Sarah rode in the pickup with Mr. Hawkins and one of the animal trainers, a young kid named Sammy who was working his first season also with the show. There was a large camper body attached to the truck, with a tiny crawlway between the cab and the camper, so she could squirm through and get Cokes or beer for them whenever the guys asked for it or sneak a few winks on the double bed that stretched over the roof of the pickup cab and gave her a panoramic view of the majestic Canadian Rockies as they passed on her right. Behind them, but not traveling in convoy because it was too dangerous in the event of an accident, were two other employees, Hawkins' right hand man, Al Badger, and the other woman who worked with the show, someone Sarah knew only as Gloria. They rode in an old station wagon that towed the trailer they seemed to share.

And behind them, further still scattered back along their route, were the trucks, three of them, that carried the animals from the show. They had left the wintering site pretty soon after Sarah took the job, so she really hadn't spent much time with any of them, but they all appeared to be quite healthy and well-cared for and she was glad of that. She had had it in the back of her mind that some of these traveling menagerie shows did not take care of their caged animals, and Sarah wanted no part of any kind of abuse like that. She could not bear the thought of anyone mistreating a captive animal, or a wild one, for that matter. To her, that was as alien as beating an infant or whipping a child with a heavy leather belt. Maybe it was because of the way she had been so badly treated by her mother's second husband before she finally ran away and got married to the first jerk who offered a time-payment ring and had enough for the marriage license. Of course, she had not seen it in quite that light then, but it was becoming clearer now all the time as she sat quietly while Sammy and Mr. Hawkins took turns with the pickup, coming into focus like a television tube warming up. And it wasn't a picture she liked… nor one she ever wanted to relive. This was all so exciting, a whole new world out there, and Sarah planned to see every inch of it.