Circo

Frank couldn’t remember the last time Belleville had looked so beautiful to him. He couldn’t remember the last time that he’d wanted to sit on the window sill of his parent’s room and stare out at the houses and the rooftops.

The sky lit up with lightening, illuminating everything with a soft light that filled in all of the smallest nooks and crannies that were hiding in the New Jersey streets for the smallest millisecond. Frank had always loved thunderstorms.

He clutched tightly at the piece of coloured paper in his hand as a clap of thunder filled his ears. For as long as he could remember he’d always been made nervous by loud noises like thunder and fireworks.

As he looked down at the piece of paper in front of him, printed on thin, cheap, ripped paper with pictures of monkeys and lions and clowns on it, he was briefly reminded of a day that was almost ten or eleven years now. It would always be his favourite day.

“Where are we?” Frank had asked softly in his childish voice, a hand latched onto his mother’s as his father kept a firm hand on the back of his head.

The structure in front of him was the strangest thing he’d ever seen. It looked as though it was made from a plastic or canvas based material. Houses weren’t made from that, that was for sure. And the colour, oh the colour. He’d never seen anything like it. The reds and blues and yellows and greens, all on the exterior of the structure ahead. A sign stood above the door, lights flashing around it, bright letters reading ‘Cirque’, he didn’t know what that meant.

He stood in a queue next to his mother while his father wondered off somewhere, coming back only moments later with three small pieces of card in his hand. Frank didn’t understand, but from the gleam in his father’s eye, he could tell it was something good. He couldn’t help but grin himself.

The queue shuffled forward, and a bewildered Frank was dragged through the flaps of material that were used as doors. He could remember being momentarily blinded by the darkness. It had been so bright outside especially in comparison with the inside of this tent.

He inhaled sharply, a smoky smell of dried ice and popcorn filling his nose. He still didn’t know what this place was, but as the spotlights filtered through coloured disks shone throughout the tent like structure, he knew he liked it. He liked it a lot.

“This is the Circus, Frankie,” his mother said as they took their seats. They weren’t right next to the circle in the middle, but they were close enough for Frank to be able to see clearly enough.

Frank had also had to sit on his father’s lap. They couldn’t afford three seats. He squirmed around for a little while, trying to get himself comfortable, but when he was, he leaned his small hands on the back of the chair in front as loud music filled his ears.

He flinched, and was momentarily terrified by the loud noise all merged together by trumpets and drums, but as soon as a tall man in a big hat stepped into the ring, he calmed once more, realising that that was supposed to happen.

The man was wearing black trousers, and a bright red coat that was longer at the back. He also wore thick black boots on his feet and a large top hat on his head, the moustache on his face perfectly groomed into one that curled at the ends, amusing Frank to no end, until the man opened his mouth.

“Mesdames et messieurs, garçons et filles. Je te souhaite la bienvenue ici ce soir, à notre cirque de Paris. Nous avons voyagé toute cette manière pour toi, et vous seulement, où une nuit de supercherie, les illusions et les festins dévoileront. Svp, appréciez..”

Frank didn’t understand. Frank stared dumbfounded at the man as he smirked and twirled the end of his moustache once more. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” His voice was a lot louder, he looked around, taking in as many of the audiences faces as possible. “Boys and Girls! I welcome you here tonight to our Circus from Paris. We have travelled, all this way for you, and only you,” Frank felt his stomach fill with excitement as the man in the long coat and top hat looked directly at the small boy before his eyes flickered away once more, and all that was running through Franks mind was ‘me! This man his here for me!’

He shuffled in his father’s lap before listening as the man carried on with what he was saying. “A night of trickery, illusions and treats shall unfold, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!” his French accent died out with the lights, and there was a small explosion in the middle of the ring causing Frank to flinch again. He worried slightly that the man with the strange accent was hurt in some-way, but then became too mesmerised by the woman who was now standing where the strange man had been.

Her elegant arms were lifting slowly towards a bar that was being held up by two bits of rope. Slowly, oh so slowly, she placed her hands onto the bar, he fingers curling around it, until, in one swift movement, she was hoisting herself up onto it. Her toes pointed as she sat on the bar, and Frank watched on amazed as the bar was lifted.

The rest of the night was spent that way, his eyes wide as he stared at people doing things that made him flinch. The man who swallowed the sword and the woman who could put her feet on her shoulders by bending her back the wrong way were the main two.

