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Cirque Du Ciel

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In a universe very similar to our own, but not entirely, in a country surprisingly similar to Victorian England, in a bedroom in the second story of a lord’s estate, a girl sighed as she ran a brush through her long black hair. She was nervous. Today was a big day, and not just because she would be going to the circus. She finished brushing her hair, then pinned it into a bun, secured it with a white hair tie and stuck her white decorative chopsticks into it. After putting on some foundation over her almond-colored skin, and checking her appearance in the mirror one last time, she got up and opened her door, then smiled as she saw the twins, Jane and Jake English in front of her. “Hi, Maddie!” Jane said, waving briefly. “Are you excited for today?”

The girl, whose name wasn’t really Maddie, nodded without speaking. Maddie was the nickname that Jane and Jake called her. The closest thing she had to a name was “The Handmaiden”, which she assumed had either been decided on by her guardian, Doc Scratch, or her “adoptive parents”, Lord English and Betty Crocker. Coming out of her moment of thinking, the Handmaiden said, “We should get down to breakfast soon.” She followed the two boisterous 15-year-olds down the stairs while they talked at her about what they hoped to see at the circus.

They were both dark-haired, Jane with blue eyes, Jake with green. Jane was older than her brother by a few minutes, so she was the heiress apparent to their parents’ vast money and lands. She was the more energetic of the two, always chattering about something. She loved to bake, and had recently stopped using the bake mixes her mother’s company created, starting to make her pastries from scratch, which made them even more delicious. She had also decided on the nickname “Maddie” for the Handmaiden, which she had accepted as better than her other “names”, even though it just didn’t seem to fit. Jake was quieter, by a little. He loved movies, and his sister often teased him by calling him a geek, which he would deny frantically. He talked in a weird way, like someone from old times, using words like “poppycock” and “hogswallop” on a regular basis. He was also a very good shot for someone whose only practice with a firearm came from the few times they had gone to a firing range. An outside observer would have been jealous of the two children in the Handmaiden’s place, with them basically being nobles while she was a slave in all but her title. But she could never be jealous of these two. They were her only friends, and cared about her as much as they cared about each other. They had even helped come up with the plan they would be acting upon today.
The Handmaiden sighed as she reached the bottom of the staircase and entered the kitchen to see that someone was already there, a newspaper in front of his face and his legs crossed. The man lowered his newspaper and raised his eyebrows at the three children. “What are you waiting for, Handmaiden?” he asked when she paused. “Go make breakfast.” The girl scowled but did as he said. She had to be on her best behavior today.

As she started to make some scrambled eggs, she glanced over at the man who had raised all three of them, since the lord and lady of the house always seemed to be on important business trips or locked in their studies. It seemed that he had gone back to reading his newspaper. She bit her lip to keep herself from growling. She hated Doc Scratch. She hated his boring, non-descript face that was almost impossible to look at directly. She hated the way that he looked at her as if she was a smudge on the ground. She hated his stupid oily voice that always seemed to be mocking. And she hated his stupid green suit. Seriously, she thought to herself as she looked down at her own green dress. Who ever thought fluorescent green and white would make a good color scheme?

Finally, the Handmaiden finished cooking the eggs and they all ate. When they were finished eating, Doc Scratch looked over all of them to make sure they hadn’t smudged their clothes or had mussed hair. When he stopped in front of the Handmaiden, he murmured “Remember, trips like these are privileges,” in that amiable tone of voice that always set her on edge. “You have to be on your best behavior. If you are acting foolishly in any way, there will be repercussions.” After that short lecture, he got up, straightened his bowtie, put on his green jacket, and went out the door. After exchanging a nervous glance, the three children followed him.
The walk through the streets of the small town in which they lived in was mainly uneventful. However, here was where the first part of their plan happened, and the first place where it could go wrong. The Handmaiden couldn’t help but bite her lip as Jane knelt down on the sidewalk and called out, “Wait a sec! I need to tie my shoe!” Doc Scratch sighed, but said, “Just hurry up.” Jane nodded, and the Handmaiden knew, even though she couldn’t see it, that Jane was dropping off a few coins for the street urchins who waited in the alley she was next to. She had to stop herself from whistling in impressments. The only reason why she was able to see the coins was because she was looking for them. After about a minute, Jane stood up and ran to catch up with the rest of them. They continued on their way, but the Handmaiden could see out of the corner of her eye that the urchins had left their alley, grabbed the coins, and began to follow them.

