by Tara Ellis
El Circo de Fantasias had been critically acclaimed for decades to be the hottest traveling show since the late 70’s. The circus had been around for over thirty years and never lost steam. Throughout his career Artemis earned over three billion dollars in profit.
They had performed for the most exclusive crowds: twice at the White House for President Reagan in 86 and for President Clinton in 98. When the circus toured Europe in the early 90’s, Artemis was asked to bring his performers to Buckingham Palace for a personal performance for Queen Elizabeth II.
Every once in a while special guest stars are featured; Elton John before he had the title of “Sir” performed on his piano while acrobats danced along his melodies. The Jackson 5 performed wearing circus attire. On the wall of his personal train car, you can see a young Michael wearing a vibrant purple ringmaster getup.
The world loved Artemis’s version of the circus. Time magazine ranked El Circo de Fantasias to be the fifth greatest act of all time, two spots below Jackson’s Thriller World Tour, and four spots below Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
There was a knock on Joyce’s dressing room door. Britney popped her head in. “Are you ready Killer,” she said.
“As I’ll ever be, I want the stage right now.”
“Patience young one, you’ll have your moment.”
Britney stepped inside wearing a custom that left nothing to the imagination. Every curve on her body was flaunted. Britney was the closest living version of Jessica Rabbit.
“You look Marvelous Joyce,” said Britney.
Joyce was taken aback by the audacity of Britney’s outfit. “Thank you,” she replied. “You look like something else.”
Britney let out a laugh. “What can I say? You have your talents…” Her hand drew attention to her cleavage then she said “and I have mine.”
Drum Roll
Britney’s assistant knocked on the open door. “Miss Moore, you go on in five!”
She told Joyce “Oh! I’m wanted, tootles.” She then smacked her rear and left the room. Joyce just stood there, dumbfounded, until Britney was out of sight. She then murmured to herself “interesting,” but in a sarcastic way.
“Oh my god,” said Britney, as she walked over towards a horde of elephants, all standing in unison. “Where are my high heels?”
Her assistant showed her the shoes were in his hand.
“Drop them.”
She placed her feet in those six inch platforms while balancing on her assistant’s shoulder.
She scampered over to Maggie.
She gave her a command “Up Up!” Maggie lowered her head and set down her trunk. Britney took a seat on the beast’s nose as it curled on to her lap for security.
“Lift Maggie!” she said. Then the beast righted back up. She heard from behind the curtain Artemis doing his shtick; she was waiting for her cue.
Artemis started off his monologue. He was in the center of the stadium shrouded in darkness. The jumbo screens above him displayed his silhouette. “As an entertainer…” The audience erupted. “I create worlds… People escape… from their own reality… to venture into my imagination.”
Lights on. Everyone stood out of their seats for that famous face.
Jake and Andre were waiting backstage ogling Britney’s goodies. She knew their eyes were fixated on her, so she shuffled up her cleavage to make her breasts more extravagant.
“I think when god made her…” started off Jake. “He spent a little extra time to get her just right.”
“I agree.”
“I would give everything I had just to have one night with her.”
“Breast, thighs and ass filled with sweetness,” said Andre.
After his opening monologue Artemis finished up by shouting “We are the greatest entertainers on earth!”
A jazzy tune fills the stadium.
A dozen elephants came waltzing out on by one, single file, with scantily clad women riding on them. Britney went up Maggie’s trunk and danced on her back. Behind them was a girl hula-hooping on the beast she rode on. On the beast behind her, a lady was spinning plates. And after her, a set of twins were performing a challenging act, even without an elephant to ride. As one sat on the elephants back the other twin was balancing herself upside-down on her sister’s head; a real head to head performance.
The jumbo screens cut away from the main attractions, and focused on the reactions of the audience. The screens showed faces of the old filling with a youthful excitement; children mesmerized at the spectacles before them while lapping their tongues on ice cream cones.
The performance was concluding, the ladies then slid down the creature’s trunks and sashayed their way over to Artemis. They gathered around him and gave a dramatic pose when the music stopped.
Artemis caught a glimpse of himself on the big screen with a little after powder in his nose. (Junkies refer to this as a “coke booger”.) He turned his back on the camera to dig it out.
“Artemis,” whispered Britney. “Get your hand out of your nose.”
His hand went down. He whispered back “I’m not picking it,” he said, as he took back his position. “The inside of my nose was just itchy.”
Something wicked popped inside of Scarlett’s head. She stood on the sidelines waiting for her time to perform. A smile crept on her face and she started to chuckle. “Oh ho ho. That was too precious.”
Celia looked at her confused.
“Did I see…” Scarlett turned to Celia. “What I think I just saw?”
Celia looked even more confused. “I don’t know? What did you see?”
Scarlett headed off towards the control room saying “This is going to be exquisite.”
