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Right my entry for the compo. I don't expect to win, i've read through the story, i'm pretty sure theres a lot more i could have talked about and theres probably loop holes to this story. S**till you can read it.
He finally had enough. Frustrated, agitated and disappointed, Pongo the clown (Richard giggler as others knew him) called it quits. The prospect of continuing being a clown now seemed pointless. At first he joined the “Carnevil” circus way back in 2000 in the hope of realising a child hood dream of being a circus clown. He expected everything: Fame, fortune, the possibility of eating all the cream pies he wanted, but most importantly, making millions of people happy whilst keeping his dignity. But now that reality or, what was now apparent, his illusion was smashed to pieces like the piecrusts of the numerous pies that were hurled at him. He now despised seeing the damn pies, let alone eating them. Regardless if they contained excrement, custard, jam or chocolate.
In reality, Pongo spent most of his time cleaning monkey crap from the cages (sometimes whilst the monkeys ceremoniously peed, scratched or bit him). Any spare time he did have were spent getting pies thrown at him from all angles regardless if it was a side show, practising for his big shot in the circus ring (which the opportunity never came) or when he was sleeping. At first he didn’t mind, new people were going to be whipping boys at first and it was normal and only his strong will kept him from breaking. But when it continued for nearly 6 months, he started to lose heart. Pongo cursed himself for not realising his career was a dead end sooner, instead taking him years to realise his error.
But that was all about to change, it was time to stop clowning around and take up a more serious approach to life. The prospect of being an accountant, lawyer, computer technician or even Tesco shelf stacker enticed him. Maybe one of those jobs could be his true calling, anything away from this rancid job he had now.
Pongo slowly made his way towards the ringmasters quarters, his long clownish shoes squeaking and honking all the way as he weaved and jumped past numerous obstacles of trash like rotting discarded food that now housed the numerous worms and maggots that invested the circus. It was a pig sty the whole site, just as well he was leaving, some other poor soul can clean it up instead.
Another 20 shoe squeaking paces later he was at the caravan of the ringmaster. He didn’t know the outcome of the following conversation. Sometimes his boss was reasonable and gave him time to get jabs for Monkey bites. Whilst other times he swore that the ringmaster was the devil incarnate. Once, Pongo refused to clean the cages because he had to take time off to learn new tricks and new balloon sculptures. When the ring master, Mr Tanworth, got word of his laziness, he quite literally went Ape- Sh*t. Cleaning the cages personally and collecting the crap only to smear it over his books, his bed and the insides of his trousers. Never again did Pongo ever feel clean from there on, regardless if he washed or not, he felt soiled and dirty and he knew most people felt the same way.
But that wasn’t the only reason why he believed that Mr Tanworth was the devil. At night he could hear chanting or reading something in an ancient language as if to complete an unholy ceremony. Whilst on that very same night strange things could be heard and things went bump in the night. Could they have been linked?
Pongo knocked on the old wooden door 3 times and waited to enter, Pongos head began working quickly to formulate some. Several seconds past, but they seemed like minutes, till the old door creaked open and he was allowed into the Ring masters quarters. Tanworth sat in a leather chair dressed in the Carnevil ringmaster suit.
The whole caravan was decorated with numerous symbols that both symbolised the devil and represented the style of the carnevil circus: sinister, gothic, weird and wonderful, perhaps as if on the verge of twisted but yet sane enough to look and gaze in wonder. The table was a strong oak table lacquered with trimmings of Red and gold to show class. On that desk lay numerous papers, pens and inks ready and waiting for a days work as well as numerous curios like a skull penholder. Behind Tanworth was a star with 5 points scratched onto the wooden wall.
“What is it my child?” Tanworth had been calling each of his circus members like his own family, never did he refer to their real names, and this made the whole ordeal much worse for pongo.
