Circo

“So, how do you actually take it down when you get to this point?” I asked Kate, looking up at the large, flimsy structure in front of me. All that was left of it was the large poles that made the main structure – with nothing holding them up – and the outer cover. The fences had come down, and a lot of the cars and caravans had been moved away from the structure. I had a feeling that this was breaking so many health and safety regulations.

“Normally we do it by hand, but if it’s possible and cheap enough, we hire a crane,”

“You do it by hand? How?”

“Don’t you worry about it, sweetness; you probably won’t have to do anything. A bit too lacking in height,” she smirked, ruffling my hair.

I scoffed and looked away, rolling my eyes, and noticed a large truck driving across the field towards us. Kate saw my questioning look, and pointed at the large structure. “Gotta keep it all somewhere when travlin'," she laughed, walking towards the now parked truck and exchanging some words with Lou who’d just climbed out.

Once again, I was left standing in amongst the hustle and bustle of everyone around me feeling completely lost. I didn’t know where I was needed or where I should go.

“Not making yuh’self useful?” A recognisable voice said from next to me. I smiled and turned to face Josie who was grinning back at me. I just shrugged at her and she laughed again. “Who you trav’lin with when we leave ‘ere?” she asked.

“I don’t know,”

“Well, y’see, I’d say that you could come with me, but we have arrangements for that kinda thing, y’understand?”

I shook my head. I didn't have a clue what she was talking about!

“Well...it’s like this. After nine years with this, y’get to befriend certain people and they become like...trav’lin partners to ya. Now, I’d say that you could travel with me, but there’s not enough room in the car I take,”

“Oh,” I said, slightly dejectedly.

Josie put a hand on her chin in contemplation, before raising her finger in the air, almost as if to announce that she’d had an idea.

“Stay right here,” she said and scuttled away.

So I did. I stood, and I waited. It wasn’t long before Josie came back. “You’re trav’lin in that green car over there,” she said, pointing to a small green car. “They’re leavin’ in a sec, so I’ll see ya when we get to tonight’s campsite, ‘kay Doll?”

She didn’t give me much of a chance to respond, she just ran off towards the swaying structure. I sighed, and looked over at the green car, picking up my bag and my guitar case, throwing them into the backseat and then walking round to the passenger’s side of the car and climbed in.

It was only about five minutes before someone approached the car and climbed in, starting up the ignition before even acknowledging me.

I looked out of the window as he pulled out, watching everyone sort the large structure of the tent, getting ready to take it down. I caught sight of Josie and Kate, and wished that I was there with them, rather than in a car with someone who – right now – was a total stranger. I also noticed that another car was following, and this one had a trailer attached to the back.

“Sorry I was a bit of an ass last night,” The driver spoke up.

I snapped my head round to look at them, unaware of who it was, before noticing that it was the guy I’d come to know as Michael. “No worries, I bet I looked a little weird, just spying in on the place,” I chuckled slightly.

“It wasn’t so much that,”

“What was it?”

“I just...I wanted to warn you about working here. My dad can be a bit judgemental about people and—”

“Your dad?” I asked.

“Yeah, ‘Mr Way’,” he mocked somewhat, taking his hand off the steering wheel to use it as quote marks.

“Oh,” I said in understanding. “So you’re the other Way,”

“What does that even mean?”

“The one that doesn’t scare me,” I laughed.

He chuckled back and looked quickly into the rear-view mirror. “You met Gerard then,”

“Oh yeah,” I laughed. “He probably thinks there’s something mentally wrong with me,”

“He has that effect on most people. One of the few reasons that I’m actually thankful to be related to him,”

I didn’t really know how to respond to that comment, so I just chuckled somewhat awkwardly and began on a new topic of conversation. “So, why are you called ‘Circo’? I asked.

He just stared at me. “Because it’s Italian for Circus,” He laughed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “The founder of the Circus, my Grandfather was born in Italy. When he started the Circus, it didn’t really get any success there so he travelled to America, where he met my Grandma. I think they got married within a week of knowing each other or something stupid like that, Grandma got pregnant with Dad blah, blah, blah. When Dad was born, Grandma wanted the Circus to end so that they could raise my father together in a normal environment, but Grandpa wanted to keep the Circus going...wanted Dad to be as involved as possible so that he could inherit it, so Grandma stayed, apparently hated everything about the Circus.

"Grandpa died when Dad was twenty-five, and Grandma left when Dad refused to give up the Circus. He insisted that Grandpa wouldn’t want that, I know that he hasn’t spoken to his mother since. When Dad met my Mum, she was an air-hostess. Dad was on the way back to Italy, wanted the Circus to travel to Europe or something, and let’s just say that my mother was the in-flight entertainment,” he paused for a moment and cringed. “They never intended to see each other again after that but nine-months later; she turns up at a show with a baby in her arms. Hello baby Gerard. They decided to try and ‘make a relationship work’, you know for the baby and shit. Nine months later, I greeted the world, you know how it goes” he paused and let out a sharp chuckle. “But I’m sure you didn’t need to know all of that,”

“Not really, but sometimes it’s nice to know a...history,”

Let’s be honest here, I was totally unnerved by the fact that someone was willing to share their entire history with someone they’ve never met before.

“When you’ve spent your whole life with the same people and nothing new to talk about, you kind of let things out a lot more,”

I nodded kind of understanding. “So, how come you’re not in the show?”

“I was ages ago,” he laughed. “When we were little, Gerard and I would go out with the clowns. We wouldn’t do much but we had to dress up and shit. One night, it was a full house, I’d never seen so many people and I totally froze up. Dad told me that I didn’t have to do it any more if I didn’t want,” he laughed. “So I got into doing the music,”

“So, what’s Gerard’s story?”

“What makes you think he has a story?”

“I dunno, doesn’t everyone in the circus have a story?”

“Yeah well, that’s another story for another day,” he laughed as his phone beeped in his pocket.

He flipped it open, and I couldn’t help but listen to his side of the conversation. “Sup—Already?—Yeah sure, I’ll pull over when I see one—” He sighed, snapping it shut once more.

“Gerard need’s to pee,” he announced. I stared at him. Did I care? “Therefore, we’re stopping at the next service stop.”

I just nodded, thinking back over everything I’d just learnt about the Way family. It seemed they were a tonne more messed up than my own family, which wasn’t something I ever thought possible this time yesterday when I was still back home in New Jersey.

Time flies when you’re having fun.