Okay, so I was at a circus today with my cousins and couldn't get this out of my head, it was originally meant to be a One-shot but I think I might need to change that.
I lived as a carnie for twenty-eight years, I had birthdays in caravans, I met all sorts of people, I learnt how to control the animals after three years of being terrified and I met my wife...
She came to the circus as a runaway aged seventeen; a broken soul desperate to escape was what Zelda called her. The circus was where I worked in the carnival and was the pride and joy of the Carnival. When she came she had no trade only the knowledge a seventeen year old would learn in school which was a lot more than most of us knew. In exchange for her teaching the young carnies the older carnies would teach her the trade of a circus woman and they would let her stay. I never found out why she was granted permission to stay so easily until I was 24, I was eighteen when she came. I knew of her when she first came, she was in figure of speech the talk of the town but I didn't see her until a week after her arrival when we were rehearsing for our final show of that town. She came in with Madame Losaline, the horse-back ballerina (Something I never wished to try) who ordered her to take a seat and watch. That made me remember of when I had been under the wing of Madame Losaline the forty something year old, she had told me the exact same thing but as a five year old I hadn't been as obedient as she for I had began to investigate which evidently required the fire brigade to come and put out the blazing fire in the back tent (I still stand by my speech that the fire sticks had magically lit up themselves and fell onto the canvas).
She sat obediently and watched with interest the show I had seen countless times before. I always liked the new ones for they had no idea what I was like until they met me and of course I couldn't back down. After my act I walked over to her and sat in the makeshift bench behind the one she sat on. She seemed so girly and simple that I tried one of my baby tricks on her which meant I tapped on one shoulder then hid behind the other so she never saw me. What I didn't know was her outer self was not what I had been able to see. As soon as I tapped her shoulder once I felt myself hurtle through the air and land on my back, it hurt like I had just fallen off the tight rope onto the ground 15 feet below. She smirked at me and lent me a hand to help me up.
"Psychic boy." She said her voice playful and teasing.
"New girl." I replied. New girl? Seriously I couldn't think of anything better than New Girl? I cursed my mind for my lame excuse.
"New girl?" She repeated, biting back a smile.
"Karate girl." I said, wincing as I got up and took the seat beside her.
We talked for a while after that until I was ordered back to the ring to help out Madame Losaline who although was as graceful and as beautiful as a twenty year old on the back of a horse in her pastel leotard and tulle tutu was aging terribly now she was fifty eight and had trouble moving the horses into the ring and tacking them up in their flimsy velvet bridles with pieces of silk in various colours draping from it and the sparkly rugs which secured with a girth that was in whatever colour the horses silk was in. Each horse had their own colour, Ava had rich greens and pastel yellows, Juliette had baby pink and baby blue while the main horse Dove wore all the colours of the rainbow. They were beautiful to someone who wasn't as terrified of them as I. I helped tack them up then I went to return to Karate Girl who had disappeared. I sat down in hope of her return until I saw her appear with Madame Losaline she had rid herself of the too-large black overcoat she had been wearing to reveal a tiny practise dress like those of every woman in the circus. I had never thought they fit all that well on most of the performers but I had to make an exception for Karate Girl, her practise dress matched Madame Losaline's an absurd shade of hot pink, I had never envied the woman for that and never protested when I wore the blue leotard I had to wear to practise. But she undoubtedly looked beautiful in the hot pink, in my eyes it made her look like Barbie but Karate Girl would never know that for I was sure I would end up dead.
I found it strange that such a new girl could have mastered the art of Madame Losaline's in just a few days so I sat quietly with my eyes focused on her. She only did a simple routine, most of it just riding the two horses as Madame Losaline danced elegantly on Dove's back but halfway through she began to stand up, I saw the nervous and somewhat terrified look on her face but no-one could miss the unbeatable look of determination in her eyes. Her small, weightless form moving slightly clumsily wasn't even enough for the horse to register she just kept up her cantering pace, her head down, on the bit as she pranced round the stage. I watched as she slowly righted herself and stood up straight, she didn't look professional but she didn't look like a complete mess as most of the beginners who I had seen before. She fixed her bare feet onto the horses back then placed her hands on the rug that sat just at the horse's neck, I held my breath as she kicked up, her legs flying into the air with slight elegance. She held them there as the horse slowed its pace, much to my relief. Her legs wavered and her arms shook but she didn't drop her position, during watching her I missed all of what Madame Losaline was doing but I didn't care I had seen her act before. I saw Juliette begin to creep beside Ava until they were walking side by side, at this moment she swung her legs down to end up standing on Juliette's back, she held her place as she watched Madame Losaline, Ava and Juliette staying at the same pace with each other but trotting quickly around the ring, their silk flowing from their bridles. Their act finished and I quickly ran into the ring, I held out a hand for her so she could dismount and she took it and gracefully slid from the horse, smiling with great achievement.
"Well done Karate Girl." I grinned, walking her out of the ring as the horses were removed by Bert and Ernie (No Joke) the two stage assistants.
