The Otrabanda Company

Extract

It is dawn in early June. The wind is cool. The Mississippi slips quietly by the enormous silver arch that marks the “gateway to the west” at St. Louis, Missouri. A blue van pulling an orange trailer drives up, then a yellow truck. Ten people climb sleepily out of the vehicles and begin to unload: First, a number of oil drums, carefully caulked to be air-tight, then tongue-in-groove flooring, and, last, twelve seventeen foot two-by-fours with bolt holes drilled in them. They are the parts of Otrabanda Company's unmotored raft, ready to be assembled and provide transportation for the company on its annual tour down the Mississippi. They will stop in river towns along the way, put up their red and yellow striped circus tent, and perform a show, at the “world's most popular price, absolutely free.” There are ten members of the company.