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After about fifteen minutes of walking, the Handmaiden was panting, but they had finally reached the circus. There were a huge number of people milling around in the courtyard outside the ticket booths, and the chaos of tents behind the gate made her eyes hurt. She looked up at the banner proudly hung above the gate as they got in line for their tickets, feeling her apprehension and excitement building. Cirque du Ciel it said. The Circus of the Sky.

----

As Jane, Jake and the Handmaiden followed Doc Scratch past a security guard with red-blonde hair and shades who stamped their hands with a smirk, the girl fiddled with the ornamental chopsticks in her hair as she went over the plan in her mind one last time. The twins and herself began forming this plan two whole years ago, when they were both thirteen and she was around fourteen. Today would be the fruition of all that planning. She didn’t want to mess up. She began to go over everything that could go wrong, until finally forced herself to stop. Worrying wouldn’t do anyone any good. Either the plan would work, or it wouldn’t. She didn’t even have to worry about the plan for several hours.

Exhaling a breath that she didn’t know she had been holding, the Handmaiden looked around the main plaza for the first time. It was beautiful. There was a strange design painted on the grass in the middle, like those designs one could draw with a spirograph. All around were vendors selling popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream. Wandering jugglers and gymnasts performed for small crowds. And, in the center of the plaza, on a raised platform, stood two men in tailcoats and top hats, one in red, one in blue. The man in red had tousled black hair peeking out under his hat. He wore square rimmed glasses and had the bluest eyes she has ever seen. Tall and lanky, with pale, freckled skin, he was looking over the crowd, beaming at them with a buck-toothed grin. As she passed his platform, he looked right at her and smiled in such a welcoming way that she couldn’t help but smile back.
The man in blue might have been the complete opposite of his partner. His hair was still black, but spiky, and his eyes were such a dark brown as to be nearly black and his skin tone suggested he was Hispanic. He was short, barely five feet, and scowled at the crowd as if they had personally offended him. “Welcome to the fucking circus.” He said to the crowd in general. A woman covered her son’s ears, and the man called after her, “He’s gonna hear the words eventually. Might as well hear ‘em now.” The Handmaiden lifted her hand to her mouth to cover a grin. Then Jane was tugging her hand, wanting to go see a clown on a unicycle with wild black hair and a dazed expression on his face, and they left.

----

Jane stared in wonder at everything. She only realized that her mouth had been open for the past several minutes when Jake told her that she looked “quite dumbfounded, like a cow”. She stuck her tongue out at him as Maddie covered a smile with her hand. She glanced at Doc Scratch then, to see him as alert as ever. At least he was mainly letting them choose where to go. Sometimes he would determine their entire day in advance. It was so annoying.

After watching the antics of a clown, they entered their first actual tent. They took their seats and waited a few minutes for the show to start. Finally, a petite woman with a heart-shaped face that almost looked like a cat, and dark, curly hair appeared from a break in the tent, two leopards walking along side her. She was followed by more cats. There were lions and tigers and more leopards. She guided them through tricks without a word, only a few gestures. It was beautiful, seeing all of those cats winding together as if in some sort of dance. After that, the day passed like a blur. They went to the acrobatic’s tent and saw a pretty girl with long red hair and a surplus of freckles execute a perfect swan dive from at least a hundred feet about the water, and were close enough to see the anxious expression on the face of a Spanish man with prosthetic legs before he climbed into a cannon, to be caught by the girl from before, swinging on a trapeze. They watched a sweating man with bulging muscles lift heavier and heavier weights, including the bench they were sitting on. When they stopped for lunch, Doc Scratch even let them get cotton candy from a very persuasive Indian woman with an eyepatch and a blue bindi on her forehead. It all seemed so magical. It felt as if they were being allowed to glimpse a secret world.

