The Circus

Another weird, artsy short story I wrote

It was a cool October day. Orange, red and brown leaves were blown around in patches as I drove through all the small towns I had to pass through on the way to my destination. I was a truck driver for a little antique shop in Oregon. I’ve been doing this for the better part of the last 20 years or so, and I never figured it was a job where anything terribly exciting would happen, but it was my job and I was satisfied with it. I had just passed through a town called Anderville about 25 minutes ago, and there was nothing but farmland as far as the eye could see. It would be sundown soon, and I figured I may have to stop in a motel for the night. That’s when I saw it. Seemingly in the middle of nowhere, there stood what appeared to be a large circus or fair, with no other signs of civilization around it aside from a few farms. I knew it was probably a mistake to check it out, but I had been driving for hours since I left our shop in Astoria, and it would be hours more before I reached the town I was supposed to pick up a shipment from, someplace called “Elk River, Minnesota”, and I figured I needed any sort of excitement before the open road drove me mad. You’d think I would have gotten used to it since I’ve been doing it for so long, but this is my first drive in a long time where I haven’t had anyone else from the shop in the truck with me, and even something as simple as conversation can make a drive that much better. I pulled up near the front of the circus, stepped out of my truck, and started walking toward the entrance. At first, no one was around, and I was able to simply walk through the front entrance, and into the main area of the circus itself. I peered into one of the tents, and I saw a trapeze artist walking on a tightrope suspended high above the ground. She was doing tricks with a balancing pole, spinning it around, tossing it in the air and catching it again. Once she got to the other side, she proclaimed “thank you, and good night!” even though there wasn’t anyone else in the tent. I quickly left before she noticed me, I figured she could have simply been practicing, but she also could have been crazy. As I slowly walked by all the tents, I looked up and saw a jet soaring across the night sky, at least it was something from reality, and I knew I wasn’t losing my mind. I saw a man in a top hat carrying buckets of ice into a tent, presumably for an act. I tried to go talk to him, but as soon as he saw me, he looked very distressed and said: “very sorry sir, but we are closed right now.” Before I could react, I found myself back beside my truck, outside the circus. I had no idea how it could have happened, but I could see from a distance that the entrance was closed, and I couldn’t enter it again. I hopped back in my truck and got back on the road. The sun was just starting to come up over the horizon, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t slept for in more than a day, but I didn’t feel tired at all. I looked back in my rear view mirror at where the circus had been, and it was gone. It had vanished as quickly as it came. Had it simply vanished, or had the whole thing been in my head? I realized at that moment that all these years on the road might be taking their toll. I pulled over, stepped out onto the side of the road, and took out a smoke to try and calm myself. I looked at the rolling hills in the distance, and I saw a large transport plane that the army would use flying toward me. I dismissed I and began driving once again. Once I finally reached Elk River that day, I made my delivery and looked at the sky. I saw the same plane as before, still pursuing me.