Chapter 4: Again!
"You stumble through your days," Clark sang. "Got your head hung low. Your sky's a shade of gray. Like a zombie in a maze. You're asleep inside but you can shake awake. Cause you're just a dead man walkin'. Thinkin' that's your only option."
"Two please," a man said to O'Malley.
"But you can flip the switch and brighten up your darkest day," Clark sang. "Sun is up and the color's blindin'. Take a world and redefine it. Leave behind your narrow mind. You'll never be the same. Come alive. Come alive. Go and light your light. Let it burn so bright. Reach it up to the sky and it's open wide you're electrified. And the world becomes a fantasy and you're more than you could ever be. Cause you're dreamin' with your eyes wide open. And you know we can't go back to the world we were livin' in. Cause you're dreamin' with your eyes wide open. So come alive." Then about half of the circus troop went into the ring when the "Irish Giant" stumbled out from backstage. Wally was among them as the "Dog Boy". Clark turned to Shayera.
"Shayera, Shayera," Clark whispered.
"What?" Shayera responded.
"Didn't we just do this?" Clark questioned.
"Yes we did," Shayera said.
"Then why are we doing it again?" Clark said. Shayera shrugged her shoulders. "Well, get out there I'll help John up." She went out onto the stage and he went over to John, picked him up, and put him on the horse. He then sang, "I see it in your eyes. You believe that lie that you need to hide your face. Afraid to step outside. So you lock the door but don't you stay that way." He slapped the horse's rear-end.
"No more livin' in no shadows. You and me we know how that goes," Shayera sang.
"Cause once you see it, oh, you'll never ever be the same," the fat man sang.
"Little bit of lighting strikin', bottled up and keep on shinnin'," Shayera and the fat man sang. "You can prove there's more to you."
"You can not be afraid," Clark sang. The rest of troop and Clark then came onto the stage.
"Come alive, come alive," they all sang. "Go and light your light. Let it burn so bright. Reach it up to the sky and it's open wide you're electrified. And the world becomes a fantasy, and you're more than you could ever be. Cause you're dreamin' with your eyes wide open. And you know we can't go back again to the world that we were livin' in. Cause we're dreamin' with our eyes wide open. So come alive." They posed as the audience clapped and cheered.
Clark was at his desk again and O'Malley threw a newspaper onto his desk.
"This is bad," O'Malley said. Clark scanned it.
"Scandal, offensive, circus?" Clark said. "I've already read this." He then heard shouting coming from outside. He went to investigate and saw Wally, Shayera, and the fat guy in a fight with some sketchy looking men.
"Hey! That's enough!" Clark said. Wally was holding a metal bar over his head and was about to hit one of the men with it."Wally!" He stopped. "Get inside each of you!" The circus people stopped and went inside. Wally stopped in front of Clark.
"I know where we are," Wally told him. "We're in a movie called The Greatest Showman. And I know because I've seen this movie before. And I think I know why we're doing this again."
"Why..." Clark began.
"Because you weren't suppose to go into the theater," Wally responded. "You were suppose to talk to Phillip Carlyle."
"Who...oh! Was he the guy that I saw leaning against the railing?" Clark asked. Wally nodded.
"Yeah, although, I'm POSITIVE that he's Bruce instead of the actual Phillip Carlyle," Wally responded. "Since Bruce hasn't appeared yet."
"Okay," Clark said. "Thanks."
"Sure," Wally replied. He went inside and the others followed.
"We don't want your kind," one said. Another spat at them.
"That's right freaks, your master's callin'," another said.
"Sir, that's quite enough," Clark responded. The man chuckled as he and his friends left.
"Nothing to see here," one of them said. Clark turned to O'Malley.
"Have the following printed in every newspaper," Clark told O'Malley. "Half price tickets to anyone who brings it." He made a puzzled face.
'Wait, how did we get trapped in a movie?' Clark thought.
He found himself in the backstage area of the stage and he saw that a performance was going on.
"Come one, come all, come in, come on," all the performers sang.
"To anyone who's bursting with a dream," Diana sang.
"Come in, come on, you hear the call," the performers sang. Clark put on his 'prince of humbug' top hat before entering the ring.
"To anyone who's searchin' for a way to break free!" Clark sang.
"Break free! Break free!" the other performers sang.
