Blinded By The Past-- The Greatest Showman/Anne Wheeler Fanfiction

Chapter 10

*Not Edited*
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A new day has begun, yet the people of New York are left wondering about the temporary closure of the circus. While everyone was left to wonder, Anne and W.D. were still up on the roof of their home, looking at the rising sun.

"I will keep my promise to mama," W.D. said to his sister. "I will do whatever I can to protect us."

"I know," Anne muttered. "You tell me every day. The question I have is what do you really think Thomas will get the papers?"

"I trust him enough to keep our secret longer. He practically raised us like a brother,"

"But he betrayed us when we chose to leave him. Now we have a debt to pay, and more because of our past," Anne told him. W.D. sighed. He knew that Thomas would do anything to get money, only to use it for rent and drinks at the bar.

"I know it's hard," Her brother sighed. "We thought by joining the circus, our problems would be solved. We can't run away from them forever,"

"Do you ever wonder?" Anne asked. "What would have happened if we weren't treated like freaks? Like if we were never born into slavery,"

"If we were treated equally, then we wouldn't have learned trapeze. We would not have to join P.T. and the Oddities. You would have never met Phillip,"

"I suppose that's true. We wouldn't have done a lot of things,"

"We were lucky,"

"How?"

"Even though our childhood wasn't the greatest, we have a family who loves and supports us after we left the plantation,"

Anne smiled. The sun now was above the horizon, and the two siblings got off the roof of the caravan. They walked to the large tent seeing everyone, who would have been practicing for the show, seated in the stands. All the acts, crew, and the Barnum family were in the same place seated from the day before, eating breakfast. Anne noticed Phillip and smiled.

"Good morning," She said. He smiled, giving her a small kiss.

"Are you going to tell us what happens next?" Caroline asked her sister following her.

"After we finish breakfast," The trapeze artist said to her, with a small smile. Soon enough, everyone finished their meal and went to the seats they were sitting the day before.

Phillip walked outside after he finished. He looked up at the sky seeing the clouds creating its odd, fluffy shapes. The sunlight shined through them, creating an incredible piece of art in the sky.

"It's beautiful, ain't it?" He turned his head, seeing Anne standing next to him, looking up at the clouds.

"It truly is," He admitted.

"When I was small, I always dreamed of a castle in the clouds. It was placed where I go to just be free without leaving to the woods."

"You've always loved being in the air, haven't you?"

"Yes, even before knowing it,"

Neither spoke a moment, looking up at the sky. Anne recalled when she was small, seeing the clouds as the cotton in the fields.

"Do you miss your home?" Phillip asked, curious about her answer.

"We may have been born them," Anne said, looking at the clouds, one that really did look like a castle. "But I think of home as where love is kept, where friends belong, and laughter never ends. The circus has all of that,"

"You are nothing like anyone I've met,"

"That's a good thing?"

"I mean, you always had such big dreams. I was taught to never believe in them. Whenever I went to a party, before the circus, everyone talked about the politic and world news. No one really had deep meaningful conversations, like about their dreams or wishes,"

Anne broke away from her trance and looked at Phillip, who looked at the ground. It reminded her of Charlotte, who once told her the same thing. She once told Charlotte of her dream, of the castle on the clouds. Her friend told her that she wasn't taught to believe in them. Anne was saddened by this, that those higher in society don't believe in what they dream of. Then she remembered, P.T. Barnum wasn't born into high society. He had a dream and worked hard to achieve it.

"Everyone has dreams," Anne said. "Some may not believe in them like I do. Dreams can be a beautiful thing, sometimes we just need some work to make them come true,"

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Author's Note-- The begining of Anne and Phillip's dream conversation,  was loosely inspired by the song Castle on the Clouds from the musical/film Les Misérables .

I recently watched the movie, not realizing the whole movie was a musical. I thought it was the kind of musical movie that had a song every 5-15 minutes. Though that was unexpected, I did enjoy the film, the characters, the storyline, and especially the music.

I'll review it in my News Book later.

!!!Thanks For Reading!!!