule called for not more than two days in any location, so she would see lots and lots of scenery between stops. And besides, there would be dozens of interesting people to meet along their full season's schedule that brought them back, by the coming on of winter, to California, not just the few boring souls back in Blackjack who were always the same – dull and uninteresting – day in and day out.
Sarah rode in the pickup with Mr. Hawkins and one of the animal trainers, a young kid named Sammy who was working his first season also with the show. There was a large camper body attached to the truck, with a tiny crawlway between the cab and the camper, so she could squirm through and get Cokes or beer for them whenever the guys asked for it or sneak a few winks on the double bed that stretched over the roof of the pickup cab and gave her a panoramic view of the majestic Canadian Rockies as they passed on her right. Behind them, but not traveling in convoy because it was too dangerous in the event of an accident, were two other employees, Hawkins' right hand man, Al Badger, and the other woman who worked with the show, someone Sarah knew only as Gloria. They rode in an old station wagon that towed the trailer they seemed to share.
And behind them, further still scattered back along their route, were the trucks, three of them, that carried the animals from the show. They had left the wintering site pretty soon after Sarah took the job, so she really hadn't spent much time with any of them, but they all appeared to be quite healthy and well-cared for and she was glad of that. She had had it in the back of her mind that some of these traveling menagerie shows did not take care of their caged animals, and Sarah wanted no part of any kind of abuse like that. She could not bear the thought of anyone mistreating a captive animal, or a wild one, for that matter. To her, that was as alien as beating an infant or whipping a child with a heavy leather belt. Maybe it was because of the way she had been so badly treated by her mother's second husband before she finally ran away and got married to the first jerk who offered a time-payment ring and had enough for the marriage license. Of course, she had not seen it in quite that light then, but it was becoming clearer now all the time as she sat quietly while Sammy and Mr. Hawkins took turns with the pickup, coming into focus like a television tube warming up. And it wasn't a picture she liked… nor one she ever wanted to relive. This was all so exciting, a whole new world out there, and Sarah planned to see every inch of it.