Chapter 2 | In March the Eggy Clowns

Hector badgers the other kids down the street. He's bigger and stronger but not any meaner than the meanest ones, and today the circus is in town. “Who's with me?” he yelled, as he rode his Schwinn down the cul de sac. “Last one out’s a rotten egg!” Kids are pouring out of their homes, except for Neil, the sick boy. Neil's mom, Ciara, she's so nice, always planting in her garden, brings out homemade cookies and lemonade for the boys. “Let's go let's go let's go!” Hector calls.

Here come Victor and Charlie, the twins, on their “choppers.” Red headed Mike, a lollipop dangling like a Camel out the side of his mouth. Hector's cousin, Tulip, gets to come along because of her whittling skills. She can carve a throwaway stick into anybody or anything she wants, and outrun all the boys for at least a hundred yards. Rounding out the band is Chester “Chessboard” Fontana, the kid who years later blew up the chem lab by accident when only he was in it. Smartest kid in the room counts for nothing, sometimes.

Everybody’s on the scene now. Red headed Mike is fiddling with his bike’s brand new headlamp. Broad daylight, but never mind, his is the only bike with a lamp, and it’s probably stolen. Mike’s folks are too busy fighting to know they even have a kid, so they leave him well enough alone. “Lady and gentlemen, start your engines!” Hector cries. “The show is about to begin!”

Every year, smack dab in the middle of summer, it’s circus time. Straight across the river bridge, just a stone’s throw from where old Mr Chicksaw’s place used to be before the tornado knocked it and Mr Chicksaw down. Trains leaving the pulp mill pass right through, and depending on which way the smoke stacks are blowing, it could be raining or only just about to.

Hector’s out front, and a couple of stragglers fall in from the outskirts of Sketchtown. It’s neither raining nor about to. Summer’s here, and there’s a break in the clouds. Short sleeves and short pants for at least the next six weeks. Hector surveys the stragglers, who they only ever see at the circus. Other side of town kids whose dads work at the pulp mill. There’s Rat and Tat, who’s got a birthmark right below his left eye. Rat’s only Rat by association with Tat. They’re unrelated and inseparable. Rat mostly lives over at Tat’s house, where they only use belts to hold their pants up. Then there’s Keith, the quiet kid who can’t say his name right, which is why they call him “Teeth.”

Are we missing anybody? Besides Neil, I mean. “Someday, you’ll fly to the moon!” his grandpa would say, but that was before. Nowadays, grandpa would hug his daughter a lot and tell her it was all going to be okay.

“Hey, Rat!”

“Yeah, Tat?”

“How come your head’s so big?”

“Dunno. My daddy musta dropped me when I was a kid!”

Hector’s sizing up Rat and Tat, trying to figure them out. They’re their own club within a club, but now they’re a part of the Insiders, pedaling down to the river and the circus. “Glad you boys could make it,” he says. “There ain’t nothing like it for a hundred miles!”

“‘Cept for a hurricane!” Tulip cries. “Ain’t nothing like THAT!”

“Yeah well there ain’t no hurricane at the circus today.”

“What say we ride down the tracks?” Charlie yells at his twin.

“No way! Train comin’!”

“We got plenty of time, chicken!” But you can see the train just up ahead, and the time is anything but plenty. Charlie makes for the tracks, then changes his mind, pausing just shy. The others pull in next to him. It’s a long one, at least a mile, no end in sight. “One, two, three, four…” Victor is counting the train cars till he gets bored at six.

“C’mon, let’s go!” Hector says after about the tenth railroad car, but he’s fascinated by the clack clack clack and the different colors and shapes, especially the black tanker cars. “When I grow up, I wanna ride the rails,” he thinks. A conductor, a hobo, just anywhere on the move. The kids fall in behind him and they ride off towards the river bridge.

Chessboard’s explaining physics to Teeth, who simply nods in dull agreement. Springs and levers and opposing forces roll through Teeth’s brain, not stopping to register along the way. Teeth’s got an eye out for Tulip, not wanting to lose sight of her now or ever. She’s older and smarter than him, at least six or eight months, and she’s in the next grade up. But she told him he was cute one time when he was five, and that’s all he needed to know. “Time is travelable if you’re moving fast enough.” Chessboard demonstrates with a two finger gesture in the air. “But you’d vaporize in the first sixty seconds.”

Victor passes on the left, slapping Chessboard’s head. “You’re IT!” The twins look enough alike to confuse any grownup. They keep each other out of trouble that way. Like the time Victor let the air out of the principal’s tires, or when Charlie kissed Nancy in the pool. “Ooh look, there’s Nancy!” Victor laughs. Charlie looks, even though he knows she’s not there. “Hahahahahaha, gotcha!”

“This way!” Hector indicates a dirt road that leads down towards the tracks, where you can get to the circus by the back way. A hole in the fence, where admission is free. Another half mile, and they’re at the magic spot. Sure enough, the hole’s still there. The kids find a safe spot for their bikes and make for the fence. Red headed Mike is on lookout, and one by one, the kids pop through the hole and into the circus. Mike takes another quick look-see and scrambles through the fence. They’re in a part of the circus where all the broken stuff lies, where the clowns come to smoke between sets. If they happen to catch some kids getting in for free, the code of the clowns is to not give a damn. But it’s quiet at the moment, and nobody’s around to do any catching.

Tulip’s mesmerized by a pink horse named Lady Godiva, tied to a post. “Pretty horse.” She pets it. “You could be mine. I would feed you oats and candy!”

“You’d kill it with candy,” Chessboard smirks. Teeth’s got an eye on him and anybody else who gets too close to Tulip. He’s turned it into a full time job.

“Yeah well I bet she likes candy, and it only kills you if you eat too much.”

The outskirts of the circus are all right for the most part, especially for the older kids who come here to make out. Or maybe you ate too many hot dogs, and now you just need a break before the popcorn. Having just arrived, the kids are eager to get lost among the clowns and wild animals, the sword swallower, fire breathers, and acrobats. Hector gathers the group, “everybody buddy up,” something he learned at camp so you can find each other when you need to. “Let’s meet back here later.”

“When?” asks Rat, not used to how things work around here.

“When we’re done!”

The twins go over, and Victor tugs at Rat’s arm. “You can come with us. You too, Tat.”

Chessboard’s looking at Tulip, and she moves over closer to him. “Wanna go see the elephants?”

She nods. “I wanna go, too!” Teeth calls.

“Okay, c’mon.”

The kids, split into smaller groups, run off into the circus, leaving Hector behind. He’s got other plans. Nancy and her kid brother are supposed to be here. Their daddy takes them places in a brand new Cadillac, and now Hector’s going to find them. He’s got a ring in his pocket he saved up for months for, and today he’s going to ask Nancy to go around with him. He stamps his feet for good luck, then he runs off towards the big tents.

TO BE CONTINUED