Jessie relaxed a little, releasing her grip on the cat. “You better not. We have to look out for each other, especially at parties. Anything could happen.”
“What happened?” Harry asked as he entered through the back door. He didn’t see Hannah until he looked up from the dog he was walking. “Oh. Hi.”
“Hi,” Hannah replied, wishing the ground would open up at her feet and she could fall into an alternate universe where awkward didn’t exist.
Harry ushered the dog into his cage and secured the door, earning a pair of sad eyes cast his way from the fluffy animal. “I’ll just grab what I need and be outside.”
Jessie stood motionless, staring between the two of them, back and forth. “Did something happen between you two? You’re both acting especially weird.”
Hannah couldn’t find any words to say, her mouth was completely frozen in place. Where was that portal when you needed it?
Harry was no help. “Maybe you should ask Hannah, because I have no idea.”
The sadness in his voice and the resigned set to his shoulders stabbed Hannah in the heart. She was the reason he wasn’t happy and that only made her unhappy too. She thought he sounded like he had given up. Perhaps he had decided she wasn’t worth the effort after all? Perhaps she had lost her chance of getting back together with him?
That thought made her impossibly sad, much more so than she had ever expected. It was funny, the way you only really discovered what you wanted when you no longer had it. Hannah suddenly really wanted Harry to try to get back together with her. She wanted those stupid little love notes, the flirting, the cute little glances, she wanted it all. And now she wouldn’t get it anymore. Ever.
Harry grabbed the lid of the snake cage closest to the door as Hannah watched on. Jessie went back to tending to the cat, placing her on the bench and brushing her long fur. From the outside, it looked like a normal day. Hannah wished that was the case.
As Harry pulled the lid away from the cage to place it on the bench, he caught the corner, causing the entire cage to topple to the ground. Hannah watched it happen, almost like it was in slow motion. The glass cage, the snake, and everything else went crashing to the ground – right on top of Harry.
She lunged, trying to stop the fall. It was no use, the glass shattered into a thousand pieces with a loud crash. Jessie screamed, grabbing the cat and running out of the room.
“Get the snake before he escapes!” Harry called out, trying to get out of the glass without causing more damage to himself.
Hannah panicked as she watched the green snake slither toward the door. It took her two seconds to realize Harry was talking to her, that she was the only one who could grab the slimy thing.
“Hannah, quick!”
She didn’t have time to dither any longer. She stepped around the mess and made a jump for the snake. She frantically tried to remember what Harry had shown her about picking it up. Something about grabbing the head and then the body?
Fighting all her instincts to let it go, Hannah grabbed the head. The snake objected, trying to get out of her grasp. She held on, picking up the heavy body so it couldn’t go anywhere.
Holding the serpent away from herself as far as possible, Hannah had no idea what to do with the thing. She desperately wanted to put it somewhere out of her sight. “What do I do? What do I do? Ew, ew, ew.”
“I’ll take it,” Harry offered, now standing behind her. She eagerly waited until he took the snake from her, unable to move.
Harry placed the snake in a free tank before turning back to the mess on the floor. Hannah was still motionless, not believing she had actually picked up a snake.
“You did really well,” Harry mumbled, grabbing a broom.
Hannah picked up the dustpan and pulled the garbage bin closer. “I touched a snake.”
He laughed. “You did.”
“It didn’t bite me.”
“George isn’t a big biter.”
“I picked up a snake,” she repeated, wondering if she would be able to do it again. Considering she didn’t lose an arm or anything, perhaps she could.
Chapter 12
“You’re such a cute little pain in the butt, aren’t you?” Hannah cooed, watching the monkey grip her fingers through the cage.
He had recovered well from his injuries, the vet was satisfied he was ready to go home – wherever that was. Nobody had come forward to claim him, despite Cory’s attempts to get the word out that he was there.
“Where did you come from? Who owns you?” She asked, wishing the monkey could talk. It would make their lives so much easier if all the animals could tell them where their homes were.
The monkey gave her a meaningful gaze with his big brown eyes. He was still a little groggy with the pain medicine but he seemed alert enough. Hannah had been keeping him company. She figured he must come from somewhere there were a lot of people because when he was lonely he started screeching. The noise agitated all the other animals – especially the dogs. The snakes didn’t much care.
Growing hungry, Hannah fished around in her handbag, trying to find the mints she had thrown in there three days ago. It wouldn’t be much but it would tide her over for another little while until lunch.
She found the mints and popped one in her mouth. At the same time, she noticed the flyer for the circus. “Clowns are so creepy,” she muttered while the happy, heavily made up faces of the clowns stared back at her.
She read through the flyer:
Big Brother’s Big Top Circus. Family Fun for all.
Come see the clowns, the trapeze, the animals.
Come one, come all, to the biggest show on earth.
Hannah recalled the last time she had been to a circus. She was only eight years old at the time, her parents were still together, and her grandmother went with them. One of the ponies bit her, a clown sprayed water from a flower on his lapel at her, and the hay made her nose itch.
