The Girl He Knew Somewhere

Prologue

When Ashley was eight, she met Micky. It was 1956, and her class was very excited because they were going to appear as extras in a new television show called Circus Boy.

At eight years old, Ashley was very shy and just liked to be by herself. She didn't even want to go to the show. She had tried begging her parents if she could stay home, but they told her that she would be okay.

"You will only be in the background," her mother had reassured her that morning over breakfast. "The teachers will look after you".

That still didn't help. When they arrived at the set, Ashley just wanted to stay on the bus. But, one of the teachers gently pulled her off her seat and led her to the other boys and girls, who were wanting to go and see the inside of the big tent and hopefully see the animals.

It was while the teachers started the speech of how they were all to stick together and remember that they were to all be on their best behaviour that Ashley found the perfect opportunity to go and find somewhere to hide.

She saw a crate of boxes and decided to hide behind there. She peeked out and watched as the teacher and a lady, who must have worked on the set, led the children away from the bus. A tap on her shoulder made Ashley jump and turn around to see a boy, a bit older than her, standing there.

He was wearing a circus uniform, the hat tucked under his arm, and was munching on a bag of sweets.

"Hello, " he said.

"Hello!" Ashley said, suddenly feeling very shy. She started twirling some of her hair around her fingers. She did this when she was nervous.

"Are you one of the kids who is going to be an extra on the show?"

Ashley nodded. She really wanted to run away now. The boy took a sweet out of the bag and popped it in his mouth. He sucked at it and tilted his head at Ashley.

"My name is Micky. What's yours?"

"It's Ashley!" Ashley said, tugging at her hair a little harder!

Micky swallowed his sweet and smiled at her.

"Would you like to come and see the animals?"

Mrs Smith noticed that Ashley
had gone missing when the class had all been shown to their seats inside the circus tent. She had gone to check if Ashley had gone back to the bus, but when she found she wasn't there, Mrs Smith began to worry. Seeing one of the men working on the set, she rushed over and asked if he had seen Ashley.

Ashley had only seen elephant's at the zoo, so to actually see one up close was quite amazing. She watched as the elephant wrapped it's trunk around Micky and lifted him up onto it's back.

"Do you want to have a ride?" Micky asked Ashley.

Mrs Smith couldn't believe her eyes when she found Ashley a few moments later. One of the women who appeared on the show had heard the teacher describe Ashley and said she had seen the girl. It wasn't what Mrs Smith had expected to see when she found Ashley riding on top of an elephant with the young lead boy of the show.

"Thank you very much!" Ashley said to the elephant after she had been put back on the ground. She saw her teacher and waved over at her.

"That's my teacher," she told Micky. "I had better go, but thank you very much! I had fun!"

Micky smiled and waved as Ashley ran back to her teacher. The two didn't think they would see each other again, but little did they both know that their paths would cross again in the future.