A DAY AT THE CIRCUS
He was alone. The noise surrounded him. People walked past him without a second glance, people he did not know, people who looked different and unfriendly. But he was not scared. He was not lost, he knew exactly where he was: he was standing near the entrance of the freak show tent. The ringleader stood in front of the blue, flapping tent entrance, standing out in his red suit, cracking his whip, shuffling his feet, offering tickets and yelling through a loud hailer in a strange accent, "Come one, come all! Come see the glorious freak show!" It seemed to the young boy that one of the ringleader's eyes was looking at him while he was talking. "The most extraordinary creatures in existence lie inside! Expecting the unexpected will not help prepare yourself for the shocks you are about to receive! If you've ever thought yourself abnormal, prepare to see how normal you are!"
The boy could barely contain his excitement, as he rushed into the tent, oblivious to the dubious looks from passer byes, who were severely tempted to go inside but were certain that disappointment awaited for whoever entered the tent. They were certain that it would be full of masked men in poor makeup, with the prattling voice of the ringleader constantly trying to convince them everything was real and that if they did not believed in what they saw, then they were fools.
The child was not impressed with the unexplainable size inside the tent; his eyes were only for the exhibits. In actual fact, he only had eyes for a certain exhibit, which was illuminated in front of him. He walked straight past a purple masculine figure constantly tying up its apron, whilst wiping a filthy surface with a cloth clotted with dirt and washing dishes from a pile several foot high; all while reading a thick novel and clearly enjoying it. The boy didn't give a second glance to a woman with bright eyes, a stunning body and a fabulous hairstyle. A beautiful specimen: despite being 30cm high and coloured silver. The boy's eyes had no interest in these many examples of nature gone wrong, only for a figure illuminated by a dazzling light.
The blue figure had its back turned away from the public eye, which frustrated the eager young boy. It was exceedingly tall and had incredibly large ears but he wanted to know what its face looked like. He banged on the bars, trying to encourage or anger the beast, but on both accounts he failed. He yelled in anger at the beast that was ruining his fun. He yelled words that no boy his age should ever have heard. The noise and anger contained in the young boys words were still not enough to make the creature abandon its shyness.
The boy looked around the floor of the tent, trying to find something to throw at the creature. He succeeded, finding a small piece of bread-like substance, picked it up and pulled back his arm to throw. As he went into the motion of throwing, the beast turned around, wondering if the cause of all the noise previously was still there. The sight of the beasts turning around shocked the young boy, but didn't stop him from throwing at it. It was a terrific throw, landing right between where its eyes should have been.
The beast contained no disfigures in its face, for it had no facial features that we would call normal. Instead, several pairs of hands had replaced the features. The piece of "bread" had not in fact landed on what should have been a face, but in fact had been caught in a swift movement. There was a stunned silence, broken by a small shuffling noise, as the beast moved towards the bars of the cage. The boy let out a small gasp, which was a mistake, for the beasts huge ears picked up the sound and now knew precisely where the boy was.
The boy hadn't realised his mistake and was now breathing heavily, which only made the beast even more certain about where it was going. The pace of his breath quickened as the beast got closer and eventually stopped as the beast reached the bars of the cage. Despite it having no eyes, the boy felt as if he was being stared at. Suddenly, one pair of hands grabbed the bars and started to shake them, causing a huge rattling noise. All this time the boy had stood rigid in shock but this sudden noise caused him to leap in the air. As if this wasn't enough to terrify the petrified boy, the hands that were not grasping the bars of the cage thrust their hands through the gaps in the bars, clearly trying to silence the cause of all the noise.
There was a loud crack from behind him and the boy spun round, only to see an empty space, which was swiftly filled with the sound of scuttling. Not worrying about whatever could be hidden behind him, he turned to face the beast tentatively, only to see it facing away from him and standing once again at the back of the cage. Before he could wonder why it had made such a hasty retreat to its original point, the boy heard the scuttling behind him again and turned around, coming face to face with the ringleader.