"I can stop breathing." She laughed her hands on her heart.
"That's a good thing." I chuckled.
"No, I mean my hearts beating so quickly." She exclaimed.
I looked at her, her chest heaving and her cheeks a pretty shade of Coral red. She picked up my hand and pressed it to her chest. I felt her breathing beneath my hand it was heavy like someone who had just walked through a haunted house alone after being told various tales of spooks and ghosts and other horror stories. I wanted to take my hand away considering the place but she kept it there.
"How do you stop it?" She asked.
"Breathe." I commanded, taking my hand away and using both my hands to gesture when she should breathe in and out.
She obeyed and I made a mental note to make her stop obeying everything anyone told her, just because she would obey everything I told her and I couldn't help but use that for the better.
"You alright now?" I asked, watching her.
"Yeah, have you ever tried that?" She asked.
"Em, yeah but I didn't do as good as you. I fell off just sitting on the horse when it was walking. That's how I got this." I explained, rolling up the leg of my leotard (which I now felt very embarrassed for wearing in front of her) to show her the large bruise/scar that covered my calf.
"Ouch." She smiled, she then pulled up her beautiful curls and unhooked the neck of her dress and turned around.
"The first time I fell of Ava, was yesterday. I fell onto the concrete on the path outside landed on my back and neck, Ava then walked over me luckily just missing me with her rather heavy hooves." She said, parting the dress so he could see all the way down her neck and back which was covered by a rather ugly purple bruise trailing all the way down her neck and her back and disappearing into her clothes.
"What were you doing?" I asked, zipping her back up after seeing the struggle she had to find the zip.
"Trotting. While sitting down." She laughed.
"But you can canter upside down?" I chuckled.
"Technicality." She shrugged.
"Are you taking part in the show?" I asked, walking her out of the tent, not caring if anyone needed us or if anyone wanted us to do something.
"No, Madame Losaline said I'm not ready." She replied.
"Did she see you?" I asked possibly acting a little over the top but at that time I didn't care she had been perfect at it."
"I'm still a little shaky." She said obviously repeating what Madame Losaline had told her.
"Only a little." I protested
"That little's too much but I have to help out behind the stage if I wish to stay in the circus and I'll need to sell more items so I can pay for my costumes." She frowned.
"You can be my assistant." I smile, making her laugh.
"You have an act with your father, you don't need an assistant." She said, stopping in her path suddenly.
"Why did you stop?" I ask.
"The beach is down there, I'm not allowed outside the circus in my practise uniform." She said, standing at the top of the stairs that I'm already three steps down.
"It doesn't matter, you don't really own any clothes that you can change into though do you? It's all a ploy to get you to stay in the caravan or the tent." I reason, it is. I don't own a pair of normal clothes at all.
"No all I have is my riding clothes, my show dress and my rehearsal dress."
She opens her mouth to say more but I take her hand and run down the stairs she screams in protest and only then do I realise she's barefoot while I'm in my (masculine) ballet pumps. I pick her up and carry her down the rest of the remaining stairs until I drop her on the beach.
"Happy?" I asked.
"No." She frowns but she looks at the beautiful water and sand that she has now begun to sink in.
"Let's go swimming." I suggest.
"I can't, my dress would get wet and Madame Losaline would complain." She replied shaking her head.
"Take it off." I can tell by the glare that she gives me that she's not impressed.
"Oh Come on, I know you've got the swimming costume like under-item, I saw the halter on your neck."
She glares but unzips the tiny dress; she steps out of it and shivers. "It's cold."
"Yeah, because the tiny dress that you had on a minute ago is so much warmer."
"It was." She argues.
I roll my eyes playfully then un zip my own leotard, luckily in the leotards you can wear proper underwear unlike the tiny dresses the women wear which requires a tight-fitting under-costume with a halter neck since most of the dresses they wore were backless.
"How do you know so much about woman's clothes anyway?" She asks and I feel my face blush slightly.
"When I was little Madame Losaline looked after me like she's doing you." I explained.
She chuckles apologetically then smirks at me.
"You ready?"
I have never been one to back down from a challenge and I found myself running to the freezing water and running so far in until I was forced to swim. She ran in as far as me and I smiled as I looked at the sight of the both of us, treading water as each massive wave hit us and moved us further back into shore.
"Madame Losaline will kill me." She spluttered recovering from the massive wave hat had hit us both with great strength. The same wave that now had us soaking with our hair sticking to our faces in limp curls.
"What's your name?" I ask realising that we hadn't gotten to the introducing names part besides Karate Girl and Psychic Boy.
"Robin." She replied.
"Yeah, and I'm batman." I laugh. "What's your real name?"
"Robin." She replied again, defiantly.
"Now this is just insulting, are you going to tell me the truth?" I ask.
"Teresa." She replies.
"Last name?" I ask.
"Don't have one anymore." She shrugs. Treading water for all she's worth.
"Great, I'm Patrick Jane you can be Teresa Jane." I smile.
"Hello Patrick Jane." She smiles back.