Old Masks
Judy Daniel
At the age of seven Maggie locked underneath the Mask, and understood something ancient and hidden.
“I’m Gorgeous George, the most beautiful body in the world, ladies.”
The voice was singing outside the sheriff’s office where she’d come down on the bus to meet her dad. His secretary said he’d be back in a minute so Maggie sat in one of the heavy oak chairs by the door, swinging her legs back and forth. The secretary with big glasses and bright red lipstick smiled at her and went back to typing. Maggie watched her small white fingers dance up and down on the keys. It didn’t sound mysterious, like listening to her mother on the piano, but it was a steady, comforting sound. When the strange voice from the hall came behind her again, it seemed to be singing with the typewriter.
“I’m George, and I’m gorgeous, Georgie, Georgie Gorgie porgie. Blonde is beautiful, fascinating and fantastic, turbulent and terrible. Come on over to see me fight the Black Phantom, ladies. Match my muscles, ripple my dimples, scintillatingly savage…”
The voice stopped, and Maggie heard giggling and laughing so close behind her that she slipped off the chair and, keeping her eyes on the red lips of the secretary, slid out the door into the wide marble hallway.
The black shoe-shine man leaned back on his stool, a half-shined shoe in front of him, and watched as a tall, heavily built man with wide shoulders and long, flowing blonde hair slowly made his way through the crowd of city workers. As he walked, he swished back and forth to the rhythm of his words, his bright pink cape falling in satin folds over his back, rippling from one side of his enormous body to the other.
Maggie watched, hypnotised. He continued to talk, half-singing to the group of well dressed men and women gathering around him. Spotting her dad in the center of the group, smiling and talking to a lady who stood next to him, Maggie felt better. “
And these are Georgie pins, solid gold pins for three of you lucky ladies,” he said, tossing bright shiny objects into the crowd. Her dad reached out and caught one easily. Maggie moved quickly through the crowd until she was right up next to his leg and could pull on his jacket.
“Hi Sprout,” he said. He looked up at the clock above the huge marble statue of the Indian. “Have you been waiting long?” he asked, taking her hand. “I got side-tracked here in the lobby. But look what I caught for you. A gold Georgie-pin!” he slipped it into her outstretched hand.
Maggie held it for a minute, spell-bound by the bright glitter. It was much prettier than her step-mother’s dark ones.
“Well, it looks like the little lady over there is one of the lucky winners!” Maggie looked up into the large, floppy looking face of the huge man. He came up so close she could see the black lines of paint around his eyes, the folds of pink skin under the thin shirt that covered his chest, and the black spider tattoo on his neck. He knelt down in front of her and held out his hand. She thrust the gold pin toward him.
“No, no,” he laughed and a woman giggled behind her. “Don’t scare her,” her dad said quietly.
The strange man looked up into her face and she looked away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him blow a kiss toward her.
Then he got up and moved away, laughing softly. “You keep that pin,” he said, “you and your whole family can come and watch me fight the Black Phantom. Don’t forget to come now. I’ll be looking out for you tomorrow night.” Then he twirled his cape so it swished in a big circle, and was gone. Maggie saw the backs of his skinny legs, and the pink satin slippers on his big feet. “
What idiotic stuff,” her father said, pulling her hand that didn’t have the pin in it. “Professional wrestling is ridiculous,” he told the lady next to him
“I don’t know, I kind of like it,” she said, smiling.
“I wanna go,” Maggie announced at dinner. “Dad , can we go to the wrestling match?”
“Ya dad,” Tim always got to go to the places he wanted. Maggie smiled when he joined in.
“It won’t cost anything” she told Joy, “Dad caught one of the Georgie pins.”
Joy was spooning cherry cobbler into the blue and white dessert dishes.
“Duff, you take them if you want to,” she said. “I can’t stand that phoney wrestling sh..” Maggie looked at her brother and they both began to giggle.
“Joy was going to say ‘shit’,” he whispered. “But I didn’t, and you did!” Joy rapped Tim on the head with a wooden spoon, and laughed. “Maybe your Uncle Charlie would like to go in my place. He loves wrestling. I think he still knows a lot of the pro wrestlers. He enjoys that kind of theater.”
“It’s not a play, Joy, it’s a sport.” Tim looked up from his plate, his mouth red with cherry juice. “Uncle Charlie loves all kinds of sports.”
