Cirque Du Horreur

"Everett, come on out of there. How many times have I told you not to go down there?"

"Sorry, Dad," I said, "I just like the crawl space. It's really cool in there!" I crawled out from under the house on my hands and knees, getting them a little muddy. The crawl space was one of my favorite places to play. It was always warm in the winter or cool in the summer, and there were usually neat spiders down there. I usually didn't get webs on me, so long as I was careful. And sometimes, I would even find little frogs down there. I liked catching them and letting them jump from hand to hand, but they often peed on me, and I thought that it was kind of rude to pee on someone that is playing and having fun with you.

"Look, see now you're dirty dude, you can't look like a bum when we go places," he said.

"It's the circus, dad; everything is dirty there!" I laughed. He laughed too and picked me up to carry me to the car.

"Are you excited, buddy?"

"Oh ya, I really want cotton candy! Do you think they will have lions? Or sharks?" He really laughed at that. I loved my dad's laugh. It was big and loud, just like he was.

"I'm not sure that it's the kind of circus with animals, dude, but I've never heard of any circus having sharks!"

"I think some of them do!" That would be so cool. Why wouldn't a circus have sharks, I thought? I loved sharks, and I thought every circus should have a good shark in it. He carried me to the car and put me in my car seat. Dad says that next year I will be big enough to ride in a big boy booster seat! We already had one picked out sitting in the garage. It was black with red race-car flames on it. It was the coolest car seat ever. We got that back when mommy was still around. I didn't know where she'd gone. Dad just said

"Well, she's gone to the peace core, probably in Fallujah with that son of a bitch Derek." I smiled to myself. Hearing dad use bad words always made me smile. I didn't really know what he meant, but I couldn't wait for her to get back. I really missed her, and it had been like twenty years since I'd seen her, which I think is a lot. But then I thought maybe she would meet us at the circus.

"Will mommy be at the circus, dad?" I asked. He looked back at me through the rearview mirror.

"No, dude, I told you mommy isn't..." he paused. "she's not going to be around for a long time. You'll just have to wait. I'm sorry, buddy, but I just don't know when she'll be back." That made me sad. I really wanted to see her. But I was glad my dad was around. He was always really fun, and didn't yell at me like mommy sometimes did. It seemed to take forever to get to the circus. Everywhere we went in the car took forever. I hated riding in the car. It was so boring. And dad never let me use my kindle in the car because he said it would make me car sick looking down at it.

"We are here, dude! Circus McCormick!" I smiled real big at him and kicked my legs. I was so excited. I'd been to the circus a long, long time ago. Dad says we went last year, but I don't really remember much about it, except for the cotton candy. I was really looking forward to that part!

"Can we get cotton candy as soon as we get inside?" I asked.

"Just hold your horse's dude, we gotta get tickets and get in and stuff first." he got out of the car and helped me out of my car seat. I could unbuckle the top part but couldn't get the middle part. That was too hard. I got out of the car and could smell so many things. The hay on the ground mixed in with the dusty smell of animals hit me first. Then the nicer smell of cooking food. The smell of green chillies was really strong. I didn't like those very much, but my dad did. He said this was the biggest fair in the Four Corners area all year and was a celebration of the fall harvest.

"I thought you said it was a circus!" I complained. He laughed.

"It is a circus ding dong, but it's also a fair, it's a mixture of both, that's why it's so big, and there are so many different tents and animals and stuff."

"But they still have cotton candy, right?"

"Yes, buddy, they'll still have cotton candy." That made me really happy.

The fair was an amazing place, and there were games and rides everywhere! We even went into a house full of mirrors and see-through glass! Dad didn't like that one because he kept running his nose into the walls. I thought it was super funny. After that, we finally got some cotton candy, which was really yummy! I liked how it disappeared when you put it in your mouth. It was like food magic! He took me to a petting zoo, and I got to pet a ton of different animals, llamas, goats, even a pig! Dad's favorite thing was the games, but I didn't like those much. I couldn't even see over the stalls for most of them. They were too high up. They were made for grown-ups, probably, and they really bored me. We had done like a hundred of them, well my dad did, but he didn't win any prizes. I guess he isn't very good, but that's OK. I still love him, even if he didn't win me anything. While he was playing some game with the darts, I started to wander around behind him. He looked back at me.

