Shadow in the Snow

Four Blank Walls

    The circus lost its brilliance when they traveled. The lights came down, the music faded away, and the creatures were tightly packed into small cages and chained and muzzled and covered up so that none may see the precious freaks as they went to the next place of their showing. "If they want to see," the Master would say, "then they have to pay like the rest of them. No free showings!"

    So, for all their shine and magic and glitter when they performed, they looked no more glamorous than a regular traveling caravan might -- in fact, even less so, so that they might be mistaken for vagabonds if it wasn't for the heavy guard that surrounded it. There weren't enough carts to haul everybody so most of the simple workers and guards would walk, only getting a break for meals and to sleep a few brief hours in the night, which made them a very large group of people and the caravan stretched on for over a mile in size. It was at that people would stare; that and the one large poster that was nailed to the largest cart. 'The Grandest Circus in the World' it would claim, and people would look at it and wonder how such a plain caravan could really host such a marvelous circus, though those who knew of it would nod wisely and say that the poster was right indeed. The plainness of it kept them from being bothered by assailants on the road (as did the heavy guard, of course) and, most importantly, the lack of fancy carts kept down expenses. Plain was practical.

   In one of these plain little windowless carts there sat a boy. He was no more than seven, though small for his age, and was curled up in one of the corners with his arms around his knees. It was very dark inside as there was no light provided for him by which to see. In the corner which he sat there was a bedroll of decent size, though flat enough that he could feel the wood beneath it as he slept, and that was the only thing of interest but for the bolted door on the other side -- bolted from the outside, mind you -- and a slot in the bottom of said door where he was delivered his food. The slot was also bolted shut when not in use. It was a very lonely existence, and very dark, but Snow had seized to be afraid of the dark long ago. His eyes were adjusting to it with time.

   Presently the boy turned and knocked briskly on the side of the wall. There was silence for a moment and then three sharp knocks back, and he smiled. That meant La was there. It was three raps for her and five for Crow, and one or both of them always tried to walk with him when they could, even if they couldn't speak to him. It helped somehow. The times he knocked and received no answer made him feel twice as lonely. He was glad that she was there.

    He knocked again, paused for a second, and did it two more times.  'Is Crow there?'

    A single knock in response.  'No.'

    Snow sighed.  It couldn't be helped, of course, that Crow seemed to be kept busier every day, but he still missed his brother when he wasn't there.  More knocking.  'What's the weather like?'

    'Sunny.'

    This time he smiled.  Sunny didn't mean very much to him except that they said sunny was nice -- unless it was too sunny, of course, but he didn't really understand how it could be too sunny.  His favorite was when it snowed, though, even if the other two tended to complain about it.  They said it made their jobs harder.  He just liked to imagine what the weather he was named after must be like.  White, they said, and cold and a bit wet.  But when he stared at cold water he could never imagine it white or 'flaky', whatever that meant.  They tried to bring some in to him once but Crow had just ended up with pockets dripping with freezing water.

    They kept on like that for a while, chatting back and forth through the complicated code they had come up with over the years until La finally knocked briefly that she had to go and he was left alone again.

   Sighing, the boy stretched out on his bedroll and stared up at the ceiling. The sky was out there somewhere. He reached his hand upwards, yearning to seize it within in his grasp, then let his hand fall to his side, defeated as always. Someday he would find the sky and what a beautiful day that would be!