Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel (19 page)

“Yes, I know. I think it is
funny that Gabriel has such an interest in you, though.”

“He’s making it his current goal
to aggravate me because he has nothing better to do. He’s a twit.”

“I am pretty sure that is a sign
of adoration coming from boys. At least that is how it starts on the
playgrounds.”

“Delia, he does not like me. I
think he talks to me because we’re both new. I mean, his main reason for
talking to me by our camper was to ask what my defense was for not being
Marty’s killer,” I explained.

“Oh. Well, maybe I am wrong
then. In that case, at least someone is talking to you,” she cheerfully
replied.

“I wouldn’t really mind if he
hopped on the bandwagon and decided not to speak to me,” I grumbled.

Chapter
13

I thought the next two days
would be the worst. Several people elbowed me, shoved a shoulder into me as I
walked by. When I gave them shocked looks, they just shrugged and kept walking.
Others turned their backs on me, even giving me the middle finger if I didn’t
get the first hint and lingered too long.

I gave a final try to help out
an acrobat. She was beautiful, with dark hair pulled back into a bun. Her
glittery tights had an obvious run and she looked distraught.

“Can I help you in any way?” I
asked as I approached her.

She looked up from her tights to
me, her face growing whiter underneath the bright makeup. Even as she paled,
however, her eyes narrowed and she gave me a venomous look.

“You cannot help me,” she said
with a Russian accent.

“I can go get you more tights
or…” I trailed off as her eyebrows drew together in anger, giving her pretty
face a birdlike expression.

“You cannot help me,” she
repeated. “You killed Marty.”

She spat in the dirt at my feet
and put her nose in the air. My jaw dropped and I merely watched her turn on
her heel and storm away. I had no retort, no sarcastic zinger to throw back.
Did she just
spit at me
? That was now
number one on the top five of rudest things ever said to me. That list didn’t
really stop at five, either.

After that, it got worse. They
turned me invisible. The circus group didn’t get in my face or curse me; they
did the exact opposite. It was as if I didn’t exist, the way they ignored my
every move or offer. They talked around me, whispered behind my back. Delia and
the others did their best to comfort me. Keegan walked with me almost
everywhere he could, while they defended me to anyone who said a bad word about
me. I held my head high and did my best to ignore it. There was nothing else I
could do.

I guessed everyone was too
afraid of me to confront me directly. Or maybe they didn’t care enough, which
gave me hope that no one really believed I could be capable of such things.
People still wouldn’t let me help them, but they weren’t outright rude to my
face. I only heard passing comments about how they wouldn’t let “that
Firestarter girl” help them with any props. There were a few snide remarks
about how they didn’t want to be set on fire or to watch out for my temper, but
mostly overlooked me. I decided it was better that way.

Sheffield took notice. He
decided to put me between acts inside the Big Top to help get props off the center
stage, help run sets or cages out for the performers who were running behind,
or keep an eye out on any fire-related acts. Basically, it was a job that no
one could deny or refuse my help because they had no choice. Smart man, that
Sheffield. Clearly, he wasn’t paying me to hide in my camper.

It was a bad day. Jonah’s Luck
(a show term Delia taught me that meant when everything could go wrong, it
would) struck us. No matter how hard Mabel and Lucinda tried, the weather
sucked. Drizzling rain depleted our ticket sales, strong winds made the workers
nervous about their tents, and thunderclaps made the animals grumble anxiously
in their cages. On top of that, we ran about eight minutes behind, which led to
complete disaster; it set everyone back and created chaos when artists
attempted to go out of turn. Sheffield worked doubly hard to keep the audience
happy and get us back on track. Everyone got defensive and snapped with each
other.

The clowns were sent out to
distract the crowd while we waited for the horses to get lined up outside for
the next act. We were trying the new slapstick comedy routine of a house fire
and rescue. Having only done this gag twice before, the routine was still
fairly new to everyone. The band began to play silly-sounding music. They were
so loud that no one in the audience could hear the clowns talk; sometimes this
led to some very dirty phrases that, because the band and speakers were in the
seats above us, could be heard from the sidelines where we stood by.