“Mr tanworth, After some careful thought, I decided that I would like to leave the carnevil circus, I had a change of heart in my career and so I would like to inform you that I want to leave”
“So what has made you see life this way?” Tanworth asked, his voice now having a slight faint sense of boredom
“My ideas of being a clown were greatly misfounded, my career as a clown hasn’t achieved any real progress I was hoping to see myself be in the big round top performing in front of the public and satisfying their demand for laughter and something to brighten up their lives. But I don’t see that happening, I don’t get even the chance to attempt it, I see no point in staying”
“I see, anything else?”
“Also I would like to inform you that something strange is happening around the circus. Each night I heard odd things happen, sometimes I am very sure I could hear screams, laughter and unholy things at night and I am thoroughly convinced its not coming from the ghost ride. It’s as if this place was cursed...”
Tanworth wasn’t amused, first he has the guts to say that he’s leaving the carnevil circus, both his friends and his only family and then insult the circus his life hood, and say it was cursed was simply disgraceful. It was about time the spoilt little child clown pongo was shown his place in life and in society. Tanworth decided now was the time to be blunt.
“You can’t make people laugh, I’ve seen your side performances, nobody laughs, I’ve even seen children cry and adults groaning. Hell, the only time any of us laughed out loud at your exploits was at the time you nearly got your privates cut off trying to pull lola the tight rope walker. If we made you do that trick in real life you would have been a one hit wonder, your career would have been finished and you would have to cope with the humiliating ordeal afterwards.” He leaned forward. “Think what your comrades and the public would say about you then? Hey! Its that Co*kless wonder! He must have been pretty desperate to have a sex change at the time!”
“Don’t you think I live a humiliating life already? If you really did consider me “Family” Then why did you treat me so badly? Making me shovel crap all through the years and be given harsh treatment from my fellow family members.”
“You haven’t seen the world in its true colours have you? Look around what do you see? What did YOU see and feel when your own mother and father were brutally murdered by some unknown thugs on a street? “
“Don’t bring my parents, my true family into this!”
“Oh and why not? Don’t you want to know the reason why? I tell you why! This world, the lord has created is nothing more then an illusion, his ideals are false and so is society! Look around you, you see hunger, famine, poverty, discrimination, torture, abuse, violence, drugs and this is what many governments call a better world? Laughter and good things in life only merely cover the imperfections of life and those who try and find something to laugh about”. Tanworth didn’t mention the fact that he had plans to change the world, even if it meant calling on the very services of Satan to convert the harsh world that god had so proudly screwed over. All this time his dearest son pongo had heard the numerous ceremonies and summons that had taken place, the poor fool, he didn’t know what he was getting into. He had to divert the argument away from the ritual killings and the creatures, hell, the whole circus was secretly devoted to satanism. He began to get closer and began speaking in a harsh whisper
“You want to take up a job in a career in computers and business? You want to work in giant, sterile, unemotional steel citadel to work for fat cats and those who eat before you? Where each day, each person must work for his or her right to stay in a cutthroat market? Is that what you really want?”
“You think this world is all doom and gloom? At least out there in the open I have the world to choose from! Life is full of creed and corruption. communism, the dreams of an ideal utopia failed because we all have dreams and feel want in our lives! I can see and do what I wish in the outside world unlike in this, this, hell hole!”
“How dare you...how dare you...insult-”
“How dare you take 4 years of my life! I won’t stay here for another second let alone wait for a response for my treatment, you can go to hell!” Before the ringmaster could respond, Richard stood up, his anger boiling his blood ready to explode. Finally he took action for once in his life and left the caravan and the circus once and for all. To hell with his pay or even the consequences of leaving without the divine Ringmaster’s blessings vowing never to return to the carnevil circus or any circus.
