1959

[fiery_ring]

It's dark when Carlotta emerges with Teja and Egil. The audience are making their way home, and the circus folk are winding down for the night.

Comments

[fiery_ring]

A boy of about eight appears, still dressed as a clown.

"Bobbie, I thought I sent you for a bath?" Carlotta says.

"I had it." Bobbie says.

"You still have all your clown make up on." Carlotta points out. "Don't tell untruths."

[ostro_goth]

"He could have put it back on!" Egil argues in favour of the other child.

[fiery_ring]

"In that case, you're in trouble for wasting greasepaint." Carlotta points out.

[ostro_goth]

"Less worse," Egil points out in return.

[fiery_ring]

Carlotta sends Bobbie off for another wash.

"Are you a handful?" she asks Egil, with a cheeky grin.

[ostro_goth]

"No, four paws full, even!" Egil grins.

[fiery_ring]

Carlotta laughs and ruffles his hair.

"Has much happened in the bar?" she asks Teja. "Is Demeter still around?"

[ostro_goth]

"She is but rarely," Teja says. "And we see her even less often."

[fiery_ring]

"That's a shame." Carlotta says.

She considers, as she watches her two children going to get ready for bed.

"I think the bar tends to do that with people who have been coming a while. It's like we have our turn to be helped and then it's someone else's. I wonder why it has picked me up again now."

[ostro_goth]

'Maybe you need us again," Teja muses. "Or we, you."

[fiery_ring]

"Maybe. It would have made more sense if it had picked up Molly." Carlotta says. "She's just a few years younger than I was."

[ostro_goth]

"We never worked out why it brings some people, and not others," Teja says. "At least we can all come here now."

[fiery_ring]

Carlotta is quiet for a moment.

"I'm not sure I want Molly and Bobbie to have a door." she says. "Some of the things that happen in the bar are rather heavy. But I'm glad they can see you, again."

[ostro_goth]

"You dealt with the heavy stuff just fine," Teja points out.

[fiery_ring]

Small smile.

"I know. I owe my life to the bar. Doesn't mean there weren't a few close shaves. You have the same worries about Egil, I'm sure."

[ostro_goth]

"If one takes care of a child, the world seems much more dangerous than it was when one was a child oneself," Teja nods.

[fiery_ring]

"Bobbie can be a little headstrong." Carlotta says. "He gets that from me, but I think he still bears a grudge against his father."

[ostro_goth]

"They would feel abandoned," Teja says. "No matter what precisely happened."

[fiery_ring]

"Well, I don't think he knows about the cheating." Carlotta says. "He knows about the drinking and the stealing, and he knows that's why Will and I are divorced now. Will sends his maintenance, but they don't have contact. We still see his parents and sister."

[ostro_goth]

"And do they see Will?"

[fiery_ring]

"No." Carlotta shakes her head. "They did initially, but it's hit and miss whether he turns up sober. I stopped contact because I felt it was having a bad effect on the children."

[ostro_goth]

"What sent him on such a slide?" Teja says. "He used to be decent."

[fiery_ring]

"The war." Carlotta answers simply. "He was a pilot. He never got over what he did to civilians on the other side."

She sighs. "However, eventually I had to put the kids first. I excused drunken cheating the first few times. When it happened a third time, enough was enough. He caused my first circus to go bust because he was taking money from the till for drink."

[ostro_goth]

Teja nods. "There is no way o get help for him?"

[fiery_ring]

"He had a psychiatrist for a while. Malcolm Crowe spent some time with him too." Carlotta says. "His parents continue to try and get him help."