Yo...
This goes all over the place, but I'll work it out later on... I'm writing it for a friend who didn't like Terebithia cuz it was so sad. Yeah.
Search lights drew people into the circus every night, and as the bleachers began filling up, she took her place behind the scenery. That was always where she was before he came. It was her job to cue the animals, though she always wished she could swing from the trapeze on performance nights. She practiced every day, and was improving ever so quickly. But her teacher was too old to perform, and they had no partner for her. The “they” was her parents, Steve and Karen O’Toole, the managers of the circus. At the moment, the circus was small, and they were looking for a way to bring in more attractions.
Late that night, she was writing a last page in her notebook when a knock on the door shook the trailer. She opened the door, poking her head out. A group of three stood on the steps, and it looked like they were a family.
“Yeah?” She said, her hand moving up to her ear and fumbling with something for a moment.
“Steve and Karen…”
“I’m their daughter. Their trailer is next door.”
“Sorry to bother you.”
“Yeah.”
It was two days later when she saw them again, or, well, she saw their boy. She was drawing when he approached, and quickly covered her ears with her shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, then returned to her artwork. He went around back of her and looked over her shoulder.
“Is that a dragon?”
She turned around to look at him. He was tall, with square-ish glasses and blue-green eyes. His hair was dark blonde.
“Can you say that again, please?” She asked.
“That a dragon?”
“Yeah. I have better ones in my trailer, along with maps and other creatures.” Her grey eyes sparkled as she spoke. She started to tuck her hair behind her ear, but stopped.
“You can see them if you like,” she put her pencils and paper into a bag, then stood up. She was short, only 4’ 11”, but people often told her she looked taller than she was.
Inside the trailer, he stood staring at her art-covered wall.
“You drew all this?”
“Yeah. This,” she pointed to a map, “is my world. Well, part of it. The rest of it is in my books, but Erantis is my special kingdom.”
“Your books? You mean you write as well as draw?”
“Yeah.”
“I write, too. Sci-fi, mostly, none of it’s much good, but I’m getting better. You like fantasy, I see.”
“Mmm.” They were quiet. “Seeing as you’re in my trailer, I’d better introduce myself. I’m-”
“Josephine O’Toole, 13, grade 9, right?”
“It’s Jo, not Josephine. But how’d you know?”
“My family is joining your circus. I’m Johann.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Okay, so my name is Mykel.” He grinned.
“No, about the circus part.”
“No.”
She looked skeptical. “What do you do?”
Mykel swept a goofy bow. “I juggle.”
Jo picked up some balls off her bed. “Catch!”
Sure enough, he began to juggle, then he tossed her a ball. She caught it, but threw it back.
“Sorry, I can’t juggle. I take care of the animals. And I’m learning the trapeze. But we don’t have a partner for me, so I can’t perform yet.”
Mykel caught all the balls at once. “I suggest a trade. You teach me trapeze, I teach you how to juggle. We’re the only two kids around here, we might as well get along.”
“And there is where the dragons were, before the disappeared. Only I know where they went, and it’s not quite time for them to come out yet. I visit them sometimes.”
Jo and Mykel in the animal tent, and as Jo cleaned out the animals’ cages, Mykel was pouring over one of her maps.
“My favorite place in Erantis is the lake. I go sailing there sometimes.”
“Do you like to sail?”
“I love to sail. The sea is my favorite place, but Erantis is almost completely landlocked, so there’s not a very good place to sail there.” Jo tossed some hay into the stall of the circus’s horse. Some of it got caught in her braided hair, and she pulled it out. As she did, Mykel noticed something in her ear. Jo caught him staring, and sat down next to him.
“I’m deaf.”
When Mykel was quiet, she went on.
“I was born with hearing, but when I was six my hearing went bad after swimming once. I can hear some, but not much without my hearing aids. In a way its nice, though, when I write I take them out or turn them off so I can really go to Erantis or wherever it is I’m writing about.”
She stood back up. “Soon as I’m finished, let’s go practice.”
