Michael Malone - Weebly

He thought no further of the woman whose imagined
presence had been subjected to his will. Different
images of women had filled the role in this and other
private rooms of Barnum's—some were women in
magazine pictures, some strangers who had come into a
store or a bar. This particular woman had never been in
his store, or in Fred's Fries, or in the Old Towne Inn,
though she was not a stranger. While she had never
spoken to him except across a grille, he knew her
name. Her name was Judith Haig.
At 2:30 A.M., as thunderhead clouds put out the
stars and the weight of the air grew electric, there was
only one light on in all of Dingley Falls. As usual, it was
Sammy Smalter's. The flame of suspicion in Sarah
MacDermott's mind about the man she erroneously
called a dwarf would doubtless have been fueled had
she seen him now, for Mr. Smalter (in pajama bottoms
and one of the little T-shirts so appealing to Sarah's
sister, Orchid O'Neal) was pacing his room and making
hideous faces. He was also muttering aloud, though
completely alone, and while Sarah was a monologist