Thanks to TrudiRose and Aliquis – I was worried I may have been waffling, but I'm glad to see that you, Aliquis, wouldn't mind if I dipped a little further into the descriptive. Is my writing really simplistic? Oh dear, my old English teacher would be sorely disappointed. Darnit, I said I wasn't going to do author's notes didn't I? Oh well…
A wall of noise hit the group as they entered the main tent. Willy gripped more tightly on his cane, relaxing only when Charlie tapped his hand and grinned at him. Willy relaxed his hands to his side and calmed himself down. He felt someone slip their hand into his and looked down at Charlie.
"You sure about this?" asked Charlie, beaming all the while.
"Yeah. No problem," nodded Willy, relieved to realise that there wasn't. For the first time in a long while, he was enjoying himself outside the factory. He allowed himself to be dragged to his seat, ignoring the whispers from those people in the crowd who had recognised him from press photographs released back in February. So people were staring – let them look, thought Willy. None of them were going to think anything of his going to the circus, surely? That's what all normal people in town were doing, and he was a normal person, therefore he was here, socialising with his family. Despite his mental reassurances, Willy was still relieved to sit down between Charlie and Dr Wonka and face inwards to the ring in front of him, rather than have to look at the inquiring faces behind.
"Well done," said Dr Wonka. "You handled that well."
"Thanks," said Willy, exhaling. His hands were sweating inside his gloves and he tried to relieve the sticky feeling by wringing his hands together, creating some disturbing creaking noises. He was glad of the fact the seats they had managed to obtain were in the front row – at least he could pretend there was no-one around him. The smell of stale popcorn and – Willy realised with some disgust – other people was starting to close in all around him and he knew that the stench would cling to his clothing after tonight. Deal with it Wonka, he thought, you've eaten green caterpillars in a jungle full of foul-smelling beasts, surely members of your own species have to be less gross than that? He cast a sideways glance to a group of young children eating toffee apples. One child had managed to smear the toffee all over its face to the point where Willy was unsure if it was a boy or a girl anymore. He christened the child Blob and watched in fascinated disgust as Blob's mother pulled out a tissue, spat on it, and proceeded to wipe the toffee off Blob's face. "I'll take the caterpillars thanks," said Willy out loud.
"What?" asked Dr Wonka, confused and a little worried.
"Nothing," said Willy quickly, turning his attention back to the ring just in time for the lights to dim in the tent.
Nothing happened for a few moments as the crowd quietened. Then a spotlight picked out a lone acrobat, cartwheeling towards the centre of the ring. A drumroll started. There was a flash of sulphurous yellow light and a thunderclap and the acrobat turned into the ringmaster, complete with red frock coat, moustache, top hat and whip. Willy surreptitiously removed his own hat and tried to hide it in front of him while continuing to watch the ringmaster. A troupe of clowns arrived in the ring, circling and bowing to the short, moustached man who appeared to be laughing. Willy rested his elbows on the ringside in front of him and cradled his chin in his hands.
Music started and the clowns capered as only clowns can, taking pratfalls and play fighting to the amusement of the crowd around them. Three slim clowns appeared on tall unicycles, each one nearly twenty foot in height, spinning around the main ring at break-neck speeds. Willy watched as the centre clown vaulted upwards, abandoning his unicycle, which crashed to the ground with a metallic clatter. The clown spun upwards a few times then started to fall. From apparently nowhere, the other two clowns appeared underneath, the tumbling clown landing neatly on their shoulders. The crowd applauded appreciatively. On the ground, more clowns and acrobats were staging a series of stunts, vaulting over each other and starting to stack one performer on top of another. Finally, when two large pyramids, each of ten performers, had been created, the clowns collapsed the pyramids – the performers landing in a series of rehearsed rolls. A roar of a motorbike drew Willy's attention to the entrance to the left. A tiny motorbike, barely larger than a microwave, was being ridden towards him by a clown the size of the average Italian opera singer. Willy grinned at the sight and watched as the motorcyclist chased the other clowns around the ring. With the ring clear, the large clown performed a handstand on the tiny saddle and guided the bike out of the ring.
