Quest For The Key

Chapter 21: Big Event

Tonight was the night. The night all the performers had been waiting for. The premier of the circus and they were the main attractions. Maïa had been waiting for this the whole year and she was the first act.

“Ladies and Gentlemen” the announcer voice boomed across the room. The audience was sitting in the big brightly coloured tent outside in the forest. Some people had driven very far to come and see this. The performers  were famous. “ Welcome to Breddly’s Amazing Circus. We now present our first act. Miss Maia Fainer.” Maia was nervous but she was ready for this. She had practised a million times. 

She walked out onto the stage and the crowd broke into applause.

“ Miss. Maïa Fainer will now be showing us her amazing mind movement and later we will have some audience participation.” continued the announcer. “ Enjoy”

It was all up to her.Stage movers came on with a couch, a chair, a fridge, and a big safe. Maia positioned herself in front of the chair, the lightest and the easiest. She focussed with all her might and the chair rose high into the air. She moved it with her mind, swinging it, spinning it around the room. The crowd OOOHHHHed and AAAWWWHHHHHed and clapped and cheered. Maïa moved to the next object, the couch. The crowd held it’s breath as Maïa dangled it around the heads of the front row then still holding it up in the air she snapped her fingers and it disappeared. When she snapped it would disappear and reappear. This  was all her own talent that she was born with. Next was the fridge which Maia lifted. The audience could see the strain on her face but that was only for show. She spun it around and around and around in circles.

It was when she was lifting the big safe that the event accord. Maia had picked a person from the audience for her final act. The man’s name was Barney. He was married with 5 children and was very busy man. In fact he had a conference to attend to after the show but he never arrived. As Maia was lifting the safe above the man’s head a drunk in the audience through an apple at her immediately braking her concentration sending the big heavy safe onto the man’s head bellow. The crowd went silent as the stage movers came on and carried the bloody safe off stage. There was not much left behind but a crumpled body that  was not a pretty sight. There was no point taking Barney to the hospital. Everyone knew that he hadn’t survived the crash. Polly, Barney’s wife covered her children’s eyes as they were led outside. The show was cancelled and it was all Maia’s fault. 

The manager hearing all the raucous came out from his office to back stage where the performers were all standing around shouting. Mr. Breddly pushed through the circle of performers to find no one but Maïa curled up crying. The manager was a nice man in general, in fact he was the one who had given Maia her job here at the circus. She had been looking for somewhere to make some pocket money when she had run away from her parents at  home. Mr. Breddly had found out about her amazing mind mouevment powers and let her to stay with the circus after her summer job ended. Maia had been with “ Breddly’s Amazing Circus” for 12 years and Mr. Breddly was practically a father to her. Breddly the manager knew when things needed action and when he needed to lay off. This was a very serious matter so, of course Maia was brought into his office. The rest of the performers gathered around the door trying to hear what was being said.

“ Maïa what happened out there?” sighed Mr. Breddly shaking his head. Maïa had been his favourite.

“Someone threw something  at me” That was all Maïa was capable of or else the tears would come back.

“ I know” cried the manager his face now in his hands on the desk.  Mr. Breddly knew Maïa would now be bad for business

“ You should go home” offered Mr. Breddly. He had often threw the question around no matter how much Maïa refused.“That girl is so hot headed sometimes" he often thought to himself but the fact was, she was just very determined to live a better life. The circus had been her chance, her chance to get away from her abusive parents. Maïa still woke up with nightmares, but there was one thing people didn’t understand about her. It was that she believed, “If I work hard enough, want it bad enough, pray long enough it will happen.” 

“I’ll never go home” Maïa was yelling now. “ This is my home”

“I know” cried the manager again.

 In the end Maia was band from the circus by a teary eyed Mr. Breddly. They packed her bags for her and when their meeting was done she was sent on her way. Maïa didn’t know where to go, but she for sure  wasn’t going home. She just started walking, not knowing where she was going. The exile followed a little brick  road into the forest thinking about how far it all seemed now. By the time night had fallen it was too dark to see so, she set up her camp but, she was awoken late at night by the voices that came from behind her. Maia sat up already on the move, saw a volcano in the distance and saw the men come running as she took off into the forest. Never once did she look back for Mr. Breddly. The man who had always come in her room at night and had rocked her back to sleep after a nightmare, when she was little. Not once.