Tip Top

Dark circus comes to town

Tip Top

The circus came to town, it's sluggish parade of trucks and vans driven by sinister chimpanzees drew suspicious gazes from the street children. They suspected abduction so retreated indoors, determined to cause a fuss and be sent to bed early.

The circus set up shop on the village green, amongst the drought ridden pine trees. Grey tents poked up towards a greyer sky. Carnival games and clapboard thrill rides daubed with washed out images of dead movie stars were assembled by chimpanzees wearing flat claps, cigarettes hunb from their lips, they worked in silence. The big top shuddered upwards, its red and white tarnished to pink and brown, the chimps tied it down and ambled inside.

Rain fell. The ground turned to a sticky black muck, the kind that would suck your shoe off forcing you to sully a sock and look like a prick. The mud though remained virgin, untrodden by customers, the circus inspired no curiosity or excitement, the very air around it seemed dead.

When showtime rolled around a heavy set cage was pushed up to the big top, chimps shoving it through the mud on resistant wheels. A tawdry, golden curtain lay over the cage concealing its occupant. Tattered tassels at the curtain's edge dragged through the mud. One of them caught on a wheel and the curtain began to tug itself off the cage, a chimp noticed and flew into a screeching rage. As the curtain slid aside a wash of golden light shone out into the air illuminating the the big top, the chimps alerted by the screeching of their foreman leapt into action returning the cover to its original place and smothering the light. The cage finished its journey and its occupant entered the big top unseen.

The ringmaster chimp squatted on a barrel at the edge of circus ring, his red top hat at a jaunty angle strapped to his head, in his hand a loosely gripped whip. Other chimps milled about in the seating and at the edges of the ring. At some unheard signal they all looked up, a few started to beat on old drums by way of an uncoordinated drum roll. The cage was pushed into the ring and its curtain pulled away.

The glow flooded the big top's interior, lending it a glory and beauty. The source of the light was a young girl, she was crouched inside the cage almost hidden behind its thick bars. Her large eyes were closed and her thick curly black hair grew uncut around her head like a halo. The drums stopped.
The girl knew the signal but made not a sound or a movement, the ringmasters grip tightened around his whip. When the girl still refused to act the ringmaster's whip snaked out, it snapped inches from the bars but still the girl flinched.

She began to sing, without words, a lilting melody that was almost humming flowed out of the cage and into the vast stale space of the big top. The sound grew, a background thrum of contentment and connection, it rose and fell undulating with perfect rhythm, it was a song no human being could have sung.

The chimps slumped and gazed listlessly at their captive, some stuffed popcorn into their wide fanged mouths, others scratched and picked at their companions oblivious to the wonder vibrating through the air around them.
The girls eyes were still closed but her body was taut with the rapture her song caused, it built to a crescendo, her light grew with it, the big top was ablaze with fiery light now and the song became piercing and angelic. The girl had risen and stood blanket clenched to her shoulders, mouth wide, chest heaving. The song ended and she collapsed downwards, her glow snuffed out.

Bleak banners snapping in a warm wind. The circus collapsed back into its trucks and vans, the only evidence of its stay were the ruts left on the grass of the village green.

No one saw the wonder.