Disclaimer: I'm yet to be 18. In my country it technically means I can't own anything. Everything is owned by my parents. Yes, even "The Fridge". But not One Piece, that's owned by Oda-sensei.
Oneshot 6
Circus
Isabella put the final touch of makeup on her bright red nose and smiled at her reflection, the skin around her eyes wrinkling and indicating a life full of smiling.
The old woman's white hair were in a neat bun, her rainbow afro wig was right next to the mirror and she had already put on her colourful purple and yellow costume before even starting with the makeup. Altogether, the old woman was perfectly ready for her performance.
Last performance, she reminded herself.
Not that the performer really needed a reminder- she had known that this was going to be her last performance since the day six months ago when her eldest son Richard had informed her of the soon coming birth of his first grandchild.
There was a reason why the birth of her first grand-grand child would mark the finish of her long career as a circus artist.
The acrobat's youngest son Henry had somehow got the idea that at the healthy age of sixty four it was "dangerous" and "embarrassing" to work as an acrobat and a clown, while her other five children had agreed with him after some discussion. Not that they knew that she knew about them discussing her. Honestly, their opinion of her was disappointingly low. Did they think she didn't spy on them?
The old woman snorted in a rather undignified way. She wasn't senile and wasn't about to become fruity, loony or whatever word they chose to describe her supposed mental state.
The old acrobat snorted again. Isabella had worked at the circus since the age of 18 when the performer ran away from home because of an unwanted fiance, she had been shot out of more than twenty different canons and had squeezed out and raised six children, not to mention the fact that the stubborn woman had outlived her four years older husband, a fellow circus artist, who had died six years ago.
She knew bloody well what was the best for her, and if being shot out of canons was what she wanted, then it was the best she could do.
Still, it seemed that her daily adventure of 46 years was coming to an end. She had promised that she would leave the circus a month before planned date of her first grand-grandchild's birth, and she kept her promises. Because keeping promises was something that was even more important than an old woman's hobby.
So today was her last performance...
All the preparations were ready.
The circus director had been informed of her decision the moment she had made her promise to her children.
In her long career Isabella had trained more than thirty new clowns and the last one she had trained, her nineteen year old granddaughter Maria, had made a contract with the circus, so the circus wouldn't really miss her.
Not to mention the fact that there were quite a few clowns working at the circus and the lack of one old clown wouldn't really be noticed, even if the clown was the eldest clown in the circus and had been a selling point as one of those crazy persons who let themselves be shot out of canons.
It probably was the reason why today she had decided to get ready by herself, like at the old times. When she had just joined the circus and there were only three clowns, like when she met her husband for the first time... and in an embarrassing way stumbled into lion manure...
The old woman chuckled in a lot more dignified way when compared to her snorts before. Somehow, the time took away all the embarrassment and hard feelings of the past (well, she still felt embarrassed about her first meeting with Sebastian's parents. How was she supposed to know that the oven was going to explode?) and left her feeling nostalgic.
Her husband had been an beast master's apprentice at the time, and boy! had he been handsome.
Isabella sighted wistfully.
The acrobat had been lucky- her and her husband's marriage hadn't been ruined by time like most of marriages are. They had had quite a few arguments and a fair share of troubles, but they had dealt with it together and, most importantly, without any lasting bitterness.
Yes, there were things they had argued about even on the day of his death, but it was more like a friendly banter and, if Isabella was honest about it...
She missed her husband.
And leaving the circus was like leaving the last thing that connected them.
A knock on her trailers door distracted her from her thoughts.
"Come in!" the performer answered the knock.
The doors were opened slightly and her granddaughter peeked in.
"We begin in ten minutes. Are you ready?" Maria asked with a slight frown. The young girl hadn't supported Isabella's leaving of the circus.
"Of course I'm ready, dear. Let's go, shan't we?" Isabella got out of the room and took one last look around it.
It was her last time exiting it before a performance.
She closed the doors with a quiet click.
Isabella held still as Polly the parrot tumbled around the cannon's fuse.
At least I'll end my career with a bang the old performer thought dryly.
The director had decided that the beginning of her retirement was the best time to use a long forgotten trick.
Except it wasn't really a long forgotten one, more like a trick not used because it wasn't exactly safe. And because some people did think a bit more.
The trick wasn't downright dangerous, but in the "Old Times" (to be precise, in 1952, 12 September) because of a single mistake (the parrot had shifted the cannon's angle by about an inch) Isabella had gotten a concussion and been lucky to not break any bones, so it was understandable that the performer hadn't exactly encouraged including the trick in her repertoire.
The artist scoffed. She didn't like the idea of leaving her life in the hands of a parrot.
Or more like in the beak of a parrot as it didn't have any hands and used his beak to light the match. Still, it wasn't something she wanted to trust.
A noise confirmed that Polly had finally lighted the match and the light crackling indicated that the fuse was burning.
Isabella prepared for the impact.
For a moment world stood still, and then, with a loud bang, she shot out of the cannon.
The thrill was amazing, and she smiled at the wind as she flew trough the air.
Afterwards, she swore she just blinked- she just blinked. Closed her eyes for a second.
And the moment she opened her eyes, she wasn't flying trough the circus tent, with it's lights and colorful banners. Nope, she was flying trough the air under the bright blue sky.
Of course, she was surprised. People tend to be surprised in cases of sudden changes in their surroundings.
But it didn't mean she panicked. No, any wrong movement while flying trough air could mean a crash, so she quickly assessed her situation.
The old acrobat was flying trough the air very fast- like before- and if no immediate precautions were done by her, would crash in a house.
Isabella held out her arms in front of her, closed her eyes and prepared for the impact.
To her surprise, it didn't come.
The female clown opened her eyes, and, to her surprise, found a strange young boy holding her... while standing more than five meters away.
AN
Well, this came out later than I thought.
I blame the lateness of this chapter on lack of computer time due to too many relatives, Pokemon and My Little Pony. And my laziness.
I almost continued with the bathroom theme, but then decided that I didn't really want a naked girl be flushed down her bath's drain and fall on Brook while he was singing Binks Sake on his ship. Surrounded by corpses and feeling melancholic...
This idea was the first one my little brother gave me. I asked him a good way to go to another world and he suggested a cannon. My mind worked it's magic and- voila- this is what came out.
Thank you for reading! It makes my day. :)
Reviews and favouriting, and alerting and all that jig are appreciated. And if I make mistakes, point them out. Please, I beg of you!
Also, thank Starbell Fairy for alerting.
02/09/12 about 19:00
Next time: Lost. This surpasses even Zoro's direction sense.
On a side note, remember last chapter? The guy who was stuck in Usopp's body? Well, he was lucky. I almost made him become a girl and wake up by Sanji doing CPR. And in my minds version, they later would meet His body with Usopp in it.
Your limbs aren't animal limbs! I don't approve of that!