Free Circus Wolf by Lynde Lakes Page B

another life, but never longed for it. Now she was
more curious than ever about Hugh. The more she learned, the more certain she
became she’d only scratched the surface.

 
    Chapter
Ten
     
    After the parade, Hugh headed for the center ring in
his clown costume. For a lead-in, he did a cartwheel and a handstand and walked
forward upside down. The crowd laughed and pointed. He decided to play it to
the hilt and build on their expectations. He righted himself and pointed toward
the cage and shaking his head, he pantomimed a violent No ! Stalling, he did some somersaults and flips. He gestured to the
cage and took a step forward then jumped back shaking his head. The full-house
crowd laughed and a man shouted, “Go get um’, clown man.”
    The spectators were hungry for slapstick thrills and
he felt their tension mounting. Can I
pull this off? He remembered the little toe-headed boy and figured he was
in the stands somewhere. It had been a great feeling to make the youngster
laugh.
    His hand hesitated on the door of the Center Cage.
“For you, kid,” he said.
    He’d barely stepped inside when the animal hatch
banged open and Stripes charged into the cage. He felt a small measure of
relief that Tigra had decided to hold back some of the tigers. Probably because
of the trouble they had this afternoon due the clown costume. Good thinking, Tigra. One agitated tiger is
enough. Stripes rushed toward him with his orange and black powerful body
in muscled motion. Stripes growled, his mouth wide and
hungry-looking.
    Hugh sucked in a long breath and snapped his whip.
With a huge paw, Stripes swatted at the whip and whisked it away. Oh, God . Big decision. Run, or stay and try to hypnotize the beast. What if I morph? Sometimes tough
situations brought on the change. The
quickest way to save my life, secure my secret, and keep the act going is to
stick with humor . He grabbed the cage bars, and quick like a monkey, he
performed a hand over hand upward climb, squealing like a Banshee. When well
out of reach, he hung upside down and made funny faces at Stripes. The crowd
went wild with laughter.
    Stripes stood on his hind legs and lashed at him
with clawed, slashing fore paws. Hugh climbed a little higher and stuck out his
tongue. He heard the uproarious laughter of the crowd. So far
so good. But am I making Stripes
more dangerous to Tigra? Until this second, he hadn’t thought of that.
    He heard Tigra’s strong young voice ordering Stripes
back. When the tiger turned and growled at Tigra, his heart skipped a beat.
It’s now or never. He dropped from the side of the cage onto the beast’s back and rode him like a mad bull. The crowd went
wild. Then someone went against the plan and released the other four tigers
into the cage. Tigra looked stunned, but continued as though, that too, was
part of the performance. Hugh let loose with a gush of air in great relief when
the four tigers turned and leapt up on their pedestals. They pawed the air. Now what? He grabbed his chain of
rainbow scarves from his pocket with his teeth, wrestled the tiger to the
ground like a bull, and hogtied its paws with the link of colorful ribbon. With
Stripe’s strength and sharp teeth, the silk would only hold for an instant.
    Hugh grabbed Tigra’s curvy firm body, wrapped only
in those enticing strips of fur, up into his arms and thrust her into the
smaller cage and slammed the door. He leapt on top of the large cage, cage two,
covered it with the drapes, waved his hand across the top and shouted, “ abracadabra ”. He prayed she would disappear the way she’d
appeared in the previous show. Before the tigers could leap up and get him, he
leapt higher onto the bars of cage three, caught hold, climbed to the top of
the main cage and again, played the antic-filled, screeching monkey. The crowds
went wild with laughter. He was breathing hard and needed a moment to catch his
breath, but this was no time to rest on his laurels. He had to finish the act.
He