All credit for the Twilight story and characters belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I just enjoy playing with the characters. My thanks to my wonderful beta, EdwardsMate4Ever, and to Jaspersdoll for the title.
Catching Bella
Chapter 7 – Visiting the Circus
"Is it time for a visit to the circus?" asked Alice.
"Yeah, it is," said Bella. "I just wish I knew what to expect."
They headed to the circus, which was outside of New York City this month.
Bella called while they were on the road, hoping to speak to Mrs. Cope, but was put through to the ringmaster instead. He made her nervous, though she didn't know why. She had noticed her mother always avoided him, which wasn't easy in such a small ensemble.
"How have you been?" Mr. O'Leary asked when he came on the line. "You leaving hit us hard."
"Sorry," she replied. "I just needed to sort things out after my parents' death, you know?"
"I see. You and your family have always been very special to me," he said. "I wish you would have felt comfortable coming to me with your thoughts before leaving."
"I'm sorry," Bella replied. "I just needed to be somewhere else, because everything around me reminded me of them every day. I was hoping to speak to Mrs. Cope."
"Mrs. Cope is visiting relatives in Wichita," he said.
Bella paused, surprised. "I didn't know she had relatives there," she finally said.
"Oh, she does. She seldom takes time off, though. She almost never left when you were here, as she was very fond of you."
Bella couldn't remember a time when Mrs. Cope wasn't around. She had always been there, especially when her parents were rehearsing or performing. She had handled Bella's medications, and Bella remembered waiting outside of her trailer while Mrs. Cope "put her face on," as she put it. Bella always thought she was pretty, and wanted to play with her makeup when she was younger, but Mrs. Cope never let her touch it.
"I wanted to come back by and see everyone," Bella said.
"We will be delighted to see you again," Mr. O'Leary replied. "When were you planning to arrive?"
"Tomorrow, if that's OK."
"Of course," the ringmaster replied, and told her how to get to the circus' temporary location. He seemed disappointed to hear she wanted to take the bus, sounding eager to pick her up in his car, but finally gave her directions.
Jasper watched Bella during the conversation. "He makes you nervous, doesn't he?" he asked when she hung up.
"Yeah, but then he's the boss, right?"
"There's nervous, and there's nervous. I think you might want to trust your feelings around him, that's all," replied Jasper.
"We have to think about how we're going to do this," Carlisle told her. "Circus people seem to sense that we are different. Whether it's because they are sharp observers of human nature or something else, it might be better if you went by yourself. We'll be available by phone, of course, but we'll also be very close at hand."
Bella nodded.
The Cullens dropped her at a bus stop, and she took the bus to the location at the edge of town where the circus was setting up. As the bus pulled up, Bella smiled wistfully seeing the signs for Katy Circus that had already been erected. The other tents were being put up in a routine familiar to her since childhood. While she was with the circus, she found the constant setting up and tearing down wearying, but now, she realized she had missed it.
When she got off the bus, she was met by the ringmaster, Mr. O'Leary, who was waiting across the street in his car.
He eyed her appraisingly. "My, but haven't you grown up in the past three months."
He wasn't the only one who noticed. John-John the weight lifter whistled, and she grinned at him. She had always liked John-John and distrusted O'Leary.
Mr. O'Leary took her duffle bag and carried it to his office. She spent a few minutes there, making small talk and telling him about the past few months, leaving out meeting the Cullens.
Finally, she was free. Outside of his trailer, people had gathered, waiting to see her. After being passed around for hugs, it was gossip time.
"So, did you hear?" John-John asked. "We went to Spain! We spent time in the Basque mountains. Big stuff for a small circus. Some big-shots came to see us, too. Very hush-hush for some reason. The big cats didn't like them and set up quite a ruckus, roaring and upsetting the elephants."
"Who paid for the trip?"
"Some relative of your father's, or so we were told," replied John-John. "Like a second cousin. They had been looking for your father for some time. They finally found the circus and brought us over to do a few shows. O'Leary and Mr. O'Malley were really excited about the opportunity to perform in Europe. I don't know a lot, except that our trip was cut short."
"What about Mrs. Cope?" Bella asked.
The group fell silent at the mention of Mrs. Cope.
"The ringmaster told us that she got word of her sister's illness while we were in Spain. He put her on a plane back, and we haven't seen her. I guess her sister's in a coma or something," Eliza said. She never referred to the ringmaster as Mr. O'Leary. None of the girls like the way he eyed them, and refusing to call him by name was one method Eliza used to distance herself from him.
Soon it was dinner time. As they walked into the mess tent, Bella was met by Mr. O'Leary and the circus owner, Mr. O'Malley, who led her away from her friends to sit at their table at the front of the tent.
"Dear, we are so glad to see you," said Mr. O'Malley. "We've been quite worried. We feel like family, and I felt like I had a runaway when you left. So glad to see you back."
"I just wanted to see the world a bit on my own," Bella told him. She liked Mr. O'Malley, almost everyone did.
As she ate at the head table, she could feel the buzz that her return and subsequent seating with the ringmaster and owner was causing. She was nervous and her mouth was dry, so she felt like she was just choking down her food, despite the wine Mr. O'Leary kept pouring for her. She wasn't used to drinking with meals, as her parents never did. Sure, she had drinks when she went out with Angela in Los Angeles, but drinking wine with dinner felt different. This was home, after all.
"Do you like this wine?" asked Mr. O'Leary, as he topped off her glass again.
Bella nodded.
"It's an old vintage, saving it for a special occasion. I decided that your return counted as a special occasion," he told her.
Finally, dinner was over, and she went back to Eliza's trailer. Eliza had been her best friend from school, where Eliza had been in clown training.
"What did you really do while you were gone?" Eliza asked.
"I found a job waitressing," Bella told her, "just as I said. Wait, you didn't believe me?"
"Waitressing? Heck no," Eliza asked. "We thought you eloped with a cute guy from the audience, and you came back because you+ broke up."
"Nothing so romantic. I waitressed. The pay wasn't great, but the tips were good," Bella replied. "I went out to see the shows, had my own apartment. Didn't have to pull up stakes and move every week. I just wanted to try to experience the normal life for myself.
Plus, I made a friend, Angela. We got an apartment together, and she had her own car. It broke down while I was driving north…"
"Then what?"
A knock came at the door of the trailer. It was Mr. O'Leary.
Bella and Eliza exchanged glances.
"Do you have a few minutes?" he asked Bella.
"Sure," she replied.
They went to the owner's trailer. Once inside, Mr. O'Malley offered her a seat then came straight to the point.
"I'm so sorry you missed the trip to Europe," he said. "We had to cancel mid-tour, you know. Without a lion act or our lead trapeze artist, I just felt we weren't offering our best shows. But we're going to go back again. You're coming, of course."
"It seems so sudden," said Bella.
"You'll be performing," he told her.
She paused.
They were going to let her perform? Her mother hadn't let her perform, saying that Bella wasn't ready, that she wasn't in control of her form. But now, without the medications, she felt so confident and strong that she could picture herself easily moving from swinging bar to swinging bar in a trapeze act, high above an audience.
Maybe she should stay a while.
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