Uncle Charlie was their dad’s brother from Milwaukee. He slept in the guest room off the porch, and their dad told both of them to watch and tell him if they ever saw him smoking in bed, because he burned down a hotel once. At first Maggie was frightened and went in often to check, but he was never there when she went to bed; he was always out. Maggie wondered if he went to wrestling every night, and if he knew the big wrestler, George, with the long blonde hair.
“It’s a wig,” her dad told her. “He just wears it to be funny.” But she had been right up close so she could see the blue veins under his eyes and it looked like real hair.
The next night they ate at a Chinese restaurant and Uncle Charlie paid. Maggie ate all of her chow mein and got a fortune cookie that said “You will learn an important lesson”. She was mad because Tim’s said “You will be rich and famous.”
When they got to the auditorium, lots of Uncle Charlie’s friends stopped and talked to them. Dad and Uncle Charlie stoof with their hands in their pockets, laughing and telling jokes that Maggie couldn’t understand.
Then they’d slap each other on the back and laugh again.
‘Duff, your kids are growing up. Nice, polite little girl,” one of the men said. “Must take after the wife more than you,” another man laughed. “
“I remember you back when, a real hellion if there ever was one.”
“Oh, I’ve settled down a bit over the last few years,” their dad said. “Not like Charlie here who’s still out sowing his wild oats.”
“Plan to keep sowing ‘em till i run out!” Uncle Charlie winked.“You oughta hear this little one play the piano. Sounds almost as pretty as her mother did.”
“Looks like her mother, I’ll say that,” the man said.
Just then there was a noise from inside and Uncle Charlie pushed the two children ahead. “Let’s go and claim our ring-side seats,” he said.
“I’ll be darned,” said their dad, “I didn’t think that old hair pin would be worth ring-side seats.”
“Oh, that and a few glad hands,” said Uncle Charlie, winking at the kids..
As soon as they settled into their seats there was a roar; shouting, clapping, and feet stomping, and a crowd made its way toward them.
“It’s George, it’s Gorgeous George!” Maggie yelled. She got up, and tucked her coat under her so she could kneel on the seat and see over the floor of the ring.
He was smiling and waving and swishing his cape as he walked to the ring. It was the same bright pink cape she had seen downtown. His long yellow hair curled in ringlets, and a lady handed him a bouquet of pink roses just before he climbed under the ropes. He immediately began to toss roses to the ladies in the front rows. Maggie wondered if he would notice her as he walked from one corner of the ring to the other, singing in that strange voice and throwing roses.
“Here I am, ladies, gentlemen, worthy opponents. The beatific, the beautiful, the bounteous. The fabulous fighter for fame and fortune, the most glorious warrior of them all, the gallant gladiator, the most glamorous..”
“Knock it off George,” a voice rang out from the seats on the other side. “You wind-bag, you sissy, you old sack of shit…”
“The most glittering star of the wrestling world,” George’s voice sang out louder, “the envy of matrons, the wonder of young maidens…”
Maggie watched intently as he drew his cape around him, then thrust it back, revealing a bare man’s chest with pale pink nipples. Drops of sweat were falling in streams down his huge arms. He raised his cape again, and turned to face the seats on the other side.
“Quite a dramatic performer,” Uncle Charlie nudged her dad. “Ah, and here comes his worthy opponent”
Maggie followed his eyes to the place in the spotlight where a man dressed in black was moving through the crowd. He was not as big as Gorgeous George, but his head looked enormous under his black hood, and his cloak was so black it seemed to pull darkness from every corner of the room. Maggie shrank down into her seat, and pulled her coat up on her lap.
“Are you scared?” Tim whispered from the other side of Uncle Charlie.
“No.” She made herself stare straight at the Black Phantom as he bent down and slid between the ropes. Could everyone else see him? she wondered. They weren’t shouting or cheering. Maybe he was so black he was invisible. He pulled himself up, and stretched out his arms.
Suddenly the room felt small and hot. Hissing and booing sounds came from every corner of the room. Gorgeous George turned around, and held out his own pink and white arms to the fans. They cheered. And yelled, and someone at the back screeched, “Give it to ‘em Georgiekins!”. “
Come on George, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, get ‘em, grab ‘em, Georgie, Georgie, Georgie, Georgie,” they chanted. Ladies were jumping up and down on the other side, throwing things into the ring.
