Four

Fanny woke up to a wet pillow and a screaming headache. She didn't know what time it was, and didn't want to. The light streaming through the crack of the hastily pulled together curtains pierced her eyes, causing tears to form. She quickly wiped them away. The house was quiet. Only the sound of the creaking joints signified the presence of humans. Fanny sighed and pulled off her sheets. No use waiting for the dreadful feelings to pass, might as well go do something productive. The heat sent waves of sweat down Fanny's back, even though she was only wearing her sleeping gown.

Downstairs, the dirty plates were all piled in the sink, with no food anywhere. Fanny sighed. The fridge only had one egg left, with a chunk of butter from god knows when. The boys never leave anything. Closing the fridge door, she trudged back upstairs, attempting to sleep the entire day, not caring if her mother yelled at her for not doing her chores. Oddly, no one came to call her, or bothered to see what she was doing. She was abruptly pulled out from her semi-conscious state by the door bell being hit five times a second. Fanny, knowing it was Julie, quickly pulled on her yellow blouse and navy blue jean skirt, not risking opening the door in her sleeping gown and being pulled out like that.

Julie, red-faced and yappy, indeed pulled Fanny out the second the door was opened. Fanny looked up at the cloudless blue sky as she was dragged along like a rag doll.

The Circus didn't have as many visitors the previous year, probably because most folks were too weary of the new heatwaves to come outside. The unhappy clowns were passing out balloons to eager children, while whipping the dripping makeup off their faces. Give them another hour and they'll be bald guys in silly suits. Julie suddenly stopped in mid stride, causing Fanny to crash face first into her back.

"Oh my gosh, I want to see that!" Fanny followed the direction of Julie's finger to the big red poster on the side of the bathroom building. In the middle of all the red, stood a bear on it's hind legs with a green party hat, and a masked trainer stood next to it, carrying a whip like a cigarette.

"The dancing bear show?" Julie nodded vigorously, pulling Fanny towards the poster. The stench of the outhouse was unbearable, but something about that trainer attracted Fanny. She stepped closer to it. He looked familiar. Before she could think, Julie rushed away, again dragging Fanny along. The line for the show was long. Fanny couldn't even see where they were going behind all the tall guys. Julie was talking about some gossip she had heard while at the salon; Fanny droned her out, and her mind wondered back to the poster. The trainer looked male, but he was so skinny, unlike her two beefy brothers. She then thought about yesterday and the boy she had spied on. He and the trainer shared some resemblances. They were probably the same person. She looked up to see the same pink and purple tent she ran out of yesterday.