Chapter 2: Life at the Caravan.

"Follow me to our workstation" said Spire. I followed to him to the front part of the Circus car, (caravan) to find only four reins and a view of 2 horses on the road. " Aye, it used to be just me working the horses but now I've got a partner." Spire said joyfully. I think he expected a remark out of me but I was silent. " I guess it really cuts the work in two, huh." Once again, I was silent. I was always silent. I think the reason I was like this is because I was in a sort of shock. He would talk but I would only listen.

We maintained the gentle speed that helped keep the horses calm. Nothing ever happened until the tenth day of work.

The horses were at their normal calm speed when suddenly, a man in plain sight threw a medium-sized rock across the front of the caravan. The horses automatically took off running but me and Spire pulled on the reins and managed to stop the horses. Spire exclaimed, "Wow, that was quite a shock, wasn't it." "Yeah" I muttered. I saw Spire smile. Well, I've already spoken; why not speak some more I thought. "Did you see that guy." I asked him. "No, what guy" He said with a strange look on his face. "Never mind" I replied.

This was my schedule. At 10:00, Strollheim woke me up, if I had not already woken up. At 11:00 we had stolen food for Breakfast, which was our only meal of the day. Strollheim thought it was important, so I was forced to agree. From 11:30 to 8:30, Spire and I worked. I was free to stay up as late as I wanted to but I usually went to sleep by midnight.

For some reason they trusted me not to run away. I almost did once but I thought, how am I going to survive. Yeah, like my mom's survival skills are really going to be of help to me. I mean, what would be better than this if I ran away? What would I get? I have no money. Do I expect some old lady who wants to adopt a kid to find me? What would happen when she died? Besides, like that's really going to happen. So I decided to stay. Strollheim, in a way, was like my totally deranged new dad.

I usually got up by 9:30, so Strollheim never had to wake me up. But, one night I had to work an extra hour, but I guess Strollheim never expected me to sleep an extra hour. Well, I did. Since he thought I would wake up by ten, he slept in. By the time I woke up, it was 10:30. I got in big trouble for that. He took his big hand and slapped me on the back as hard as he could. I didn't really feel it much. I used to be weak. How could I take the hit of a big muscle man slapping me on the back? What was happening to me?

As the weeks passed, I got to know Spire. I told my life story up until now. He told me part of his life. He used to be one of those circus people who trained lions and stuck their head into the lion's mouth. One day, the lion broke loose and killed some people in the audience. The ringmaster fired him. Strollheim, Bandit, and Strollheim's brother Rickshaw were there that day. They saw that he was out of a job. They hired him, then stole one of the circus cars. Spire said his name was Henry, but Strollheim said that just wouldn't do. Here, you couldn't have a normal name like Henry. They named him Lion. One day while hunting for food, a lion killed Rickshaw. Strollheim than changed his name to Spire. I asked Spire " Did you ever figure out why he picked that name." Spire replied. " no, and I probably never will."

Believe it or not, I stayed with these guys for 4 years and I was about to get a Birthday Present I would always regret.