Hello, everybody! Here is my first english fanfic. English is not my native language, so be kind! (Send the list of my mistakes by e-mail!) Thanks.
Destiny's child
Circus. Dream of so many children. World of shining stars, amusing stunts and laughter. Acrobats, animal-tamers and clowns. The performance, which could change lives. But on the backstage, life is not so shiny and happy as it seems.
International Circus Festival – 25 years ago
Backstage.
The air filled with tense. Everybody was preparing for their performance. People were running and crying on the corridors, the doors of the dressing rooms were open or half-open. The props took up a lot of space on the corridors, so it was hard to take a simple walk, not even the running!
One of the dressing rooms a little boy ran out, followed by his partners' loud laughter. The boy was half-dressed, his costume covered the lower half of his body. He blindly avoided crushing the others, and stopped at a mysteriously empty corner. Only a small trampoline was there, he dropped to the edge of that. He didn't want to cry, but the others' joke hurt deeply, more than the previous ones.
He wasn't angry at all, although he had all the reasons he needed: it was impossible to slip into his costume, because somebody sewed the upper half together. The boy 's face was stern, but his eyes were red from the uncried tears.
He didn't look up to that oriental man, who stepped to him with a pair of scissors in his hand.
„Don't be so angry, Charlie! It's just a joke" tried the man to soothe the boy, but the child refused to take a look at him.
„Of course. As always." whispered the boy.
„Hey! Your brothers and sisters love you. All they wanted to cheer you up." Said the man and messed the boy's red hair. The child finally looked up him, but that little face was so expressionless, that successfully scared him. Charlie took the scissors out of the man's hand and started cutting the yarn.
„Hiroooo! Charlieeee! Ah...here you are!" stepped a smiling teenage girl to them. She was tall and blonde, so different from her younger brother, that nobody could say that she is related to the young boy."What are you two doing?" Neither of them answered. Her younger brother didn't look at her, silently continued his work. Her eyes met their stepfather's and she finally understood, that Charlie hurt more than she imagined. They watched Charlie's fight with his costume witkout saying a word.
"Are you angry at us? Don't be! Let me help you..." asked him as she lost her patience, kneeled in front of him and reached for the scissors.
„NO" cried the boy. The harsh voice frightened the girl, because she wasn't used to this tone. Her smile faded, but she kept her voice calm.
„Charlie, I want to help you, please, let me..."
„I don't need your help! I don't need anyone's help! Get out of here! I don't want you!" said Charlie equally calm, without looking at his sister.
„Go back to the dressing room, Sylvia! We follow you later" told Hiro and pushed her lightly away.
As his sister's slim figure disappeared from him, Charlie turned to Hiro.
„Why do they always this to me?" Hiro sighed. He knew, that he wouldn't tell the truth for the boy. Charlie was too young to understand these things. Maybe a simple white lie would be enough...
„I think, they want you to relax. You are a very serious boy, too serious to your age. They want to see you happy."
„It won't make me happy either! I wish they would leave me here, alone...I don't need them... I think they hate me... because I'm more gifted than they are..." At this moment, his tears started falling down. The scissors were dropped out of his hand. Hiro hugged the trembling boy to soothe him, without success. He knew, that his stepson was right. These jokes were punishments of their family. All of them were jealous of Charlie, but he didn't know, that the little boy had already realized this. Charlie was more mature, than he thought.
„Well...I think you are right. But there is nothing to do with them. People change by time. Maybe they would be nicer when they are older. You have to be patient." Charlie' sobs slowly stopped, and after a few hiccups, the boy reached out the scissors again. „Let me help you!" asked him Hiro. Charlie nodded, and Hiro started to cut the remaining yarns.
„When I'll be older, I'll have a circus too!" stated suddenly Charlie. His face showed so much resolution, that Hiro almost burst out of laugh.
„O.K. Don't forget to invite me for your first performance!"
„You will be my special guest! And I won't allow my artists to hurt the other!" There was no sing of emotions on Hiro's face, he continued cutting the yarns silently. He thought, that was not the proper time to tell the boy, that his dream would never come true. It was impossible to gather a crew, where there was no jealousy or hate. Dreams made life easier.
„If your dream could ever come true, you will do that! Do you want to go to the town after the performance? I'd like to buy a souvenir for Johnny!" Charlie nodded and smiled at him. That time, his smile came from his heart. He loved only the four-year Johnny from his brothers.
Sylvia had no time to think over her brother's behavior, she went directly back to their dressing room, which was surprisingly filled with people.
„Hey, what are you doing here guys?" asked, but her angry voice stopped suddenly, when she recognized the woman, sitting at the table, in the middle of their dressing room.
The old, fat woman was dressed in a big, brown dress, with a vivid green scarf on her head. Her necklaces and bracelets were made of seeds and teeth of several kind of animals. And her face could frighten the bravest man of the world: those big, black eyes, the red, swollen lips and yellow teeth looked scary. She was Mama Inez, the famous gypsy fortuneteller, whose specialty was telling the future of the artists. She rarely appeared on the Festival, but when she went to one of the dressing room, those artists' carrier rose quickly.
Sylvia joined to her brothers.
„Mama Inez came to us directly!" whispered her elder brother. "She chose Beatriz first!"
„Mom will be the happiest circus director of the world!" said the oldest of them.
