As the ringmaster I see it all, even the stuff no one else notices, they say everybody wants to be in the circus but for some it is an impossibility, take Tobe over there, mute since he was six years old
A blond boy sits on the front row looking at the clock face ring, in his hand a camera, he points he clicks but he doesn’t speak, he never speaks or at least he has never spoken not since it happened.
Dean was the older brother , he was there to watch and record a hundred agonies in black and white from which the editor selected four or five for the Sunday supplements. The war photographer fell at the front, for Tobe the camera Dean left him was everything, well not quite everything, there was also Elle.
Elle was a picture, seventeen and beautiful inside and out, the youngest daughter of the flying delini’s. although she didn’t realise she was Tobe’s muse, his Camara had captured that beauty a hundred times. His camera had captured everything, every smile , every hair, every bruise.
Bernard Delini was an angry man, angry with life, angry with the circus but most of all angry with Elle, He needed strong hands to hold onto the swing and strong hands were no match for a seventeen year old girl. Toby observed from the shadows, he said nothing, there was nothing to say.
Tonight Tobe was at ringside, he sat there with his camera in his hand, tonight he would protect Elle, tonight it would stop.
Bernard and his brother Maurice did this every night of the week, there timing always impeccable, it had to be below them only the clock face of the ring, it was building up to the big finale , the triple spin. A drum roll as the audience hushed, Bernard t
Let go of his swing and spun has he had a thousand times before.
Tobe pointed the camera, he new his timing had to be spot on, the flash of the bulb was pointed straight at Bernard, it lasted a second but that was all it took, whether he was distracted, blinded one will never know but the link of arms with Maurice, something they did ever night did not happen this night. The crowd gasped then screamed as Bernard hit the floor of the ring, blood and sawdust tracing lines on the clock face. Tobe said nothing.
Bernard lay on a bed in the back tent, still alive but unable to move, the doctors prognosis had shattered his will as powerfully as the floor had shattered his bones. it wasn’t just that he would not fly again he would not walk, left alone with his thoughts he heard the tent door open, Tobe walked up and bent to his ear “ I see everything, that was for Elle”
They say everybody wants to be in the circus, for some people it just is not possible any more.
