Free That Time I Joined the Circus by J. J. Howard

laughed.
    “I can try to think of something,” I told him, and this seemed to satisfy him, because he returned to his beef stew without further comment. I poked at my stew without enthusiasm, wondering what I could possibly do to live up to this idea Louie had about me. He and his children were born into show business. He didn’t understand people like me, whose most astounding skill was the ability to be completely invisible.
    The show didn’t open until the next night, Monday night, so after dinner there was an unexpected lull in my jobs. Lina and her sister went off for yet another rehearsal, probably like the one I’d seen the week before. I walked down the midway, feeling restless. My only other option was a book, but I just wasn’t in the mood.
    “What’s shaking, city girl?” I heard Jamie before I sawhim. He was wrapping an enormous black electrical cord around his arm from elbow to wrist. I walked over to him.
    “I have to think of something creative to do in the circus,” I told him glumly. “Somehow Louie got this idea about me. I have no idea how.”
    “I do. You impressed Lina and Liska. Not an easy thing to do.”
    “That’s cool, but now I’m sort of stuck. I have no skills whatsoever. But I don’t want to let Louie down. And now Lina’s even taking me in. And after I just showed up here, like a package sent to the wrong address.”
    Jamie gave me a sympathetic smile. “Well, you’re not a package I’d send back.” Before I could get too excited about this comment, he went on to ask, “Lina asked you to move in, huh? What does Liska have to say about it? That’s her old room.”
    “She hasn’t said anything.”
    Jamie looked thoughtful, but answered only with, “Hmm.” He walked a few paces away, hung the cord on a hook outside one of the concession trailers, then asked, “So, what are you good at?”
    Of all the questions for a completely talent-free person to keep getting. “Nothing that I know of.” I tried to smile.
    “I’m sure that’s not true.” Was he flirting with me? Or did he just have so much male charm that the excess just flailed out of him and landed on any girl who happened to be there?
    “Well, nothing useful for the circus, anyway,” I clarified.“I mean, I’ll do whatever he asks me to. I’m just really hoping not to be on, um, poop detail with Costi again.”
    Jamie made a face. “Man, that’s some rookie treatment, all right.” He looked at me for a second. “It’s just too bad you’re so pale.”
    “Um. Yes?” I was confused. I mean, I knew I was semivampiric in color, but it was the natural result of a life spent almost completely indoors. And I wasn’t sure how a tan would help my current talent search.
    “No,” Jamie said, laughing again. “It wasn’t an insult. It’s just that Reveka — Madame Tarus — just left us. She’s a gypsy fortune teller.” He rolled his eyes in a way I guessed was meant to convey his opinions about such things. “If you looked more like a gypsy, maybe you could get that attraction back up and running.”
    All of a sudden, I had an idea. “Jamie, why couldn’t I be a pale fortune teller?”
    “I was sort of kidding,” Jamie said. “But I guess you could be. Do you know what you’re doing with … that stuff?”
    “I’m pretty good at reading tarot cards,” I told him, my mind racing. “What else did this Madame Tarus do?” I was thinking about how I’d made up this really cool Divinations Class table for little kids on their Harry Potter day at the local library. But I wasn’t about to share this nerdtastic memory with Jamie.
    He shrugged. “I only went in there once. I took this girl I met up in Maryland to see Madame T — the girl said shewas into that kind of thing … But I know she read palms and stuff.”
    “Maybe I could switch it up a little. And be paler. Also, not a gypsy.” I tried not to hold my breath waiting for Jamie to answer. Suddenly, I really wanted this idea to