"Don't wander off buddy, stay close."

"I won't," I told him. But he was being so boring. I really wanted to go back to the petting zoo and see the pig again. That one was my favorite. While I was thinking about that, I noticed a little frog on the ground. I got very excited, but it didn't look like the frogs at my house! They were fat and bumpy and easy to catch, but this one looked really different. It was a bright green and really smooth. I definitely wanted to catch this one before any of the people stepped on him. There were people everywhere, and it was like a big city in the movies! I ran after it, but it kept hopping away, it was very fast. Right as I was about to catch it, some lady stepped on him. I froze, shocked. The poor frog's guts were mixed into the hay and dirt. I felt like crying. It really made me sad to see the frog get squished. I turned around to tell my dad what happened. But I didn't see him. I started to get scared. I'd never been away from my parents in public like this. I called out to him, but no one paid any attention. I walked around through the crowd of people trying to find the game he was playing.

"Are you OK little guy? You seem a little lost." said someone behind me.

"I can't find my dad..." I started as I turned around. I felt fear go through my whole body, like a lighting bolt. In front of me was a terrible, terrible creature. It had a white face with big fire flames around it and a gigantic nose covered in blood. Its mouth was enormous and a horrible blue, like rotten meat. I'd never been so scared in my life. I screamed, turned around, and ran away. I'd never run so fast before, but I had to get away from that monster.

"Hey, kid, wait!" someone behind me said, but if I stopped, that monster would catch me. I must have run a long, long way because, by the time I ran out of breath, I had reached the edge of the circus. There were camper trailers and small tents all around. I noticed one, a big silver trailer like in the old movies dad used to watch, the ones movie stars would sometimes go into between movies. It was on wheels but had a pretty big space underneath it. I headed for it. Small spaces like that always made me feel safe. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled underneath the trailer, and peeked out. I could still see a bunch of people walking around, but I didn't see the monster. Or my dad. I felt down in between my legs. I'd wet myself. I hadn't had an accident in forever, except at night sometimes if I forgot to go to the bathroom before bed. I didn't know where my dad was, and I wet my pants, and there was a monster after me. I didn't know what to do. So I rolled onto my side, pulled my knees up to my chest, and started to cry. I was alone and wet, and it was getting dark.

"Hey, are you alright?" I jerked my head up. The voice had scared me.

"Who is that?" I asked. "Do you know where my dad is?" I sat up to get a better look around. In the opening I had gone through to get under the trailer was a girl. She looked about as old as me, and she wore farmer clothes.

"I don't know your dad silly, who are you? I'm Jane."

"I'm Everett," I said. "I lost my dad. There was a big scary monster after me, and I ran away from it, but now I can't find my dad."

"Don't be silly, silly. There are no monsters at the circus," Jane laughed. "Is that why you are under my house? Are you hiding in here?"

"This is your house?" I asked, surprised. "you live at the circus?"

"Yep, my daddy is a clown in the circus show, so we travel with it and live in this trailer."

"What is a crown?" I asked. I'd never heard of that before.

"Not 'crown', clown," Jane said, "with an L."

"Well, what is that?"

"It's a person that dresses in funny clothes and makeup and makes people laugh and makes balloon animals and does tricks and things!"

"Oh wow, that sounds really cool. My dad doesn't do any of that cool stuff."

"Yep!" she said proudly, "my dad is really, really cool! Do you want to meet him?"

"Heck yes!" I'd forgotten all about how scared I had been.

"OK, cool, come on out." She stood up, and I crawled out from under the trailer and stood up too. She looked down at my pants and noticed my wet spot.

"You tinkled yourself!" She laughed as she pointed at the wet spot. I had forgotten about that too, and was really, really embarrassed! A girl saw me wet my pants, and I couldn't believe it. I could feel my ears growing hot.

"Shut up! It was an accident, and I was scared!" I yelled at her. She looked at me sadly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you." I looked back at her.

"It's OK, my friend Clyde wet himself in class one time, and we laughed at him too." She giggled at that.

