Circus Summer (Circus of Curiosities Book 1) (5 page)

            Occasionally, a visitor to the town assumes that because I work in a place with a bar, I must be over eighteen. Even more occasionally, they assume it means that I’ll want to meet with them after work. I always put them straight. I can handle it.

            “No,” I say. “It’s fine.”

            To emphasize that, I start to take their meals out to them. I’ve just put their leader’s clam chowder down when he lightly touches my arm.

            “Thank you,” he says. “I’m Dex Hightower, the ringmaster of our circus. You’re interested in the Circus of Curiosities, aren’t you, Leela?”

            I look down, because suddenly all the eyes around the table are on me. “Yes,” I admit. “I’m interested in the circus.”

            He passes me a card. It’s bare except for an image of a fluttering flag inside a circle, both picked out in gold, and a few letters underneath, spelling out the words
Dr. Dex
.

            “Antonia tells me that you’re one of the people who signed up for our little show. Be sure to come by for the show tonight,” he says. “The card will get you in without charge. We will be announcing our new performers, and I imagine you’ll want to hear that.”

            He flashes another of those megawatt smiles my way, before I leave them to get on with their meal. They eat quickly, and I guess that they have to finish in plenty of time for the performance. I have to think the same way, so an hour before the performance is due to start, I ask Frank if I can go.

            “To hear if you’ve been picked? Of course you can! In fact, I might close the restaurant and come myself.”

            I head home quickly, starting to get ready. Mom is still just as sick as she was, asleep in bed when I get there with Mason watching over her. He’s too young to have to do that. The sooner I can find a way to help her, the better. And for tonight, I can at least give Mason a treat he’ll enjoy.

            “Come on, Mason,” I say. “Come and get ready. We’re going to the circus.”

            I shower and then put on my best dress. It’s a pretty yellow chiffon sun dress that my mom bought for my last birthday and altered with delicate flower decoration, and which I love. I have sandals to go with it, which used to be plain, but I’ve decorated them with shells from the beach to make them into something unique. I come out of my bedroom and Mason is waiting for me. He pretends to wolf whistle.

            “You’re far too young to do that,” I say.

            “It’s what all the boys will be doing once you get there,” Mason points out.

Maybe. I have to admit it feels good to have the chance to dress up for once. There isn’t usually much of a reason to do it in Sea Cliff. I guess that’s part of the beauty of the circus coming to town. It shows up, and suddenly the whole town feels special, because there’s a reason to dress up and go out together.

            I’m just getting ready to go out with Mason when there’s a knock at the door. I open it, trying to work out who it could be. It’s Thomas. He looks great tonight in a casual shirt that shows of the muscles of his upper body and dark pants.

            “Thomas? What are you doing here?”

            He smiles, looking very good as he does it. He looks me up and down, his eyes lingering on me. “I figured that you wouldn’t be able to keep away from the circus.” He looks a little more serious now. “I don’t like that you signed up, but I’m not just going to abandon you. And honestly, I’d like to see what goes on there. I want to know what you’re getting yourself into.”

            “Plus it should be fun,” Mason adds, coming into the hallway, ready to go out.

            “That too,” Thomas admits. “You look amazing tonight, Leela. Really. That dress really suits you. Come on, we can walk over together.”

            I nod. Thomas might have tried to stop me from signing up for the circus, and he might have threatened to tell my mother, but he’s still my closest friend in Sea Cliff. Plus, it will be fun, going to the circus not just with my brother, but also with a good looking guy who’ll be sure to attract attention. “I’d like that.”

Chapter
5

I
t doesn’t take long to walk over to the Circus of Curiosities. The main tent is huge, easily bigger than any house, and covered in bright red cloth. Around it, there are wagons and trucks of all descriptions, smaller tents that people obviously sleep in and caravans that don’t seem to have anyone in them at the moment.

            Thomas leads the way into the tent. A large man on the door, dressed in clothes cut from glittering silver cloth and wearing a strange kind of half mask, takes money from us for Thomas and Mason. It isn’t much. Just a dollar each. It’s hard to see how the circus can make much money like that. Especially when I get in free for showing the card Dr. Dex gave me.

            When I get inside, I understand. At the center of the tent, there is a large, open ring surrounded by clear plastic screens. Beyond those are rows of benches, and on those benches is practically everyone in town. Everyone, packed in close so that there’s barely any room for the three of us. We find a spot on one of the front benches together, with me sitting between Thomas and my brother. The benches are packed tight enough that I have to press close to Thomas, feeling the strength of him as he sits there.

            Around us, the excitement is building. People are murmuring. What will the circus be like? What will the acts involve? What will happen?

            We get an answer when clowns make their way into the ring. I say clowns, because they have the red noses, and they’re dressed in those bright harlequin costumes pieced together from other things so that they look like shining Christmas tree baubles as they move. Yet they’re more like acrobats, really. They flip and they spin as they move into the ring, each one of them as graceful and muscular as a highly trained athlete. One of the women among them runs at the toughened plastic around the tent, leaps up onto it, and then springs for a rope suspended above the crowd. She runs along it as though it is a wide road and then starts scaling one of the supports holding the tent up. She climbs and she climbs, clinging on as it arcs out over the ring.

            Meanwhile the other “clowns” have started to build a kind of human pyramid, laughing and joking as they do it, stretching up towards the highest point of the roof. A point that the woman has reached by now, climbing quicker than I could have believed so that she hangs by her hands from the very center of the tent’s roof.

