by Tara Ellis
Vanessa watched on the monitors as Jake threw a roaring chainsaw at Andre. He caught it by the handle. The sound of a concerned crowd resonated all the way to the control room. Jake hoisted another at him; Andre caught it with his left hand. Scared faces were all throughout the crowd. The ticket buyers were completely scared of what a tiny little mishap could result in. Heaven forbid. Women were covering the eyes of their little ones. And then Jake threw the next live chainsaw. The crowd screamed with horror. Andre hoisted one of the devices in the air above his head then caught the chainsaw Jake threw. He tossed another mechanized tool above him and caught the one coming down. His hands kept repeating this rhythm. Along with those instruments, Andre had the crowd completely tossed. A true juggler.
Joyce walked into the control room and took a seat next to Vanessa. “Hey girl,” said Joyce.
“Hey, what’s up.”
“I’m fine. I just couldn’t watch him do this up close.” Joyce then shivered.
“What’s it like having a boyfriend that nearly kills himself on a regular basis?”
“He’s not my boyfriend. Well not yet anyway. We have only known each other for a few days now.”
“Oh so it’s a new relationship?”
“To tell you the truth it is not quite a relationship just yet.” Joyce threw her hands up and made the universal signal for I don’t know.
“Do you even like him?”
“I like him a lot. Of course. He is a real interesting guy.”
“So where are you guys at precisely?”
“Right now…. As I like to consider it, we are in lust with each other.” Joyce twiddled her fingers to make the quotation marks sign.
“In lust with each other? Well that is new. Whatever happened to friends with benefits?”
“I don’t want to say that. It’s cheesy now.”
Vanessa thought about it for a moment “In lust with each other,” she repeated to herself. “I like that.”
They both heard the gasp of a startled crowd. Andre and Jake were fine. They were just tossing back and forth machetes set on fire.
“Are you one of those girls that like guys who do really dangerous stuff?”
Joyce burst out in laughter. “How forward of a question. Let me ask you one,” she said with a voice giving way into chuckles. “You have a boyfriend?”
Vanessa smiled. For some reason she shifted her eyes from left to right before giving her answer. She said yeah but it came out like “Ya.” They both giggled.
“Was it that boy I saw you with that one time?”
“Yes. His name is Freddy. He is one of those gentleman types.”
“Oh so you like it gentle.”
They both shared a big burst of laughter with each other. And it’s good they did or else Joyce’s hairdresser Arnie would have not found her. He rushed through the doors so femininely it looked like he was prancing. “There you are silly. Artemis rearranged the performances you’re up next in fifteen minutes. We have to get you ready, let’s skedaddle!”
And she was off.
She was in the entrance way to the stage. She was hearing Artemis giving her an exciting introduction.
“As we all know,” he said. “This young starlet… within her short time with us… has been exciting crowds, charming viewers and winning the media.” He continued in a long winded speech, but it built up the crowd’s anticipation.
Andre came up from behind and surprised her. She felt his arms wrap around her. They were still hot and wet from his performance. They didn’t say anything to each other. Joyce’s mind was already into the moment before she lived it. And Andre, he just wanted to be in her presence. When Artemis said the phrase “I now present to you,” Andre let go. Joyce heard her name and ran out towards the middle of the arena.
Till this point, Vanessa’s first day working a live performance was pretty easy. Most of the performers only needed basic lighting, nothing special; the artists just wanted the crowd to see them. And for Vanessa that was easy like hitting a light switch, literally.
But when it came to Joyce, that’s when things were going to be more complicated. Together they had worked on different color schemes and technicalities throughout her routine. This was as much of a performance for Vanessa as it was for Joyce.
The arena was pitch black; no one could see what was in front of them. All of a sudden Artemis’s voice filled into the crowds ears. He was giving the introduction for his artist. A spot light hit him, showing him to the crowd. He stood on a podium and declared her one of his main attractions for the night. He shouted her name.
Joyce came sprinting onto the arena. The spotlight was following her as she flipped, cart wheeled and somersaulted her way to the center. The crowd was hit with such astonishment.
Vanessa concentrated her fingers as she was guiding the spotlight on Joyce. She saw her friend in the center, Vanessa casted a burst of lights that frenzied through the arena. Baby blues, hot pinks, and neon greens danced over the audience. Those lights came swirling in the center then switched to normal lighting.
Intense music played within the stadium that sent electricity through the people.
A rope with a knot tied at the end comes down where Joyce stood on the podium. She gripped it with one hand, then blew a kiss with the other. The rope was being raised and Joyce ascended over the arena. She was forty-five feet high; no safety net. To the crowd Joyce looked bedazzled, like a cluster of stars rising into the night sky.
