Frights (Scary Stories)

4. Mr. Pops

"So are you going to the circus tonight or not?"
"No. My mom already said we couldn't afford the tickets right now," Caleb said back to his friend Emily.
"What? That's bogus! It's only like a mile from your house! Let me pay for you!" Emily said.
"No no. It's fine I'm sure there will be other-"
A car horn made the two kids jump. Emily's mom sat in the car smoking a cigarette waving for her to come on.
"Dang. I thought my grandparents were picking me up," she said while waving goodbye to Caleb.
Caleb tried not to think about the circus on the way home, it would only make him sadder. He loved every part of the circus. Even the clowns which most kids his age were terrified of. But it didn't matter, he wouldn't be able to enjoy it anyway.
Once he got home and stepped inside, he saw that there was already a plate with a sandwich and chips on it. Assuming it was his, he ate it. While he was eating it his parents car pulled into the driveway. He raced to the door to greet them and saw that his mother had a yellow envelope in her hands. His mom stepped in with the yellow envelope with his dad following behind.
"Hey kiddo!" His dad said hugging him. His mom then greeted him with a tight hug and scuffled his hair.
"What's that?" Caleb asked staring at the envelope.
His dad hesitated to talk, "Welllll, we just happened to find someone that wouldn't be able to make it to the circus. They were selling the tickets half price and we know how bad you wanted to go. So happy early birthday!"
Caleb busted out into a tantrum of joy, jumping around and hugging his parents. They hugged him back while giggling.

Caleb paused his burst of joy, "Wait when does it start?"

His dad looked down at the watch on his wrist, "Well it starts in a hour so you better hurry up and get ready if you need to."

Caleb took off to his room to put on some different clothes. After putting on a different t-shirt and a coat that was a bit too loose on him, Caleb and his family headed out the door.

Pulling into the gravel parking lot, Caleb saw Emily and her mom stepping out of the car down the row of cars. He waved through the windows, and Emily waved back with her mom putting her hand on her back guiding her to walk.

"How the hell did she afford the tickets?" Caleb's dad said.

"I don't know," his mom said with disgust in her voice, "she doesn't deserve a sweet girl like Emily."

Caleb sat back in his seat and acted like he didn't know what they were talking about, even though he very much did.

The show was about the start and Caleb and his parents had gotten very good seats close to the front. He was munching on popcorn with his parents behind him when Emily scooted past people and sat next to him.

"Hey! Your mom let you move seats?" Caleb said confused, normally her mom wouldn't let her do that.

"Yea we were sitting up high so I said I wanted a better seat. Hi Mr. and Mrs. Johanson."

His parents greeted her back, then the lights dimmed. Caleb held out his popcorn bucket to Emily, she smiled at him as the show started. Everything was amazing, they started out with the trapeze artist, then went on to sword swallowing and fire breathing daredevils. Then a man riding a elephant came out, and the elephant went on its hind legs. Everyone in the crown awed in amaze. Then, the clowns came out running and doing flips Caleb could never do. They did tricks and skits that made everyone in the crowd laugh and giggle, including Caleb and Emily. One clown got a pie smashed into their face. Then all the other clowns backed away to let another walk through. The clown was dressed in big colorful clothes with blue buttons on them. He also had a big painted smile on and had red stars around his eyes. The clown said in his funny voice, "Hello there lady and germs," the crowd laughed, "I am Mr. Pop, and I'm here to show you some tricks that not even your little old grandma could do. For this I'll need a volunteer, so who wants to come help me?"