(no subject)

Perhaps she half expected the ghost. Half hung around waiting, just on the offchance.
I was born in the wagon of a travelling show.
The bump is just starting to show. The first time she saw it sticking out, she felt a twinge of panic. Her circus folk have been getting on as a team, accepting her as Ringmaster, a role usually only performed by a man. She's even managed to maintain her gymnastics act. But it's becoming a strain, and her costume is struggling to hide the bulge.
My mama used to dance for the money they'd throw.
She nearly jumps out of her skin when she turns around and sees the girl. It shocked her last time how young the ghost of her mother was; this time, she seems even more child-like. Having died when she was just eighteen, this ought not to be so surprising.
Papa would do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel, sell a couple bottles of Doctor Good
"Thought I was a fool, marrying the first man I met, didn't you?" the ghost of Maria Brown says, lighting up a ghostly cigarette. "Easier to get carried away than you think."

"I didn't get carried away. We thought it through. Just the war got in the way." Carlotta says. "Hallo Mum."
Gypsies, tramps, and thieves
We'd hear it from the people of the town
It feels weird, saying Mum. Maria sits down on the bed.
They'd call us gypsies, tramps, and thieves
But every night all the men would come around
And lay their money down
"Why haven't you told anyone?" she asks. "Are you so ashamed of my granddaughter that you need to keep it secret? I was over the moon when I found out I was having you!"
Picked up a boy just south of Mobile
Gave him a ride, fill him with a hot meal
I was sixteen, he was twenty one.
"I'm not ashamed of her." Carlotta says. "I'm afraid that if my show find out I'm having a baby, they'll insist I step down as Ringmaster. I'm due in November, I was hoping if I had her quietly out of season, by March when I went back on the road it would be too late for them to complain."
Rode with us to Memphis,
His papa would have shot him if he knew what he'd done.
"Hah. I'll buy that, but I want to know why you can't even tell Will. He's the one who was desperate for you to have one in the first place."
I never had schoolin' but he taught me well with smooth southern style.
Three months later I'm a gal in trouble and I haven't seen him for a while.
"Because I'm scared I'll die and I don't want him to worry." Carlotta says. "Like you, and your mum."
She was born in the wagon of a travellin' show
"Oh Lotta..." For a moment, the ghost looks up at her with a hint of sadness. "Look, death in childbirth was really common in your nana's time, and I just got unlucky, I had a bleed, it wasn't anything..." she tries to think of things she's picked up from drifting around the future. "...kinetic. If I'd been in a hospital they'd have been able to stop it, but by the time the doctor got there it was too late."
Her mama had to dance for the money they'd throw
Grandpa'd do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel, sell a couple bottles of Doctor Good
"Oh..." Carlotta glances at her. She's still scared. Seeing the child ghost in front of her. She has too much to get done in life to die now.

Maria takes a drag of her ghostly cigarette, and drops it on the floor, where it fades away.

"You've survived being a spy and being shot." she points out. "Childbirth is jolly rotton but you're a survivor." She looks up. "Don't give in to fear, Lotta; you're living for both of us."
Gypsies, tramps, and thieves
We'd hear it from the people of the town
They'd call us gypsies, tramps, and thieves
But every night all the men would come around
And lay their money down
"Mum? Mum, she just moved!" Carlotta says, looking around.

But the ghost has gone.

Carlotta waits a few moments, holding her bump. Then she pulls on a large jumper, and heads downstairs.