Theresa Lewis

I hadn’t been to the circus in many years. For some reason, I was beside myself with excitement. I honestly couldn’t remember ever having been this excited about anything in my entire life. Every fiber of my being twitched with excitement and my heart raced in anxious anticipation. The rest of the audience seemed to feel as excited as I was.

 

Unfortunately, my husband and I didn’t get seats together. There were four people between us, but that didn’t matter because the atmosphere in the stadium was electric. The bleachers were absolutely packed. Perhaps it was because this was not just an ordinary circus. It was a circus featuring numerous exotic wild animals.

 

There were the usual lions and tigers and elephants, but there were other exotic animals that are not usually found at the circus. The best part was that there were no barricades to separate the animals from the spectators. I felt like we were one with all the activity.

 

The advertisement said that all the animals would be handled by their owner/trainers. Some of the owner/trainers were just children.

 

The lights in the bleachers were extinguished as flood lights illuminated the center of the stadium. First, the snakes came. They were beautiful. A small child was holding the head and part of the body of a giant eighteen foot python with the rest of its body dragging on the floor behind it. I was stunned to see that this child, about ten years old, was capable of controlling his snake. My first thought was that if this snake turned on the little lad, it could devour him whole. That thought made me feel tense and my stomach did handsprings.

 

Actually, the boy performed beautifully with his snake.  Then the alligators and crocodiles were led in by their handlers. The mammoth animals did tricks. Everyone roared with pleasure as they whistled loudly and clapped their hands. Those creatures were the biggest of their species in the entire world.

 

Around the row that we were seated in, a kafuffle broke out. It was too dark in the bleachers to see what was going on, so I ignored the fuss. I heard my husband say that two giant sloths had escaped.

 

Someone threw a large tarpaulin towards my husband and told him to catch the sloths. My husband leapt up from his seat and caught the canvas sheet. Now, my husband was in my way. I wanted to see the gators and crocs, but the brouhaha blocked my vision and distracted me. I pulled my feet up off the floor.

 

In the dim light of the bleachers, I could just barely make out my husband wrestling with a big black something with shiny eyes. I thought sloths were slow moving creatures that were sort of beige in color and were about the size of a five year old child, but my husband was fighting a big black thing that was as big as he was.

 

Arms and legs were flying. Some people were shouting orders while others were screaming. Finally, my husband got the sloth wrapped up in the canvas sheet and held it tight. I’m not sure why, but he just sat back down and held the tarpaulin wrapped sloth on his lap. I looked over at him and saw that he looked exhausted from the struggle. Just as I was about to look away, I noticed that the glowing black eyes of the sloth were focused directly on me. It made me very uneasy. I hoped that my husband and the man beside him who had captured the other escapee were holding tight onto their prey.

 

Just as that thought passed through my mind, another kafuffle broke out as the two escapee sloths broke free from their captors and charged at me.

 

I can’t begin to explain the intensity of fear I felt as I fought for my life in the darkness of the bleachers. I fell off my seat and landed on the floor with two giant sloths on top of me. I screamed out in agony as I was first bitten on the leg then on my butt. The searing pain was so terrific that I screamed out. I felt like I was suffocating and couldn’t get free from my attackers.

 

Just as I screamed out in pain, I awoke and discovered that I was in a severe muscle spasm from my left foot right up to my armpit. Now, let’s see what the dream detectives can make of this one.

 

THE END