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Elliott hadn’t wanted to go see the circus at first.
He was busy with working, selling TVs, his side work documenting local UFO sightings or general proof for aliens and not thinking about how his wife had left him. It was a very good way to spend his time actually, far better than attending a circus which he hadn't done since he was ten.
But then… well. There wasn’t much to do when your customers were gone and nobody seemed to have any unusual sightings in weeks.
How did that even make sense? Did Aliens go on summer vacation?
So, unwilling to spend his day doing nothing but watching I love Lucy for the millions time, he grabbed his polaroid camera and went to see if it was worth the money they charged and to maybe take a few pictures.
As soon as he was there he regretted his choice. He was surrounded by lovey-dovey couples and families living the life he thought he’d have at this point in his life. Not that Elliott was bitter but he couldn’t help but feel the jealousy rise in his chest when he saw a mother and father holding there son’s hand the father whispering into the mother’s ears making her giggle.
It was fine, he was sure these were hardworking, good natured people who deserved every bit of their luck and happy lives (he was also sure that they had problems everyone had problems maybe she had an affair, maybe he hated the kid, maybe this was a desperate attempt at saving something not worth saving) but he also just wished that he somehow could have a wife and kid fit perfectly in the apple pie life that not only seemed to be the key to happiness but also the key to people stopping to look at you with that mix of pity and disdain that came with being a man unable to hold his woman.
Alas, he was here already and he was determined to have the best time he could have.
He bought a bag of peanuts and a lemonade and settled into a seat and looked around the tent. It was slowly filling with excited children, a few teenagers were taking their dates in too and Elliott thought that they weren’t going to get much out of the show, which was a shame the tickets cost 50 cents.
Watching the tent fill while eating peanuts was already a fine way of spending his day. People watching had always been hobby of his.
Once the show started though he was completely unaware of the teenaged couple making out next to him or the 6 year old kicking his chair, the performers for all the crappy promotional material, were amazing, the female magician enchanted with her show and even hypnotized an audience member (Elliott was almost certain that he was a plant but if he was he was a great actor) and the trapeze act genuinely made his heart stop a couple of times.
The strongman genuinely excited him as he watched the guy lift weights like it was nothing.
The man looked over at him at one point as he was taking his picture and smiled.
There was also a knife thrower who had an incredible aim and made it look so easy that Elliott felt compelled to take his kitchen knives and try for himself once he was back home. All accompanied by music sounding like there might be musicians in the tent.
He genuinely hadn’t had that much fun at a circus since he was a child.
After the show Elliott walked away from the tent his hands in his pockets. There were smaller tents, smaller services offered by the circus people and he was debating if he should enter one of them, talk to the guy who claimed that he could see ghosts or the snake man who hadn’t performed today but was, as the director assured them, always available for a smaller viewing (of course in eschange of money) but he didn’t really feel like any of that at all.
So he had to go back home, back to his sad little life, his sad little shop the magic of the circus gone.
“Uh… sorry?” a voice said behind him suddenly. “You uh… forgot this on your seat.”
Elliott turned around and saw the huge man who had thrown around unimaginably heavy things as if they weight nothing. He was of coursed advertised as the strongest man alive which Elliott had rolled his eyes at that and he was pretty sure that there were stronger people living right now but he really was impressed with this man’s strength. Now he was holding Elliott’s small polaroid camera and the few pictures Elliott had taken in his hands.
“Oh, thank you,” Elliott said.
The man smiled. “You’re welcome…” he looked like he wanted to say something more.
“Yes?” Elliott asked frowning.
“Uh… just you take good pictures and well…” he sighed and scratched the back of his head. Elliott had to keep himself from laughing. Here was a strong guy who during his number had looked so confident and worked so hard yet little old Elliott with his scrawny body stuffed into the ugly shirt his ex-wife had bought him last Christmas made him seemingly nervous. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to take some pictures for promotional material?” he finally finished cheeks lighting up. “We’d pay you of course. I mean I gotta talk with the director first uh but…”
“I’m in,” Elliott said before either of them could think about it anymore. He wasn’t entirely sure why, he wasn’t a professional photographer by any standards, it was a hobby and usually he did it to document crop circles or other things related to his conspiracy theories and it wasn’t like he actually needed the money.
But a overly nervous circus strongman asking him if he’d take promotional pictures for the circus because he found some of his crappy polaroid shots on his seat? That might just be the most interesting thing that had happened to him since his wife left.
The big man smiled now. Elliott was surprised by how soft and warm the smile made him feel. This guy was definitely wrapped up in paradoxes.
“Great! I’ll tell the director then… uhm… and… I’m Luther by the way,” he extended his hand.
“Elliott, Elliott Gussmann.”
“Nice to meet you Elliott!” Luther said and shook his hand quickly. He didn’t apply any pressure and Elliott thought back to learning how to talk to customers and how important it was to always have a good handshake… Luther might need a few lessons in that he thought to himself.