Tanworth leaned back and grinned, he felt he needed to say something about poor pongo’s treatment. “I don’t know... Richard... there’s something about you that just p****s me off. That’s why”
He finally had enough. Frustrated, agitated and disappointed, Pongo the clown (Richard giggler as others knew him) called it quits. The prospect of continuing being a clown now seemed pointless. At first he joined the “Carnevil” circus way back in 2000 in the hope of realising a child hood dream of being a circus clown. He expected everything: Fame, fortune, the possibility of eating all the cream pies he wanted, but most importantly, making millions of people happy whilst keeping his dignity. But now that reality or, what was now apparent, his illusion was smashed to pieces like the piecrusts of the numerous pies that were hurled at him. He now despised seeing the damn pies, let alone eating them. Regardless if they contained excrement, custard, jam or chocolate.
In reality, Pongo spent most of his time cleaning monkey crap from the cages (sometimes whilst the monkeys ceremoniously peed, scratched or bit him). Any spare time he did have were spent getting pies thrown at him from all angles regardless if it was a side show, practising for his big shot in the circus ring (which the opportunity never came) or when he was sleeping. At first he didn’t mind, new people were going to be whipping boys at first and it was normal and only his strong will kept him from breaking. But when it continued for nearly 6 months, he started to lose heart. Pongo cursed himself for not realising his career was a dead end sooner, instead taking him years to realise his error.
But that was all about to change, it was time to stop clowning around and take up a more serious approach to life. The prospect of being an accountant, lawyer, computer technician or even Tesco shelf stacker enticed him. Maybe one of those jobs could be his true calling, anything away from this rancid job he had now.
Pongo slowly made his way towards the ringmasters quarters, his long clownish shoes squeaking and honking all the way as he weaved and jumped past numerous obstacles of trash like rotting discarded food that now housed the numerous worms and maggots that invested the circus. It was a pig sty the whole site, just as well he was leaving, some other poor soul can clean it up instead.
Another 20 shoe squeaking paces later he was at the caravan of the ringmaster. He didn’t know the outcome of the following conversation. Sometimes his boss was reasonable and gave him time to get jabs for Monkey bites. Whilst other times he swore that the ringmaster was the devil incarnate. Once, Pongo refused to clean the cages because he had to take time off to learn new tricks and new balloon sculptures. When the ring master, Mr Tanworth, got word of his laziness, he quite literally went Ape- Sh*t. Cleaning the cages personally and collecting the crap only to smear it over his books, his bed and the insides of his trousers. Never again did Pongo ever feel clean from there on, regardless if he washed or not, he felt soiled and dirty and he knew most people felt the same way.
But that wasn’t the only reason why he believed that Mr Tanworth was the devil. At night he could hear chanting or reading something in an ancient language as if to complete an unholy ceremony. Whilst on that very same night strange things could be heard and things went bump in the night. Could they have been linked?
Pongo knocked on the old wooden door 3 times and waited to enter, Pongos head began working quickly to formulate some. Several seconds past, but they seemed like minutes, till the old door creaked open and he was allowed into the Ring masters quarters. Tanworth sat in a leather chair dressed in the Carnevil ringmaster suit.
The whole caravan was decorated with numerous symbols that both symbolised the devil and represented the style of the carnevil circus: sinister, gothic, weird and wonderful, perhaps as if on the verge of twisted but yet sane enough to look and gaze in wonder. The table was a strong oak table lacquered with trimmings of Red and gold to show class. On that desk lay numerous papers, pens and inks ready and waiting for a days work as well as numerous curios like a skull penholder. Behind Tanworth was a star with 5 points scratched onto the wooden wall.
“What is it my child?” Tanworth had been calling each of his circus members like his own family, never did he refer to their real names, and this made the whole ordeal much worse for pongo.
“Mr tanworth, After some careful thought, I decided that I would like to leave the carnevil circus, I had a change of heart in my career and so I would like to inform you that I want to leave”
“So what has made you see life this way?” Tanworth asked, his voice now having a slight faint sense of boredom
“My ideas of being a clown were greatly misfounded, my career as a clown hasn’t achieved any real progress I was hoping to see myself be in the big round top performing in front of the public and satisfying their demand for laughter and something to brighten up their lives. But I don’t see that happening, I don’t get even the chance to attempt it, I see no point in staying”
“I see, anything else?”
