Just Paint Your Face

"Come one, come all! Feast your eyes on the poet who never speaks!"

I heard the sound of children laughing as the smell of cotton candy and salted popcorn flirted with my nose. I saw copper as the wind blew my hair into my face. It was sunset and couples were parading down the grounds of what looked like a fair, their heart shaped balloons swaying with the breeze. I caught a whiff of gasoline and turned around hurriedly.

No one. Just sword swallowers and fire eaters.

I didn't understand why I was here. Maybe it was heaven. But that didn't make sense. Jack and Daisy were not here. I followed the loud booming voice of the man who advertised the Freak Show. I entered the tent and stared into the first booth.

It was Daisy. She stood at a blackboard, dressed in her mime attire. She was writing furiously away with a broken piece of chalk.

i remember mother that day. when her tears woke us so quietly from our dreams. she told us that father's sleeping. and he is watching from faraway. with his shiny toy guns. mamma, just killed a man. put a gun against his head. pulled my trigger now he's dead. life it just begun. now i've gone and thrown it all away. grab a brush and put on a little makeup. hide the scars to fade away the shake up. the sun ain't yellow it's chicken. shriveled smile. knife artist. paint it red. just paint your face the shadows smile. just paint your face. paint your face.

"Kapow kapow!" I turned to see some children running through the crowd. They looked out of place, like they were from another time. They held colorful water guns in their hands and appeared to be playing a game of cops and robbers. There was a boy in a black tuxedo with jet black hair and another in a white tuxedo with blonde hair. They were chasing after a runt of a boy with a purple stained sweater and scabby knees. Blondish brown hair hung sloppily in his face.

"Hey, you can't turn on us like that!" The dark haired rich boy shouted.

"Yeah, no tag backs either, that was the rules!" The blonde little boy yelled.

The purple boy giggled, "You're no fun! I gotta new rule: there are no rules!"

"Oh yeah?" The black-suited boy shouted, "You're a big fat doody-headed buttface!"

The purple boy held up his green plastic gun, "I'm not a buttface. I'm not.. I'M NOT."

"Yes-huh!"

"Booooom! KAPOW. BANG. BANG." The dark haired boy chased.

"Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"

And they ran off into the crowd, laughing.

I moved on past a couple of booths, where a giant bat stood in one and a three headed dog in another. I glanced at a booth titled, "Kissing Lessons: $1.00" and saw an alternate me followed by a long line of men, all dead up at the front, bodies piled up in a mound. I shuddered, walking on. I saw the sign for the next one.

SEE THE AVERAGE JOE!

I rolled my eyes. What kind of circus was this?

"May."

I looked up. If it weren't for the sound of his voice, I wouldn't have recognized him. He was unscarred and dressed in casual clothes. His hair was wavy, untidy, but brushed back from his face.

"Jack." I said. We stared at each other for a long while, each normal, sane versions of ourselves.

Rachel suddenly stood beside me, winking, "He's cute, huh?"

I smiled, "Yes. Yes, he is."

Jack raised his eyebrows and licked his lip.

Rachel turned to me, smiling. There was an odd glow about her, "I'm gone now. He didn't come in time."

I nodded, "I felt so bad... I just couldn't stand..."

She put a hand on my shoulder, "Don't. We have a purpose here, and mine's been spent. Bruce can stop worrying about me now, and Harvey can wrestle with his demons."

"Can I go with you?" I asked suddenly.

Rachel shook her head gently, "You're not done."

"But I have no purpose!" I insisted.

"Oh, May." She smiled brightly. I'd never seen her so happy, "Of course you do."

"What?" I frowned.

She looked up at the man in the booth innocently. He was watching us with his dark brown eyes.

"To show the clown he's not alone."

I sighed. She hugged me then, and there was a pleasantness in her light aura that I cannot describe merely with words. I couldn't help but smile as she pulled away, stroking my hair. She suddenly drew an orchid's bloom from the ground. She tucked it into my hair.

"You look like Christmas." She said simply. She laughed lightly then and began to walk out of the tent, following a light in the darkness. I simply stood as the crowd ate her up.

And that was the last I saw of her.

I heard Jack muttering suddenly. But his voice sounded faraway.

"Wake up wake up goddammit. We're out of food. Daisy's writing on the wall again. Hm? Where'd the flower come from?"

I wrinkled my nose and smelt gasoline again.

My eyes fluttered open.

We both cried out, shocked by suddenly seeing each other when he was so close to my face. He held something in his hand and stared at me for a second, as if I was a ghost. I mumbled something I couldn't even understand myself and he grinned suddenly. I smiled weakly as he took my face in his hands and kissed it madly. I hardly noticed as the thing he'd been holding dropped into my lap. His makeup was off, his eyes red. I clung to him, suddenly realizing there was a soreness in my arm.

"Careful. Careful." he separated from me, laying my arm gently by my side. It was bandaged up. The bed--our bed--was covered in leaves.

"I think they were trying to, uh... heal you." Jack shrugged, "You're a horrible shot, you know that?"

I giggled. He rubbed his scarred face with his hands. He was a mess.

"How long have I been out?" I croaked. Daisy rushed in then. The kid had ears like a bat. She flung herself to me, crying happy tears silently.

"Few days." He muttered, "We got the bullet out. You healed up fast. Then you slept. I guess it's the plants that did it."

I nodded and they stared at me for a long while. They both looked extremely tired and Daisy's hands were covered in green sharpie ink. She'd written again. But I already knew what she'd wrote. The Joker fiddled with his hands oddly and ruffled his hair. Daisy was staring at something in my lap.

"Hey. Hey, uh. Kid. Let's.... let's leave her alone for a bit, huh?"

They left and I looked down. It was a flower, but I knew plants, and I knew this wasn't the kind blooming from the leaves all over the bed. It was something completely different. I held it up to my face. It was...

an orchid bloom.

To show the clown he's not alone...

I looked up to the low ceiling, suddenly feeling strength in my legs.