The spotlights shifted now to a single, thin pole stretching up to almost the top of the circus tent, set into the centre of the central ring without any real support. A skinny man backflipped towards the pole, flanked with a series of young women in costumes Willy felt sure his father didn't approve of. The skinny performer locked his legs around the pole and climbed quickly up it, causing feelings of vertigo in those members of the audience who feared heights. At the base of the pole, the women were still doing some kind of dance to distract the audience, but Willy's keen eye realised that every so often one of them would stop and check the security of the base of the pole before moving on without missing a beat in her dance. The skinny performer was still climbing and was now some ninety feet above the crowd and barely visible. Smiling, he started shaking the pole, spinning around it and causing the pole to sway violently from one side to the other. As the finale to his act, started swinging the pole in lower arcs, leaving the audience sure he was going to slip and send himself flying across all three rings of the circus. As expected at the very end of his act, the acrobat simply slid down the pole to a safe height and vaulted from it, landing in a bow to finish.
The ringmaster reappeared and bellowed into his microphone,
"That was Bello, on loan from the Nock circus of Switzerland! And now, ladies and gentlemen, if I could direct your attention to the tightrope above your heads, where we present Greta and Drusilla, the amazing funambulists!" The spotlights danced to a point high above the crowd where two young girls were already walking two tightropes while carrying long balancing poles. To the delight of the crowd, Drusilla threw her pole to the ground and started to perform carefully choreographed jumps and spins on the tightrope. Greta followed suit, both girls tumbling and jumping at amazing speeds to the heady beat of the dance music playing in the background. To a chorus of amazed sighs, the girls both jumped and landed on each other's tightropes. Swapping twice more, they bowed and paced on the ropes until two trapezes were lowered for them to latch onto. As the girls were lowered to the ring, the tightropes were cleared ready for the next act.
"And now, something to delight and amaze the child in us all!" announced the ringmaster. At his words, the music changed again and three pure white horses entered the ring, each being ridden by one of the "Fairy Ladies" Willy and Charlie had met earlier and each horse bearing a unicorn-style horn. The girls in the audience in particular sighed. The horses cantered once around the ring before separating and pacing sideways to the amusement of the crowd. The central horse, ridden by the blue fairy Elaina, reared up and pawed at the air with its hooves. As it lowered to the ground, Elaina stood on the saddle and gave a short curtsey to the audience before reaching for the reins and guiding her horse around the arena once more while still standing. Without warning, Elaina appeared to slip from the saddle and disappeared under her still racing steed. Almost as soon as she'd disappeared she'd completed the manoeuvre and was back in the saddle, having circled the neck of the horse. As she continued to perform such stunts in the centre, the pink and green costumed riders, both with identical brown hair and make-up, circled anti-clockwise and mirrored her movements perfectly, ensuring all members of the audience were treated to a view of the gymnastics they could perform. To finish, the three fairies pulled their horses together in the centre of the ring and reared them up, waving to the crowd.
"But I thought that fairies flew?" said the ringmaster from his spotlight. Three trapezes lowered and the women clambered aboard. As the trapezes raised again, black-clad helpers led the horses out of the circus ring and the music changed to a more sedate waltz music. As the women swung back and forth, occasionally dropping from one trapeze to the other and back again, Charlie leaned forward to where Willy was still leaning on the ringside and nudged Willy's arm.
"They're really good – Elaina is very pretty isn't she?" added Charlie with a grin.
"Yeah I suppose. They're all very good," replied Willy, distracted by the performance. He'd barely looked at the blonde-haired beauty Charlie was trying to get him interested in. Of far more interest to Willy were the pink and green-clad fairies, faces half-hidden by their make-up just as he had seen them earlier. Neither girl cold match Elaina for looks, both being rather plain, but he recognised that both of them were stronger than Elaina. She was the one who would drop from the trapeze, but they were the ones who could catch her and throw her as easily as if she were a rag doll. He tried not to be afraid of the muscles in their arms, realising he was a complete weed compared to these two women. It was these two who were turning the act into something well-worth watching, as opposed to the air-headed Elaina grinning inanely in the middle. Willy watched as the pink fairy swung out on her own, covering the length of the tent with each swing. Attention focused solely on her, Willy forgot about the other performers and even about where he was. All he could see was a fairy on a swing, smiling as she performed tricks, hanging alternately by her knees and her hands. Willy watched as she swung faster and faster, until finally she came to the highest point of her swing at the far end of the tent… and let go.
"No!" shouted Willy as the woman fell over twenty feet. He'd stood in shock and was almost over the barrier in front, mouth gaping at the horror of what he was watching. Then he registered that his father and Charlie were holding him back and that the pink fairy had been caught by the green fairy and was even now swinging back and fore above their heads. Heart hammering, Willy sat down and looked down at his lap. He held his forehead in his hands and tried to quell the torrent of tears that was threatening to fall. He could feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment. How could he have been so stupid.
