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[ti:Tragic Events Part II] |
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[ar:Evelyn Evelyn] |
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[al:Evelyn Evelyn] |
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Are you crying, Evelyn? |
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No... no... Yes. I was just thinking about Sandy. |
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And about Bimba and Kimba. I miss them, Evelyn. |
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I know, I miss them too. |
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Especially this time of year, Evelyn. |
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The year is 1991, |
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Terminator 2 is the highest-grossing film at the Box Office, |
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the first Super Nintendo Entertainment System has just been released |
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and after 70 years of Communist rule |
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the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has collapsed. |
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And on a chicken ranch just at side of Claxton, Georgia |
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twin sisters are waiting for their supper. |
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The farm is old and operated by Alfred McClock, |
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an eccentric man with a fascination with Civil War weaponery. |
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McClock's chicken farms produces over 140000 chickens a year |
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and ships wings, thighs and legs all over the continental United States. |
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Despite the modest success of his business, |
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McClock leads a solitary life, |
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never marrying and tending several of the chicken houses himself. |
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A simple man with a not entirely bad heart. |
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McClock never knew how to best take care of the young girls |
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who came into his life shortly after their birth, |
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so he raised them the only way he knew how - |
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in a 2 foot by 2 foot wire mesh cage on a diet of mash, |
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crumbles, pellets and egg booster. |
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One clear September day during the twins sixth year at the farm |
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McClock does not come at meal time. |
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Night falls and still he doesn't appear. |
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The girls and the chickens cry out from hunger. |
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Days pass and the chickens in neighbouring cage begin to die. |
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The smell of rotting poultry permeates the air of the hot, humid barn. |
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Finally, desperate to find food |
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and concerned over the whereabouts of their guardian, |
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the twins break free from their cage. |
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McClock's house is locked tight, |
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but the girls find the garden hose which quenches their thirst. |
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Still half delirious with hunger, |
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they make their way out to the road. |
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Little time passes before a dusty black |
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cadillac Coupe de Ville drives by and pulls over. |
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A tall, moustached young man with a kindly face steps out of the vehicle. |
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He smiles at the girls, "Hello" |
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And presents them with the first candy they had ever tasted - |
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a Twix bar, which they share in silent, odd delight. |
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The girls do not feel at all uncomfortable |
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when the man lifts them gently into the dark, spacious trunk. |
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In the following days the girls are transferred into the trunks |
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or several other cars by many other kindly, candybar offering men |
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until they reach their final destination at the lake side lodge in Manitoba. |
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The underwood lodge is a collection of cosy, water front cabins |
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with an attached trailor park along the shores of lake Winnipeg. |
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It is also the world headquarters of Budding Flowers Entertainment |
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specializing in the production and distribution of photographs |
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and VHS tapes for clientele with unique tastes. |
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The girls are welcomed by Mrs Deborah Bouldger, |
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the 52-year-old proprietress |
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"Well, hello, girls" |
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A women of enormous proportions |
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who lives with her own 3 children in the main lodge of the underwood. |
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Upon finding that the girls have no names |
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she christens them Eva and Lynn, names, which neither she, |
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nor the twins themselves are ever able to keep straight"Eva, Lynn" |
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The twins days of the underwood are relatively comfortable, |
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they are well cared for, the food is delicious |
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and there are many other girls their age |
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Once a week, photo sessions take place, |
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convivial affairs that involve make-up, |
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a wide variety of dress up costumes and inventive new games. |
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Every few days Mrs Bouldger introduces the girls to one of their many uncles |
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"Eva, Lyn, say hello to your uncle Mark" "Heeey" |
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These uncles, seemingly endless in number, |
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travel from all over the world to visit their nieces |
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The girls don't always like their new uncles, |
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but Mrs Bouldger is always quick to remind them |
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that ‘family is family’ and ‘blood is thicker than water’ |
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The conjoined sisters are not popular amongst the other girls, |
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however, one gentle resident, a few years their senior |
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befriends them and takes them under her wing. |
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"Hello, what's your name?" |
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(Her name is Sandy) |
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"I'm Sandy" |
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She has soft, blond hair that reaches down to her knees |
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Everyone says she looks like a mermaid |
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Dressed daily by Mrs Bouldger |
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in trade mark fishnet stockings and vintage attire, |
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Sandy is by far the most popular girl of the underwood. |
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She has so many uncles that the twins lose count |
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Every night after dinner and chores, |
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Sandy talks the young sisters into bed |
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and tells them fantastic stories until they fall peacefully to sleep |
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"And after the three long weeks at sea |
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Jean Luke, the sailor finally spotted land" |
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But these happy times do not last. |
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Shortly after the twins' third Christmas |
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under Mrs Bouldger's care, |
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Sandy disappears - never to return |
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The twins remain in the underwood |
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for the greater part of two, long, miserable years. |
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Without Sandy to protect them, |
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they are ostracized and abused by the other girls |
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"What are YOU looking at, 4-eyes?!" |
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The photo sessions involve fewer fancy costumes |
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and over time, their uncles become more peculiar |
