Fun House

Chapter:1

"Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going, don't take anything too seriously, it'll all work out at the end." - David Niven.

12 August 1894

The bare thought of a circus gets my blood pumping. Ever since the first official circus was made, in England, by a man called Philip Astely. As soon as it was introduced to America I begged my father if I could take part. He took me to my first show when I was five. They had recently brought in African elephant's. My dad lifted me up on his shoulders to get a better glimpse at them. I remember the name of the circus."The American travelling circus". They were only in town for a week. The show felt as if it lasted hours. But it was hours of pure amazement. Sea lions balancing on small red balls, men doing acrobatics in the air whilst getting dangerously close to the ground and different men manipulating fire to there will to produce a spectacular fire show. We walked over to the freak show afterwards. We saw "The man with 2 faces" and this small girl with brown hair covered all over her body. They sat in their cubicals as we watched them. They never said a word to us, but we had many words to say about them.

I stay at home living in a small farmhouse seperate from the main house, where mother and father live. We live alongside three horses, nine sheep, two pigs, ten chicken and a rather large cattle. We only use her for milk. Nowdays if I talk about the circus father would grunt or roll his eyes. He says the circus is only for the crazy people who has nothing else left to do. I work in the stables maintaining the horses while mother stays in the kitchen cooking, only with the food that we produce. Behind the house we have a large vegetable garden with most of the vegetables you can get from town. Father hates going to town or any place besides the farm. The last time we went out was during a drought and we were looking for water for our vegetables. Living in America is hard in this time and age. While at least for me it is. I dont go to school and I barely now how to do simple math equations. I'm extremely good and reading though. I'd steal mothers old books from the main house and read the over in the stables. Sometimes I'd even steal some of her cook books. I reckon I can make a pretty damn good pork belly. Father hasn't really bought her any other books besides cook books. I've tried reading the bible once but I didn't really get attached to any of the characters. I don't know much about religion but I've heard from our neighbour, Mary Jenkins, that people worship the bible. She says everything that happend in that book is real and I shouldn't question it. I didn't really listen to her because shes old and father says shes gone crazy ever since her husband, David Jenkins, died. He was a good man. He'd even offer to help me sometimes with herding in the sheep. Mother and him used to have an affair. He started to help me out when I caught them once in the stables. I didn't think much of it at the time but I knew it was serious by the looks on Mothers face. She told me not to tell anyone about this or else I'll get a beating for sure. I agreed not to tell as long as I get some help with the farm work. And so it started. Each Wednesday and Friday he'd come over to our farm and help me out with whatever I needed. Then one Friday he didn't show up.

When we first got the news about his death I didn't really know what to think of it. I could see mother was trying to hold back her tears. If father had saw her cry of this man the way she wanted to he would know something was up. She'd be the one getting the beating. Mary became very secluded after his death. She never shared a word on how he died or what she did with the body. I think she found out about the affair and murdered him. Father says he got food poisoning and died in his sleep. I suppose we would never truly know what happend that night. Her garden has been growing ever so nicely after his death. She probably buried him under there and lets her plants feed off his rotting corpse. Mother and father don't have much of a romantic relationship. Father would don the working and shed do the cooking. I suppose thats why she slept around with David. I don't know why she is so upset about her situation. All women do the cooking and the cleaning while men do the work. Its been like that for as long as I can remember. The last time I saw them be affectionate in any sort of way was when a black man broke into our farm. He went to the vegetable garden and started stealing our cabbages and pumpkins. Father shot him down with his shotgun. And after he pulled the trigger Mother wrapped her arms around his left bicep. She let go again as father walked over to dispose of the corpse. Since then they haven't even slept in the same bed with one another. I've asked them many times for a younger brother, mainly because I dont like doing all this work by myself, but the both of them would tell me to shut up and say its not appropriate to say things like that.

In two days time the circus comes to town. It will only be here for a day then travel up state. I haven't dared to ask father if we could attend. I already know what the awnser is going to be. But somehow I'm going to get there. I have to. It's like a magnet in my body that gets attracted to the circus and nothing can stand in its way. But I can't just watch another show anymore. I have to be apart of it this time. Apart of the performances and acts. Apart of the joy it brings to the city. And if it means me getting of this god forsaken farm I'd join in a heartbeat.