Chapter 56: The Birth Of Clarence The Clown
The morning after my date with Sophie, I woke up and left early to book some tickets for the circus.
I walked up to the ticket booth to buy the tickets.
"Excuse me. I would like to buys some tickets for the circus."
"Okay. How many?"
"Fourteen."
"Big family?"
"Big family."
The seller was about to give me the tickets but someone who seems to be part of the troupe stopped him.
"Wait! The shows is canceled tonight!"
"What?!"
"Wait, what?! Why?"
It was a sudden cancelation. I don"t know why, but if it"s like this, everyone will be disappointed. I have to ask the reason why.
"Half of the performers got food poisoning. We can"t make appearance with only half of us. Even the main performer, the clown, also got sick."
"How?"
"The food catering service gave us two type of dishes. One with fish and the other with chicken. The one who eat the chicken got food poisoning."
"Well, I can"t just go back and tell everyone that the circus is cancelled, can"t I? Is all the performance canceled?"
"Well, we have no clowns. The trapeze artists lacked members but can still perform. The contortionist is fine and so is the ventriloquist. The tightrope walker also out. We have a pair performance but one of them got sick. The dancers, if we change our routine, it might work. In the end, it"s the clown that most important. Since he"s the main entertainment for circus. If a circus lacked clowns, can it still be called a circus?"
d.a.m.n, he"s right! A circus without a clown is no circus.
Hmm? There"s one performance he didn"t say.
"There"s no animal tamer?"
"Since our last tamer can"t see the difference between animal and monster, and got eaten by monster, we decided to never have a tamer ever again."
What should I do now? I can"t just go home and tell everyone the show is cancelled. I don"t want to let them down.
Wait! I have one thing I can do!
"Hey! If there"s a clown who can do multiple performance, will you let the show goes on?"
"Hmm? Of course. We loss too much money just by cancelling the shows. If the shows can go on, I will do anything."
"Then I will be the clown! I"ll practice all the performance before noon. Then if I can do it, you will continue the shows!"
"That"s a good plan, but can you do it? Doing performance in a circus is not just something anyone can do. Especially being a clown that need to make everyone laugh. Can you do it?"
"I"ll do it! If you think I"m not good enough, you can cancel the shows. As for people who want to buy the tickets, just let the booth open when you decide the show can go on! And please let me have thirteen tickets for free."
"Okay, then. You can enter the tent and practice now. As for the tickets, we"ll take care of it."
"Wait. I"ll tell everyone what"s going on first. I"ll be back soon!"
I left the booth and run home as fast as I can. The plan is changed a bit, but everyone can still enjoy the circus.
I reached Red Tail and see everyone is still enjoying their breakfast. I told them what happened in the ticket booth.
"So you"re going to be a clown?"
"Only if my performance is good enough."
"Don"t worry. We know you can do it. Don"t let the shows got cancelled!"
"I"ll be sure to make it happen!"
After telling them what happened, I return back to the circus and entered the tent.
"I forgot to tell you that I"m the leader of this troupe, Thomas. And I"m also the emcee of the circus. Not that it"s an important position though. My job when the shows began is to say who will be performing and what kind of performance it is."
"Cool. I"m Roy. A hunter."
"Are you sure you"re good enough?"
"I can show you. Why don"t you introduce me to the other members and tell them the shows might go on."
"Only if pa.s.s the test. Since there are many performers who got poisoned, you will have to do multiple performance to fill the gap."
Thomas then gathered everyone in the tent. About half of them has pale complexion. They must be the one who got poisoned. Why aren"t they at hospital?
"Everyone. This is Roy who will subst.i.tute our sick performers. Roy, everyone choose to stay when they heard that someone will subst.i.tute them. They choose to stay so they can see the one who will replace them instead of going to the hospital."
"Just go to the hospital already!"
"They won"t until you show them what you got."
"Fine!"
Without waiting for permission, I climbed up a ladder to the high platform where they put the tight rope is. Looks like this is also where the trapeze artist will start their performance once the rope is untied. The distance between the two platforms is about 20 meters. Just show how big this tent is since it also has the capacity to allow five hundred of audiences. I"m gonna ask for the seats in the front row for the others.
I reached the top and walked on the tightrope. Everyone looks amazed to see an amateur did it on the first try. But my performance is not just about walking on a tightrope.
As I reached the midway of the rope, I stopped.
Now it"s time for the real shows!
I jumped and did a backflip. But I didn"t land on the rope. I just let gravity pull me to the ground. Face first.
"What are you doing?!"
"No!"
Yep. That"s a normal reaction. I have looked around the stage and I can see that they usually put the net for the training. Because of the food poisoning, they haven"t prepared the net. So I"m falling straight to the ground.
And what everyone heard is not the sound of a body fallen to the ground. But the sound is similar to punching the ground. It"s because I stopped my fall with one hand. I"m showing how strong I really am to them. I also stopped for a few second and do a one hand hand-stand push-up a few times to show them I"m totally fine.
"See? I can perform just fine. Now you sick people, go to the hospital!"
Seeing me did a performance, the poisoned performers decided to leave for hospital. I guess them staying here shows how much they took pride in their job. I can"t hate someone like that.
"Are you really fine? That"s a ten meters free fall you did."
"I"m fine. In fact I can go higher. I"m actually an air element mage. I just made the air below me a bit thicker to slow my fall."
But even if I didn"t use any magic, I"m sure I"ll be fine. This part I didn"t tell everyone.
"I see. Then what do you think about your performance? You think you can just show everyone that falling from that height is fine? We can"t show that to the audience."
"If you"re planning to use that fall in the shows, I have an idea. By the way, which one is the clown?"
Thomas pointed at someone who"s exiting the tent. He"s about as tall as me.
"He"s in similar height as you but have a larger built."
"I see. Then I can wear his clothes. I might add some pillow so I can be seen as a fat clown. It will be funnier that way."
"That"s a good idea. But about that fall?"
"Don"t worry. My plan is before we start the show of the tightrope walker or the trapeze artists, I will fall first just like that. But below me, there has to be a stall selling clothes. I will fall to that stall and when I come out, I will wear something else. Then I will look up and pretend to realize that the net wasn"t prepared yet. That"s the signal of when you should prepare the net while I entertain the audience. How about it?"
"I see. Yeah, that can be funny. I think you just got the job and the shows will go on. But what else can you do?"
"I can do sleight of hand. And maybe I can pretend to do other performance but I fail. Then after I failed, the real performers will show how to do it right. And to fill the time that the sick performers should do, I have few things in mind. Since I have been accepted, please train me well. I"ll do my best to do my part."
"If you can do many things, you might end up playing the whole time. Can you do it?"
"I have confidence in my stamina. Even if the shows goes until morning, I can go on just fine."
"Then we will trust you."
Thomas then turned to the members of his troupe.
"You heard the man! He will do the most during tonight"s shows! You will take turn teaching him and see that he learned it so he can fill-in the blank left by other members. We will do our shows as scheduled with a special guest from the clown… Clarence the Clown!"
"""OOOOOOH!"""
Everyone seems spirited now they can perform.
But…
"Why Clarence?"
"You need a stage name. Do you hate it?"
"No. Clarence is fine."
I can"t wait to show Daniel and the others how great I am as an entertainer. Let"s hope everything will go well.
…and during lunch I have to check if the food served is spoiled or not. Can"t have the shows cancelled again because of the same reason.