HOW MY LOVE WAS SAWED IN HALF LOVE, HALF, HOW, SAWED, WAS

yunyou

HOW MY LOVE WAS SAWED IN HALF

When I was fourteen, I ran away from home.

My mother and father thought I had gone to summer camp. I started for camp, but I got off the train because I saw a carnival. I meant to stay only until the next train came. Then I remembered the advice of my Uncle Louis: "If you do not see all of this world you will not be ready for the next."

I walked about the carnival as if in a dream. I smelled the popcorn and candied apples, I listened to the music, the shouting of the carnival people and I tasted sugar candy.

The next train came and the another one after that. But I was still in my dream. I was in lover with the carnival. Here at last was the place for me. Life here was fun.

I tried to find a job. But I just didn't look like a carnival person. Huge men with sweating faced smiled at me as they said no. Big women in colorful dresses gently patted my head as they said no. I was beginning to feel sad, but then I came to Ramia, the fortune teller.

"Let me see your hands," she said. She looked at them for a long time. "You will be disappointed in love," she said. And then, after a moment, she added, "But then, who isn't,eh?"

"Were you?" I　asked.

"Always. First Hypo the Hypnotist. Then Greco, the strong man, even Haha, the laugher who runs the House of Mirrors."

"I'm sorry," I said. "About you I mean."

She then felt the bumps on my head. "The bumps are good," she said. The bump of progress is well developed, and this one here, the intelligence bump, is a good size. Perhaps I can help you. I have many friends at the carnival. Come back at dark. You can sleep in the wagon. You must wash dishes thought, and stay on your own side of the room." I left her with excitement. I walked everywhere and saw all of the carnival. At last I came to Hypo, the Hypnotist. He was a huge man, all painted white with two red spots on his cheeks.

I watched him as he sawed a girl in halt.

She lay in the long box, her head out of one end, her legs out of the other end. She was smiling and looked so beautiful and brave. Her hair was golden and she had blue eyes. She did not seem troubled at all when the saw cut through her. And then, a miracle! In a few minutes she was put back together. What lovely magic!

"A trick," a man said, "It's done with mirrors." A fat woman next to him agreed.

I listened, and I wondered. Some things might be tricks. But with my own eyes I had seen the saw go through the beautiful Belle-Linda and I had seen her face turn white.

Perhaps this man and woman did not have the same bumps on their heads as I had.

I went back to Ramia, the fortune teller. "You can stay with me," she said. "There is enough to eat. People will talk but let them."

I stayed and helped Ramia. I went into the middle of the crowds and made friends. I told them how Ramia could see into the future and how she had told me about my past life. Her business grew.

After a few weeks I decided I was madly in love with Belle-Linda. I told Ramia and she laughed. "In a way," she said, "I feel sorry, but perhaps you will learn a lesson. You love the impossible, but so does every man. You love a girl with golden hair and blue eyes, and yet with the other side of your heart you love a dark, brown-eyed girt."

"I love Belle-Linda,' I said proudly, "and no one else, except perhaps my mother-and you."

Ramia put her arms around me. "You are a nice boy. Love whom you please while you have time."

The summer passed quickly and the time came for me to leave. The boys would be leaving summer camp, and I had to get home.

I watched him as he sawed a girl in halt.

She lay in the long box, her head out of one end, her legs out of the other end. She was smiling and looked so beautiful and brave. Her hair was golden and she had blue eyes. She did not seem troubled at all when the saw cut through her. And then, a miracle! In a few minutes she was put back together. What lovely magic!

"A trick," a man said, "It's done with mirrors." A fat woman next to him agreed.

I listened, and I wondered. Some things might be tricks. But with my own eyes I had seen the saw go through the beautiful Belle-Linda and I had seen her face turn white.

Perhaps this man and woman did not have the same bumps on their heads as I had.

I went back to Ramia, the fortune teller. "You can stay with me," she said. "There is enough to eat. People will talk but let them."

I stayed and helped Ramia. I went into the middle of the crowds and made friends. I told them how Ramia could see into the future and how she had told me about my past life. Her business grew.

After a few weeks I decided I was madly in love with Belle-Linda. I told Ramia and she laughed. "In a way," she said, "I feel sorry, but perhaps you will learn a lesson. You love the impossible, but so does every man. You love a girl with golden hair and blue eyes, and yet with the other side of your heart you love a dark, brown-eyed girt."

"I love Belle-Linda,' I said proudly, "and no one else, except perhaps my mother-and you."

Ramia put her arms around me. "You are a nice boy. Love whom you please while you have time."

The summer passed quickly and the time came for me to leave. The boys would be leaving summer camp, and I had to get home.

"I have loved you," I said, "ever since the first time I saw you."

"You are a sweet, boy," she said, and kissed me. She turned and was gone. In a moment the dark girl came again. She laughed like a bell and said, "l am Linda." She kissed me-a warm and loving kiss-and then said "You are a sweet bo)'," and then she disappeared. I was alone again looking at myself in a hundred mirrors.

At last ! found a way out. I felt alive and happy to be in tile open air. I raced to Ramia and told her what had happened: "The girl, the one Hypo saws in half, she kissed me. But another girl, a dark one, very different, she also kissed me."

When I had calmed down, Ramia spoke. "I told you there always will be two women, very different. The one whose face you know so well and the other who is just tile opposite and you do not know at all." "But is she of one woman?" I asked.

"Now she is: then again, she is two. But we must get you ready for the train. I hope your summer was exciting. Not many boys have this sort of a summer camp."

I put my arms around her. "It has been exciting," I said. "and rm in love. I am growing up quickly, too."

When I got home everything was the same.

"You did not get very much sun," my mother said.

Later, my wine-loving Uncle Louis said to me. "You have been up to something. You must tell me sometime." I told him. "Ah," he said. "Well, there are two girls, you see. One is the head and she puts her legs under her to fit in the box. The other girl is the feet and she bends her body down to fit in the other part of the box. Only her legs show. The saw goes between the two girls. Understand? It is all a trick."

I smiled to make him feel that I believed him. But he did not really understand at all. How could he? He was not in love.