Heylo everybody!!!!! Sorry I haven't been posting many comments on everyone else's stories.....I'm still just getting to know everybody!!!!!! And I only have an hour on the computer every day, and I have stories I gotta post on my blog and other blogs as well........I try to read and post a comment on everyone's stories who comment on mine. I believe in fair turnabout!

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Chapter Two.

     Running the currycomb carefully down Chocolate’s sides, Joey Clarkson brushed her rich brown coat until it shone. Asmarelda had elected him to do the job of grooming the team of horses, because the animals liked his gentle, quiet disposition. He couldn’t really help being that way, after all; Joey never spoke to anyone anymore. He’d found it better to listen and learn.

     He jumped with a Start when his finely-tuned ears caught the sound of the heavy wooden doors closing with a band that echoed throughout the whole building. He was in a side room, the one that they used for a makeshift stable; but those doors were so big and the auditorium was so colossal that it amplified the noise so much that it sounded like an earthquake.

     Joey put away his things and left the room, expecting to find his mistress back and inspecting their work, as was her custom whenever she returned from the city. However, he stopped short when he saw that Asmarelda had brought somebody with her.

     It was a strange-looking girl, with scraggly shoulder-length hair the color of a glowing red sunset, tied back with a faded yellow ribbon. She was wearing a blue sports coat with a huge basketball on the back of it, at least five sizes too big for her slender proportions as defined by her mutilated jeans; her ancient, discolored sneakers were mismatched and one had a piece of wire where a shoelace should have been. Joey started at the girl curiously, wondering where she was from and what her “special talent” was. So here was another victim that Asmarelda had lured into her clutches; he kind of felt sorry for the newcomer. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.

     Rachael stared in awe at her surroundings. The room was huge, the roof dozens of feet above her head, like that of a cathedral; the walls were painted white, the shiny gymnasium-like floor was white, and several huge windows let in as much light as possible, giving the whole place a rather blinding effect; and to top it all off, there was a sparkling, faceted skylight that was, in character, the ceiling. All in all, it was an imposing place, and it made one feel quite small, but Rachael kept her nonchalant dignity intact while Asmarelda introduced her to “the team”, who had all been practicing their acts when the pair walked inside.

     There was Thomas, an excellent magician whose sleight-of-hand was so fast it almost looked like the real thing; Charisma, a beautiful blonde who did acrobatics with the animals; Marty, a female lion-tamer who specialized in all wild beasts; Dan, a strongman who could lift a hundred pounds over his head without breaking a sweat, even though her wasn’t close to being muscle-bound like most hulks in the circus; Kevin, the fourteen-year-old clown and universal utility man; and Jedd, a daring cowboy giant.

     Every time Asmarelda introduced her to someone, Rachael could see something flash in the addressee’s eyes---once it was fear, another time it was pity, and once she even caught a strange sly wickedness. Something just wasn’t right about all this, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

~SRRINDI AZURE