“Also I would like to inform you that something strange is happening around the circus. Each night I heard odd things happen, sometimes I am very sure I could hear screams, laughter and unholy things at night and I am thoroughly convinced its not coming from the ghost ride. It’s as if this place was cursed...”
Tanworth wasn’t amused, first he has the guts to say that he’s leaving the carnevil circus, both his friends and his only family and then insult the circus his life hood, and say it was cursed was simply disgraceful. It was about time the spoilt little child clown pongo was shown his place in life and in society. Tanworth decided now was the time to be blunt.
“You can’t make people laugh, I’ve seen your side performances, nobody laughs, I’ve even seen children cry and adults groaning. Hell, the only time any of us laughed out loud at your exploits was at the time you nearly got your privates cut off trying to pull lola the tight rope walker. If we made you do that trick in real life you would have been a one hit wonder, your career would have been finished and you would have to cope with the humiliating ordeal afterwards.” He leaned forward. “Think what your comrades and the public would say about you then? Hey! Its that Co*kless wonder! He must have been pretty desperate to have a sex change at the time!”
“Don’t you think I live a humiliating life already? If you really did consider me “Family” Then why did you treat me so badly? Making me shovel crap all through the years and be given harsh treatment from my fellow family members.”
“You haven’t seen the world in its true colours have you? Look around what do you see? What did YOU see and feel when your own mother and father were brutally murdered by some unknown thugs on a street? “
“Don’t bring my parents, my true family into this!”
“Oh and why not? Don’t you want to know the reason why? I tell you why! This world, the lord has created is nothing more then an illusion, his ideals are false and so is society! Look around you, you see hunger, famine, poverty, discrimination, torture, abuse, violence, drugs and this is what many governments call a better world? Laughter and good things in life only merely cover the imperfections of life and those who try and find something to laugh about”. Tanworth didn’t mention the fact that he had plans to change the world, even if it meant calling on the very services of Satan to convert the harsh world that god had so proudly screwed over. All this time his dearest son pongo had heard the numerous ceremonies and summons that had taken place, the poor fool, he didn’t know what he was getting into. He had to divert the argument away from the ritual killings and the creatures, hell, the whole circus was secretly devoted to satanism. He began to get closer and began speaking in a harsh whisper
“You want to take up a job in a career in computers and business? You want to work in giant, sterile, unemotional steel citadel to work for fat cats and those who eat before you? Where each day, each person must work for his or her right to stay in a cutthroat market? Is that what you really want?”
“You think this world is all doom and gloom? At least out there in the open I have the world to choose from! Life is full of creed and corruption. communism, the dreams of an ideal utopia failed because we all have dreams and feel want in our lives! I can see and do what I wish in the outside world unlike in this, this, hell hole!”
“How dare you...how dare you...insult-”
“How dare you take 4 years of my life! I won’t stay here for another second let alone wait for a response for my treatment, you can go to hell!” Before the ringmaster could respond, Richard stood up, his anger boiling his blood ready to explode. Finally he took action for once in his life and left the caravan and the circus once and for all. To hell with his pay or even the consequences of leaving without the divine Ringmaster’s blessings vowing never to return to the carnevil circus or any circus.
Tanworth leaned back and grinned, he felt he needed to say something about poor pongo’s treatment. “I don’t know... Richard... there’s something about you that just p****s me off. That’s why”
thanks for the feed back. Yes admittedly the story didn't go anywhere. I was hoping for a even darker ending (pongo being sacraficed for the evil deities and begining something horrible possibly) but then it ran out of steam.
Agreed, a greater ending would have been nice. A good story though and I thought the first paragraph flowed really well, but that could just be me.
A nice set-up, strong dialogue and some great clown references. Let down by the fact that there's no ending, as such. It just finishes with no resolution, and plenty of questions, and the build up worked so well too.
Fact of the day:
Utopia means "no where".
Anyway it was interesting enough, but like FFF said it never really went anywhere.
Utopia means "no where".