In front of the Bucket family, the performance had drawn to a close.
"And now, for our final trick, we need a volunteer," announced Elaina into a microphone handed to her by a helper. She circled the ring, smiling enthusiastically at the audience. She stopped in front of Charlie, looking with some amusement at Willy who was still hiding his face. "How about you sir?" she asked, something cold entering her smile as her gaze fell on Willy. He raised his head and met her eyes, shaking his head vigorously. She rolled her eyes and pouted to the crowd, who laughed. Something inside Willy died as he looked around at the laughing faces and he felt his old friend nausea return. Elaina beckoned to a group of clowns who ran over and made a show of picking up Willy roughly and carrying him across the ring while restraining Dr Wonka and the Bucket family who were shouting in protest. Terrified, Willy froze as the clowns deposited him on a podium and stood rigid as Elaina approached him. "It's the famous Willy Wonka!" shouted Elaina to the crowd.
"Bitch," muttered Willy under his breath. He was aware of two people, one on either side of him. He glanced down to his right and saw pink taffeta.
"She is sometimes. Don't worry, you'll enjoy this," said a caring voice to his left. He regarded the green fairy, for it was she who spoke, with some ridicule.
"No I won't," he stated. As the green fairy kneeled to fit Willy with some kind of harness, he shrieked. "What are you doing now?"
"It's to stop you falling if anything goes wrong," explained the green fairy.
"Fall? Wrong?" spluttered Willy.
"Are you alright?" asked the pink fairy, concerned now that Willy had turned a ghostly white.
"I don't do heights and I don't do touching," said Willy, looking down at the green fairy. "I really can't stand it – could you please stop because it's not your fault but you are strangers to me and I can't do this…" he babbled.
"Man, if you really can't cope with this it's not too late to back out," said the green fairy, backing off before she'd finished securing the harness.
"Yes it is," hissed Elaina, reappearing. "Scat you two." Obediently, the green and pink fairies backed off slowly.
"Elaina the harness…" started the green fairy.
"Scram." Both the fairies darted off, but instead of going backstage they signalled to the helpers that they were going up on the trapeze as well and each perched bird-like on a swing as it was raised into the roof.
"For this next trick, Mr Wonka and I are going on a little trip right to the top of the tent," announced Elaina, clutching onto Willy's arm with a vice-like grip.
"Aha," spluttered Willy, looking up at the tent roof, a black haze somewhere above him. His face contorted as he replied, "Do we have to? The ground is so gosh-darn nice?" He heard a chuckle from the crowd and saw the microphone in front of him where Elaina had held it deliberately to catch his reaction for the crowd.
"Now isn't that so gosh-darn cute?" she mocked into the microphone. The audience roared with laughter and Elaina pecked Willy on the cheek.
"Yeargh…" said Willy, closing his eyes. This was a mistake, as he missed Elaina mounting a trapeze swing behind her and was only made aware of the change when she called into the microphone,
"Drumroll please…" Willy opened his eyes, realised he'd been released and was about to dart for freedom when two clowns picked him up and seated him on the swing next to Elaina. Somehow, the painted faces of the clowns didn't look so friendly this close up. Willy looked at Elaina.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Willy Wonka on a trapeze with me?" grinned Elaina as the swing started to rise. "I'll be famous – the press are over there – look!" She waved to a group of photographers and Willy saw the flash of several cameras being set off. "Just hold on – you'll be fine."
Willy had no choice but to hang on as the trapeze rose higher and higher above the ring. He wound his left arm around the rope behind him, his right hand coiled tightly around the thin wooden bar he was perched on. He tried to ignore the fact the harness was loose as asking Elaina for help in tightening it around his waist and trousers was less preferable to dying at this point in the proceedings. The temperature dropped as they were lifted high into the roof of the tent. Willy felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise up and looked down. To be truthful, heights didn't really worry him when he was high up somewhere safe, such as in his factory or elevator. The swing however, two pieces of rope and a wooden bar, together with its other passenger, was less than safe to his mind. He tried to remember a conversation with Mr Bucket about positive thinking. All he was actually positive of at the moment was the ninety foot of splat below him. At least I found an heir, thought Willy, not at all cheered at the thought.
"Now sit still Mr Wonka," instructed Elaina. "I've done this before you know." She reached down and prised his right hand off the wooden bar, guiding it to the rope behind her head. She leaned back into his arm. "Comfy?"
"Nu-uh."
