Behind the Curtains

Behind the Curtains by Mika Landstrom

Chapter 1

Where It All Began

When William stepped out of the taxi, the smell of the circus wasn't as lovely as what the children in his suburban neighborhood had told him before he entered the car that morning. There was no scent of popcorn, peanuts, or carnival tents, but only the stench of booze, unwashed circus animals, and burnt lamps from the attractions outside that almost knocked him over. No childlike dreams in sight.

It was a warm morning on the twelfth of July, in the summer of 1952. William was sent here from Los Angeles to Jupiter for the yearly summer circus named Funhouse (for some questionable reason) because his co-worker Stanley had been notified about rumors of illegal and crazy things happening here in Jupiter during summertime when the circus opened up. William needed to check it out. He was also told that another investigator named Daniel something something would also be there to help out if the matters got too serious. It was extremely sunny and hot that William wished he had brought his sunglasses but had been just too busy and stressed out with mentally preparing him for this trip. He even had to breathe through a paper bag on the airplane in order to calm down.

After the taxi left, William looked after this Daniel character. He wasn't surprised to get the sense that there was some illegal stuff happening here. A freak (that they call them here) appeared to get money from a clown to apparently give sexual favors for cash (as it looks like) with suspicious looks before they went into a small dark tent. The scene became obvious to William as he saw the couple sneak away. Probably will use that money later for drugs, William thought to himself. Another clown was slipping a bag of perhaps some sort of drug to a lady with a ballerina outfit who looked pure from afar. But if you looked closer you could see that through her dark circles and rough hair that was tied into two ponytails on each side that she hides darkness inside her. She had blond short hair and looked cute. With a childlike figure and big, blue eyes.

When William was seeing all of these hidden details, he felt an arm creep on his shoulder and he quickly turned around with surprise in his eyes. His heart was beating too fast to handle. He also dropped his suitcase on the ground that he had to carry with for the whole day.

"I expect you are William Lans that I'm supposed to meet."

"Yes, but you can call me Will. And you must be Daniel...," said William with unconvinced ease on Daniel's last name and his creepy first impression. He picked his suitcase up to hide the embarrassment as quickly as he could.

"Indeed," said Daniel. "and it's Hankson by the way. We are supposed to go look around to see if something should be put in police hands I guess, or have you already found something interesting?"

"No, I can't say I have found anything that is too serious to put in the matter," informed William without caring about the clown business or the drugs. "We should look around and ask some questions for the employers here."

"Sounds good." yawned Daniel as it was still early in the morning.

Daniel was a tall, long-faced man with a little bit of beard that was growing that he supposedly forgot to shave, also a smell of consideration, he probably drank too much last night. We all seem to have our way to prepare for a day of possible surprises. He also seemed to lose hair because he was wearing a hat in the middle of July and probably doesn't want anybody to notice. He also had the appearance of a family guy according to his beer belly that every dad has.

On their lookout, it seemed more secure than any other circus William have been to (except for the smell). The ones he had seen had always a fight involved, some kid puking in the carousel and nobody cleaning it up and some other shit that no kid should experience. A normal summer in other words.