The Black Phantom held up his hand, and it became very silent. Then the men whistled and the ladies threw bunched up programs and gum wrappers, and booed and shouted.
“Down with the ugly Phantom, death to the Black Phantom, the prince of Evil,” someone behind Maggie shouted.
“Kill him Georgie! Stick a Georgie pin right through his black heart!” another lady shrieked. Maggie could see Tim’s legs kick back and forth; he was scared too. She pulled her coat up further around her, and moved closer to Uncle Charlie. What made the Black Phantom so bad, she wondered. She thought maybe there was no face under his mask.
“He’s the bad guy,” her dad said. He leaned over and patted her on the leg. “Don’t worry little Cricket, it’s good against evil, and the good guys always win.”
“In the ring,” Uncle Charlie corrected him. “It’s the ritual destruction of evil.”
“I think that’s over-stating it,” her dad said. “It’s like a play,” he told her, “they know ahead of time who’s going to win.”
“Duff, you always were a fool. You are spoiling an ancient and honorable ritual. Don’t believe him,” he told Maggie. “This is going to be a good fight. The Black Phantom may be smaller than George but he’s crafty as the devil..”
“Devil,” someone yelled, like an echo.
He is going to win, Maggie thought. Maybe if he wins he’ll take off his hood, and have a nice face with dark curly hair and bushy eyebrows like Kara’s dad. She tugged on Uncle Charlie’s arm, “Is that Black Phantom going to take off his mask at the end?”
“I doubt it kiddo, I don’t think so, but you’ll have to wait and see. He’ll be taking off the cape, I can tell you that. Look now, there’s the referee. They’ll start the fight in a minute,”
The shouting and booing and cheering was beginning to die down, and the referee walked over to the center of the ring, talking and shaking his hand at the floor. George wasn’t listening. He moved back and forth from the referee to a little gold stool in the far corner. Then he took off his cape and handed it to a man in a pink and white suit who walked behind him. He threw it to another man who tossed it down out of the ring to someone else. Then George raised his arms, and cheers broke out again. The referee looked over to him with an angry expression on his face and George walked slowly back to the center of the ring.
Maggie stopped watching him and watched the Black Phantom. He stood still like a statue and looked at something far off in the distance. George danced around him, poking a fist out toward him, dancing back, pretending to kick him and then jumping away fast. The Black Phantom made no move at all, but he seemed to get darker and bigger as the auditorium lights dimmed and the spotlights on the ring grew bright.
“What are they gonna do?” she nudged her uncle. “I think the Black Phantom is going to win.”
“You do, do you?” Uncle Charlie looked down at her white face and small hands clutching her jacket. “Come on up here and sit on my lap. You can see better” Joy told her she was too old to be sitting on men’s laps, but Maggie clambered up on Uncle Charlie and pretended not to see Tim make a face. “Don’t worry,” Uncle Charlie said. “Gorgeous will wallop him in the end. He jiggled her up and down the way her dad used to when she was little. The referee looked like he was getting very mad. His face was red and he was talking very fast like Miss Milkus when she was yelling at Earl or Tommy during penmanship class. He was waving his arms and shaking his fist at the floor.
The Black Phantom turned around and walked off into the corner where three men in black suits and black masks over their eyes, stood waiting. He unhooked his cape and two men pulled it off. Maggie tried to see inside it but they were too quick. Then the phantom with a man’s chest covered in dark curly hair, moved swiftly back to the center of the ring. Maggie thought he looked like her cat, Melissa, when she jumped onto the roof, and scaled the window ledges. His eyes shone out of his mask and his arms were thick, with thick black hair going down all the way to his fingers. He came right over to their side of the ring, and stared off again into the distance as if he were looking for something he lost. Maggie wanted to yell, to tell him to watch out for Gorgeous who was sneaking up behind him, but suddenly he swung around and struck.
Maggie screamed, and Uncle Charlie tightened his hold on her as she pushed herself back against his chest. The two men were fighting right in front of her, kicking and twisting around each other, pounding their strong fists against each other and missing, hitting the floor. Gorgeous lost his yellow hair, his wig rolled off and one of his men hurried over to retrieve it. He looked old, Maggie thought, more like an ordinary man. His muscles stood out with great thick veins throbbing in and out.
