Circus Lullabies

The night was dark, but the stringed lights shined bright as they ran along the poles around the big top and classic carnival games. The Circus Marvelous was in town and it was going to be here for a month before they packed up and moved to the next area, three weeks, three different scripted shows - they had done this for many years, almost forty years running now, and they always made sure that this was their first stop on the tour, since it was most of the performers hometown. The area looked beautiful with the twinkling lights, and the excitement of each game made the walk way towards the circus come to life, as well as the freakshows that walked around, showing everybody their strange and unusual talent. The most famous performers in the circus had posters of them hung up along the poles, and this was the first year that Charles Pomeroy had his very own poster next to his mothers.

Charles was an contortionist and one of the fire dancers in the circus and had his very own character since age ten - named the Hushed Trifle, and he was manly one of the comic reliefs and helper to the ring master. But just with his silent acting and skills, he was adored by many, just like his mother, so he started becoming one of the main attractions, and soon, after eight years of working and practicing only to get better, he finally became one of the big stars and got his own poster for the show.

It was almost time for the show to be begin and Charles was running down the walkway to get to the backstage quickly. The show was only in ten minutes and he had to get dressed and ready. Crap crap crap, the manager is going to be so mad at me. He thought as he ran so fast that nobody even recognized him, but who would when every fan of his only knew him by his fake hair?

''Charlie! There you are! Get backstage and get dressed! You got five minutes until your cue!'' the manager yelled as soon as Charles made it inside, already hearing the crowd chatting to one another as they piled into their seats in the front and he nodded, ''Yes sir-'' he muttered as he squeezed passed his co-workers with his messy hair in a loose pony tail, grabbing his black unitard that when on, looked like he was wearing a skin tight tuxedo, and then his wig and make-up, so he could go to his and mother's trailer and get properly dressed. Being in the life of a circus, he was happy that he knew how to do all of this in four minutes flat.

It was the night of the circus, and Violet wouldn't miss it for the world. She had visited the Circus Marvelous for fifteen years now. The sight of the big top all light up and glowing around the site had become a comofrt to the teenager. This was Violet's first year coming by herself. It was almost sad, but she felt it would break childhood tradition to miss it. Unfortunately, it appeared her mother didn't feel the same.

The girl walked around the area, looking around in wonder. She has seen most of the attractions before, some coming and going over the years. Violet weaved her way through the crow of people arriving. Most of them were families which made her heart ache, but she shook it off.

Finally she found her way at the big top tent. After passing through admission she found her seat and settled herself in. She was glad she had made it in time for these seats, for they were the same seats her family had usually sat at whenever they came for the show. More and more people began to enter at the last minute. The show would start in only a few minutes.

Before anybody knew it, the lights soon faded to a dim blue and green, and a voice, who belonged to the ring master, was heard, ''Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, for thirty eight years we have been enchanting and shocking you with our shows and performances, so without further ado, we bring to you, Circus Marvelous! With our newest show made just for you - welcome to Enchant!''

At that moment, the sound of hushing wind and chimes filled the big top, and soon, a soft melody of the same chimes. Another voice, this time a female, started to speak in rhyme,

"What is your substance?
Whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Since everyone, have everyone, one shade
And you, but one, can every shadow lend"

There was then singing across the speakers, beautiful singing, and performers started to come out of their shells, walking out in time of the music and showing the crowd simply themselves, warming up for the rest of the show as they pumped the crowd up, and while doing that, an older, but beautiful woman, hid inside a cloth cocoon that was wrapped up high where the trapeze bars were. But as soon as the chorus hit, it opened up and rolled all the way down until the woman was hanging in the middle of the ring. She instantly began doing an breathtaking aerial dance, spinning and turning, hanging and balancing along the thin cloth with the music as the rest of the performers came out, some walked, but some, like the contortionists, came out in slow, controlled cartwheels, soon going around the ring together and stopping in their places, beginning to bend in queer ways and twist their bodies like they were made of rubber. The man with the fake hair being the one in the middle, who was currently concentrating on standing on only one hand as his legs slowly went down to lay on his shoulders. He could already hear some of the people in the crowd cheer for him and the others, and he flashed a bright smile as he then untwisted himself with a spin and moved to the next area of the tent, like the other contortionists, with a small front flip. He was now stopped right in front of where Violet sat and bent backwards into a sharp backbend, soon bending his torso just a bit more so he was lower to the ground and could show his pale, make-up covered face to the crowd and show them another small smile, watching as the crowd began to cheer again.