Joyce started kicking her legs to generate movement. She spun around on the rope like a spinning top while contorting her body in various shapes. The audience exuberated their enthusiasm. She danced hanging from the rope, ballet for the air. She finished this first portion of her act by dangling upside down as the rope was wrapped around her leg.
She righted herself back up and then was pulled ten feet higher. She was upon her trapeze set that was installed from the rafters. Joyce had her assistants that held on to the swings. They had rehearsed when to let them go.
Joyce walked onto a walkway that went to the three different swings on her trapeze set. She walked to her right and got on the platform. The whole room fell in a soft shade of purple. The crowd didn’t know what they were about to see. They were only aware of being witnesses to something majestic.
Joyce grips the bar to her swing. She realized from one tiny slip she would be dead; or live a life wishing she was dead.
Deep breath, slow exhale.
She got rid of the thought. She was a champion and she knew it. She wanted the accolades. At this very moment she was king.
She swung off the platform kicking her legs to gain momentum. She swung back and forth to gain the momentum she needed to execute her next move. She gave a signal, a short whistle with her mouth to the assistant on the second platform to drop the bar. On the apex of her swing she let go. Her body was thrown forward, completely defying gravity. Within the air she tucked in her body and flipped backwards. And her hands then grasped the second bar.
The house floored. The young, the old, the tall and the small, everyone jumped out their seats for Joyce. An impressive act deserved an impressive round of applause. Artemis never heard anything like it; the applause to him was nearly deafening. He watched Joyce high in the air. He was dumbfounded and speechless he couldn’t utter a word, nor even think of one.
Even though Vanessa hardly knew Joyce, she couldn’t breathe watching her perform, literally; Vanessa held her breath the entire time.
Joyce sat on the second bar riding it like a children’s swing set. Between her and the third bar was a hoop. She was planning to soar through it reaching the last bar. This was a new trick for her. During rehearsals she only landed it fifty percent of the time. She hadn’t truly perfected it yet. When she’d fallen she would land on a net. But at this mo
ment it was show time, she knew no nets were allowed. She had realized this was a trick out of her league. “I should have given myself more time,” she said to herself. “I should have taken this scene out.”
Her thoughts were in a jumble. It was too late to pull out now, it was do or die. People who quit never get anything done in their lives. I am not going to quit. I have an opportunity to turn my dream into a reality.
She sat off the bar and swung herself back and forth. She built up momentum and soared through the hoop. She made it through; all she now needed was to catch the bar. But she didn’t.
The audience shrieked as the star of the show was falling to her death. As the ground was coming at Joyce she thought for sure she was going to die.
She hit the floor and sprung right back into the air. It was a trampoline.
Laughter was everywhere. Joyce felt like everyone was laughing at her. She saw children holding their guts bursting with chuckles. She saw men pointing at her and flapping their gums, she figured they weren’t saying anything nice. The big screens showed a close up on her face, she looked so confused.
Artemis spoke into a walkie-talkie. “Alright boys,” he said. “Save her.”
A miniature Volkswagen arrived on the scene with a decor of colored dots. Then the ringmaster hopped out, went to the podium and sung a hearty tune. Clowns scampered out of the tiny car to act out the ringmaster’s rhymes; turning the lyrics into comic humor.
Joyce knew what this was, they were providing a distraction so she could walk off, without being shamed by the crowd. And that is exactly what she did. She walked off the arena, went backstage, making her way to her dressing room.
Andre tried to walk with Joyce but she told him she wanted to be alone. He watched her walk away from him. Britney said “Just give her a minute.”
“But I was just trying to talk to her.”
“If you respect her you will give her some time.”
Joyce went to her dressing room. No one was there so she sobbed till her head hurt. She cried hard, she made the ugly face people make when they are really upset. She was in the room punishing herself mentally for being a failure. “I should have died right there,” she thought. Joyce really wanted to succeed. She gave it her all and it still wasn’t good enough. Failure is always painful for those who are ambitious.
When Vanessa saw her friend fall she leapt out her seat, thinking she was going to die. It turned out that wasn’t the case. She now allowed herself to breathe again. She saw Joyce, from the control room, walk of the arena with her head down. “Oh she must be so embarrassed,” she murmured.
Vanessa watched as the crowd’s excitement rise despite the blunder. The number of clowns continued to grow from the minute box car. The jesters were dancing and singing along with the ringmaster as he continued his poem on the podium. Every word the ringmaster rhymed the clowns would bring to life with their performance.
Black Mail