----

Jake watched with rapt interest as the woman with long black hair loaded her rifle and took careful aim at the apple on the table before her. The person she had called to help her stood nervously in her place with her mouth open. Suddenly-bang!-a shot rang out and Jake saw a chunk of the apple fly off and land in the woman’s surprised mouth. He stood up to clap with everyone else, thinking I wish I could do that. Afterwards, they stopped at a small face-painting table in between two paths after Jane pleaded. They stood in line and watched as the lovely woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, and light pink lipstick carefully painted the face of the kid in front of them. But, instead of some cheesy tiger or superhero, the girl’s face was covered in intricate swirls and designs that made Jake think of graceful dancers and moonlit nights. Jane, Maddie and himself all got their face painted with a design that fitted them so well it could have been their own face. When Maddie had finally finished getting storm-like swirls painted on her face, they went off again. They saw a girl with a grin like a jackal-who was supposedly blind, but wore a blindfold “just in case there are any doubters”- throw knifes with pinpoint precision and went to two different magician’s tents right across from each other. One had a sign that the “The Magician” but “Magician” had been crossed out and someone had written “Scientist” above it. In there, a man with an obnoxious scarf did magic tricks and lectured on in a pretentious tone about the “science” behind it. The other one, labeled “The Psiionic” they all enjoyed much more. In it, a man who wore old-fashioned 3-D glasses for some reason levitated things, seemingly with his mind. After they left that tent, they noticed that the torches had been lit and it was beginning to get dark out.

----

The Handmaiden could feel her apprehension growing as the light shrunk, but she shoved into the farthest corner of her mind. She wanted to enjoy the circus as much as possible. She had already had a wonderful time, despite her nerves and Doc Scratch’s constant presence. As they left the Psiionic’s tent, she looked around and realized that something was different, besides the torches that now glowed like the fireflies that flew everywhere. It took her a moment to realize what that thing was. When she did realize, she tapped Jake on the shoulder and, quietly but precisely, said, “I think there is a new tent that is open. Two tents, actually.” Jake looked where she was pointing and squinted to read the signs in the flickering torchlight. “That one says… ‘The Seers of Light and Mind’?” By this point, Jane had come over. “What’s going on, guys?” she asked curiously. “New tents.” Her brother replied “I think the other one reads ‘Séance’. Isn’t that the thing where they talk to ghosts?” The Handmaiden nodded, and Jake added, “I want to go to there.” “Awww,” his sibling whined. “But I want to go to the seer thing.” The twins were about to start arguing when Doc Scratch came over, looking at his watch. “We have enough time to go to one more attraction, so decide quickly.” He declared his every word quiet but articulated. The three of them shared an excited glance. Almost time to execute the plan! Their eyes clearly said. Then the moment was over, and Jane and Jake were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide. Jake won, so they set off towards that tent. When they reached the tent, they were surprised by how quiet it was.

----

The crowds seemed to avoid this tent by impulse. There were only a few people standing in front, talking in hushed voices. The Handmaiden led the way, up to the tent flap, which was open but covered by a white drape. There was a small pulley next to the opening, with a hand-painted wooden sign that proclaimed “Please Pull Before Entering”. The Handmaiden read the sign, looked at the wooden pull and the string attached to it that disappeared behind the white fabric, shrugged to herself, then pulled it. She heard a soft jingle from inside the tent, and then the white fabric was pulled aside to reveal a waif-like woman in her mid thirties with wild hair down to her waist, creamy almond-colored skin, a tattered gray skirt and a white blouse. Her eyes seemed almost like liquid silver in the lamplight as she looked over their party, smiled, and said, “Come in, please.” in a hushed tone. Doc Scratch, a firm skeptic, hesitated, so the woman said, “You don’t have to come in if you don’t want to.” with a hint of a smile in her voice. Doc Scratch scowled and followed his three charges into the tent