Anyway it was interesting enough, but like FFF said it never really went anywhere.
Pretty good - I never groaned or wondered how much longer it was going to go on for, at least.
Shame nothing actually really happened.
Yeah, good.
Shame nothing actually really happened.
Yeah, good.
Right my entry for the compo. I don't expect to win, i've read through the story, i'm pretty sure theres a lot more i could have talked about and theres probably loop holes to this story. S**till you can read it.
He finally had enough. Frustrated, agitated and disappointed, Pongo the clown (Richard giggler as others knew him) called it quits. The prospect of continuing being a clown now seemed pointless. At first he joined the “Carnevil” circus way back in 2000 in the hope of realising a child hood dream of being a circus clown. He expected everything: Fame, fortune, the possibility of eating all the cream pies he wanted, but most importantly, making millions of people happy whilst keeping his dignity. But now that reality or, what was now apparent, his illusion was smashed to pieces like the piecrusts of the numerous pies that were hurled at him. He now despised seeing the damn pies, let alone eating them. Regardless if they contained excrement, custard, jam or chocolate.
In reality, Pongo spent most of his time cleaning monkey crap from the cages (sometimes whilst the monkeys ceremoniously peed, scratched or bit him). Any spare time he did have were spent getting pies thrown at him from all angles regardless if it was a side show, practising for his big shot in the circus ring (which the opportunity never came) or when he was sleeping. At first he didn’t mind, new people were going to be whipping boys at first and it was normal and only his strong will kept him from breaking. But when it continued for nearly 6 months, he started to lose heart. Pongo cursed himself for not realising his career was a dead end sooner, instead taking him years to realise his error.
But that was all about to change, it was time to stop clowning around and take up a more serious approach to life. The prospect of being an accountant, lawyer, computer technician or even Tesco shelf stacker enticed him. Maybe one of those jobs could be his true calling, anything away from this rancid job he had now.
Pongo slowly made his way towards the ringmasters quarters, his long clownish shoes squeaking and honking all the way as he weaved and jumped past numerous obstacles of trash like rotting discarded food that now housed the numerous worms and maggots that invested the circus. It was a pig sty the whole site, just as well he was leaving, some other poor soul can clean it up instead.
Another 20 shoe squeaking paces later he was at the caravan of the ringmaster. He didn’t know the outcome of the following conversation. Sometimes his boss was reasonable and gave him time to get jabs for Monkey bites. Whilst other times he swore that the ringmaster was the devil incarnate. Once, Pongo refused to clean the cages because he had to take time off to learn new tricks and new balloon sculptures. When the ring master, Mr Tanworth, got word of his laziness, he quite literally went Ape- Sh*t. Cleaning the cages personally and collecting the crap only to smear it over his books, his bed and the insides of his trousers. Never again did Pongo ever feel clean from there on, regardless if he washed or not, he felt soiled and dirty and he knew most people felt the same way.
But that wasn’t the only reason why he believed that Mr Tanworth was the devil. At night he could hear chanting or reading something in an ancient language as if to complete an unholy ceremony. Whilst on that very same night strange things could be heard and things went bump in the night. Could they have been linked?
Pongo knocked on the old wooden door 3 times and waited to enter, Pongos head began working quickly to formulate some. Several seconds past, but they seemed like minutes, till the old door creaked open and he was allowed into the Ring masters quarters. Tanworth sat in a leather chair dressed in the Carnevil ringmaster suit.
The whole caravan was decorated with numerous symbols that both symbolised the devil and represented the style of the carnevil circus: sinister, gothic, weird and wonderful, perhaps as if on the verge of twisted but yet sane enough to look and gaze in wonder. The table was a strong oak table lacquered with trimmings of Red and gold to show class. On that desk lay numerous papers, pens and inks ready and waiting for a days work as well as numerous curios like a skull penholder. Behind Tanworth was a star with 5 points scratched onto the wooden wall.
“What is it my child?” Tanworth had been calling each of his circus members like his own family, never did he refer to their real names, and this made the whole ordeal much worse for pongo.
