4.10

“We ask for a volunteer from the audience to step forward.” The lady on the stilts scanned the crowd. A few people backed away through the crowd. “We only need one. You’ll be the star of our little show.” She continued to scan the crowds until she locked eyes with Hunter.

“Dude, she’s looking at you,” Silas nudged Hunter.

“There’s no way I’m gonna be a part of that.”

“But you have to.”

“You there, would you be willing to step forward and be a part of the show?” Hunter shook his head and started to back away. Jimena stepped forward.

“I will.”

“Can I get a round of applause for the volunteer?” The crowd started to clap. Jimena stepped forward into the clearing.

“Okay, thank you. And your name is?”

“Jimena.”

“One more round of applause for Jimena. Are you nervous Jimena?” The crowd gave another round of claps.

“No.”

“Oh, a brave one hey? What I’ll need from you, is to stand in the middle of our jugglers as they juggle these dangerous things around you. Don’t move, okay?” The woman on the stilts guided Jimena over to the trio of jugglers.

“Are you nervous yet?” Jimena shook her head. “Well folks, this one is brave. But how about we spice things up a little?”

“What else can you do?” Silas shouted from the crowd. “It’s not dangerous enough.”

“Not dangerous enough? Well, how about we add to that danger.” The woman on the stilts signalled to the mime. The mime acted out as though she was putting a box around the jugglers and Jimena. “They are now encased in a box. The jugglers must be perfect, or one of their objects could bounce, and hit Jimena.”

“How do we know there’s actually a box?” Someone from the crowd yelled.

“Easy. Billy?” The ape put down his dumbbell and approached the jugglers and Jimena. He bent down and lifted up the four people, as though they were indeed standing within an invisible box. They were a little unsteady on their feet until Billy had the box high above his head.

“Is that really the best you can do?” Silas called out again.

“You’re still not satisfied with this?” The woman on the stilts asked.

“What can the clown do?” Someone else asked.

“He will continue to entertain you as this spectacle unfolds,” said the woman.

“That’s not enough.”

“What more do you want us to do?” The clown started to walk around looking sad with his hands up in the air.

“Have him dance on top of the box.”

“Done.” The clown took a look at the box. The clown held up his hands, as though he were trying to measure something. With a deep squat, the clown sprung into action and landed on top of the box. The clown started to dance.

“Are we all ready to start?” The woman on the stilts asked. All of her performers nodded. Jimena nodded. “Let it begin.”

The jugglers passed between them the deadly objects and Billy started to raise and lower the box while the clown danced on top. The woman on the stilts breathed fire and engulfed the entire performance.

The flames disappeared and everyone was still there, showing off their performance.

“I can’t find my phone. Do you have it?” Hunter could hear a panicked voice in the crowd.

“No I don’t. Maybe you didn’t bring it?” replied another.

“I definitely brought it. Remember, I rang you to check where we were meeting up.”

“Oh yeah. You must’ve dropped it somewhere.” Hunter watched as the two people started working their way through the crowd.

“Have you seen my wallet?” Another voice asked. Suddenly, a lot of the crowd were patting themselves down and bumping into each other, looking for things that were lost.

Hunter patted himself down and was relieved to find he had everything he was meant to.

“My phone’s missing,” said Silas.

“There’s something weird going on here,” Hunter replied. He scanned the crowd and looked at the performers. The show continued to play out, but he couldn’t see the mime.

“The mime is gone,” said Hunter. “They’re up to something.” Hunter opened his flask of dust and sent the dust cloud out into the crowd. The crowd started to cough and sneeze. The woman on the stilts scanned the crowd.

The ape lowered the box and the jugglers stopped passing their deadly tools.

“What seems to be the problem?” asked the woman on stilts.

“We’re all missing something,” replied someone from the crowd.

“The show is over folks. We’ll be on our way.” The woman on the stilts signalled to the other performers and they quickly packed away what they had set up.

Hunter’s hands were in his pockets, and he could feel something was trying to pull at his phone. He let it be taken and watched it whip through the air, weaving through the crowds. He chased after it.

His phone was caught by the mime. The mime looked at him and he looked at her. The mime dropped the phone and made a run for it.

“They’ve stolen all our stuff,” Hunter called out. In unison, the crowd looked at the performers and they looked back at the crowd.

“You better give us our stuff back!”

“And if we don’t?”

Hunter readied himself for a fight but remembered he didn’t have his costume. Neither did Silas or Jimena.

“What do we do Hunter?” Silas asked.

“I dunno.” Jimena had joined them and was already preparing one of her slime balls.

“Maybe we just risk revealing who we are?” suggested Silas.

“No way,” said Jimena. She stopped her slime ball.

“What seems to be the problem here?” The crowd looked up and watched as a large man descended from the sky with a large cape billowing all around him.

“That’s mighty convenient,” said Silas.

“Mighty Man, they’ve stolen all our stuff,” said someone from the crowd.

“Is this true?” Mighty Man put his hands on his hips and talked down to the crew of performers.

“Yes.” The street performers replied in unison and hung their heads in shame.

“Well, I think you better return their stuff. You know crime doesn’t pay.” The performers returned all of the stolen goods. “Mighty Man, away.” With that, the caped crusader flew off.

“I’m hungry,” said Hunter.