Violet felt like her heart was about to flutter out of her chest when the male contortionist stopped in front of her. She had thought he was rather dreamy ever since she had first seen him performing. She cheered with the rest of the crowd for him. Violet found the courage to show a small smile in return when he flashed one at the audience.

"Oh my gosh." she whispered to herself.

The boy always instantly noticed people when they smiled back at him, and once he saw that one girl from the crowd with the long blonde hair smiled back at him, he couldn't help but to blush just slightly. He was always a very shy boy, ever since he was a kid and even if he was surrounded by people almost everyday, hence his characters name of the Hushed Trifle, but once he got out on the circus ring and did what he loved, all the shyness melted away and he felt like he could do anything. So his smile brightened a bit at her before he untwisted himself again and continued his way down the ring as his mother continued her aerial act.

The first hour of the show went so well that it quickly passed, it filled with different acts and segments, the Hushed Trifle of course doing his silent humor and helpings with almost all of the performers and the ring master, and soon the plot thickened, the music got faster, and the fire was beginning to burn bright as the fire dancers and sword swallowers soon came out together. Charles was holding his weapon of choice, which were simply torches on chains, and once music got up to speed, he began to spin them in his hands as quickly as he could, twirling them around his body and legs and having the flames lick his spandex covered skin as one of the moves were to wrap both chains around his body and have them unwrap by themselves by force, it was here that he really had to concentrate, to make sure he had a firm grip on the chains and to make sure he didn't hit any of the sword swallowers or people from the crowd when he and the others got closer to them. But really, he had been doing this for so many years that he could do it with his eyes closed, so at times, even if the manager never really enjoyed it, he did exactly that as another way of concentrating and to keep focus.

Even though Violet had seen the boy perform this trick many times before, she couldn't help but to hold her breathe and sit on the edge of her seat, gripping it tightly. Of course it went fine, it always did, but Violet was a very worrisome and nervous person by nature.

The rest of the show, she kept battling the thought at the back of her mind about going backstage and finally talking to the fire dancer, but she was always so shy. Of course it couldn't hurt to just say hello and ask for his name right? Right! All Violet had to do was muster up enough courage... which was easier said than done. She tried to shake these thoughts off though and sat there enchanted for the rest of the time.

The next song that blasted through the speakers told the boy that it was time to finally show off what he had been practicing, and that was hooking one of the chains to his ankle and dancing like that. It was a difficult task, but he had been practicing for months, so everything should turn out perfectly fine like usual. So as the song was building up its beginning, he hooked it to his left ankle and soon began to dance to the music, making sure to keep his feet apart enough so the chain could keep spinning around and around as he did flips and even handstands, and it still spun.

But at times, the flame and the scorching hot medal would hit his bare foot, and the pain in his expression was noticeable, but the show must go on, as his mother always liked to say, so even if he knew for a fact that he burnt his foot pretty bad, enough where it hurt when he walked on it, he didn't mutter a word and continued doing his performance, ignoring the pains with concentration and hiding them from others with smiles.

Violet gasped as she watched the hot metal touch his foot. The expression on his face showed that it had hurt, but as if he was trying to push on. Since her father's sister has been a nurse, the girl had been taught to know how severe a burn was. His did not look too severe, but it was clearly enough to cause him horrible pain. Perhaps she could look at it if she went backstage after the show.

The fire dancer quickly finished his second song and bowed to each side of the audience with that million dollar smile of his, one of his fire dancing companions crept over to him to check on him, whispering on if he wanted to step out for the last song, but he silently shook his head and mouthed a small 'no'. The fire dancer nodded, gave him a second lit up ball and chain, and then went back to his place,

Just in time for the song to begin, Charles unhooked the chain from his ankle and started to swing each of them in circles on either side of him to the rhythm of the song, but, different from his last two fire performances, he seemed to be staying in place the best he could, concentrating on not hitting himself again. But as soon as the chorus of the song came, it being especially fast and crowd pumping, he couldn't help but to start his usual, happy dancing, but being only on one foot, hopping around as he swung and bent, making it only more impressive and making the crowd go wild. Gotta make it work somehow.

