The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott Read Free Book Online Page B

suddenly. ‘I don’t like the ’prentice, Gonko, I don’t like him!’
    Doopy wasn’t playing. The apprentice had rubbed everyone up the wrong way and reeked of sabotage waiting to happen. Not good. There were enough enemies on the showgrounds without one in your own crew.
    At that moment the apprentice appeared at the tent doorway. He slunk in with his shoulders slumped, the fortune- teller’s ball of glass in his hands. Gonko gazed at his sullen slinking gait with distaste. The apprentice’s every movement seemed to say: I’m waiting until your back is turned.
    Gonko looked him in the eye. A smarter performer than the apprentice would not have met that gaze; he stared back insolently. Gonko rushed to his feet in one fluid motion, to make him flinch. It worked. With extreme gentleness he lifted the crystal ball from the apprentice’s arms, set it down on the table and said, ‘Get out.’
    The apprentice slunk back the way he’d come, slowly. He waited by the door, just inside it, deliberately disobeying to make the clown leader repeat his order. This also was unwise. Gonko stood and reached a hand into his pocket, for he’d suddenly decided to kill the sullen clown where he stood. But at that moment the apprentice crept out.
    Staring after him, Gonko fingered the blade he’d pulled from his pocket for a moment, then he spat and set it down. Goshy made a beeping sound. Expressing mild disapproval, Gonko supposed, but the only one who knew for sure was Goshy.
    Candlelight gleamed on the crystal ball’s surface like a single yellow eye. The clown leader placed his palm on the cool glass and muttered the word, ‘Jamie.’ The glass fogged up like someone inside it was blowing smoke at its smooth surface. Gonko’s watch said Jamie had fifteen minutes to go.
    I’ll cut him a little slack, time-wise , Gonko thought, as he considered the young man. Beneath Jamie’s attempt to live a rational life where all was clearly marked and set in order, there was a wellspring of eccentric behaviour waiting to be tapped, which Jamie seemed instinctively at pains to keep from spilling over. It looked to be a daily battle. And the more fight he put up, the more impressive the results when the guy either temporarily cracked, or permanently bent. No one bends further than someone made of completely straight lines.
    The glass cleared, and there was the new recruit. Gonko figured the stalking had put him within a hair’s-breadth of nervous breakdown, and he was pleased with the campaign; the timing had been perfect, and now the guy would be just about ripe. The other two clowns crowded in beside their leader and bent over the glass ball. Goshy gave a small toot, best signified as ‘Oo.’ There was no telling what it meant — perhaps a signal of recognition as the tall redheaded young man strode over the glass ball’s surface. ‘Hush, Goshy,’ said Doopy to his brother. ‘Goshy, hush. He’s starting.’
     
    Queen Street Mall was packed with tourists enjoying the heat, and locals wishing they could escape it. The first load of Monday’s evening commuters were trudging to the train station in their suits and ties. At 4.02 there was a disturbance in the crowd and a hush came over Queen Street as people turned their heads. A noise sounded from the top of the mall, so loud and piercing it was only vaguely recognisable as a human scream. Directly after it, a cluster of explosive noises like machine gun fire came fromthe same direction. Everyone stared; at the top of the mall a cloud of grey smoke was drifting languidly skyward.
    The scream came again, shrill and drawn out, filtering through the crowd: ‘There’s a BOMB! THERE’S A BOOOOOMMMMMBBBB! ’
    Five years with terrorism in the headlines had taken their toll; everyone froze and panic swept through the crowd like a ripple through water. The popping bangs continued. Two police jogged cautiously towards the smoke, hands on their belts. Suddenly, bursting through the