----

The inside of the tent was cozily lit with a few large lamps, and there was a circle of cushions, all of which but four were occupied, in center of the room. Their small party took these remaining seats. Now that there was good enough lighting, the Handmaiden could see that the woman’s eyes were not silver like they had first seemed, but instead an interesting gray. She closed the white curtain gently then took a few candles from the side of the tent, lighting them with matches she drew from a pocket in her skirt. As she did this, she said, “Well, I think we are ready to begin. Hello everyone. My name is Aradia. As I hope you know, we will be holding a séance trying to contact the spirits of those who had passed on to the other world. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to contact every spirit that people here wish to contact, but it is easier if I know who I am looking for. So, before we start the actual séance, I’d like everyone who wishes to contact someone’s spirit to tell me the name of the person and how they were related to you.” With that, she began to look around the room, looking at each person in turn. Some people spoke up with a name or names. Jake asked for the dog he used to have, Halley, to be contacted. When Aradia looked at her, the Handmaiden said. “My mother? I’m sorry, I never knew her name.” Then, when everyone had either spoken or remained silent, Aradia nodded her head, and said, “Let’s get started, shall we?” then went to turn off the lamps.

----

The séance was very simple. There was no shrieking from nowhere, nothing levitated, and there was no ectoplasmic goo. Aradia simply asked everyone to focus their energies on the center of the circle, where she stood, she then began to call out the name of each deceased friend, family member or pet, asking them to come forward to speak with their son, mother, friend, owner, or whatever the relationship was. Sometimes, she would be silent for a long time, as if listening to music no one could hear, then proceed to relate the message she received. Everyone whose departed love one was contacted seemed stunned by the detail and accuracy of the message. Jake ended up with a short affectionate message from his dog that was in ideas instead of words. However, when Aradia called for the Handmaiden’s mother, a puzzled look came over her face. She tried again, and her brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, but I cannot reach her.” Was the only thing she got, just what Aradia had said to the others whose loved ones couldn’t be contacted. She knew she shouldn’t feel cheated since she wasn’t the only one who hadn’t received a message, but she was disappointed anyways.

----

They were about to leave the tent, when Aradia stopped her by touching her lightly on the shoulder. The woman’s brow had become furrowed again. “Your mother may not be dead.” Aradia told her when she turned around. “Normally when I can’t reach a spirit, it will feel like it is just too far away. But, when I tried to reach your mother, I didn’t get anything. This might have been because you don’t know her name, but I doubt it.” And, with that piece of advice, Aradia nodded a farewell and Doc Scratch led them out of the tent, a disgusted look on his face. “It is time to go home.” He announced without looking back at them, which made the butterflies in her stomach begin to flutter again. It was now or never.

----

They walked briskly towards the exit. The Handmaiden looked around and managed to pick out the three street urchins, which made her relieved. Better yet, she could barely make out their, or anyone’s faces. But if they didn’t find an opportunity to get away soon, it would make no difference. They were about to enter into the main courtyard again, when, suddenly, a large family got in between the three children and Doc Scratch. “Now!” the Handmaiden whispered, before running back where they had come from. She glanced back as she slowed down to become part of the crowd to see that the urchins had taken their place and Jane and Jake were nowhere to be seen. One of the urchins was even wearing a green dress like hers. The Handmaiden smiled, and then wormed her way to a Port-A-Potty that she had noticed earlier, getting in and locking the door. She just hoped that the other two hadn’t forgotten to note hiding spots themselves. As it turns out, they had not forgotten, and, soon, all three were making their separate ways to a place to stay unnoticed until everyone had left.

----

The Handmaiden had made it to the part of the circus that few people frequented. It seemed to her that she was safe until she felt a cold hand clamp down on her shoulder. Her blood froze.