In the semi-darkness, the pebbles nearly resembled coffee beans. At least, that was what the little girl had thought. Her Mama loved coffee beans, and she loved her Mama like any daughter would have. The mother of young Leasel Harly was a clever and imaginative woman. One look at her only child, and anyone saw those exact characteristics shining brightly within the little thing. Especially appearance-wise with the same chocolate brown eyes, soft pale skin, and long, thick curls. Only, she had blonde curls; not brown like her mothers. This was most likely due to her father. Mama had told her her father had beautiful blonde curls. But Leasel could never be sure. It had always just been her mother and her.

The two of them saw the world through painted lenses. With colores of red, pink, sky blue, and gold—a kind of vivid dream only meant for fantasizing. “Leasel,” Mother gently squeezed her hand as they followed the pathway along with so many others. Leasel looked upward to her mother, in complete awe of her beauty. “These pebbles… Do they remind you of something?”

She smiled, dimples forming on her chubby cheeks. “Coffee beans,” she answered proudly.

“Indeed, yes!” Her Mama exclaimed. “That’s exactly right!”

The little girl’s eyes followed the coffee bean path. She saw many different people. There were ladies with large fur coats and hair curled perfectly atop their heads. It was like staring at a great cloud of cotten candy, or…She stifled a giggle, imagining a bird laying an egg on one of the barbaric updos. Only seconds later, Mama burst out laughing. When she looked up, she saw her mother staring at the same ladies, and knew she was picturing it too.

Leasel was only six, but she already had the restraint and self-discipline her mother lacked in these situations. She tugged on the sleeve of her Mama’s crimson dress, seeing the ladies turn and give them a displeased glance. But she didn’t seem to care. She just kept walking, placed a finger over her lips, and winked down at Leasel with a playful glint in her eye.

Around them wasn’t really very impressive. Other than the elaborately dressed ladies and gentleman of wealth and class, all that remained were great pine trees and a darkened sky marking the coming night. The occasional bat or bird would fly overhead, too, so she supposed that had to count for something. Mama never let down, so she always trusted the process, but this time there was a considerable amount of doubt swirling within her. Her mother had said this would be an extraordinary experience, one to never forget and to shape the rest of her life as she knew it. But she also always spoke that way—in a kind of manner that could make anyone forget what was real.

The girl didn’t exactly need her mothers words to forget reality, though. She often got lost in her own, seeing as only moments ago, they had to have been very far back, and the line had moved up so far. She wasn’t sure when that happened. Somewhere between her imagining the clouds raining caramel sauce, or everyone dressed as pixies, perhaps?

Either way, they were very close to the entrance now, wherever that led them. All little Harly knew was that they were off to some magical place, and that, apparently, it was where Mama had met her father. She spoke of him so often. Leasel was aware this was so she never forgot about him. As far as she was concerned, though, you couldn’t exactly forget someone who was never there. She didn’t know how to make sense of the way she felt about her father, so she chose to take her Ma’s word for it. It was a safer option since she was usually mostly right anyway.

When she told stories of him, he sounded like a prince. So handsome and anything a girl could ever hope for—the type of person you only read about in books, and that only existed in fairytales. He was a brave man that shared the same sort of mischief she did. They would, often, get into trouble together, but Mama had a way of talking about it that made the whole thing so romantic and purposeful, as if anything had been different, everything would’ve turned out another way.

They were both proud romantics, and Leasel didn’t exactly know what that meant yet, but she was like her mother in every way, so that had to make her the same. Many people who had spoken with the girl tried to whisper little gossips about her Ma. She always thought they couldn’t have been true, but there was also that childish part of her that believed almost anything anyone told her.

Sometimes she worried for her Mama. There were so many individuals of high and low station who disliked her, and Leasel could never understand why. But her mother didn’t seem bothered by this, even if she was aware, so there was no use fussing about it as much as she did. She was raised to fear little, so she lived her young life with as much verve as she could muster. Surely a mother who teaches their child to be fearless and bold couldn’t be so bad?

“Look, Leasel! We’re to the gaits!” Her mothers voice cut into her train of thought. She had been busy imagining one of the fatter men infront of them tipping over and crashing to the floor, his belly so large it bounced him backward onto his rump.

When she looked before her, she had to tilt her chin up high to catch a good look of it. There was a great, stone archway covered in vines and flowers, as well as a large sign she couldn’t exactly read.

