A small cluster of people over to your right catch your eye. They are stood in a tight group all looking upward, but at what you can't tell from this distance. You take a last glance the way you would have gone before hurrying over to see what they are looking at. Weaving your way between the other patrons is quite easy; the problem comes when you have to push your way through the throng of people stood in the group. On expertly passing to the front of the cluster you realise they were looking at a statue…
It's just a statue. Granted it's a beautiful statue, like everything else in the circus, the carved man and woman who stand on the pedestal are dressed in black and white. But then, wait, are they moving?
Yes, yes they are, the statues are alive! You can't quite believe it. You blink twice and look again. Yes, the man's hand has moved just millimetres towards his companion's face. But it has moved. You are sure of that. A glance at the woman reveals that she too has moved millimetres closer to him, the gentle shift of material in her white dress tells you that. The dress in question is very beautiful, like an elegant ball gown.
You wonder whether they are alive or just automatons. A voice beside you answers, "Wonderful actors aren't they?" a man's voice says.
You turn to look at the man who has spoken. He stands watching the statues with a faint smile on his face. "Still the same actors doing it now as when I was a boy." He must be about fifty you guess, from the greying hair and wrinkled face. "The names Victor," he says, thrusting a hand towards you.
Politely you take it and reply with you own name, then you look back to the wonderful actors above you, "I always liked this pair, what do you think? Does he deserve her?" he asks.
You look back to him, surprised. "There's a story behind each of the statues, and the tents, but that's a much longer story, best told by Mister Murray, not me." He explains, "The story between these two is that the boy wants to show how true his love is. He immortalised his love by stopping time, so that it wouldn't destroy the beauty of his fiancé and his love. So people always ask whether that was enough to show he deserved her love in return."
You can't help but glance at the couple on the pedestal, their arms closer to entwined now, but still not quite there. "Well, I mustn't keep you," Victor says with a smile, "I have to get back to the others now, my sister will be complaining if I'm late again." He nods his head and disappears into the crowd once more, you realise after a moment that he must have been a rêveur, due to the red scarf he was wearing.
With a last look back at the two lovers on their stand, you yourself melt back into the crowds.d of people over to your right catch your eye.