Among all those not so perfect memories, she could recall that there were a lot of animals travelling with the circus. There was an elephant, a tiger, and a monkey. Hannah looked from the flyer to her little friend, could he be from the circus? They hadn’t reported any animals missing that she knew of, but maybe they hadn’t noticed?
“Hannah, I need your help,” Cory called from reception.
She stuffed the flyer back into her handbag and promised the monkey she would return later for another visit. She found Cory wrangling with a giant spider. It was delivered by a pest control worker in an ice cream container.
“Ugh, spiders now?” Hannah moaned. “Why didn’t they just let it go in the woods or something?”
Cory seemed completely unaffected by the creepy crawly – with emphasis on the creepy. “He’s a Golden Orb spider, not native to this country. If he’s released into the wild then he could play havoc with the eco-system.”
“What are you going to do with him?”
“Find his owner and return him, just like all the others,” Cory replied, mesmerized with the eight legged freak. Even in a sealed container, the spider was too close for Hannah’s comfort. It had a gigantic, bulbous body striped yellow and black like a bee. Her skin crawled at the sight of it.
She avoided the creature until lunchtime, finding things to do everywhere else in the shelter. She couldn’t wait until Jessie caught a glimpse of the thing, her shrieks would probably be heard right across town. She hoped she would be there to see it.
Hannah finally made it to lunch, sitting outside in the sun under the shade of a tree. She pulled out her homemade sandwich and munched on the peanut butter and jelly. She had to put all images of the giant spider out of her mind in order to be able to eat.
She saw Harry coming her way and inwardly groaned. He was carrying a brown paper bag which sparked her curiosity. He caught up and sat beside her on the grass.
“I got you something,” Harry grinned, holding up the bag. Hannah took it reluctantly, despite dying to know what was inside.
S
he opened the bag and peeked in. It was a perfect pink cupcake with chocolate sprinkles on top. “You got me a cupcake?”
“I know you don’t like pink, but you do like strawberry flavor so I thought it might be okay.”
The act was sweeter than the sugar in the cupcake. Hannah couldn’t help but smile at the gesture. “It’s perfect, thank you.”
“You’re perfect, it’s the least I could do.”
Right at that moment, Hannah wanted to throw her arms around Harry’s neck and cling to him like moss to a rock. She didn’t even remember why it was so important to stay away from him. Perhaps he wasn’t done with trying to win her back after all?
To stop herself doing something stupid, Hannah changed the subject. “Did you know there is a circus in town?”
“Yeah, out on the Parklands, I’ve seen the big tent going up.”
Hannah pulled the flyer out of her handbag and passed it to him. “They have animals there. I was maybe thinking they might be short a monkey.”
Harry nodded eagerly. “Every circus has a monkey, they ride on the elephants, right?”
“I guess so,” she giggled at the imagery. The monkey in the circus she had visited didn’t ride on the elephant but she had seen it on television and in movies.
“Do you want to check it out after our shift? We could go for a bike ride, you know, like we used to?” He looked so hopeful there was no way Hannah could turn him down. Not after running out on him at the bonfire party. And if meant finding the monkey’s rightful home, it would be worth it.
“Sounds like a plan.”
His face burst into a smile. “Or a date?”
“It’s not a date.”
“It could be.”
She smiled, shaking her head at his eagerness. He didn’t miss any opportunity. “It’s not.”
Chapter 13
The wind wasn’t as warm as it once was, signaling that summer was winding down for the season. Hannah hated the thought of summer ending, but at least that would mean going back to school. She could immerse herself in her schoolwork and not be so obsessed about boys anymore. That was the plan, anyway.
Harry and Hannah pulled up at Alex Park, the largest parklands in all of Mapleton. Instead of the normal grass and open space, a colorful circus tent was erected. Trucks and wagons circled the perimeter, all bearing the logo for the Big Top Circus.
“This thing is huge,” Hannah muttered, trying to take in the dizzying colors and canvas building.
“This thing is amazing,” Harry corrected her. They jumped off their bikes and left them at the curb to investigate further.
The circus was closed, their first performance wasn’t due for another two days. Strong crew were still trying to assemble the few rides they kept outside the tent.
As Hannah walked, she was extra wary of what could jump out of the tent flaps. They were in clown territory now, the frightening creatures could be anywhere. They liked to scare kids, she was sure that was their mission in life.
Harry, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying every minute of it. His eyes were glued open, held wide in awe of the closed stands and bright posters.
“Once, I went to the circus with my grandpa,” Harry started happily, his hands waving around with excitement. “I was picked to be the magician’s assistant. He put this hat on my head and then produced a rabbit… on my head! It came out of nowhere.”
“That sounds… interesting.” She wanted to say disturbing but managed to refrain herself. “You’re really into this whole circus thing, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, how could you not love all this?”
His enthusiasm was strangely infectious. Hannah found herself unable to come up with one good reason why she shouldn’t like being there. She started giggling. “I guess it’s hard to not like it.”
Harry continued his searching around, his eyes darting all over the place. “I hope there are clowns here somewhere.”
“You actually like clowns?”
