Pebbles Joins the Circus

A stray cat stumbles upon an active circus where she tries to get a job.

The train was rounding the bend where the circus tent was set up in an abandon field.  Pebbles grabbed her sack tied to a wooden stick and braced herself for exiting the train.  Some high weeds came along the side of the train and Pebbles jumped into them hoping they would break her fall.  She stood up on her feline feet with her baggage in hand and brushed off the dander from the grass and walked toward the tent.

She was fascinated by the multicolored tent that was as big as a house.  She found an opening in the cloth and peeked in to see if anything was going on.  She saw clowns walking around and big cats in cages.  There were also workers attempting to hang up the tight rope line above a huge safety net.

“Hey! Who are you?” a large gorilla in a suit said, noticing Pebbles peeking.

“I’m sorry,” Pebbles began.  I’m just looking to join the circus.  Can you help me?”

“You won’t get much help peeking into the tent unless you want on the clean-up crew,” the gorilla said.  “You see that building over there.  There’s a man in there you can beg for a job to.”  He pointed to a painted wooden train car that had been abandoned with a door sign that read ‘Office’.  Pebbles dropped her head and walked over to the office.  She walked up a small ramp to become level with the door and knocked once.

“Come in,” a deep male voice answered from inside.  Pebbles lifted the latch and walked in, still holding all of her belongings on the end of a stick.  Pebbles stood shocked to see the figure behind a big desk in a small office.  He was a large cat with tons of white and gray fur with whiskers that pointed in every direction.  He wore a small pair of spectacles that sat on the rim of his pink nose.  He was concentrating on his book keeping whenever Pebbles stepped toward his desk.  He quickly looked up and then went back to his paperwork.  “If you’re here to say you didn’t get your week’s supply of cat nip, we are getting rid of that stuff.  It makes my dancers shaky,” he said and waved her off with his free paw.

“No sir.  I’m looking for a job,” Pebbles said and sat her belongings down.

The male cat looked up and took his glasses off.  “You want a job, huh? Who are you?  Where are you from?”

“I’m Pebbles and I’m from the city,” Pebbles said smiling slightly.

“What’s your talent?” the male cat asked and folded his paws in front of him.

“I can dance and play music,” Pebbles said.

“You won’t get far singing or playing instruments, but dancing might work,” he said.  “Can you demonstrate?”

Pebbles looked at his small name plaque on his desk to know how to address him. “Um, Mr. Bam Bam, I do ballet.  Some tap dancing as well.”

“First off, it’s Ring Master Big B to you miss.  Second, I can start you off as a ticket taker and then I can give you a ballet act, if you’re good enough?”

Pebbles’ face lit up and immediately went into her ballet and tap act.  She was graceful and on point with every move with her tail keeping her balance.  She was humming her own tune in her head to keep pace.  She gracefully ended with a bow and awaited Ring Master Big B’s reaction.  “That’s good, but I can’t get you a spot in the show until tomorrow night.  Everyone’s already rehearsing for tonight.”  Big B got out of his chair and grabbed his red ring leader jacket and put it on to hide his suspenders.  He reached for his top hat and whip.  “If you go to the booth labeled tickets, they can get you started tonight, and then be in the tent tomorrow morning by nine to get your act ready.  Okay, Pickles?”

“Pebbles, sir,” she corrected.

“Yeah that’s what I said.  Good luck,” Big B said and walked out of his office and left Pebbles there by herself.  She picked up her belongings and went to get orders at the ticket booth.

 

“Tickets!  Two dollars!” Pebbles announced from the ticket booth with no air conditioning or portable fan.  She had to have sold over a hundred tickets and there were still a line for her to wait on.  She was secretly hoping that she could sneak out of the ticket booth and get a glimpse of the circus.  The line slimmed down and she sold her last set of ticket to an opossum family.  She peeked her head out the ticket booth curtain and saw directly into the circus.

Ring Master Big B was at the center of attention and stood proud on a small stool in the middle of the ring.  “Ladies and Gentlemen and creatures of all ages, welcome to Big B’s Royal Big Top Circus! Let the madness begin!”  Big B leapt off his stool and let his performers take the stage.  Pebbles was amazed by the menagerie of animals that came out and performed.  First the elephants came out and made trips around the ring, occasionally standing on their hind legs.  Next came Big B leading out his horses that were decked out in jewels and diamond laced saddles.  They trotted and jumped hurdles to please Big B.  Next, a series of clowns came out and entertained the audience with jokes and sprayed water on the crowd from their seltzer bottles.

Once the clowns exited, the main attraction of the evening entered the ring.  They were the lions and tigers.  The same gorilla that saw Pebbles peeking earlier was in the ring to try to do damage control if anything happened.

The lions were first, by standing on their hind legs and making pyramids together.  They were quickly led out of the ring when it was the tiger’s turn to go on, with none of them being very cooperative.  There were four of them disobeying their master; another chimp that looked to be related to the gorilla was on guard duty was attempting to keep them calm.  They roared and got off their platforms and started walking towards the crowd.  The fans started jumping up and screaming and tried to exit the tent all at once.

Pebbles panicked.  If this was the end of the circus, then her chance of performing would be history.  She quickly exited the ticket booth and snuck under the tent to join the chaos.  There was no one in the center of the ring.  All the chaos was happening along the audience railings.  She quickly sprinted to the center of the ring and began to perform.

She started with a slow ballet performance and tried to command the spotlight.  She noticed that the tigers had been detained and led out of the tent.  The light soon shined on her.  She continued her dance while whistling to keep the beat.  Audience members began to calm down and take their seats again.  Big B poked his head into the tent after tending to the tigers to see what was captivating his audience.  There he saw Pebbles dancing around the ring with her calico fur shining under the lights.  The audience was slowly clapping to the beat of her whistling.  She ended her act by leaping over one of the big cat’s benches and landed gracefully on two paws.

The crowd applauded and whistled louder, loving what they just saw.  Big B ran to the ring where Pebbles stood.  He grabbed her left paw and raised it to the sky, welcoming his new act to his show.

“Consider yourself hired, Pickles,” Big B said and took in the roars from the crowd.

“Pebbles,” she corrected.

“That’s what I said.”

 

Author's Note

This is just one of many Pebbles stories that I have. I mainly wanted to write something for my two young nieces to be able to read and enjoy.

Reviews

[TLK]

"The train was rounding the bend where the circus tent was set up in an abandon field."

This is the first sentence. It throws me off a bit... the circus tent was on a bend? Then there is the typo with 'abandon'.