"OK," she said, pulling out a cell phone. "I'll text my dad and see where he is."

"Wow, you have a phone?! A real phone?"

"Yes, my dad gave it to me, it's so that I can always contact him while he's working. There are always a lot of people around at the circus, and he wants me to be able to talk to him if there's a bad guy." She said proudly. I could tell she really liked showing off her phone to somebody else.

"That is really cool."

"Yep. Alright, he's over by the dunk tank." She took my hand and pulled me after her. I was really nervous about running into the monster again, but it was nice having someone hold my hand. It made me feel a little safer, even if it was just a girl. We walked for a little bit, through the crowds of people, past the food stands and games. I still didn't see my dad, and I was starting to get worried about that again.

"Here he is over here," Jane told me.

"My dad?" I asked.

"No silly goose, MY dad," she said, laughing and pointing. I turned to where she had pointed and froze. My hand tightening on hers. "OUCH!" she cried, "don't squeeze so hard, Everett!"

"That's the monster I yelled!" My legs felt like jelly, the wobbly kind.

"What where?" Jane looked around, confused.

"Right there!" I said, pointing. "The monster with the fire..." I paused. Was it? No. No, that wasn't fire around the monster's head, it wasn't even moving, and there was no smoke. Jane looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I really wish I could raise my eyebrow like that. Dad does it all the time, but I've never been able to. She followed what my finger was pointing at and burst out laughing, holding her sides.

"You goof bucket! That's what you thought was a monster?" I looked at her, annoyed. "That's my dad, I told you, he's a clown!" I turned away from her and looked back at the creature. It was a man! A weird-looking one sure, but a person. What I thought was fire was actually big red hair! I looked closer and noticed that he didn't have a giant bloody nose. It was just a large red nose that looked like a rubber ball was stuck to his face.

"Dad!" she yelled and started walking towards him, dragging me along behind her. "I found a friend, his name is Everett, and he's lost, and he was under our trailer, and he wet his pants, and he can't find his dad!"

"Hey, sugar bear!" said the clown, picking Jane up in his arms. He held her and kneeled toward me. "Hey, little man, I didn't mean to scare you earlier, you looked like you were lost, and I was trying to help you." I looked at him, not even a little scared now.

"I thought you were a monster," I explained.

"Ya, I figured that after you ran away," he laughed. "Some kids are real afraid of clowns. Where are your parents, little guy?"

"I'm here with my dad, but I don't know where he is."

"Let's go check with the lost and found tent then, that's where we bring clothes and purses, and sometimes children, that people lose so that they can get them back, OK? I'm sure we will be able to find your dad then. I bet he's already there talking to Jimmy."

"OK," I said. I held Jane's hand as we walked with her clown dad. We got to a gray tent, and I could see my dad there talking to another person.

"Daddy!" I cried and dropped Jane's hand as I ran toward him. He turned toward me and let out a big sigh.

"Everett, thank God! I was so scared, I thought I'd lost you, I'm so sorry, buddy, I wasn't paying attention and let you out of my sight! Please don't ever wander off like that again!" By this time, I was crying as I hugged him.

"I'm sorry, daddy, I didn't mean to get lost! I saw the clown man and thought he was a monster and ran and hid under Jane's trailer, but then she helped me find you!"

"You must be Everett's dad," said the clown man.

"Yes, I am. I'm Thomas, thank you so much."

"Oh, these things happen here all the time, just glad he's back safe and sound with you," said the clown man. They talked a little more while the clown man explained what happened.

"It was nice to meet you, Everett," Jane said.

"It was nice to meet you too. Thank you for helping me find my dad again."

"No problem, you're nice. I meet lots of new kids at the circus, and some of them are mean, but I like you. Maybe I'll see you next year when we come back to town."

"Ya, maybe, that would be really cool!" We said our goodbyes, and my father took my hand as we headed back to the car. He had gotten me some more cotton candy, and that made me feel a lot better. We didn't actually get to see the circus perform since I had been lost during the shows, but my dad said we could come back tomorrow if I wanted and see the actual performers, including Jane's dad. I said I really wanted to, and he told me that we would then, and this time he'd keep a better eye on me. I liked that idea.