Fundy & The Wandering Sideshow

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THE STICK MAN AND NURSE BEADIL

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Is he real? Is it a wax dummy? Does he breathe? Can he smile? Those are just some of the questions muttered around the stick man. But luckily for him, the stick man didn’t understand a word of English.  

The stick man, Henri Stique was born in a small village near Paris. As a child, he loved to study geography. By his twenty-fifth birthday he became a pilot and flew around the world twice. One day, when he was flying, the unimaginable occurred: the muscles in his hands had stiffened up. Next were his arms, then his neck, then his back, and then his legs. When they found him among the plane wreckage he was straight like a stick and stiff all over. Doctors called it Muscle Hardening Syndrome: an extremely rare disease that causes muscles to harden like stone. It plagued the stick man and his life would never be the same.

“Don’t you worry Henri,” said Doctor Bard. “With continual treatment your muscles will loosen up and then you’ll return to your limber self. Isn’t that right Nurse Beadil?”

“That’s right,” she said kindly. “Henri, you’re in good hands now.”

Nurse Beadil had been a professional nurse for all of a month, but she already hated her job because it was harder work than she had expected. When The Wandering Sideshow came rolling into Paris searching for a new sideshow act, Nurse Beadil knew it was the opportunity of a lifetime. So, late that night, she snatched Henri from his bed while his parents were sound asleep and carted him to The Wandering Sideshow.

Soon people would be waiting in long lines just to get a glimpse of the stick man and his shocking condition. The money started rolling in making Nurse Beadil very, very happy. But Henri was sad all the time because he sorely missed his family.

Things got worse when Nurse Beadil started spending Henri’s share of the money, which he was saving to find a better cure for his disease. It made him feel even more sad. And what did she spend his money on? Shoes. Lots of shoes!  The woman was obsessed with shoes, especially those long boots with those long pointy heels that clip-clop when she walked. It drove everyone nuts.

When Nurse Beadil’s room got so cluttered with shoes, she used Henri’s room as storage. She even tossed away his bed to make more room. Just awful right?

So, without a bed guess where Henri slept?

In the closet where she stashed him along with the mops and brooms.

But nothing could be worse than when Nurse Beadil stopped giving Henri his medication. Without medication Henri’s disease would never have a chance to heal. So he lost all hope of ever healing, and simply accepted being the stick man.

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