“They’re always happy,” he replied, like it should have been the most obvious thing in the world. “Hey, there’s some people. They look important, they might be who we need to speak to.”
He pointed to a group of three men, all deep in discussion. The thought of interrupting them filled Hannah’s stomach with dread. She refused to move again until two of the men left, leaving only one behind. One she could deal with. She heard the other men call him Boss. They hurried over before he could disappear behind the red canvas flap.
“Kids, you can’t be here,” he said sternly. His pants were being held up with old fashioned red suspenders, they had to stretch to reach over his belly. When he talked, his stomach jumped up and down. “This is private property. The show doesn’t open for two days.”
“We’re sorry to bother you, sir,” Hannah started. She looked at Harry, nodding that he should take over. The man gave her the creeps.
Harry stepped in. “We’re from the Mapleton Animal Shelter, we were wondering if you were missing any animals recently?”
The man’s entire demeanor changed in the blink of an eye. His scowl turned into a look of disbelief. “You have my animals?”
They exchanged a glance, Hannah hoped they were talking about the same animals. “We’ve got snakes, spiders, lizards, and a monkey. Are you missing any of those?”
Boss started nodding his head. “Three snakes, an iguana, two frill-necked lizards, five spiders, and a Capuchin monkey. They’ve all been missing for over a week now.”
Hannah did a quick inventory in her head. They had everything except two of the spiders. She shuddered to think where the missing two had ended up. Hopefully nowhere near her house.
“We have most of them,” Hannah answered. “How did you lose them in the first place?”
Sadness washed over Boss’s face. “We were in the next town over, putting everything away to come here. In the middle of the night, a group of people broke in and let all the animals go. They accused us of mistreating them. We managed to find most of the animals before they could get too far but some of the scamps got away. We’ve been worried sick about them.”
“Why didn’t you report it to the police?” Harry asked.
“We did, back in Huntsville. They didn’t think it was an important issue so just filed our report. I left some of my crewmembers there to continue the search.”
As much as Hannah believed the man was sorry the animals went missing. She was still concerned about why they had been released in the first place. “Are you mistreating the animals? Were the group right in their accusations?”
Boss slid his fingers underneath his suspenders, holding them out like it was a habit to keep his hands occupied. “Of course not. We love our animals, they are our first priority in everything we do. Most of them have been rescued from terrible conditions. We give them a second chance at life. If they don’t enjoy being in the show, we retire them and they live out their lives with our families back home.”
“Why did they accuse you of mistreating them then?”
“Some people see the circus and assume we don’t care about the animals. That’s true about some, but not us. We never even have wild animals that shouldn’t be caged up like lions or elephants. Reptiles, horses, and the one monkey who has been with me since it was born, that’s all we have. They’re part of the family.”
Hannah remembered seeing reports on news programs about animals in the circus. Many groups had been trying to get them banned for years. She agreed with Boss, all wild animals didn’t have a place in the circus. However, she included monkeys in that category too. But considering how well looked after the little guy was, she might make an exception this one time. Just this one time.
“When can we collect the animals?” Boss asked eagerly. “Everyone is going to be so excited to know they’re safe.”
“You can come by tomorrow,” Harry replied, giving him the address. “Cory is the manager, she’ll have some forms for you to sign.”
Tears started
to well in Boss’s eyes. “I’ll be counting down the minutes.”
Chapter 14
“How do we know he’s the real owner?” Hannah asked, eyeing all the snakes and already imagining how great it would be not to have them in the shelter. Some of the dogs she missed when they left, but she definitely didn’t have the same attachment to the slithery kind.
“The monkey will recognize him,” Harry shrugged.
“So you’re relying on a monkey? Just a monkey?”
“How else will we know? It’s not like a spider will run toward its owner.”
Failing having a better idea, Hannah shut up. The monkey had taken a few days to warm up to her, he didn’t seem like the kind who would do anything for some attention. It sounded like the monkey was it.
“Where’s Jessie?” Hannah asked, realizing she had only seen her when she first arrived and not since.
“She’s decided to walk the dogs as far away from here as possible,” Harry answered with a cheeky grin. “She said she’d come back when all the snakes were gone.”
Hannah nodded, she never thought she would say it, but Jessie was the smart one. If she had any sense, she would have grabbed the cats and done the same. Instead, she was left to wait and hope all the reptiles stayed away from her.
Boss, who Cory determined was actually named Arthur, arrived shortly afterwards. He didn’t come alone. Much to Hannah’s horror, he was accompanied by a band of clowns and muscled sideshow men.
It was strange seeing the clowns out of their make-up, it was like seeing a movie actress on the street enjoying a latte. It didn’t quite compute.
“Come this way,” Harry directed. He led them through to the back area without telling them which animals were suspected to be theirs.
Instantly, the men disbursed. One of the muscled strongmen went to the iguana. “Daisy!” he exclaimed, hugging the glass enclosure.
“Alfred!” A clown cried when he saw the Golden Orb spider. He couldn’t wait for permission to open the lid and start letting the creepy crawly walk over his hands. Hannah stayed put by the door, they were too unpredictable to guarantee none of the creatures would get to her.
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