"And the world becomes a fantasy and you're more than you could ever because you're dreamin' with your eyes wide open," they all sang. "And we know we can't go back again to the world that we were livin' in cause we're dreamin' with our eyes wide open. Cause we're dreamin' with our eyes wide open. So come alive!" They posed and Clark saw the audience clapping and cheering in slow-motion before it resumed normal speed.
He was coming out of his building and seeing how sales were going. He then saw that O'Malley was trying to snag someone's watch.
"O'Malley," Clark said. He then saw a reporterman. "Hi again."
"Mr. Barnum, does it bother you that everything you're selling is fake?" Mr. Bennett asked.
"Um, look sir we're already been over this," Clark said. "So I'm not answering that."
"So you're a philanthropist?" Bennett said.
"Oh right," Clark responded. "We're redoing this scene so he's going to say the same things."
"The creed of a true fraud," Mr. Bennett stated.
"Well, goodbye Mr. Bennett," Clark said. "Have a nice day." He then began to walk away. "Oh, by the way, thanks for giving me the title of my show." He left and the sign now said Barnum's Circus.
He found himself with Charity and the girls. Charity was blindfolded and they were in front of that house again.
"Okay just a little farther," Clark said.
"Don't you think I have enough blind trust in my life?" Charity responded.
"Well then," Clark said. He then took off the blindfold. "Here we are." Charity's eyes widen and her face lit up.
"Is it?" Charity asked.
"It is," Clark responded.
They entered the house. It was amazingly clean and beautiful. He then noticed a doll house and saw a small shoe box on a side table.
"Oh Helen," he said. He pointed to the doll house. "That is for you." Helen excitedly went over to it. Clark grabbed the shoe box from the table. "And Caroline, these are for you." He handed it to her and she opened. She found ballet slippers and she hugged him. "There's a ballet school nearby." Caroline let go and went to another area to put on her new shoes.
"Don't tell me you bought this house just to rub my parents' noses in your success?" Charity said.
"Well no," Clark responded. "This is the life you were promised." He took her hand and put his hand on her hip. They rocked side to side.
"Phin," she said.
"Yes?" he responded.
"Phin, this is wonderful but we don't need all this to be happy," Charity said. "Oh!" He lifted her in the air and spun her around before putting her back down on the ground.
"Well welcome home," Clark said. "Hope you enjoyed doing this scene again."
He was now in a lobby of some sort at a theater of some kind. He was with Charity and Helen when he noticed a man across the room in a suit that looked almost exactly like Bruce. The man turned, looked at Clark square in the eye, and glared at him. Yep, DEFINATLY Bruce.
"Charity who is that?" he asked as he pointed to him.
"Oh that's Phillip Carlyle," Charity answered. "A bit of a scandal they say. His last play was a hit in London."
"Okay," Clark said. Charity nodded.
"Oh, what's that smell?" one of the ballerinas said. Clark shifted his attention to them. "Yeah something does smell. Oh I know what it is. Peanuts." They all laughed except Caroline who had heard everything they had said.
"I can see it now," Clark said as they walked to their carriage. "Best and youngest ballerina in the history of the city ballet."
"I'm quitting," Caroline informed him.
"What?" Clark questioned.
"I'm quitting," Caroline repeated. "I started too late. I'll never catch up."
"What, Caroline you were the best dancer on that stage," Clark said. She gave him the "are you being serious" look. "What you don't think I know talent when I see it?"
"Ballet takes years of hard," Caroline responded. "It's not the like the circus. You can't just fake it."
"She can't quit," Clark told Charity. He was in his and Charity's bedroom. "She just feels out of place with the other girls."
"Well I should hope so," Charity responded. "I've never seen so many little prima donnas in all my life."
"Well right now they mean the world to her," Clark said.
"She'll learn to ignore them," Charity stated. "Just as I did."
"She shouldn't have to," Clark said.
"Oh, so this is different from everything else then?" Charity responded.
"I just want her to be proud of who she is and who her family is," Clark said.
"She is proud," Charity said. "We don't have to be the Carlyles."
Clark found himself in front of a theater and he saw a man leaning against the stairwell's railing. This time Clark went up to him and saw that it was the man that he had seen earlier at the theater. "Bruce is that you?" Clark asked. The man looked up. "Yep, it's me Kent," Bruce said. "So you been enjoying yourself?" "Yes you?" Clark asked. Bruce gave him a "you're joking" look. "No, I haven't," Bruce responded. "But thanks for asking." "So how about we discus this somewhere else?" Clark asked.
Now they were in a bar sitting at the main table on table top stolls.
Next up "The Other Side".