And practice they did. In the mornings, once Jo’s chores were done, Mykel would help her juggle. Then in the afternoon, she would teach him on the trapeze. Jo learned quickly, by the end of the first week, she was able to juggle five balls rather well. She loved to juggle, and at breakfast she’d be juggling bread and bananas, apples at lunch time, and spoons and forks at dinner.
By the time the circus was ready to move on to another city, Mykel had mastered a few basics on the flying trapeze, and they had started to put an act together.
The first part of their act was the juggling on the trapeze. He tossed her the balls as she performed a series of different positions on the bar, then they juggled together until he caught the balls one by one and they started their flying trapeze act. She swung out, arching her back and flipping off of the trapeze. Then Jo stretched out, her hands toward Mykel, and just as she was about to fall, his hands would grip her wrists, and he would swing her back to her trapeze, where she would grab back on and they would continue making shapes for a minute or two before finishing. The hardest part of it all was the juggling, she was small and light enough that Mykel was able to keep her from falling when she flipped off. As the lights turned to us the night of their first performance, she nodded to Mykel, who was ready with the balls on the other side of the structure. She hopped onto the bar, and sailed out, her purply-blue-green unitard reflecting the light. All went well that night, and when they finished, Jo ran behind the scenery to meet her father and mother, who hugged her, then turned to Mykel.
“Great job, guys!”
“Thanks, Mr. O’Toole,” Mykel said, brushing sweat off of his forehead and then putting his glasses back on. “It was loads of fun.”
Mrs. O’Toole handed Jo and Mykel bottles of water, which they quickly downed, then watched the rest of the circus from backstage.
“I’d say tonight was a victory for Erantis, wouldn’t you, Mykel?” Jo asked Mykel on the way back to their trailers.
“Oh yeah. I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow night.”
“Practice at eleven tomorrow?” Jo stopped in front of her trailer.
“Yup. And we’re going to Erantis at nine, ‘member?”
“How could I forget? See you at breakfast.”
After school and breakfast the next morning, Jo hurried through her chores, then met Mykel with her map in back of her trailer.
“Where do you want to go today?”
“Let’s go flying with the dragons,” she suggested. “I’m about there in my story. And I want to get some ideas. Besides, it’ll be like last night. All I need to do is add wings to my costume, and I can really be a dragon.”
Mykel laughed.
Together they went into a clump of trees near the edge of the camp.
“Uh-oh,” Jo said. “Looks like riding dragons today won’t be so easy. One of Wiel’s men is guarding the entrance to the cave.”
“Josephine O’Toole, you fly across the circus tent on a bar, and you’re afraid of a guard.”
“There’s a net under the trapeze!” She protested.
“Well, if you want to get to the dragons before our practice, we’d better hurry and think of a plan.”
“We both forgot our weapons today, and if we went back to get them dad would pounce on me and I’d have another animal to take care of in some way or another. Or mom would have something else for me to correct in school.” Jo made a face. “We’re going to have to do without our weapons today.”
After that, it seemed that wherever the circus went, the whole of Erantis did, too. Anywhere – the bleachers, the animal tend, under a trailer, in a small clearing or clump of trees became Erantis for them.
They sat in the bleachers, resting after a tiring adventure in Erantis. They surveyed the empty circus tent.
“It’s so quiet today. Everyone’s all tuckered out from going over the mountains yesterday.” Mykel said.
“Yeah…” Jo stood up, making her way down to the wall to the circus ring, which she hopped over. Mykel followed.
“I never thought I’d say this, but am I ever glad we joined the circus. You’re a great friend, Jo, I dunno what I’d do without you.”
“I’m only almost 14. I’m not going anywhere for a while. It’s wonderful having another kid around, and you were an answered prayer. Ha, I wanted a girl aft first, but I wouldn’t have gotten on this well with a girl.”
“Yeah.” They were quiet for a minute. “Let’s get to practicing.”
They’d been doing their act with the circus for three months, and were planning to add something more to it soon. But then it happened.
Jo gave Mykel the signal to swing out, and they did. Jo flipped off, and he prepared to catch her. She had flipped lower than usual, and as he reached out, her hand stretched higher trying to grab his. She hit the net, her ankle giving out under her. Mykel dropped to the net beside her.
