Thanks to Debbie for the beta!
Disclaimer: If they were mine, I'd have some say in the current editorial direction, now, wouldn't I?
By Accident or Design
He knew what an accident was. That was when something bad happened, but nobody meant it to. Like when he was pouring the orange juice, right when the trailer hit a pothole, and the glass toppled over. That was an accident. Or when he was running for the ladder to the trapeze, and he fell and skinned his knee. That was an accident.
He knew ways to prevent accidents. He took things more slowly. He watched how his father checked the ropes before the act. He paid attention to what was going on around him. Which was why it made no sense, what he overheard Zucco's men tell Pa Haly: that giving them money would protect the circus from accidents.
Pa didn't listen to them. And what happened to Dick's parents that night was no accident.
A few nights later, Dick followed his new guardian down a set of stone stairs, and into a vast underground lair. Jaw set, he watched carefully as Bruce demonstrated a basic capoeira routine. He would master this. He would learn boxing and jujitsu and a host of other fighting disciplines. And then, there would be no sum of money large enough, and no bodyguard tough enough to protect Tony Zucco.
The crime boss was going to go down—and it wasn't going to be an accident either.