Travelling Travesty
"Good morning, Madam. My name's Travis, and this here's my twin brother, Ty. Together,"
"We are,"
"The Travelling Travesty!"
Rita Gale looked blankly at the two, strange-looking, young men bowing extravagantly on her doorstep and said nothing. Undeterred, the one who'd introduced himself as Travis, smiled broadly and stepped forward. “May we come in for a moment? My brother could really use the bathroom. There’ll be a family pass to the circus in it for you!” Rita thought for a moment before stepping back, opening the door wide.
“The bathroom is up the stairs and down the hallway to the left. You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you kindly, ma’am,” Ty said, following his brother inside.
“So you’re with the circus?” Rita asked, leading Travis into the lounge.
“That’s right. We’re an acrobatic/magic act. We use the distortion of our bodies to distort your mind. It’s the next wave for circus - Cirque du Soleil’s got nothing on us!”
“Sounds interesting.” Rita couldn’t have sounded less interested.
“Here - let me show you.” Travis picked up an orange from the fruit bowl and started spinning it on his fingertips. As the fruit gained momentum, he started rolling it over and under his hand, weaving it from side to side, creating the illusion of it floating on air, his hand seeming almost incidental to its movement. Rita watched the orange, mesmerised. When Travis felt confident that her focus was firmly on the fruit, he began to bend his body backwards, keeping his hand steady as he folded his spine in half. “Surprise!” he cried when his head popped out between his knees. Rita jumped, the spell broken. “Where’s the orange?” he asked. Rita looked around. It wasn’t in his hand or back in the bowl. “Try checking your bag,” Travis advised. Rita opened up the bag she’d left on the side table next to her armchair and pulled out the orange.
“Wow! I’m impressed.”
“That’s nothing compared to what we do in the ring,” Ty told her, coming into the room. “I do hope you’ll come check us out - you’ll never have seen anything like it. I guarantee it.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the promised pass. “Thank you for your hospitality - much obliged. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to make a move. We have a show to make ready for!”
“But of course,” smiled Rita. “Let me show you out.”
“The fun kicks off at 7,” Travis told her as he and his brother left the house. “Make sure we see you there!”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Rita assured him, closing the door behind her visitors.
ooo000ooo
“Is she there?” Ty asked his brother as they peeked through the curtains five minutes before they were due to go on.
“Slap bang in the middle of the front row, just as she should be,” Travis smiled. “We’ll have a good couple of hours once we’re done here. Plenty of time to clean her place out and be back for the finale. Perfect alibi, as always. You were right - there was no sign of any family. The place will be empty and her sense of security was about as good as you’d expect. We won’t need long and we’ll be sitting pretty.”
“Awesome!” Ty stepped back as the clowns ran out of the ring. “Look lively - it’s show time!”
ooo000ooo
Travis fought his way back to consciousness. For a moment he thought he was blind, but as his eyes slowly came into focus, he realised that instead he was in a very dark room. When he tried to get up, he discovered that he was tied to a chair. At first this was no cause for concern - he and Ty regularly performed escapology as part of their routine - but as he worked his way through his repertoire of tricks and discovered that nothing could loosen his bonds, he began to panic, pulling as hard as he could against the ropes around him to no effect.
Suddenly, a spotlight came on, highlighting Ty, equally restrained, a look of terror in his eyes, a trickle of blood running from his scalp down his face. “Ah, you’re awake. Jolly good.” Rita Gale came into the light, scalpel in hand. “I’d have hated for you to miss this. After all, you entertained me earlier, it’s only fair that I return the favour.” Rita walked around Ty running the scalpel lightly around his neck without drawing blood. Travis tried to cry out to her to leave him alone, but no sound came out.
“I wouldn’t bother trying to talk if I were you,” Rita told him. “That’s always the first complication I take care of. And let’s be honest, your act is hardly reliant on banter, so it’s no real loss for you.” Rita laughed. “So many questions. I can see them in your eyes. Don’t worry - all will become clear in time.” She moved behind Ty, placing her hands on his shoulders. “I must admit that I couldn’t believe my luck when you two walked into my home. You made it so much easier for you to add me you to my collection. And you thought you were so clever, targeting the rich widow, coming up with some flimsy excuse to case her joint, offering me a family ticket so I wouldn’t know that you’d seen the story about me in the paper.” She laughed and there was something deeply disturbing, almost inhuman, about the sound. “I was prepared to have to work to get you in here and you did it all for me. Thank you.”
A rustling sound came from a corner of the room and Travis tried to turn to see what it was, but whatever was coming stayed just out of his range of sight. Ty had a perfect view, however, and the look of horror on his face told Travis that whatever it was, he didn’t want it anywhere near him. Travis felt something slimy against his arm, making his flesh crawl, but although he redoubled his struggles, the ropes still held as whatever it was began to nibble on his fingertips, a not unpleasant sensation at first that quickly descended into discomfort and then out and out agony.
“Don’t fight it,” Rita advised. “It hurts so much less if you allow him to do what he needs to. There are certain… adjustments that need to be made before you can be admitted to our family. You being twins is a definite bonus and it’s been some time since we’ve had ones with your particular skills through our door. The loss of dear, departed Abednego left a gaping hole at the top of the human pyramid and I’d love it if we could bring some conjuring in - do you think you could perhaps produce a flock of doves when you’re standing up there?”
Rita clapped her hands and a troupe of tiny men about six inches high ran up and began to build themselves into a pyramid with room for one man at the top. “Do you see what I mean? It would be so delightful if you could have doves flying from your sleeves or maybe an unending fountain of rose petals when you’re at the pinnacle.” Rita smiled affectionately down at the grotesque figures as they jumped to the ground then began to perform a routine that spoke to the fear of clowns lurking within every circus folk’s soul. “Yes, my boys, you really have made life very easy for me. And in return, I will make life easy for you. No longer will you be the travelling travesty - you’ll have a home right here, somewhere you can settle down, be amongst likeminded souls, no longer outsiders, but part of one, big, happy family. Well, big in heart, even if you are small in stature. And you’ll learn that as long as you do what’s expected of you, Rita is a very, very generous mother. If you don’t, well, I don’t think you really want to learn that lesson, do you?” Travis was far too lost in pain to respond and Ty was frozen by fear of what he was witnessing. Fortunately, Rita seemed not to mind their lack of answer. For now.
“Well, I shall leave you lads to it. Doric has much to do and he doesn’t like working in front of an audience, not like the rest of you performers. When next we meet, you truly will be one of us. Welcome to Gale’s Monstrous Theatre, where the bizarre and fantastic collide. I look forward to your debut, which, I am sure, will be much improved upon the act you put on tonight.”
Rita walked off and the spotlight went out, leaving Travis and Ty at the mercy of the dark.