Keegan and Nikolas had finished
their act and rejoined us in the tent. All five Firestarters were required to
be present to control and contain the fire, since the house was literally set
ablaze. This was one of the few skits that could quickly go wrong. Nikolas,
Keegan, and I stayed in the wings to keep an eye on the audience and the
clowns, while Antonio and Bobby, the other Firestarters, got dressed up in
clown gear and became part of the gag. Bobby was a carrier but only impervious
to fire, he couldn’t actually control it. Antonio, a carrier like Nikolas,
needed a light to get started. Bobby could grab anyone who may have caught fire
while Antonio could keep the flames big enough to seem impressive, but low
enough not to scare anyone in the audience.

While Sheffield cried in
falsetto tones for help on his microphone, the other clowns piled themselves
into an impossibly small fire truck to rush out to the house. They drove around
the ring twice before spinning donuts beside the house, and when the clowns
fell out to save the day, they stumbled around as though dizzy (or in some
actual cases, drunk).

Gary, a dwarf, waddled around to
save the dog attached to a leash near the house. Henry, Bianca’s extremely well
trained Jack Russell terrier, was taught to stay until Gary came near, then
“bite” his ankle (really just the pant leg cloth), and hang on as Gary shook
him off. Once Henry let go he broke loose from his collar and ran away and Gary
waddled frantically after him. He jumped through a few hoops, where Gary
immediately followed. This got huge laughs from the children in the audience as
they watch a little person chasing a littler dog around the ring.

Next up came Eli’s bit; once he
rolled out of the clown car, he ran into the burning house, threw on a giant
wig and strategically placed a fireproof vest in the chest of his costume,
along with two ridiculously large rubber balls for breasts, to become a frantic
woman about to jump from the second story window. This was where the
Firestarters were most important. Antonio’s job was to light a flame out from
behind Eli to “blow” him out of the window, where Bobby would catch Eli and
land in a heap on the ground and ensure Eli had not caught fire. The key to
this was Jade, who would float Eli down using her gift so that no one broke any
bones. I wondered why they didn’t have Bobby play the woman and cut the
middleman, but this wasn’t my show and no way was I about to insult anyone.

I grabbed the water hose and
handed it to Jarvis since he needed to run out as Eli screamed out the window
for help. Jarvis grabbed several feet of it and ran out to greet the group. He
lassoed it around his head to throw it at Joe, but wound up getting himself
tangled in it, falling over. Physical humor was always the best way to get the
crowd to laugh and tonight’s audience, while slim, was no exception.

As Jarvis unknotted himself, the
other clowns did various things—one sat on the fire truck and read the
paper; another dumped a bucket of water on someone’s head; and Bobby would run
around with an ax, have Antonio light the wooden handle part and run around in
fright. The audience always reacted to this since they were worried Bobby would
actually catch fire. Once he put the fire out and threw the ax aside, he ran to
place himself around the window to catch Eli.

Jarvis ran over to the burning
house and I turned the hose on for the water. Antonio sent a giant burst of
flames through the window but Eli hadn’t jumped yet. I only had a second to
look at Keegan in confusion—“Where’s Eli?” he mouthed—until I heard
Jarvis yelp. We both looked over to see him shaking the hose, but no water
gushed out. Horror crossed his clownish face.

Antonio let his obligatory
second wave of flames hit and there was a giant explosion of fire. The flames
licked the edge of the ring, knocking several clowns over in their scrambled
attempts to get out of the way. Henry ran for the exit, yelping with his tail
tucked between his legs in terror. Several audience members screamed their
surprise. This wasn’t right. The hose was supposed to release water, soak all
the clowns and put the fire out. Antonio, on the opposite side of the house,
still hadn’t seen the hose malfunction and continued to let the house burn.

I realized we had bigger
problems. Where the hell was Eli? Then I heard a muffled scream from inside the
house.

We had to think fast. “Jade!” I
yelled. She looked at me with a shocked expression.