"Oh well," she said. The trapeze lowered into the glare of a spotlight and the crowd "ahhed" at the sight of Elaina being 'hugged' by Willy. Grinning and waving, Elaina slipped backwards, catching the trapeze swing with her knees and waving upside-down at the audience. Willy jolted as the trapeze jumped with the force of Elaina's catch and nearly slipped off. He swallowed. This couldn't go on forever, he thought. He only had to hang on for another few minutes and it would all be over. Forcing himself to smile, trying to look as if he was enjoying this, trying to appear normal and not embarrass himself further, Willy wished he'd never agreed to come to the circus. Elaina spun back onto the trapeze and stood behind Willy, eliciting another round of applause. A drumroll sounded and Willy redoubled his grip on the trapeze, aware that something was about to happen. Two guide ropes had started swinging the trapeze from one side of the tent to the other, the cold air rustling Willy's hair as the tent blurred into a mess of colours below him. He sagged slightly on the trapeze, only vaguely aware that Elaina had stepped in front of him and was attempting to sit on his lap. He blinked and looked into her still-smiling face.
"You've been eating onions," mumbled Willy, catching a whiff of her breath. Elaina's smile faded and she pushed Willy roughly backwards to make room for her. She hugged around his chest as the crowd gave another roar of appreciation and Willy winced.
"What's the matter – never held a girl before?" Willy shook his head in reply, honesty seeming the only option here. "Do you prefer boys?" Willy's eyes opened in shock and his mouth gaped as he shook his head again. "Obviously not," drawled Elaina, forcing a kiss onto Willy's mouth. This was too much, regardless of how many people were watching and Willy reacted by trying to push her off him. This meant he'd removed his hands from the ropes and there was a sickening moment as gravity realised what was happening. As Willy pushed backwards on Elaina, she spun up one of the ropes and clung on for dear life. The reaction force sent Willy sliding backwards, the useless harness binding his legs together as he made a last-ditch attempt to grab the trapeze bar. He slipped further backwards, missed the bar with his flailing hands, and fell.
There are those who claim your life rushes before your eyes just before you die. This assumes of course that the brain has neatly stored your memories in a file ready to play during the last two seconds of life and requires a certain amount of precognition. In fact, all Willy saw as he fell was a series of images from the circus ring. The horrified look on Elaina's face. He heard a gasp from the crowd. His hand flashed in front of his face and an insane voice in his head commented that he might never see it again. He caught a glimpse of someone who looked like his father crying, but that couldn't possibly be real because he knew that Dr Wonka didn't cry. Someone was screaming – it might have been Willy himself. What an odd thing to waste breath on at a time like this, thought the little voice. And ever present was the background of golden sand which was steadily and rapidly coming closer.
"Oh well," said Willy, finding his voice and closing his eyes. He felt a thump and was overwhelmed by the smell of violets. Something solid was pressing into his front and there was a pain running through his side. So this is what death is like – I didn't think it would be violet-scented and soft to the touch, thought Willy. Hold on…
"Got you," panted a female voice. Willy opened his eyes and realised the world had turned pink. With hints of flesh-tone lycra. He looked down and although the ground was certainly closer than it had been a few moments earlier, it had a comforting far away look about it. He looked back at his rescuer.
"Hey Pink Fairy Lady, how's it hanging?" he asked, clinging onto what he hoped was her shoulder, vaguely aware that his legs were still dangling from the trapeze.
"Fine. I caught you – we're landing now," she strained. Willy glanced around and noticed the pain in his side was being caused by the woman's left hand digging into his ribs, her right arm at an awkward angle holding onto the trapeze behind her. His arms were wrapped around her shoulders and he was almost cradled in her lap. "Gods, you're heavier than you look."
"Should I go on a diet?"
"No, just bow and we'll be out of here. I'm so sorry – Elaina's never been one for listening." Willy felt the ground hit his feet and tried to stand, the harness wrapped around his legs and his general nervousness not helping. His rescuer wrapped an arm around his waist and looked up at him. "I know you don't like this, but you'll save face if we bow together." Willy nodded and they took their bows, the lights cutting out immediately to rapturous applause and hoots of delight from the audience. Helpers dressed in black rushed forward and picked Willy up, carrying him far more gently than earlier into the backstage area where a large woman armed with scissors set about freeing him from the harness. Behind them, the clowns performed their final act of the evening to round up the performance. The green and pink fairy ladies entered and Willy grinned.
"Thanks," he muttered.
"No, I'm sorry – we never should have sent you up there like that," said the green fairy. "It was my fault – I didn't secure the harness."