“You okay?”
“I did something to my ankle, I think.”
“Let’s take a break, we can practice in a few minute.”
She shook her head. “No, let’s do it one more time.”
“You sure?”
“’Course.” Limping, Jo climbed back up the ladder and Mykel did the same.
“Go!” She shouted. They began the routine, and he caught her wrists as she flipped. Mykel tossed her back to the bar, and she twisted around… and then she was falling, falling… Her head hit the bar, and Mykel watched in horror as she landed in the net and didn’t move.
That evening, as the circus performers were preparing for their performance, Mykel climbed to the top of his trailer and curled up there.
“Mykel, c’mon, son, we’ve got to get to the arena, it’s time for tonight’s show to start.”
“I don’t have anything to do. Jo’s gone.”
“I thought we could do our family act.”
“I’m out of practice.” Mykel turned his back, and after his father left, he started talking to his dragon, who had come shortly before Mykel’s father.
“She’s in the hospital. Hit her head on the trapeze bar this morning. Guess the show’s gotta go on, thought. My parents said she’s gonna be okay, but I don’t know. She’s already slipped into a coma and people often die from those. I’m scared for her. And I want to tell her I didn’t mean to drop her that first time.”
“She knows it was an accident, Mykel.”
“I guess. I’m just praying like never before that she’ll get better.”
“I need to go now, but I will tell the others to pray for her as well.”
“Thanks, Illiyn.”
Nodding, Illiyn flew off into the night, leaving Mykel alone with his thoughts atop the trailer.
The next day, he kept expecting to see her turn the corner into Erantis, eyes sparkling and braids flying behind her as she ran. He missed her laughing at a joke, the smile she offered at the end of a performance as she swept a bow, her hair falling into her face as they battled the forces of evil… he missed juggling with her, but most of all, he missed Erantis. He had tried to go, but it just wasn’t the same without her. Every now and then a dragon would come, wondering how Jo was doing, giving Mykel the news of Erantis.
While Jo was gone, he took care of the animals and re-joined his parents’ act as the juggler. If it weren’t for the ache in his heart for Jo, things would’ve been how they’d been in the old days.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Mykel handed Jo a card. “The drawings aren’t as good as yours…. But the creatures of Erantis send their greetings nonetheless. I’m so glad you’re going to make it, Jo.”
“God didn’t want me to die yet. I guess I still got a purpose her eon earth.”
“Yeah.” Jo smiled as she read the card and looked at Mykel’s drawings.
“Thanks, Johann.”
He smiled, but it quickly disappeared. “What happened, Jo? Why’d you fall?”
“I was scared, Mykel.” She shut her eyes. “After… after what happened, I was scared something more would happen. Then I was so relieved that I started turning too late… after that I can’t remember.”
“You hit your head on the bar. I ran for help, your dad called 911, and you were brought here.”
“Yeah. But I’m going home soon. Erantis must be in dire need by now, and we’ve got something to add to our routine.”
“The forces of Wiel think that they’ve got you under their control. We’ll show them, we’ve got to get another victory for Erantis soon.”
She shifted positions. “Thanks for coming, Mykel.”
“See you.”
“You too.”
“Do you see them? See the ice-crystal horses pulling the waves in?”
“I can hear their hooves, their neighing… and yes, I do see them.”
“They die when they waves go down, but they’re beautiful to look at, aren’t they?”
“But they don’t die out.”
“Of course not. More are born as they hit the shore, and they run back to the start. Jo jumped as a wave swept her up. “Isn’t it wonderful? I love the sea…”
He smiled as he watched her playing the waves, then jumped as he went over a wave, diving down beneath the surface. A wave swept over her and she spluttered, then wiped the water out of her eyes, turning her face towards the setting sun as she flicked her bangs off her face.
Mykel surfaced next to her.
“’Course, I like sailing more.”
“Aaah, look, carnivorous horses!”
“They’re not cannibalistic!”
“What? I said carnivorous!”
“I thought you said cannibalistic… but I’m thinking they think you look mighty tasty…”
Mykel flicked water at her.
