During the day, Sandy, Paige, and Rosie continued to walk and encountered the area where the roustabouts were taking their break from setting up the tents. Timothy sat on Sandy's shoulder and Dumbo followed her and the girls. Many of the workers greeted Sandy and her friends. One African American man in his twenties, wearing a white shirt, a green scarf, brown suspenders, and brown shoes looked up and tipped his beret to her and her friends.
"Good day, Ms. Williams, Ms. Larkin, and Ms. Griffin," he said.
"Hello Roy," the blonde said, and her friends greeted him.
Roy Dawson was hired three months ago and Sandy treated him as an equal along with Rosie. Though he was hardworking, he dreamed about helping more around animals, including training horses. Dumbo came up to him to sniff him.
"So Roy, how do you like the summer tour so far?" Paige asked.
"It's fine Ms. Larkin," the dark-haired man said, stroking Dumbo's head. "I sure love to visit NYC, always wanted to see Grand Central Park and the Empire State Building. It would be like seeing the top of the world." Roy looked up to Rosie, and noticed how beautiful she was, and gave a shy smile. Rosie noticed him looking at him, and returned a shy smile.
"How are you Roy?" the woman asked.
Roy completely blushed, not knowing what to say to her. "Uh… well…. Fine, Rosie… just fine."
"I see," she giggled and smirked.
Sandy and Paige could sense the two of them having feelings for each other, but Rosie always insisted she and Roy were only friends. They bid goodbye to Roy and they walked away to continue their exploration, with Dumbo catching up to them.
"Boy Rosie," Timothy said. "It looked like Roy was looking at you differently unlike he has with the other goyles."
"Oh Timothy," Rosie said, blushing taking Timothy into her hands. "There's nothing between me and Roy, ever since we met, we were only friends."
"Okay," Timothy added along with a smirk.
"Hey Sis! Hey Paige and Rosie!" a voice called back.
The girls turned back to see James and Robert catching up to them. Sandy smiled to see her brothers and they pull her into a hug. Sandy noticed Robert looking over at Paige and gave her a smile. Paige flinched back and hid behind Rosie. The brunette blushed fiercely as the boy's attention was turned to her.
"Oh Paige," Rosie said. "Do you have a crush on Robert?"
"Well…." The brunette stammered. "Probably."
"Probably?" the dark-haired woman asked skeptically with a smirk.
Dumbo came up to the girls and pulled on Paige's skirt. The brunette knelt down and stroked Dumbo's head, giving a warm smile to the calf. Then a hand covered her own. Paige looked up to see the blonde boy kneeling to her and gave a smile. She flinch back in surprise and her cheeks heated up with a red touch.
Sandy, Rosie, and James giggled at the moment, while Robert gave them a glare.
"So boys," said Rosie. "What's up?"
"We came here, because Uncle Harold has a big announcement to make, and we wanted to let you know, so we can all hear it together," James said.
"I see," said Paige.
"I wonder who'll join the circus this year?" asked Sandy.
"Will they be nice people?" asked Dumbo.
"I'm sure they will be bud," Timothy said.
"Well, the announcement's in ten minutes, I think we'll be early in five minutes," Robert added.
"Well then, let's roll," said Rosie.
The group headed over towards the center of the circus, and joined along with Roy, the janitor Joe and clown, Ben. The circus continued to grow since Dumbo's fame and hired more performers, animals, clowns, and workers.
They looked up to see the Ringmaster standing up on the podium, and the circus performers, clowns, and employees gathered around to listen. In the crowd, were two adults dressed as fortune tellers, they happened to be Paige's parents, Joshua and Esther. Joshua was tall with fair skin, auburn hair with a mustache and beard, and blue eyes, and wore a white headdress on his head. He was dressed a green blouse, a brown belt, dark brown pants, black boots, a black coat with a blue gem.
Paige's mother, Esther was a splitting image of her daughter. She wore a strapless purple dress with blue trimming, and a white blouse, an orange cape, golden jewelry of earrings, bracelets, rings, and golden headband with sapphires and rubies.
The animals stood by to listen to the announcement, and kept their distant away so they wouldn't be chased off.
Standing near the Ringmaster was an unfamiliar woman with her brunette hair styled in a low bun, tan skin, green eyes, and red lips. She wore an orange blouse, a dark-pale green skirt, and matching boots. She had her hands in front of her folded.
"Everyone, thank you for gathering here. For I have some new announcements to make. We have new members joining our circus," He pulled the woman up to the podium. "First, I want you to meet Martha Baker, she's our new nurse."
Martha gave a nod and a shy smile.
"Thank you Mr. Williams," she said. "I'm very glad to be a part of the business and keep everything in order."
"Now for the next announcement," continued the Ringmaster. "There's the Lakotos family. The parents, Ambrus and Elsa are from Budapest, Hungary. Their four children: Viktor, Josephine, Hans, and Anyu are part of a knife-throwing act, they've been performing it since Vaudeville. I've seen their part, and I believe that it's looks so extraordinary."
Two adults, one man and a woman, assumed to be the parents of the siblings climbed up to the podium. Elsa wore a dark blue dress with her auburn hair curled up, and her husband, Ambrus was tall with dark hair, tan skin, and hazel eyes. He was dressed in a green shirt, a brown vest, dark pants, and brown shoes. He smiled and took his wife's hand.
"Thank you very much Mr. Williams," Ambrus said, his Hungarian accent was thick, but had perfected his English along with his wife. He turned to the crowd. "Elsa and I are very happy to be apart of this business, this knife-throwing has been passed down in our family for many generations. I like to have our children be introduced when the show starts, and you'll see how well they do."
"Igen," Elsa agreed. "They prefer to make an introduction on their act, and after that, they'll greet the performers and everyone. They will be willing to meet all of you."
"Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Lakatos," said Harold. He turned back to the crowd. "Our show will start in a few hours, so we all must get ready."
Sandy looked at her friends and brothers, and they all smiled in interest. Dumbo and Timothy grinned, and indeed were very interested in the act of the Lakatos siblings. The crowd went their ways and headed back to their chores and get ready for training.
Dumbo however, didn't quite understand how a family throwing knives would make a show spectacular. Timothy slid down his trunk and landed near his foot.
"Boy, the Lakatos family must be somethin'."
Dumbo looked at the mouse, confused. "What do you mean by 'something' Timothy?
"He means they must be spectacular at what they do if Uncle Harold thinks they're worth performing here at the circus. Sort of like you, Dumbo," Sandy said smiling.
"Like me?"
"Of course, sweetie," said Mrs. Jumbo, smiling. "Ever since you discovered you can fly, you haven't just been another attraction for people to marvel at; you've become someone people are inspired by. By using what's made you distinctive to help you make yourself special to others, you've inspired others to use what makes them different to help them define themselves in the world. The Lakatos family seems to want to do just that by joining the circus to show their knife-throwing talents."
"After all, everyone is special in their own way," said James.
"Speaking of special, it's time for all of us to ready," added Rosie.
The group agreed and went their separate ways, feeling more excited than ever in their lives.
