Freaks

I have posted this before, back in 2010, changed a bit of it, thought I'd repost -

Beard droppings.  A bone of contention between the newlyweds.  “Are all women this messy?” he wondered as he cleaned up around their solitary bathroom sink.

After living as family and traveling with the carnival for thirty plus years along with the other freaks they had grown to know each other well.  However after reaching old age at 45 (for 45 is old for a carney), Reginald the Strong and Barb the Bearded Lady decided to marry and leave the fast paced life behind.

Their carnival friends threw them a party and bid them luck and happiness.  What they hadn’t told them however, was what to expect now that they were married and how to adjust to life outside the carnival. 

Reginald the Strong wasn’t considered to be quite as freakish as the others; most of the stunts performed were really staged.  Now Barb the Bearded Lady was one of the carnivals biggest freaks; she had been born with extra male hormones, her voice a deep alto and a fine beard were her fate in life.  She hated the affliction, rarely spoke and now that she was rid of the carnival, shaved every day.

In many ways they were like a normal couple; Reginald worked at the local gym as a trainer and Barb stayed home to cook and keep their little one bedroom apartment tidy.  She tried to get a job, but employers wanted “qualified people”; being a Bearded Lady didn’t bring many qualifications to a job.  After all, knowing how to pitch a tent and stand up to the jeers of an audience didn’t count for much in the real world.

They found they missed their carney family, but not the frenetic daily life.  They had quiet dinners talking over the day’s events and spent evenings-sitting hand in hand on their postage stamp sized porch.  Life outside the carnival was hard to get accustomed to; being freaks and never living long in one place they didn’t know how to belong, how to be neighbors.

They thought it would be easy, leaving the carnival, but taunts of freak echoed as neighborhood children played.  This hurt Barb the most, as she had been a freak in the carnival, and thought that this ugly name would be left behind; she knew she was different, but not a freak.

Reginald and Barb shopped together and went to late night movies every so often, but they avoided really public places like the park or the mall.  Fewer chances to be ridiculed.  Freak was the most common taunt with weirdo and alien coming in close behind.

They became twitchy living in one place; with neither space to spread out nor any place to get away from each other.  Barb missed the constant hum of carnival life and grew lonely.  Reginald, enjoyed his job, but started to detest coming home to the neediness of Barb; bear droppings littered the counter, and he wondered why she couldn’t get them all picked up.  Reginald took on extra work as a personal trainer and spent several hours each weekend at homes other than his own.

Barb discovered soap operas and lived to watch fictitious families survive, started loving them like her own family.  These people made up for all she lacked in life.  They never called her a freak and accepted her quiet intrusion into their lives.  She soon took on characteristics similar to those she watched and for a time, their married life settled back into one of normalcy.

He began to have hope for their future although Barb still left those damn beard droppings around the sink.  But as weeks went by her shaving became obsessive and she began spending all her time watching her boxed family, completely ignoring the house keeping.

Reginald had had enough and told Barb they needed to talk.  She reluctantly turned off her other life and heard him say he wanted to leave.  She knew he wouldn’t really go and she told him so.  Said he’d never be happy without her.  They went round and round, as Reginald explained that it just wasn’t working, trying to be as nice as he could while he tossed what had been dreams out the window.

Barb just didn’t get it.  He went to their bedroom, packed a bag and walked to the front door.  She laughed her deep throaty laugh, knowing he wouldn’t turn the knob.

He did, and as he walked through the door out into yet another life, he turned to face Barb.  “You know,” he said, “you really are a freak.”