TRAINER - loves his work

BALLET GIRL - a showgirl in control

TOUR MANAGER - bit of a bully

STRONGMAN - a proud muscleman from Europe's far-off shores

CLOWN - a comedian with an inferiority complex

DRUMMER - keeps the beat

MARSHAL - keeps the peace

MUDDY TOWNSPERSON - a haunted widow

PREACHER - doggedly hopeful

STEAM SHOVEL OPERATOR - looking for escape

YOUNG TOWNSPERSON - excitable dreamer

GUITARIST/HARMONICA PLAYER - sets the rhythm

"The GUITARIST and DRUMMER create the sound of the circus train approaching: hope, joy, and a pinch of Johnny Cash."

I cussed him out - thought we was gonna be late.

Peeped in at our folks, still sleepin'. Snuck out the window, ran as fast as we could to the field where they'd do it.

We were all there, all the kids in Erwin there to watch 'em set up the Big Top. The Greatest Free Show on Earth.

Then this elephant came out...I 'bout pissed myself. Bigger than the one we saw a few years back, lots bigger. Never saw nothin' this big. It made this big trumpet. We 'bout pissed ourselves.

And we joeys give kids more than laughs. Give 'em perspective, a lesson to carry forever, biggie: that there's always someone worse off than you.

Except for us. Nothin' below a clown. They all pull rank, even the ballet girls. We're the last ones to get the make-up mirror - even though we use the most make-up.

Let me put it this way: How many ringmasters does it take to change a lightbulb? None. They tell the clowns to do it.

I breathed in, lungs searchin' for that sanctified air. Waiting. Waiting to be made clean.

But the air...it tasted no different. It was flat and stale and rank.

They hung that bitch for nothin'.

I still got mud on my shoes.

It comes true. Your dreams come true. In a tiny town in Tennessse. Crowd leaps to its feet and speaks with one voice, shakes the air, makes it tremble.

It's not the "Sparks, Sparks, Sparks," you dreamed of but, oh...they scream 'til their lungs ache, louder than any lion's roar. Young and old united in one glorious moment of certainty. Their scream, their chant, their heart's greatest wish:

"Kill it. Kill it. Kill it."

They talked about electrocuting it, frying it like some of them had seen in the moving picture Thomas Edison made. But that was copycat stuff, that wasn't dreaming big enough.

We whispered louder. Would not be ignored.

And somebody finally heard us.

The railyard. There's a crane there can lift 100 tons. Says so on the side of it, right there in black and white. Nothing grey can stand up to that much black and white. Now, something like that could do something special, something never been done before. Why, something like that could hang her. Hang her like any other murderer. She may be big, but that Railroad crane's bigger. Crane'll get the job done. Crane'll do the trick. Crane's the Railroad, after all.

And you can always depend on the railroad.

Work a steam shovel down at Erwin railyard. Dig holes all day.

One...hole...after...another.

Papers say we might go to war with the Kaiser? I'll be the first to sign up.

"Oo-ee, what a patriotic young man."

Hell.

Ain't patriotic. Just bored.

Five tons of grey flesh bearing me half-naked into the ring, wrapped up tightly in its trunk.

That's right.

The innocent object of desire wrapped in a ding-a-ling ten feet long. And the best part? That trunk is always up. Bad luck to let a trunk droop in the circus, first thing an elephant learns.

Oh, I'm never more powerful, sensual, dangerous than when I'm with Mary. Keep your spangles, your makeup, your headdress. Diamonds? Diamonds are nothing. An elephant is a girl's best friend.

Firin' happens all the time. Fella's lucky: he gets fired in one of the towns during a stop. Unlucky: he gets red-lighted: tossed off our train while it's movin'. Sucker don't see nothin' but the red lights of the caboose as it fades away.

And hirin'. Yeah. Do a lot o' that, too. Circus needs plenty of muscle-and not just in the ring. Townies get out of line now and then-want to prove they're tougher than the Strongman, get fresh with the ballet girl. Sparks sees any funny business, he calls out the "Hey Rube." I gotta teacher every new hire: they hear that "Hey Rube," they drop whatever they're doin' and defend their own.

Hell, we're like a little town of our own-carryin' all our buildings on our back.

There are people in this here country that'll tell you we've become a small nation, a nation of little people with little dreams, staring at the ground 'stead of the stars.

Well, look at what we done did here today and tell me that this country is dyin'. Look at what happened here today in Erwin and then tell me there ain't no more dreamers. We hung a goddam elephant today. An elephant. We made the impossible possible. So pack up your grip and go if you don't love this country, if you can't see the glory that surrounds you, if you want to stay in the mud. 'Cause this is America goddamit. And we can do anything we dream of. Anything at all.

Love...forgiveness...joy.

I'll keep on testifyin', but there's nothin' more lonely than a New Testament preacher in an Old Testament town.

I ask them.

I wasn't good enough to handle her while she was alive, but I'm good enough to help you kill her?

They say, however you want to put it.

What am I gonna do?

Walk away, leave 'em to figure this out themselves?

No.

I stay.

I stay 'cause if I don't, they'll mess it up. It'll be even worse of a spectacle.

I tell 'em, don't think I've forgiven you. Don't think that. I will never forgive you.

But I tell 'em, go ahead, what's your question?

They how how to get her to the railyard tomorrow without all Hell breakin' loose.

I think.

I tell 'em.

Tuskers aren't stupid, they know when somethin's up. You make her think it's a normal march. She can't go out there alone.

She needs someone she knows. Someone she trusts.

They look at me like I'm crazy.

I tell them to relax.

I tell them I'll do it.

Heavy things.

Anything.

This gets me on boat.

This gets me to America.

This gets me to circus.

Impress, no? No?

So tell me.

I do not cost as much.

I am not as temperamental.

I do not shit all over the stage.

So tell me-please-have the courtesy to inform me.

Why is that elephant the star of the show?

That's when the dominoes star to fallin'

Elephant sees melon.

Elephant walks toward melon.

Elephant rider turns red.

Elephant rider encourages elephant to abandon melon.

Elephant ignores elephant rider.

Elephant rider is most insistent, to the tune of elephant hook across elephant head.

Elephant thinks.

Elephant decides she's had enough of elephant rider.

Elephant trunk throws elephant rider into soda pop stand.

Elephant rider things it's over.

Elephant rider is wrong.