“Where’s Eli? Get him out of
there!” I screamed at her.

Jade blinked in confusion and
then took in what I said. She stood completely still, focused her thoughts on
Eli. After a moment, she turned to me. “I can’t see him; there’s too much fire
around him. I don’t think I can move him without shoving him into the flames
and catching fire!”

Keegan yelled to Bobby: “Get
Eli! Go in there and get him!”

Bobby didn’t hesitate; he ran in
and stayed for maybe ten seconds, perhaps the longest ten seconds I’d ever
known. The clowns ran around, tripping over their giant shoes in their attempts
to do something to save Eli. Unable to get too close to the flames, they yelled
at each other.

“Turn the hose on!”

“No, the hose isn’t working. Do
something else!”

“What the hell is going on?”

“Turn off the lights then!”

“We can’t! We won’t be able to
see Eli or Bobby!”

Then there was a crash through
the front door: Bobby and Eli. The door splintered open when Bobby burst
through. They were both on fire. As they fell hard to the ground, Bobby
immediately started putting out the flames on Eli’s costume. Antonio finally
saw everything going horribly wrong, so he stepped up beside the house and
tried to lower the flames. It still wasn’t working. He threw us a panicked
look. I could see the sweat and exhaustion on his face from where I stood. He
didn’t have the strength to contain it.

In fact, his fear did the exact
opposite. The fire seemed to grow larger, licked the edges of the ring and
started to extend dangerously close to the acrobats’ wires. The whole damn tent
would go down if we didn’t put a stop to it. I saw several audience members
grow alarmed. Pandemonium would ensue soon if we didn’t do something.

I couldn’t stand there any
longer. I darted out to the ring, despite Jade’s screaming protests and
Keegan’s cursing. It was clear I wasn’t a clown, but at least I was in a
uniform. Red hair flying in my face, I passed a screaming Gary and headed
straight to the house.

Rather than send out heat waves
as I had done my first day in the field, I would bring all the flames off the
house and onto myself. I sprinted past Bobby and Eli, who still lay coughing on
the ground. I ran to the closest area I could reach and slapped my hand firmly
onto the side of the wall. I started to concentrate and realized my mistake too
late—I should’ve gone inside the house so the audience wouldn’t see this.
Son of a bitch.

It was too late now as I wasn’t
talented enough to multitask, with no time to waste. I pulled the heat down to
my palm; it took more energy than I anticipated and for a second, I wasn’t sure
I could handle it. I’d only succeeded once, years ago during practice with Dad,
but I had to do something.

I gasped as my head ached. My
arm began to shake as the fire melted off the roof. It took over my arm then
began to spread quickly to my neck, torso and finally my entire body. It
probably terrified the crowd—they thought I would die. I really should’ve
run into the house. But I took another deep breath and pushed my mind harder.

My whole body hurt. It even felt
like my insides hurt; they burned with my effort to keep all the fire on me.
Heat bubbled in my throat and I gagged a little. Just as I worried my throat
would close up and I would choke, it worked. The house, while badly burned, was
no longer in danger and I again resembled the Human Torch. I heard a huge gasp from
the crowd, until I held my breath and let the fire quickly sizzle off my skin.
People were going to freak out on us.

After I made sure the fire was
out on all sides (including on me), I saw Sheffield motion to the light crew to
turn the lights off. I caught a glimpse of my crew: Keegan screamed at Bobby,
Jarvis yelled at the clowns and motioned at me, and people in the audience
stared at me in amazement. Then everything went pitch black.

Sheffield quickly shifted back
to his ringmaster act.
“Laaaadies and
gentlemen, the Donovan Circus clowns! And now for the amaaaazing Jim Taaaaylor
and his performing tigerrrssss!”

The crowd went wild. They had no
idea they had just witnessed a terrible mistake.

Chapter
14

As we hustled to get the clowns,
props, and the mess out of the ring, I could hear the audience:

“That was amazing!”

“I thought we were in trouble
there for a second! They sure let that one toe the line.”