“Why, hello there!” She heard her Mama say—but not to her. There was as very tall man standing next to two grand gaits under the archway. He held a large collection of vibrant balloons. There were so many of them she thought he might just be carried away and float all the way to the moon. And he was peculiar looking, too, with large, red lips, and an ever more red mess of hair. She was almost certain, also, that she had never seen someone so unnaturally pale. Was he wearing makeup?

She had many questions, but all melted away once she realized this man was so tall he was looking right past them!

He jumped, startled to see Mama standing there—this happened very often, as she had a way of sneaking up on people. He cleared his throat, coughed, and confetti came out of his mouth.

“Pardon me, Ma’am! You seem to have caught me off guard!” This was clearly a man, but his voice might’ve been so high it could make Leasel’s ears burst. She didn’t dislike the him, though. She found him to be interesting. She found everything interesting.

He provided Mama with a bow, and she bowed back, her long braid of hair falling over her shoulder. “We’ve come for the Circus, sir.”

“Well, for what other reason would you be here?” He placed his hands on his hips and looked around like he might find the answer.

Leasel giggled at his charismatic animations. The man looked down, startled again. Glitter flew from his hands—she was sure she hadn’t seen it there before.

“And who is this young lady that I’ve seemed to miss,” he inquired with the same jolly tone, only this time with rather loud laughter.

“I’m Leasel,” she answered. “What happened to your nose?” She wasn’t sure if this was rude to ask or not. Honestly, she could’ve asked any other question. There was a lot going on with this strange person, by obvious fact.

There was that laugh once more. “Why, give it a pinch!” This was a very odd thing to say, but Leasel was far too curious to question anything. He bent low, and she reached her hand out. She squeezed the bright red nose that looked like a big cherry, and it made a sound, almost like a bicycles horn. She laughted instantly, and so did her mother.

“Quite the trick you have there,” Mama smiled.

“No tricks here, Ma’am.” The man bowed again and finally moved to let them pass. “Only magic…” As the girl and her mother walked through the archway, past the odd man, her Mama and him shared a knowing look. Of course, Leasel was too distracted to notice. There was so much infront of her!

Everything smelled sweet like sugar-coated almonds, buttery popcorn, lollipops, and so much more.

It was like stepping foot into a different realm where only enthusiasm and dreams lived. An elaphant slowly crossed the, now, dirt road infront of her, a girl riding on its back. She was doing a handstand with a monkey sitting on her heal! How could such a thing even be possible?

Blue, green, purple, and red tents scattered throughout every part of this place, made her all the more overwhelmed with endless possibility. Then a band of very tiny people, about her height, crossed the same road, following the girl with a monkey on her foot riding an elephant. One of the rather small individuals, a man dressed in a red suit with a candy cane for a walking stick, walked over to her and handed her a rose.

She patted the man on his head, and he smiled, providing her with a bow before joining the rest of his crew again.

“Ah, how I’ve missed this…” she looked up to see her mother staring, starry-eyed at all the wonderful chaos. So, this was what she meant by “a magical place.” Leasel was undeniably confused, though. Could her Mama truly know what to expect after just one visit of this place? No, that couldn’t be it—she had to have been here many times. One look of this circus proved its grounds to be endless. There was simply no way Mama could have explored every inch of it in one night.

But it wasn’t the time for questions. Her mother had already grabbed hold of her small hand and began pulling her to a cart full of cotten candy. In fact, the cart was overflowing so much so that she thought it might just tip over if there were one more ounce of it. At first glance, the girl couldn’t even tell it was a stand. She had thought it to be a very pastel cloud. In some way, it still was.

“Which color, Leasel?” Her mother asked. But she remembered something—a very crucial detail. She didn’t recall seeing Mama grab her wallet on their way out. How was she going to pay? Her mind did a little jolt when she realized that they hadn’t paid to get in, either. All the others infront of them had to pay some sort of fee to enter, but her mother didn’t give a _single scent. _

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_Why?_

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“Leasel, dear…?”

Leasel’s head turned upward. Perhaps she had simply missed it when her mother paid. Besides, she was almost certain that being a hopeless romantic didn’t make you foolish, right?

“I’ll have the rainbow one!”

Mama smiled and turned to a very short man, who, when meeting her gaze, shared the same bright expression in return. “Rainbow it is!”

“Coming right up, ma’am!” But the way Mama looked at the circus… it wasn’t as though she was reliving. It was like she had been reconnected with an old friend, a very dear friend who’d been lost to her for so very long. And Leasel just didn’t understand how any of that could be.

_…_________________

_I have plans for this story, but I’m only doing a part two if enough people like it. So please let me know if you would like to see more of this! (Trust me, it WILL NOT disappoint…)_