"I should have stopped her," said the pink fairy. Willy noticed a raised bruise above her eye.
"What happened?" he asked, pointing to the goose egg that was turning a dark purple.
"Oh, you did as I caught you," she laughed. "Your elbow I think." She sat down next to Willy, who shifted automatically away from her. "Not touching, see?" she smiled, raising both hands to show him. Willy nodded and lay back against the cushions behind him, sighing as he felt his back start to relax.
"I never should have left the factory," stated Willy, eyes closing as the events of the evening finally started to overwhelm him.
"Who are you here with tonight?"
"What's your name?" asked Willy, suddenly sitting upright.
"Rosanna. Rosanna Derby." She knew better than to offer her hand, so smiled instead. Willy returned the smile.
"Thanks for saving my life Ms Derby. I came here with my father, my heir and his family. They were sitting next to me."
"I'll try to find them," answered Rosanna, touching his shoulder lightly with her hand as she stood up. Withdrawing it quickly, she mouthed "sorry!" as she dashed out of the tent as the clowns finished off their closing act. Willy swung his legs around and stood up, looking around the dressing room he'd been deposited in. Apart from the scissors-woman, who was in the process of mending a costume, he was quite alone and took the opportunity to look around. The smell of grease-paint and discarded costumes filled the red-draped room around him and the bright lights from around the dressing tables had raised the temperature to an uncomfortable level. Willy sat at one of the tables and checked his appearance. His hair was ruffled up, but otherwise he looked none the worse for his ordeal. Smoothing his hair down, he wondered if Charlie or his father would have been able to pick up his hat and cane. He hoped so – a new cane would mean a trip into town tomorrow and he wasn't sure that was a good idea. In fact he wasn't sure that he was ever leaving the factory again, ever. Not even if the factory closed and he ran out of food. He'd starve first.
"Willy!" said a gruff voice from behind him. Willy stood and turned to see his father marching towards him from the ring-side entrance. The old man had obviously been crying at some point and Willy wondered why. He held out a hand to his father which was ignored as Dr Wonka pulled his son into a tight hug that Willy returned after a few moments, shocked to find his father was shaking. He peered around his father and saw that Charlie and Rosanna were walking in together.
"It was an accident – he should never have fallen, I don't know what Elaina was playing at," Rosanna was saying. Willy felt his Dr Wonka release him and watched as the towering dentist bore down on Rosanna.
"Of course accidents like this are going to happen if you insist on forcing members of the public into your shows!" snarled Dr Wonka. Rosanna looked like she might argue, but instead dropped her eyes to the floor.
"I'm sorry sir."
"Dad she did save me," said Willy.
"She wouldn't have had to if that friend of hers hadn't picked you out. You could have been killed."
"I'm sorry," said Rosanna again, starting to cry.
"But I wasn't killed, Dad, and it's thanks to her I'm still alive. If you want to be angry at anyone, be angry at me for not stopping them."
"You weren't capable of stopping them," snapped Dr Wonka. There was an uncomfortable silence, broken only when the ringmaster and Elaina walked in.
"I'm so sorry Mr Wonka!" cried Elaina, tottering over to Willy and wrapping her arms around him. Willy struggled and looked at Charlie and Rosanna for help.
"Get your hands off him girl!" shouted Dr Wonka. Not even a fool would argue at this point, so Elaina let go of Willy and backed off. Willy staggered back a little and looked sadly at Rosanna, whose head was bowed. He felt sorry that she'd been shouted at – after all, her and her green friend had tried to help him. And now his father was angry again.
"Please do not shout at my daughter sir," said the ringmaster.
"I will shout at any hussy who dares to harm my son!"
"It was an accident anyway," snapped back Elaina.
"Why him?" demanded Dr Wonka.
"Because…" faltered Elaina.
"Because he was there and he was famous – admit it Elaina," said Rosanna.
"Dr Wonka…" said Charlie, tugging at the dentist's sleeve.
"Shut your mouth Rosanna!" shrieked Elaina.
"You're lucky he's not the type to sue," said Dr Wonka.
"On what grounds?" scoffed Elaina, folding her arms. "He chose to come here and take part."
"And you failed to ensure his safety," finished Dr Wonka.
"No – she did!" said Elaina, pointing at the green fairy, who burst out crying and left.
"Dr Wonka!" insisted Charlie.
"Yes, boy, what is it?" blustered Dr Wonka, not taking his eyes off Elaina other than to shoot the ringmaster a murderous look.
"Willy's gone," said Charlie. They looked around and sure, enough, Willy had left the building.
