Part Two
The days and weeks and months passed, and to Mr Bradbury’s great surprise, with their passage things around the bigtop began to move in a new direction. For on those morns when she’d slip passed his tent, Luella began to bid him a greeting. And on those dark nights, after the raven flew through the big top’s musty, fecal, and sawdust-smelling air, she
would make it a point to have a nice chat with Mr. Bradbury about the evening’s shocks and surprises, though they were always the same as the night before.
Then he offered for her to accompany him back to his tent for a chat, business of course, and possibly a nightcap, and then he offered again, and again…. Eventually of course such became expected, and they would come rambling through the fairgrounds to Mr. Bradbury’s tent, at which point the fire breathers and acrobats, in neighboring tents, would join the drunken clowns around the fire. For, after a few glasses, the couple found more pressing matters to attend to than business.
They found, that even after the fire was quelled and the lion was asleep, the flashing lights retreated to the shadows, the greatest show on earth wasn’t quite over after all, with time they began to wonder if had even begun before. For when she looked in Mr. Bradbury’s eyes, there she thought, was the greatest thing. They burned brighter than the flashing
lights and captivated beyond the smoke and mirrors. Within him was the greatest unexplainable phenomena, the most extraordinary wonder, across all seven seas, he fulfilled every wondrous promise his circus pledged, though the mold-grown big top, and sleight of hand magicians, pickpockets, and humiliated “freaks” she played cards with on off days,
never did. The circus hadn’t any magic, she’d known that long ago. Yet, he seemed to….
With time, the spell only grew deeper, as Luella began to close her eyes to the divine, and follow the dirt road to illusion, until one day she looked down to find a ring round her finger. Only a couple weeks later, the two were married, and she became the first lady of Bradbury Carnival Company.
* * *
For the first time, someone had diverted her attention, and the current had broken, and for the first time, the water seemed unfit to drink. The raven descended from her clouds. It wasn’t sufficient just to be. The time had come to stop dreaming. After all, now Luella had a future.
For years, her heart grew harder. She didn’t dance anymore. The sound of her voice never met the ears of God, because the song didn’t reverberate in her ears. No one wept, no one knew when she’d entered a room.
After marrying, Luella didn’t work as an acrobat any longer. With time, she wouldn’t perform at all. Nonetheless, business boomed. Her gowns became exquisite. Her tent became a three-story house, and an automobile, and fancy hats, and cocktails instead of cheap liquor. Hors d’oeuvres over peanut shells, and God forbid she play cards with the
members of her husband’s freak show. Yes. While once I told you I couldn’t call Luella free; now, at this time, I can tell you with certainty, that she was not.
It became rare she ever visited the fairgrounds. Bradbury farmed out the role of ringmaster to someone else. He was at last living the life he’d been chasing, a world that shimmered with the promise of more to lose, a wife, a house, a motorcar, and money coming in by the cartful. Who knew that deception worked so well?
Mr. Bradbury watched his wife intently. He’d seen how she’d once been. What a hussy. The sort of wife he wanted would be civilized, and on that point, Luella never fought him. No matter how perplexing it may seem, she loved Bradbury. Deeply. And love changes a person. Those in love can and will do things that those which are not, aren’t capable of. People in love are willing to sacrifice, sometimes, even themselves. People in love often have smoke in their eyes, they are blinded. In some cases, such as Luella’s, the blind themselves. You see, when another fills all the space in your heart, they can eclipse you.
Luella born of sunshine, born of moonrise, was no longer larger than herself, she was small, she was locked away. She was told to shut up, to stay away. He loves me this way. And so it was that Luella was born again, as someone she didn’t wish to be.
Lies dear reader. Lies are nasty things. You must remember that. Yet all in the dark will come to the light, even yourself.
. . . to be continued . . .
