Circus Angelicus
"What do you think Tommy? The red one or the blue one?"
Tommy pursed his lips at that. This was a big decision. Maybe the biggest, most important decision of his entire life. Bigger than deciding that it was time to begin crawling, bigger than choosing yummy carrots over icky broccoli, bigger than holding in a poopie while getting his diapee changed so he didn't get stinkies all over the table! The most important choice of his entire life!
"Ah!" he declared, pointing at the large blue sucker.
"Good choice," Stu said, taking out his wallet and paying for the candy.
"Sure you'd rather have the gummy bears?" Drew asked Angelica.
"Yes daddy," she said with a smile. "Then I can seal'em up if I need to clap and not get'em dirty like a sucker."
"Alright," Drew said, patting her on the head and buy the large bag of gummy bears. "And what do you think, sucker for Chuckie?"
"Red one," Stu said.
Chas had considered taking Chuckie to the circus but talking it over with Chuckie's psychiatrist it had been decided that due to his fear of clowns the circus would be far too intense for the two year old. So Chuckie and Chas had decided to go to the petting zoo across town, where Chas could better control the interactions the boy had with the baby animals, while Tommy and Angelica got to go to the circus.
And it turned out to be a massive success. They'd toured the fair grounds and seen some of the animals and Tommy had been utterly delighted and Angelica had forgotten all about demanding a thousand different things just to stare at the pretty ladies who would be doing horseback riding tricks in the big top tent.
Of course Tommy did wish Chuckie were there so they could go exploring and play with the aminals but even Chuckie himself had admitted that he didn't like going to where the clowns lived.
"You sure that one will be okay?" Stu asked as Drew got a red sucker that looked like a clown for Chuckie. "Might freak him out."
"Chas and the doctor talked about it and thought this would be a good way for Chuckie to deal with his fears. Show him things that look like clowns but aren't… suckers, maybe graduate to picture books, so on. Then have Chas and him, when Chuckie's a bit older, do some playtime with face makeup. Slow and steady, you know. Worst case we just break it into pieces."
"Good idea… I tried to get Didi to come but she hates clowns too so that was a no go. Would have complained the entire time anyway-shoot, the show's about to start!"
The two brothers raced to get their seats and Angelica and Tommy watched, eyes wide and jaws open, as the circus began.
And across town Chuckie giggled happily as a baby sheep nuzzled him and let him stroke her fur.