The last hour passed as quickly as the first and soon the show was over, after every performer came out to let out their final bows, they all piled into the back of the tent to first, celebrate another good show, and then get ready for their after-show meet-and-greet for the fans. It was Charles first time doing any meet-and-greets, and he only hoped that he would do well communicating to actual people while in character. They only had a few minutes to get ready and to set the signs up for each of the meetable performers, such as himself, so he couldn't even get the chance to get ice for his burnt foot, but like the rest of the show, all he could do was push it aside and do it afterwards. It was really no big deal to him anyway. he had gotten burned many times in his years in the circus.

AFter the show, it came the time for Violet to finally use all the courage she had been trying to build up and greet the boy. She was so nervous waiting with all of the other people, and she wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep breath.

"Calm down Vi. I'm sure he doesn't bite." she muttered to herself. When the time came and people from the crowd were being carefully allowed back stage, Violet walked slowly into the scene. There were signs set up, notifing everyone of the meetable performers. She managed to spot the contortionist boy's sign and located him rather easily. She took another breath before quickly fixing herself and turning around to greet him.

"H-hello there." she said nervously. "Is your foot alright? It looked like it got burned rather badly up there." It had been something that was rather concerning for her to watch.

Charles looked up at the girl and almost instantly blushed, this was the first person to meet and it was the girl who smiled at him in the beginning of the show, what a happenstance. He was about to speak out loud, but then he remembered that he was supposed to be in character and only waved at her, soon nodding his head to let her know that his foot was fine with a thankful smile, pointing his burned left foot out in front of him for her to see.

Violet smiled faintly, a light blush appearing on her fair cheeks. :It look like you might need some ice for it." she commented as she peered at it. She looked up. "I'm Violet by the way." the girl added, pushing back her long blonde hair.

Charles nodded, but then gave a graceful and low bow, soon taking her hand and giving the back of it a soft kiss. He smiled bashfully and soon started doing hand motions that looked like he was trying to say that it was very nice to meet her and asking if she liked the show.

Her cheeks became a very noticeable red. "O-oh yes. Hehe... I've been coming here for a few years now actually. My parents used to bring me as a child." she explained softly, a look of sadness appearing suddenly.

Charles noticed the sad expression on her face and frowned, his eyebrows furrowing together with sadness as he silently asked what was wrong, taking a step closer to her and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Then all of the sudden, he conjured an red and yellow striped hankerchief out of nowhere and handed it to her by his fingertips with a warm smile.

Violet tried to smile in return. "Thank you. It's just... my father passed away recently."

Charles only frowned again, more concern this time, and he put a hand to his heart as a way of saying that he was sorry for her, before gently stuffing the hankerchief into her hand. He looked around for a moment, then once he saw what he was looking for, an dry-erase board and a marker, he quickly walked over to it, grabbed it, and began to write upon it. He showed it to her, it reading, ''You can keep that if you want, miss. It's actually lucky, you know. :-D"

Her expression brightened a bit. "Thank you. Really? What makes it lucky?" she asked curiously.

Charles shrugged, then wiped off his last reply so he could write back, ''I've always had it with me with all of my performances for the past eight years, I consider it lucky. It's like Dumbo and his magic feather.'' He showed it back to her with a bright smile.

She nodded. "Ah. Oh my, I don't know if I could take this then." she said, offering it back to him. "Wouldn't want to take away your good luck." Violet added jokingly. It almost surprised her how she was slowly starting open out of her shell that caused her to be incredibly awkward and shy and rather timid.

The Hushed Trifle let out a mute laugh and put a hand to his mouth before writing back, "Aw, well, I tried. I thought it would make you feel better and give yourself some luck as well, but thank you." He took the hankerchief back and slipped it back up the sleeve of his unitard before making himself busy and writing down on the board again.

He flipped it over to show her with another hand on his heart, "Thank you, by the way, for coming back here and meeting me, you seem to be my first and only customer..."

Violet smiled and nodded. "Of course. I-I wanted to see if you were alright. And I guess after all these years of watching you perform, I finally have enough courage to come and say hello."

Charles smiled and nodded, wiping the dry-erase clean before writing, "Well I thank you for your concern - and there is absolutely no need to be nervous, it's not like I bite. I mean, I can't even talk - so I'm not harmful in the least."

She giggled and shrugged her shoulders. "It's not just you. I'm rather shy around almost everyone."

Charles smiled happily and nodded as he wrote: "I'm actually the same way - I've always been shy, ever since I was a kid... Hence another reason why I don't like to try talking."