Magic Tricks

The Circus is in town...

I often wonder how I ended up on a boat at sea with a sea crusty pirate, 17 stale pies, a rare African jewel and a tight rope walker with a penchant for musical theatre. As the wave crash against the sides of the boat, I am remind of the last meal I ate and how I am pretty sure it is going to greet the floor soon.

But I am sure you too are wondering how this all began.

I am not going to lie to you. I am not entirely certain I know myself. All that I know is that it all began with a night when I went to see Belladum's Circus.

My name is Arlie Worthington. This is my story.

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"Arlie! Hurry up we are going to be late!" a whiny voice sounded from the bottom of the stairs. Will was becoming impatient. He always a perfectionist when it came to timing and always wanted to be at locations early.

"I'm putting my shoes on, I'll be there in a second." I shouted back, shoving a converse shoe on to my foot, I hobbled backwards praying I didn't trip up over the debris on the floor of my room.

"Arlie! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" Will chimed again.

"PUTTING MY SHOES ON!" I responded, shoving my grey hoodie over my head and narrowly missing the lampshade.

"ARLIE!..."

"I SWEAR BY ALL THAT IS HOLY, I WILL SMACK YOU IN THE FACE WITH MY SHOE IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP ABOUT BEING LATE! AM I CLEAR?"

"Yes..." Silence. Thank god for that. As I grabbed my wallet and the tickets, I legged it out of my room. Colliding with a door handle, I winced as I essentially fell down the stairs. Falling on my shoulder, I landed on my bum and slide down the rest of the way, only to be greeted by a pair of feet.

"You quite finished?" Will stated, smirking at my discomfort.

"Yes I am," I got up and brushed myself down. "Totally meant to do that," I said, smoothing out my hoodie.

"Yeah, right. Can we go now?" Will moved towards the door. "I am rather excited for tonight. It should be a sensational spectacular of lights, action and adventure."

"You read that on the poster didn't you?"

"Yeah, yeah I did. But sounds like a hoot!" Will smiled. He was right though, Belladum's Circus had been one that had covered the globe and had rave reviews about it. God only knows why it decided to come to our town for a visit.

We vacated the house with a shout of goodbye to my parents and began our quest for circus based entertainment. It was a pleasant evening and the sun was beginning to set, a blue haze covered the town. Walking down the cobbled Market Street, I checked my ticket. Taking it out of my pocket, the smiling face of a terribly creepy clown glared up at me. Feeling rather freaked out, I turned to Will.

"How did you even manage to get hold of these tickets anyway, Will?" I asked.

"Funny story actually," Will began.

"Woah," I replied. I physically halted our walk. "By funny story, like the story where you nearly rugby tackled a child because you wanted first dibs at Legoland tickets? Or the funny story of you pretending to be injured to get to meet Simon Pegg? Or the funny story where you slapped our English teacher in the face with a fish claiming it was trying to kill you? Because those were definitely NOT funny stories. Don't scare me Will." I jabbed him in the chest to emphasise my point.

"No, not like those stories. But no matter what you say, those were hilarious stories and are great conversation openers at parties," he retorted beginning the walk once again. "Basically, you know that weird man who sits outside Greggs shouting that the Romans are going to invade? Well I was walking past trying my best not to get in to a conversation with him and he jumped in front of my and threw them at me. They fell to the floor, I picked them up and turned to give them back and he was gone."

"Weird," I replied. "Suppose why they call him Crazy Keith." Will nodded. On our merry quest to the circus we were joined by two of our other friends, Ash and Miles. Miles had clearly ingested about 5 litres of energy drink as his buzz could put a Ferrari to shame. Ash was trying his best to calm him down to little avail.

"Dude, chill out! Have a break from this mentalness," Ash pleaded with a bouncing Miles.

"Break? Kitkat? Chocolate! Give me chocolate! Or cookies? Cookies! Cookies. Cookie monster! I am the cookie monster! Nom nom nom!" He ran around in circle. The three of use walked slowly in amazement at the fact that he was this hyper.

"What the hell did you give him?" Will asked, staring in alarm and amazement.

"Nothing," Ash sighed. "This was all his own doing."

"Miles," I said, he turned like a confused puppy. "Shall we go to the circus?"

"CIRCUS! YEAH!" and with that he ran off. Close behind him we gave chase, praying that the almighty buzz that had once filled his brain was no longer going to affect him.