The Black Phantom looked smaller next to him, but he moved faster, slid sideways, jumped to his feet, attacked again. Maggie’s eyes squeezed shut, then opened, then shut again. Now Gorgeous was sitting on the floor. She could hear their heavy breathing, the grunts and groans that came from deep inside their chests. Then the Phantom heaved himself up, and sent Gorgeous tipping head first onto the floor. Maggie’s hands clapped.
Her dad looked over. “She seems to be on the side of the dark forces,” he told her uncle, and the two men laughed. She watched in silence and horror as the crowd booed the Phantom and then began to chant, “George, Georgie, Georgie, George…”
The bald man struggled to his feet and grabbed the Phantom from behind when he was walking away. He picked him up quickly, as though he was weightless, and threw him against the ropes. The phantom came back at Gorgeous, kicking into the air, but in another moment he was back, twisted halfway through the ropes. Gorgeous pushed hard against his face, and his body arched and then, in slow motion, he fell out of the ring and crashed against the floor right in front of Maggie. She pulled her feet up into Uncle Charlie’s lap, and tucked her legs under her chin. Then she tipped forward to see the huge hairy body with the black hooded head.
“Is he dead?” she whispered to her dad. “No, but he’s probably winded. He took quite a fall.”
The crowd was cheering and whooping. Maggie could feel the vibrations of feet stomping and her ears began to hurt from the shrill whistles and shrieks of laughter behind her.
She watched the Phantom on the floor. His chest was moving up and down so she knew he was breathing. The referee came over to the ropes just above them and was leaning over, but Gorgeous caught him and pulled him back toward the center of the ring, dancing in little quick steps as though he was still wearing pink satin slippers. The sound of cheering burst through the crowd again as Gorgeous lifted the referee’s arm with his.
Maggie slipped down off her uncle’s lap and knelt beside the Phantom on the cold floor. “Are you still alive?” she whispered because his chest had stopped moving up and down. When there was no answer she looked up at Uncle Charlie, but he was leaning over, talking to her dad, and hadn’t noticed she was gone. She looked down at the Phantom’s eyes but they were closed. Suddenly she reached over and pulled the front of the hood up over the Phantom’s face. She did it so quickly that even she would not recall till later, the surprise in the man’s eyes, as they shot open and he reached out as if to strike her down, then stopped in confusion. Uncle Charlie grabbed her arm and her silver bracelet broke sending its three silver charms rolling across the dark floor. The Black Phantom jumped to his feet, pulling his hood down over his.face.
“You silly girl, you’ll be hurt down there,” her dad pulled her up by her shoulders and set her back down in her seat.
“Did you see that little girl…” one of the women behind her was saying but the crowd began to yell and scream again as the Black Phantom flew back across the ring and knocked Gorgeous against the ropes on the other side.
“Well, it’s not over yet,” she heard her dad tell her brother. Tim was leaning over to look at her, but she wouldn’t look back. For the rest of the flight, Maggie saw only the blur of bodies. Quietly watching in the midst of all the shouting and cheering, she felt only the whirling of the white arms, the black arms, the hair, the cape, the eyes, the black hood as they moved around her in a dance so old and alien she seemed always to have known it. I lost my three silver charms, she thought, and she could not bear to watch. Her eyes searched the darkness under the seats. They are only two old men pretending. It doesn’t mean anything at all
When it was over they stood by the back door talking to some of Uncle Charlie’s friends. ‘Well I’ll be..The little dickins!” Uncle Charlie said. They looked over at Maggie, but she pretended not to be listening. She watched Gorgeous George go past in a big white fur coat, his long blonde hair back on his head. His lips were bright red like her dad’s secretary and he was carrying another bouquet of pink roses.
After a few minutes, some men in dark suits and long black overcoats came out. One of them stopped to talk to Uncle Charlie and put something shiny into his hand. Several of the men patted her on the head as they walked past. Maggie heard them say she was Duff’s kid, but she didn’t look. She didn’t want to see their faces.
Instead she looked back into the building, staring into the dark interior where the big ring stood empty under the bright white lights and a young black boy, not much bigger than Tim, was carefully sweeping between the rows of seats.
About the author
name: Judy Daniel