Liberty peered around her. She couldn’t see an entrance. But as she walked around the tent, she found a gap and slid through it.
Inside was a big stage with three small circles marked off. Surrounding it were stadium seats. Above, a long rope was suspended across the tent, and a giant swing hung from it. On the ground were more one-wheeled bicycles, juggling pins, hoops, and balls.
What fun, Liberty thought, and she began looking around. She thought she would climb up the ladder and try the swing. But on the way she saw a large cage. A sign said GODWIN THE TERRIBLE. Inside was a lion.
“Hello!” She went over to the cage.
The lion roared, displaying razor-sharp teeth.
“Can you understand me?”
The lion roared again. This time Liberty could hear faint words beneath the roar. “I’m bored.”
“You must be, in that cage,” Liberty said.
Quickly, Liberty told him about Mal’s lab and the comprehension cream.
“That’s a good story,” the lion said. “I’m not as bored. If you tell me more stories, I might let you tame me.”
“You seem pretty tame.”
“Do you want to pet me?”
Liberty reached in and stroked the lion’s soft mane.
“It’s you! The Amazing Madame Torso!” A man rushed up to her. “Exactly on time. I can hardly believe my eyes. And you’ve already tamed Godwin the Terrible.” The man wore green tights and a short black jacket. He had a thin waxed mustache that grew all the way to his knees. “I didn’t think you’d be so small, so youthful. That face cream you sell must work wonders. Already, I can see you perform miracles. Our last tamer, Snap, never patted Godwin. He poked him with a chair. I’m sure you’re famished, Madame Torso. We’ll dine, and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
The word “dine” kept Liberty from admitting that she was not Madame Torso. “Hello.”
The man bowed. “Modesto Impregno, as you know. So happy to meet you at last. I fed Godwin this morning in preparation for your arrival.”
“Don’t interrupt my story time!” Godwin roared angrily.
“That’s no way to greet your new tamer, Godwin. I must apologize for him. Times, as I mentioned in my letter, have been hard. Godwin has not been able to have the amount of meat he is used to. To tell the truth, all he’s been eating is soup, hot dogs, and the occasional squirrel. It’s made him a little, uh, disgruntled. But in your correspondence, you said you could tame any lion.”
“Come inside my cage,” Godwin said. “We’ll show him. I won’t eat you. I promise.”
Liberty was suspicious, but having a meal did seem to relate to taming the lion. “Can I go in the cage?” she asked Modesto.
“Of course! But let me get you your whip and chair. The show is tonight, so there’s no time to lose.”
“My whip?”
“Unless you’ve brought your own. You seem to have come without luggage.”
“No. I don’t have my own.”
Modesto dashed off.
“Are you going to whip me?” Godwin asked.
“Certainly not.”
“Come in. Tell me a story.”
She slid the heavy bolt across, opened the cage door, slipped in, and bolted the door shut.
“Once upon a time …,” she began. Liberty’s mind, dizzy with hunger, was not as quick as usual. Otherwise, she might have used a story she’d read, like “Hansel and Gretel.” Instead, she tried to make one up.
“Once upon a time …”
Just then Liberty noticed that at the back of Godwin’s cage was a large mirror. It gave her an idea.
“… there was a city made of mirrors. The buildings were mirrors. The streets were mirrors.”
“Scratch behind my ears.” The lion’s fur smelled like sawdust.
“And when the sun moved in the sky, the mirrors lit up with beautiful colors. At first, the world worked well, but then people became so dazzled by the sight of their own reflections, they stopped talking to one another. They spoke only to themselves, saying how beautiful they were.”
“That’s what happens when I look in my mirror. I am so dazzled by my reflection that nothing else interests me.”
“So the world was rebuilt, this time with glass. People watched each other instead of themselves. Only, everyone found out things that they shouldn’t know, like who argued and who was messy.” This is pretty fun, Liberty thought.
“Where are the lions?”
“The lions?”
“Yes, it’s people this and people that.” Godwin yawned.
“Okay,” Liberty said. “I’ll start over. Once upon a time, there was a lion named …”
“Godwin.”
“That’s right. Godwin lived in a city of mirrors. Everywhere he looked, he saw his own reflection.”
“I love it!”
“Madame Torso!” Modesto returned with the chair and whip. “What they say is true. You are amazing!”
And where was the real Amazing Madame Torso, you might wonder? She was thirty miles away, but being quite ancient and old-fashioned, she preferred to travel by stagecoach. Stagecoaches, as you know, are often held up by bandits. That was the case here. Bandits had demanded her jewels, her costumes, and the boxes of her famous wrinkle cream.
She pretended to reach for her jewels, but instead grabbed her whip, cracked it, and lassoed each bandit, yanking them from their bicycles (they were too poor to have horses). At the moment she was tying them to the coach to bring them to the proper authorities.
Everyone has a story. Especially Madame Torso. They don’t call her Amazing for nothing.