The strange man kept occasionally coming out and talking to the audience as something was getting set up, or something else was put away. Occasionally a clown would come out too. Frank liked him.

He could remember the magician who had cut in half the woman in the box, and then made her disappear, and the man who pulled a rabbit from the hat on his head. Frank was having a hard time keeping up with all this excitement, and him and his parents were so sure that he didn’t blink once. He couldn’t help it; he didn’t want to miss anything.

Frank had wanted to cry when the man in the top hat came out and announced that the show had come to an end. Frank didn’t want it to end, he wanted to stay there forever.

After a lot of people had left, and Mr and Mrs Iero were waiting for a taxi to come and pick them up, Frank had seen the man in the strange hat, and had made no hesitation in running towards the man, ignoring his parents yelling at him to come back.

“Excuse me, Sir,” he’d said quietly, now unsure of what he wanted to say to him.

A kind face looked down at him with a smile, the moustache curling again. “Why hello there, where are your parents?” He asked in his strong French accent, which just seemed peculiar to Frank.

Frank pointed behind him at them; they were now standing watching him with small smiles on their faces. They could tell how much Frank already admired the man. “Did you mean what you said?” Frank blurted out.

“When?”

“When you said you were here for me. Only me,”

The man smiled to himself before leaning down to become eye level with the boy. “Of course I did,”Frank understood now, that the man was lying, until that minute he had never known of Franks existence, but the joy that, that simple sentence brought to the small six-year old was nothing short of amazing.

“How did you do that thing,” he paused. “Where you disappeared, at the beginning? You know, with the big bang,”

The man smirked at the small boy in front of him, glancing over his head before placing a hand on the boys shoulder. “Do you believe in magic?” He asked as if it were a secret between the pair. Franks eyes widened slightly and he nodded his head vigorously. “Good, because that is exactly what it was,”

Frank smiled at the man, his eyes full of wonder. “Can I do it?”

“Of course!” the man exclaimed standing up straight once more. “If you put your mind to it, you can do anything you want,”

Franks eyes filled with wonder once more. “I think I should like to do what you do,” he smiled.

The man smiled and ruffled Franks hair. “Maybe you will one day, now I think you’d better go, your parents have a taxi waiting,” he smiled, pointing over the boys head to his parents. Frank nodded sadly, he didn’t want to go just yet, he wanted to learn more about the ‘Cirque’.

With a simple goodbye, Frank turned and walked away from the Circus, a huge smile covering his faces.

Mr and Mrs Iero had to pay extra to the taxi driver who’d had to wait a few minutes for Frank to finish up his conversation with the Ring Leader, but it was all worth it, so long as they got to see their son happy.

He took in a shaky breath, another clap of thunder slapping him out of his day dream, his thoughts of that day.

He looked down at the paper in his hand, wiping his nose with his sleeve and standing up, making his way into the living room where his school bag sat, stuffed full with things that he thought would be necessary. He pushed the poster into a pocket and stood back up, turning on his heel and walking into his room, pulling his guitar out from under his bed. He’d hidden it under there a couple of months a go when he’d logged onto eBay, planning on selling a couple of his CDs so he could get some more money into the house, and found out that his mother had made an account and was planning on selling his guitar. He knew why she wanted to do it; she didn’t have enough money for booze any more.

That was the final straw for Frank. That was when he knew that he had to get out, he had to get away, he had to leave.

He packed his guitar into its case and placed it by the door next to his backpack before going back into his parent’s room and sitting on the window sill, listening to the thunder and watching the lightening, picking up a pen and hastily pressing it to the paper starting a letter that would explain his disappearance. The thunder cracked the sky and lightening poured out at the exact moment, signalling that the storm was directly over the town.

Frank wanted to storm to finish quickly so he could leave. Not because he was worried about his parents coming home before he got the chance to leave because he knew that wouldn’t happen. It was only around 4pm, so his Father had just started his second shift of the day and his Mother wasn’t going to be home for another twelve hours; that is if she even came home at all.

It was only about half an hour later that the thunder appeared to get further away and the rain began to get lighter, New Jersey was still and quiet once more.

Frank figured that if he wanted to get away soon, he may as well go now. So he scanned the house once more, checking for any possessions of his that he may have forgotten. Once he was sure that he had everything with him, he threw open the door and descended the stairs, leaving his old life behind, needing so much to start a new.