The Hollow Under the Tree Cary Fagan Groundwood Books House of Anansi Press Toronto Berkeley
For my mother Belle Fagan with love
1 Scaredy-Cat A train approached the city from the west The steam engine’s giant wheels turned as smoke trailed behind blacker than the night sky It was May 15 1925 The train had pulled out of Buffalo New York fourteen hours late due to a faulty hitch between the last two cars A new hitch was supposed to arrive but it never did So the train’s owner Josiah Wasserman insisted that the faulty one be welded together so that the circus could move on Josiah Wasserman was the proprietor of Wasserman’s Spectacular Circus and Animal Menagerie The performers had finished in Buffalo and were supposed to move on to Toronto But because of the delay Mr Wasserman had decided to skip the city and head to the next destination Montreal The people of Toronto would be deprived of the Wasserman circus with its acrobats clowns elephants bears and other exotic beasts The stationmaster at Union Station had already been notified that the train would not stop The steam engine did not need to slow down much as it approached Most of the circus employees were asleep in their bunks But the animals which had been confined too long and had missed a feeding whined and howled in their cages One employee couldn’t sleep His name was Sam Hibbins the