The ringleader found no fear in the young boys face, oblivious to the fact that the boy's knees were knocking at a terrific volume. "My dear child," breathed the ringleader, pronouncing every syllable, in an incredibly patronising way "you are clearly a very brave specimen. You have obviously not seen our main attraction. Come. I think you'll enjoy this." Turning around he started to excitedly scuttle towards the back of the tent, where the shadows tried to live undisturbed, while the boy followed. As he walked, he tried to work out what a specimen was.
The ringleader loved terrifying children, which wasn't what his employers expected from a ringleader. The pompous suits, which claimed to own the circus, believed that ringleaders were big jolly chaps with even bigger moustaches and an even bigger, jollier voice, laughing with the children and charming the parents. What they didn't know were that parents despised circus folks, seeing them as child snatchers, with their bright lights and sweets, making their children spend their money on things that they would throw away the very next day. In fact circus folks hated parents even more because of this attitude towards circus folks.
Personally, the ringleader thought, the children could be just as bad as the parents, constantly laughing at simple things and demanding more from tired performers, thinking they were in charge of the whole circus and that they deserved to be entertained every second. In his day, a child could be whacked for acting like that. This little brat, brimming with confidence and strolling around like he owned the place, was about to receive a very nasty shock, which he fully deserved.
The boy was starting to feel nervous, as he approached a figure hidden behind a thick curtain, surrounded by shadows. The ringleader tried his best to suppress a grin, but it managed to escape, so when he faced the nerve-wrecked boy, his manic face increased the fear growing inside the young child. As soon as the ringleader recognised the fear spreading over the boys face, the grin grew wider. "There's nothing to fear." lied the ringleader, giving a chuckle afterwards. "Oh, I'm sorry, of course there is. If there wasn't, this place wouldn't exist and you wouldn't be here" At this point, the ringleader leaned in close to the boys face and put on the patronising voice he had put on earlier. "Fear is all in the mind, dear thing. Remember that. But the mind only fears something when it sees something worth being scared of. That figure you saw earlier," he waved towards where they had just come from "was enough to make your skinny little knees knock. I wonder what your little mind will make your scrawny body do, once it receives the image of this terrifying specimen" From the boy's point of view, too much emphasis had been put on the word terrifying, not that he knew what emphasis meant, but nevertheless, he knew that he was about too see something worse then his nightmare.
Satisfied with the build-up, the ringleader took up the position he had taken outside, this time in front of the dusty curtain, and settled into his pattering style "Come one, come all! Come see a being that no other life form believed could possibly exist! It is so callus, so ruthless, so self-involved in its own progress; it fails to acknowledge any other life forms significance in nature! It's technological prowess has caused the slow disintegration of it's own planet! Behold, a being thought to be a myth, yet undeniably exists! Behold!" and in one fluid motion he drew back the curtain, which set off a startling spotlight, illuminating the beast trapped in its cage.
The boys eyes widened in terror. His mouth fell open. His vocal chords tried to make him scream or yell but failed to do so, for his mind was still shocked at the image that it was receiving. Eventually, the boys mind recovered and sent one thought throughout the boys' body: run. And he did. He ran as fast as he could, as far as he could from the monstrosity that lay behind him. He ran through the crowd, ran through the circus and all the time screaming at the top of his voice "MUMMY!"
The ringleader cackled with glee. Really, the whole day was worth it just for that. It was easily one of the best reactions his prize capture had ever received and the best thing was the suits would never know a thing. Even if the kid had recovered enough to tell its parents and even if the parents did manage to believe that a monstrosity like it could exist, the suits would dismiss it as "all part of the fun". He tapped the cage softly, quickly turning away. Even he was sickened by it. He didn't know what it was about it: it might have been the five fingers it had on the end of it's two stringy arms, maybe it was its animalistic way of living, but something about human beings revolted him.