It was good that Luther seemed to be able to wrap things up with the director quickly, Elliott was to come with his camera equipment on a Tuesday which was when the circus didn’t have any shows and was going to make a few pictures of the various acts. Then he was to develop those and help print them as promotional material for the circus. He was probably being scammed with how little he would be paid for his work but Elliott found that he didn’t mind because the whole job meant he could spent more time with Luther and try to figure the man out.
On the day of his shoot he woke up early and collected all of his equipment carefully making sure everything was ready and working to get the shots done.
It was exactly 10 am when Luther rang the bell of the shop though Elliott had seen him waiting around for 10 minutes before that, looking at his watch and looking around. It was only then that Elliott felt suspicious, what if Luther and the rest of his circus never had in mind to have their pictures taken? What if the actual goal was – had always been – to rob Elliott’s shop while he was gone taking pictures of circus acts? He should have known better, should have been less trusting of a stranger and usually Elliott wasn’t one to fall for things like that.
You just wanted to this to be something it’s not, a voice in his head that sounded far too much like his father chastised him. And fell for his tricks.
He looked around.
“I uh… I just need to do something in the back real quick.”
“Alright,” Luther said and looked down.
Elliott nodded and ran to the backdoor and assured that it was locked and no circus performer would just be able to walk in. All seemed well and he couldn’t really do more now.
He sighed and walked back to Luther nodding. “Okay, I’m ready, I think,” he said holding all of his equipment.
“Can I carry anything?” Luther asked and looked at him with his kind smile.
“Uh… yes,” Elliott nodded and handed him the box with his metal stands. “Thank you.”
“No problem!” Luther said and hummed happily walking away as Elliott started locking the door, huh, maybe there hadn’t been any plans to rob him though he could never be sure, could he?
Luther came back and smiled.
“I put the box in our car, in the back. Hope that’s alright?”
“Yes, thank you,” Elliott said and smiled. He’d rather keep his cameras – the really expensive equipment – by himself even if there was no big plan to rob him. He did weirdly feel like he could trust Luther.
The car was obviously one that belonged to the circus, it was a small red truck with a hideous painting promoting the circus and a small bench in the front, the driver was the long haired psychic Elliott had seen on the promotional posters.
“Well, well, you’re the famous photographer then,” he said and grinned.
Famous? “Oh, I’m just Elliott,” he mumbled and looked over at Luther who was suddenly very interested in looking at the ground.
“Nice to meet you, just Elliott, I’m just Klaus. Get in you two.”
With three people on the front seat bench things were very crowded.
Elliott was squished in between Luther and the car door holding onto the camera on his lap with his other equipment placed in the foot room. Luther bit his lip and looked around while Klaus was chatting along.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Luther told us all about the pictures you took, he was practically raving about them, apparently you’re a real artist,” he said and winked.
“Oh… I wouldn’t say…” Elliott looked over at Luther who was starring at his shoes once again. Had Luther really been that impressed by his somewhat shaky and somewhat overexposed pictures? He had gone through his polaroids after Luther handed them back to him. Really he could only find one or two he thought looked good.
“Klaus is exaggerating, I just said that you took good pictures,” he mumbled not looking up.
Klaus snorted. “You were very impressed, Luthy.”
“They were good pictures,” Luther muttered.
Elliott felt a warmth spread in his stomach.
Once they reached the circus and Elliott had set up his equipment, which was a little hard considering the kind of grounds he was working on but at least his experience with photographing corn circles came to use here.
And then they were starting the shoot finally.
First he took a picture of the hypnotizer who smiled as Luther introduced her for the first time since they had started driving looking at Elliott again.
“This is Allison, she’s a magician but she does trapeze too if Five and Dolores need a third party!”
He decided for some shots with her looking straight at the camera, a few of her posing in her short costume and some of her with a cylinder boldly crooked on her head before he moved on to the next act the knife thrower who he lit holding his knives and throwing his knives at the petite woman Luther introduced as Vanya.
“She’s responsible for all of the music you here during the show! She’s a genius,” he said and Vanya laughed a little at his praise.
He took a few pictures of her too but she seemed somewhat uncomfortable about that. “I’m really more of a background worker. Not one of the big stars.”
He pictured Klaus in a spectacularly sparkling rope he hoped would picked up right by his camera.
He took a picture of the two incredible trapezists, the youthful face of the man Luther introduced as Five and the doll like features of the woman called Dolores working nicely together and he hoped that his picture would reflect that.
“Now I just need to develop the pictures,” Elliott said to Luther unsure why he was saying it at all. They all knew what he had to do next.
“Okay,” Luther said. “When can I pick them up?”
And oh, Elliott felt weirdly happy hearing that he would see Luther again.