When we left our story, Jancy was hoping that in time, Tonio would allow her bright dreams to fall into place. But time, at times, can be longer than anticipated, and events can change their color.
……
It had been twenty months since Confederate guns had opened fire on Fort Sumter, and no one had an inkling that the war wasn't even half over yet, and Jancy had no inkling when she would hear from Tonio.
As the days dragged by and with January turning into February, Chester helped pass the time by volunteering to assist Bud Adams, the War Dept photographer in reviewing any material found to be detrimental to the war effort.
One of the doctored photographs showed an undressed President Lincoln and it needed to be verified by the two White House guards, the two whom Chester knew too well.
When the doctored photograph of President Lincoln was presented to them, the short guard was quick to observe, "It's him alright. Got him in his white underwear. Musta been summer. Abe's wearing his short jobs."
The tall guard agreed, "Sure looks like his hairy legs to me. And if you look close you can see a small constellation of holes in his underwear."
The short guard spotted it. "Yeah, right above his Big Dipper."
The tall guard saw something else. "Look over the bed! That sign says "Room for Rent."
"How about that! The President’s rentin' out his bedroom for money!"
- - - - -
As the days went by Jancy decided one day that maybe her answer could be had by playing the slot board at the newsstand of the Willard Hotel.
She plunged the pin into the dot she hoped would foretell her fortune. The small paper uncurled from its cubbyhole. It read: "Beyond the mountains there are more mountains."
Finally, on the 13th of February, she got some good news.
A telegram arrived from Tonio: "Come to Central Park…Ice-skating Rink…Morning…Valentine's Day."
With the meeting date set for the very next day, Chester hastily arranged for Jancy and his passage on an overnight B&O military train. It wasn't much of a train, rather just a locomotive and a freight car with no windows, but Jancy's presence brightened the trip.
After nine hours, the train pulled into early morning Manhattan, where, by the looks of things, one would ever have known that there was a war going on. A horse car took Chester and Jancy down Fifth Avenue to the section, which made up about a quarter of the twelve-mile rock: Central Park.
Fog shrouded the great pond there, covering the ice and making the skaters look as if they were moving on air. Jancy watched as hundreds of top hats and bonnets floated by. At first it seemed to the typical holiday jam of people on the pond, people of all sizes and shapes in love. Many of the girls had red paper hearts pinned on their sleeves for Valentine's Day. And, with the blue and gray still fighting each other, most of those girls had written the names of their loved ones on their tiny blood-red mementos.
Jancy had spotted Tonio, his calf-length, soft-skinned coat rippling in the wind. As he whirled around a line of lady skaters, making each more radiant as he passed by, Jancy sighed, "Chester, perhaps there is more to life than being in love with a good-looking man. But I doubt it."
No sooner had Jancy left to join Tonio than Chester caught the smell of that stale mix of dust and chalk reminiscent of his orphanage days. He turned and there, sitting on the rock behind him, was the image of him as a seven year old that he had seen in his dreams. The image tossed a comment toward Tonio. "I’ll bet that guy gets more ass than a toilet seat."
Chester tried to ignore his inner thoughts, but his inner-self had a parting shot. "By the time that guy is through with Jancy, she'll have more than lasagna baking in her oven."
Chester started to say, "You ought to have your mind washed out with soap." But a hand clamped down on his shoulder, breaking his reverie. Turning, he was greeted by the Professor who arrived on the scene.
He wasted no time in pointing out a redheaded man on the other side of the park where the sheep outnumbered the people.
"See that red-headed man was sporting a navy watch cap and a pea jacket? The one with fear written all over his face. His name is Victor Sculler, a crewman whom I paid to check out Sir Richard's safe on the steamer. At the time he searched, the safe held neither papers nor cash, but Sculler was able to give me the numbers I was looking for: Seven right, Seven left, Seven right."
Meanwhile, two burly seamen had grabbed the redheaded man and led him away. The Professor looked concerned. "Unfortunately, our informant has been detected, leading me to suspect he is scheduled to be punished by a phony phenomenon called the Blue Man."
Chester craned his neck the other way to check on Jancy. "You can worry about the Blue Man, whoever that is. I'm worried about Jancy. She's caught in the middle of all this."
"My dear boy, Jancy is not an enslaved beauty. What she is doing, she is doing by choice."
From the distance Jancy came sleighing in with Tonio. With bells a-ringing, their horses clomped through the snow with Tonio yelling out, "Heigh-ho, Chester! Heigh-ho!"
Jancy was buried in Tonio’s shawl with its red, white and green colors. It looked more like the Italian flag than a shawl and to make the image complete to his liking, Tonio added an Indian feather to her hair.
Jancy sighed, "All I can say is that I am in ecstasy."
As the sleigh pulled away, Chester gave one last warning. "Remember the old Chinese saying: After the ecstasy comes the laundry!"
- - - - -
The Lucky Seven was in the finishing stages of being bedecked for an evening's entertainment. Flags flew from stem to stern. But at the moment, the ship's crew had been mustered to the back deck, and in the middle of the twelve men stood Victor Sculler.
"I suspect they are awaiting the Blue Man, a strange oddity that freelances from his employment with PT Barnum. I understand, that currently the Blue Man is being used by Sir Richard to set an example, when necessary, in punishing his crewmen."
As they continued to sneak along the pilings, the Professor explained, "The Blue Man is someone whom I have tried unsuccessfully in the past to expose as a faker. That was back in the years when our War Department was mainly focused on crooked carnival barkers."
All went silent as a Union medical ship steamed out from the dock, on its regular rounds of picking up the latest war casualties so as to bring them back to the hospitals in Washington.
Meanwhile, the Professor had uncovered a twenty-foot wooden vat containing a slimy mass of hundreds of red and brown jellied creatures. Looking down into the river, he noted, "One species has been placed in the water around the steamer and they are emitting that eerie blue light." The Professor gave it some thought. "A phenomenon that only occurs when the jellyfish are disturbed. The question being: what is disturbing them?"
Suddenly, something began thrashing the water, and from its surface onto the ship's deck leapt a man, naked except for a genital sock. His skin was completely blue. The crew pulled back, leaving Victor Sculler standing alone on the deck to confront the new arrival.
Towering in his might, the Blue Man clasped fast to the Irishman's red hair, tilting his head back until Sculler's mouth was forced open. Then from out of a smaller vat of jellyfish on the ship’s deck, the Blue Man seized the umbrella-like body of an ugly specimen and held it above Sculler's gaping mouth.
Sculler’s screams announced the burning pain as the jellyfish's ring of tentacles grabbed his face. The Blue Man shoved the pulsating bell of the fish down into Sculler's throat and watched the informant sink to the deck.
The Blue Man raised the limp form of Sculler and casually tossed him overboard. Then, turning to glower at the crew, he himself jumped ship, disappearing into the murky blue water, another myth added to his legend.
"Come, we must pursue the Blue Man to his place of employment, and to do that we must enlist the help of Miss Jancy."