Chapter 5 opens with Charles Holloway sensing what Mr. Crosetti did – that something was happening. Nobody yet knows what it is. But they all sense it.
Notice Bradbury’s use of emotion, longing, wistfulness again.
CHARLES HALLOWAY put his hand to the saloon’s double swing doors, hesitant, as if the gray hairs on the back of his hand, like antennae, had felt something beyond slide by in the October night.
…It was a tune from another season, one that never ceased making Charles Halloway sad when he heard it. The song was incongruous for October, but immensely moving, overwhelming, no matter what day or what month it was sung:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play.
And wild and sweet
Their words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men!Charles Halloway shivered. Suddenly there was the old sense of terrified elation , of wanting to laugh and cry together when he saw the innocents of the earth wandering the snowy streets the day before Christmas among all the tired men and women whose faces were dirty with guilt, unwashed of sin, and smashed like small windows by life that hit without warning, ran, hid, came back and hit again.
Bradbury, Ray (2013-04-23). Something Wicked This Way Comes (Greentown) (pp. 23-24). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Later, Charles Halloway spots a handbill on which is written these words:
Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show —
Fantoccini, Marionette Circus, and Your
Plain Meadow Carnival. Arriving
Immediately! Here on Display, one of our many attractions:THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD!
Halloway’s eyes leaped to the poster on the inside of the window.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD!
Bradbury, Ray (2013-04-23). Something Wicked This Way Comes (Greentown) (p. 25). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
And there you have it – the “something” from Something Wicked This Way Comes.
I’m not sure I’m going to quote any more from the book. Because I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you.
Maybe I’ll turn to Caruso from now on to nearly the end of the month, with only an occasional glimpse into the tale.