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"Did I ask you to talk?" |
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The twins begin to notice the disturbing tendency |
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for girls, much like their dear friend Sandy - |
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they quietly disappear from the underwood around their 12th or 13th birthday. |
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The sisters brace themselves for something terrible |
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One autumn, when the girls are eleven, |
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an old man, who speaks only Spanish, |
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takes the twins into a large, orange van |
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and drives them to their new home |
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"Step right up, step right up, see amazing human oddities, |
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freaks of nature, be warned, people with heart condition, |
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children, women - we will accept no responsibility for fainting, |
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reoccurring nightmares, or death" |
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Dillard and Fullerton, elusive and illogical traveling |
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show is the 12th largest touring circus in North America. |
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Former insurance salesman, |
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Dillard and Fullerton, distinguish their enterprise |
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by procuring the most procuring specimen of the grotesque and unusual. |
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Their small administrative staff works tirelessly |
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to combat legal actions and public allegations |
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of animal cruelty and human slave trafficing. |
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Life in the circus is harder than their time at the underwood. |
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There is always work to be done. |
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In addition to their chores of laundry and sweeping, |
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Mr Dillard insist that the twins |
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spend many hours each day practicing their act. |
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"What are you staring at for?" |
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The girls are frightened of the clowns, |
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several of whom, by amazing coincidence, |
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also happen to be their uncles |
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"Hello, hello, hello" |
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But still, overall these early days |
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at the circus are happy time for the twins |
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Every night to the delight of audiences across the country, |
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the girls appear in the center ring, singing and strumming the ukulele, |
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at the top of Bimba and Kimba - |
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the world's only known conjoined twin siamese elephants. |
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The twins feel they have found true soulmates in Bimba and Kimba, |
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who they affectionately refer to as‘Elephant,Elephant’. |
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This special bond is reciprocates by the pakaderms, |
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who fondly nozzle the girls with their trunks |
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and seem to delight in giving them rides. |
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（The twins and the elephants are inseparable） |
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With the help of the Alphonso de Ares tin, the animal trainer, |
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the twins tend to the elephants, feeding them and grooming them daily. |
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But one terrible August morning, |
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Bimba and Kimba refuse to take their food. |
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Due to the unsanitary conditions of their quarters |
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and an improper diet of popcorn and cotton candy, |
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the elephants have contracted a rare form of elephantine diphtheria |
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compounded by early onset Alzheimer's disease |
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For the next two weeks can only stand by helplessly, |
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as their companions become sicker and weaker |
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and begin displaying obvious signs of memory loss. |
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The last few days are almost unbearable. |
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With Bimba and Kimba's confused, sad eyes |
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looking up at the girls with great anguish, |
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but no hint of recognition. |
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And on one, grim,September day |
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The sisters 16th birthday |
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(Elephant Elephant dies.) |
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The funeral is held at the same day |
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a grizzly affair had an industrial trush compactor |
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behind a Home Depot in Fort Dodge,Iowa. |
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The twins are devastated. |
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Without Bimba and Kimba life is but a terrible and meaningless void. |
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They resign themselves to living out |
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the rest of their hollow existence in solemn mourning. |
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The emotionally exausted sisters fall from favour within the circus |
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No longer willing to sing and play their ukulele, |
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the girls are dressed in a pink tutu |
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and forced to balance on the giant red ball, |
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an impossible task for the conjoined sisters |
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"Get on that damn ball!" |
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The audience roars with laughter each time they awkwardly fall. |
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Their discomfort is increased by a pair of radical groups |
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who have taken an interest ih the twins. |
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Every night in most major cities, |
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protestiers assemble, nosily waving signs |
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and chanting slogans in front of the Box Office. |
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The first faction claims to represent an organization called 'FASSEN' - |
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the Foundation for Always Separating Siamese Twins Everywhere Now. |
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Citing the bible,FASSEN members believe |
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that it is the will of the Lord that all conjoined twins be separated |
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and allowed to live individual lives. |
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Wielding symbolical surgical saws and blunt carbon knives, |
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FASSEN members tried the ticket buyers for supporting the abomination of god. |
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The second group operates under the acronym SPLIT - |
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the Society for the Preservation of Linked Identical Twins. |
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A reactionary organisation, working to discredit the claims of FASSEN, |
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SPLIT believes that conjoined twins will play a |
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critical role in the second coming of Christ. |
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The twins are terrified by both groups - |
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the knives and saws make them very nervous |
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and SPLIT members make threats to kidnap the girls |
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and take them to where they will be kept safe |
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in a place of darkness until the rapture. |
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One day before a Sunday matinée in Sacramento, |
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a chaotic brawl erupts between the two factions |
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and one FASSEN member gets allarmingly close to the twins with a hacksaw. |
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Stricken with fear, the sisters decide |
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that they are no longer safe at the circus. |
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That night, they make a resolution - |
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to leave the Dillard and Fullerton travelling show - |
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(FOREVER) |