“What did you see?” Celia asked again.
Scarlett didn’t turn back. She snapped her fingers pointed where she was going and said “follow me!”
Scarlett barged into the control room. Celia came in after; ducking her head to enter the room.
“Hey you!” shouted Scarlett. “Where is Regina?”
Vanessa turned around, startled by the abruptness. She shook her head and mumbled out “Idunno.”
“Okay those are not words,” said Scarlett. “That was just a sound you made with your mouth you thought was articulate.”
Vanessa’s eyes widen.
Scarlett then spoke to Vanessa like an adult would speak to a child, but not in a pleasant way. “Do you know where Regina the monitor girl went off to Miss Santana?”
Vanessa spoke through her teeth, “I didn’t see her leave.”
The one Scarlett was looking for entered in the room with a sub sandwich. At first sight Scarlett said “A lot of doing nothing can sure build an appetite Regina!”
Vanessa snapped. She had enough of the disrespect. “You’re a judgmental bitch; you think you’re better than everybody else. Fuck you!” Both of her middle fingers were fully extended. “Tell your father that, you cunt!”
That didn’t really happen. But Vanessa wanted it to. She thought about it; then decided it’s not good to make an enemy related to the boss. She just stood out of her seat, held her breath and balled her hands. The expression on Celia’s face with her wide glossy eyes and trembling bottom lip was enough to suppress Vanessa’s anger. Celia had the face of a Barbie doll; long blonde hair that went to her shoulders, big blue eyes, tiny nose and fully formed cheek bones. Besides her being over seven feet tall, she had the classic all American look to her, just an elongated version.
Celia looked away from Vanessa and put her eyes to the floor.
“I just needed something to eat,” said the monitor technician. “I was feeling weak.”
“As big as you are?!,”
; From that one statement three jaws dropped and Scarlett’s upper lip stiffened.
“Play something back for me.”
Regina obeyed Scarlett. After all, she was the boss’s step daughter. Vanessa and Celia saw the hurt on the poor girl’s face. Regina wasn’t skinny, and you wouldn’t think she was fat, but she did have a little extra on her.
“I need you to rewind the monitor to what happened four minutes ago.”
The video was rewound to the finisher of Britney’s act when they did a close up on Artemis. Scarlett saw what she needed to see; she told the techie to record the video clip onto a disk. Regina obeyed. She wanted it before Artemis would tell his editors to take it out.
Scarlett left the room and Celia followed after her.
Vanessa turned around, she heard the poor girl sobbing. Regina’s eyes were red and watery. “She had no right to treat you like that.”
“Don’t worry about me,” said Regina.
Vanessa had no more words to say. She despised Scarlett, but she was also mad at herself for not being vocal. So she resumed her work.
Scarlett and Celia snuck into Artemis’s dressing room.
“What are we doing exactly,” asked Celia.
“Do you understand the concept of blackmail?” said Scarlett.
Scarlett spotted something under a dressing mirror. She walked over towards the little brown baggie and picked it up. She peeked inside. “What an idiot,” she said. “For a junkie you would figure he would hide his stash in some place clever.”
She dumped out the contents of the brown bag onto a glass table. There was a quarter of what used to be a brick of cocaine wrapped in plastic.
“I wonder how much of this he puts into his body every day?” questioned Scarlett. She put it back in the brown bag and headed out the door.
“Why are you doing this to him?” asked Celia. “Maybe we should get him some help.”
“Celia you want to be the voice of reason? No. I’m the voice of reason right now!”
“But this is just wrong. It’s more than wrong it’s evil.”
“The true nature of mankind doesn’t recognize the line of good and evil. All men have evil in them. Artemis has evil in him, all of this…” She jiggled the bag in her hand. “Proves he has evil in him.”
Celia felt truly awful for Artemis. She felt awful for his stepdaughter’s cruelty towards him. And she felt awful that he has an addiction to drugs.
“He just has a weakness; it doesn’t prove he is the Devil.”
“Artemis is the Devil,” said Scarlett intently. “Artemis is just a pussified version of the devil.”
“Well we could try to pray for him right now. Like how I try to pray for you.”
“I sold my soul to the devil, it was a crappy deal. Now I have a wild card in my hand and I intend to be square with him.”
She hid the baggy under her shirt and held it in place with her forearm. She looked at her friend with a curious expression. “How long have you been praying for me,” she asked.
“Every since I first met you.”
“Do you see your god change anything within me?”
“I pray to one day see something change in you.”
“Quit praying for me, it’s not doing any good.”
Celia remembered a certain phrase a nun taught her during her days in catholic school. She closed her eyes and recited it. “Believe me my friend I would do it again, life is all hell when you live in sin.”
And at that Scarlett asked her “How the hell are we even friends?”
Joyce and Vanessa