They were proud of themselves, as the other artists watched their younger sister shuffling a pack of cards. On Mama Inez's sign, Beatriz stopped, picked ten cards, and placed the pack back to the table. She made a row from the chosen ten cards, and looked up in excitement to the old fortuneteller. Mama Inez slowly turned her cards.
„Hmm...you are a very lucky girl! Your star will shine brightly...you will be a famous trapeze-artist!" The crowd's humming started to grow, as they heard a future of that young girl. But Beatriz wasn't happy with the prophecy: the corners of her mouth lowered, and her eyes filled with tears.
„Tell me, who will be my husband?" The people suddenly hold their breath: nobody asked a question to Mama Inez never. But Mama Inez smiled at the young girl standing in front of her. The girl was barely ten years old, she was still a little child.
„Well, you will meet him, at the age of 21, and you will have two sons. Are you satisfied?" asked her, although the girl's bright smile already told her the answer.
„You're the next one!" pointed the woman to Christian, the eldest of them. After him, the other brother, Maxwell came, followed by Sylvia. All of them did the same, as their sister. Mama Inez told almost the same to the men, but instead of two sons, they both have three daughters. When she turned Sylvia's cards up, she silenced for minutes. Finally she asked Sylvia to choose ten more cards.
„Your future is very hard to understand. It seems you will be a good artist, not only the trapeze. But at the age of 22, you will have to make a hard decision. There is no way to make it right. You will have losses both way." Sylvia almost fainted, but stood straight. Everybody would be a big star, and she wouldn't. It was hard to hear, but it was at least acceptable. But losing her friends or her family...never in her wildest dreams.
"What kind of decision?" Mama Inez had already known that, but there were things, which were better not to know.
"Are you sure, you want to hear it?" when Sylvia nodded, she continued „Somebody from your family will cheat a person, whom you'll love very much. You'll have to decide between them. Choose one, and you'll lose a lot of people, but your star will shine brightly. Choose the other, and you won't be a famous artist at all, although your children will, and less people will you lose. But this way, your loss will be more painful and irreversible."
"Is there any way to avoid this decision?" asked Sylvia looking at Mama Inez's face, searching for a sign of hope. The old woman shook her head.
"No. It's your future, or better to say: it's your karma."
"No! Future ... is change... I will change this!" Cried the girl.
"As my people say: hope dies last. Fight little girl, fight!" Laughed Mama Inez at her, but suddenly stopped as Charlie and Hiro entered the room. „Come on, little boy! I tell your future too! Shuffle!" She gathered the cards and gave the pack to Charlie, but he didn't reach for the pack, just stared at the woman.
"Don't you want to know, whether your dreams would come true or not?" His family members held their breath, and waited for his answer. For a minute nobody moved. Charlie stared at Mama Inez, who stared at him.
"What kind of dreams?" asked Charlie finally.
"Any kind of dreams." Silence again. Charlie was thinking hardly.
"Are you sure, that my dreams come true, as you say?"
"I am told..." answered Mama Inez, then placed the pack back to the table. She dipped her hand into one of her pockets, pulled out another pack of cards and gave to the boy. "That's a special pack of tarot cards, shuffle and place eight cards in a colunm, and make eight rows."
Charlie was unwilling to follow her orders, but his brothers and sisters look didn't promise anything good, if he would deny that. The boy finally took the pack from the fortuneteller, shuffled and made a square from the cards.
Everybody watched them tensely. Mama Inez turned his first card up. She didn't say a word, but her face told everything. Charlie's first card was The Death. Her eyes filled with regret, but the boy didn't seem to notice that. He just stood there, staring apathetically at her. His family was the same. The other artist whispered excitedly at the background.
"Don't be sad, The Death not always means real death." Told him, but the boy still had't reacted. Mama Inez continued to read his future, but didn't say a word. Her face was frightened at first, in the middle of the squre she started smiling, and that smile didn't vanish until she turned the last card up.
"Well, my little son, do you want to know your future?" asked him finally.
"Yes, I think..."
"Really?" asked him again, and that time Charlie nodded.
"Yes. I want to know! Good or bad...tell me!"
"It doesn't start very good. In the near future, you will lose everybody and everything, your most precious ones. But don't be scared, you'll get a Helper. A woman. She will protect you. You 'll never be a star, none of your chosen jobs will be successful. Your past won't allow you to be successful. Your past will hinder you, until your Angel came. You'll got the Angel from your Helper, exactly on your 17th birthday. The Angel will be born in pain, hate and despair, but she will gave you the world. But be careful! If you'll got her before your 32nd birthday, you will pay a big price! If she'll meet you after that, the Angel will give you back everything, you lost, or stolen from you. Love, family, work and world-wide fame. You two, together will be able to attain your secret dream."
All of the people in the room froze, and stared at her shocked. What a future for a child! Hiro awakened first.
"Get out!" told her on hoarse voice and pulled Charlie to his embrace, as if he could save the child from his future." This is a malarkey. It' not worthy of note at all! GET OUT EVERYBODY!"
Mama Inez silently collected her cards and stood up. "Don't forget, little one: take a good care of your Angel!" told Charlie and left the room. Everybody whispered and walked out of the room, so the prophecy spreaded with the speed of light.
"These prophecies are not true, it is not worth to listen them at all." Told to the boy, but he was the one, who was trembling. The door was knocked, and a small man entered the room.
"Mr Yamamoto?" asked Hiro. He nodded."Your wife called you ten minutes ago. She asked you to call her back, because your son, Johnny, fell off the trapeze."