            She drops, and everyone gasps at once. She turns a perfect somersault in the air, then lands precisely on top of the human pyramid. We all cheer and clap, because it seems so impossible that someone could do something like that.

            After the clowns, there are fire eaters. They’re as acrobatic as the clowns were, jumping and rolling, all the time whirling flaming sticks. Every so often, one puts the stick to their mouth, blowing out a gout of flame into the air. Often it’s into the spot that one of the other fire eaters has just left with a spin and a jump. It’s almost like they’re dancing with the flames, and when they’re done, they swallow the fire, literally putting the flaming torches in their mouths to douse them.

            A dark haired young woman comes out next. She can’t be more than a year or two older than me, and she moves lithely, wearing all black and carrying a long whip, which she cracks above her head. Something shuffles out into the circus tent after her.

            It’s one of the creatures that has mutated out in the wilds. My teachers say that there are things out there that have never lived before, twisted and changed by the fallout from the coming of the Invaders and the ongoing war. I’ve always known it in theory, but this is the first changed creature I’ve seen. It’s grey and slow moving, the size of a small elephant but more like a sloth in appearance, with dull fur and long limbs ending in wicked looking claws. It looks like it could rip the young woman to pieces if it wanted.

            Yet it doesn’t. She cracks the whip again, and it starts to dance, rearing up on its hind legs and shuffling as music plays through the tent. She has it balance on balls and turn in graceful circles, keeping control of it the whole time. When they’re done, she even has the creature take a kind of bow, before making it shuffle back out of the ring.

            A familiar voice booms out then, as the man from beside the truck steps into the ring, walking like he owns it. He has a top hat in one hand and a cane in the other, both of which seem strange against his patchwork clothing. I can’t take my eyes off him.

            “Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! I am Dr. Dex. I hope you have enjoyed my Circus of Curiosities so far!”

            That gets a roar of approval from everyone around me. I join in. It has been spectacular so far.

            “Well,” Dr. Dex says with a wide smile, “I’m glad you liked it, but it will get better still. Because some of
you
have agreed to join us.”

            I feel Thomas’ hand fold over mine in that moment. Firmly. Protectively. In what seems like the same instant, Dr. Dex’s eyes seem to lock onto me for a moment. Even from where I am, I can feel the intensity of them.

            “Not everyone is meant to be a performer,” he continues. “That is why we will test you and train the young men and women who have signed up. Those who find that they are cut out for the ways of the performer will have the chance to show what they have learned in a series of live performances in front of
you
, their friends and families. The ones who do best might just make it through to join our troupe for the performances we have planned back in the Center!”

            Just the mention of the Center is enough to get a round of applause.

            “Now, where’s that list?”

            Even that is done with style. The young woman who dropped from the roof comes cartwheeling out to put it in Dr. Dex’s hand without stopping. He stares at the list for a second, then looks around the crowd again.

            “When I call your name, please stand up. I want to get a look at you.”

            He starts to call names, and each time he calls one, a boy or girl around my age stands up to applause from the crowd. Dr. Dex does what he said he would and looks each one over from where he stands, like he’s judging them. If he’s working through the list from top to bottom, then I’ll be the last person called.

            “Zachary Niles,” Dr. Dex calls out. I see Zachary stand on the other side of the ring, looking confident and handsome. I can see several of the girls in the tent looking at him in obvious admiration.

            “Leela Sinclair.”

            Thomas’ hand is tight on mine, and for a moment I think he might hold me in place, but I manage to stand up. Dr. Dex looks at me like all the others.

            “Please stay standing, all of you,” he says, and he slips past the plastic screening to walk into the audience. He stops beside the first person whose name he called out, a young man with dark hair who looks strong and heavy, talking to him for a minute or so. After he’s done talking, Dr. Dex shakes his head, and the young man sits back down, looking disappointed.

            I hadn’t thought about that. What if he rejects me too? No, I can’t think like that. I’m going to get through, and I’m going to make it all the way to the Center. I keep watching as Dr. Dex makes his way around the tent, sitting some of the people he talks to back down and sending others to the center of the ring.

            He makes it to Zachary and it seems like something in Dr. Dex’s expression changes for a moment. He looks… confused. They talk, but not for long, before he sends Zachary to stand in the ring with the others. I’m the only one left standing in the audience.

            Dr. Dex makes his way around to me and smiles. “So you want something more exciting than the Cliff View Restaurant?”

            I’m surprised he remembers me. “I’m here to make it to your national performances.”

            “Why? Why give up your life here to enter our circus and the tournament, as we call it?”

            “You go to the Center. I need to get to the Center.”

            Dr. Dex raises an eyebrow. “Why? What’s at the Center you need, Leela Sinclair?”

            I don’t know why it matters to him, but I answer anyway. “Physicians to help my mother.”

            He stops, looking surprised. “What’s wrong with Kinley? You are her daughter, right?”

            He knows my mother? I nod.

            “She’s my mother,” I say, “and no one knows what’s wrong with her. Maybe they’ll know in the Center. I have to try.”

            “You should go home, Leela,” he says. “This isn’t a place for you.”

            “My mom needs me to do this. My whole family needs me to do this,” I say. “Please, don’t make me beg.”

            He hesitates for a second, maybe two. Then he nods. “All right. Go to the center of the ring and wait for instructions.”