FFF#4

The Day I Joined the Circus.

I ran and I ran as fast and as far as my feet would take me.
Thoughts pounding in my head. “Where is dinner?” “Did you do laundry?” “Clean this!”. I couldn’t take it anymore. I yelled and stamped my foot. “You do it, why is it always me!” that only got me sent to my room to take a nap. A nap? Me? I’m to big for naps.
I went to my room all right. I slammed the door. I stomped to the bed. No one ever listens. It’s always about them and responsibility. They don’t appreciate me. They don’t love me. I’ll show them, I thought, I’ll run away!

I took my pillow case and stuffed it full of clothes. I went to the door, but could hear them talking in the living room. I climbed out the window instead.
I didn’t know where I was going to go yet. I thought maybe I would find a new family in pink house. I looked and looked, but didn’t see a pink house to live in. I was starting to get hungry. I had not taken any food with me. I checked my pockets, but I only had five dollars.
I kept walking and finally found a small diner. I sat in the back corner facing the door. I didn’t want them to sneak up on me. I knew they would be looking soon. As I finished my food and was about to leave; I saw the sign.
The circus was in town. I had always wanted to join the circus. I wanted to be one of the bareback riders. To fly around the ring on horseback doing tricks. People cheering and clapping. I decided right then that was where I would go. I would join the circus and travel and be a bareback rider. Yep, that was the life for me.
It was night before I finally found the circus camp. The last show was already over. Nobody was around, so it was easy to sneak on to the grounds. I could hear the lions roaring. The chimps and the monkeys screamed every time the lions roared. The smell of hay and animals mixed in the night air.
I was so tired. I had been running all afternoon. I was hungry again, but had spent all my money at the diner. I just wanted to find a place to sleep. I came to the big cats area first. I slipped into the tent. Huge cages held the cats. Lions and tigers and leopards all pacing in their pens. I looked for a place to sleep. Nothing.
The next tent was the primates. It smelled to bad to sleep in there. I left quickly. I was hoping to find the tent with the horses. I knew they would have hay, I could sleep on that.
I didn’t think I could stay awake much longer. My legs were so heavy. My stomach kept growling. I missed my family, but when I started to cry I reminded myself how mean they were to me.
Finally I found a stack of hay. I didn’t even look around the tent. I lifted the flap and, there it was, a huge pile of hay in the middle of the tent. I dug a hole into the hay, crawled in and pulled some back over me. I don’t remember falling asleep.
The elephant found me. I woke up to something breathing on me and it stunk. I didn’t know what it was at first. I was to scared to scream. A long grey thing that looked like a snake was moving around my face. I lay as still as I could, trying very hard not to breath. Then I heard voices. It sounded like Cindy. That was Cindy’s voice, and the next voice was Paul. I listened a little harder. I heard Dale’s voice too. I had been listening so hard I didn’t notice the hay being pulled off of me by the grey snake thing.
I didn’t know what had happened until I felt cool air on me. I was able to see that the grey snake thing was a trunk, attached to an elephant. Then Cindy came into my view.
“MOM!” she said, “Where have you been? We looked all over for you. Why did you run away?”