“Mr tanworth, After some careful thought, I decided that I would like to leave the carnevil circus, I had a change of heart in my career and so I would like to inform you that I want to leave”
“So what has made you see life this way?” Tanworth asked, his voice now having a slight faint sense of boredom
“My ideas of being a clown were greatly misfounded, my career as a clown hasn’t achieved any real progress I was hoping to see myself be in the big round top performing in front of the public and satisfying their demand for laughter and something to brighten up their lives. But I don’t see that happening, I don’t get even the chance to attempt it, I see no point in staying”
“I see, anything else?”
“Also I would like to inform you that something strange is happening around the circus. Each night I heard odd things happen, sometimes I am very sure I could hear screams, laughter and unholy things at night and I am thoroughly convinced its not coming from the ghost ride. It’s as if this place was cursed...”
Tanworth wasn’t amused, first he has the guts to say that he’s leaving the carnevil circus, both his friends and his only family and then insult the circus his life hood, and say it was cursed was simply disgraceful. It was about time the spoilt little child clown pongo was shown his place in life and in society. Tanworth decided now was the time to be blunt.
“You can’t make people laugh, I’ve seen your side performances, nobody laughs, I’ve even seen children cry and adults groaning. Hell, the only time any of us laughed out loud at your exploits was at the time you nearly got your privates cut off trying to pull lola the tight rope walker. If we made you do that trick in real life you would have been a one hit wonder, your career would have been finished and you would have to cope with the humiliating ordeal afterwards.” He leaned forward. “Think what your comrades and the public would say about you then? Hey! Its that Co*kless wonder! He must have been pretty desperate to have a sex change at the time!”
“Don’t you think I live a humiliating life already? If you really did consider me “Family” Then why did you treat me so badly? Making me shovel crap all through the years and be given harsh treatment from my fellow family members.”
“You haven’t seen the world in its true colours have you? Look around what do you see? What did YOU see and feel when your own mother and father were brutally murdered by some unknown thugs on a street? “
“Don’t bring my parents, my true family into this!”
“Oh and why not? Don’t you want to know the reason why? I tell you why! This world, the lord has created is nothing more then an illusion, his ideals are false and so is society! Look around you, you see hunger, famine, poverty, discrimination, torture, abuse, violence, drugs and this is what many governments call a better world? Laughter and good things in life only merely cover the imperfections of life and those who try and find something to laugh about”. Tanworth didn’t mention the fact that he had plans to change the world, even if it meant calling on the very services of Satan to convert the harsh world that god had so proudly screwed over. All this time his dearest son pongo had heard the numerous ceremonies and summons that had taken place, the poor fool, he didn’t know what he was getting into. He had to divert the argument away from the ritual killings and the creatures, hell, the whole circus was secretly devoted to satanism. He began to get closer and began speaking in a harsh whisper
“You want to take up a job in a career in computers and business? You want to work in giant, sterile, unemotional steel citadel to work for fat cats and those who eat before you? Where each day, each person must work for his or her right to stay in a cutthroat market? Is that what you really want?”
“You think this world is all doom and gloom? At least out there in the open I have the world to choose from! Life is full of creed and corruption. communism, the dreams of an ideal utopia failed because we all have dreams and feel want in our lives! I can see and do what I wish in the outside world unlike in this, this, hell hole!”
“How dare you...how dare you...insult-”
“How dare you take 4 years of my life! I won’t stay here for another second let alone wait for a response for my treatment, you can go to hell!” Before the ringmaster could respond, Richard stood up, his anger boiling his blood ready to explode. Finally he took action for once in his life and left the caravan and the circus once and for all. To hell with his pay or even the consequences of leaving without the divine Ringmaster’s blessings vowing never to return to the carnevil circus or any circus.
Tanworth leaned back and grinned, he felt he needed to say something about poor pongo’s treatment. “I don’t know... Richard... there’s something about you that just p****s me off. That’s why”
He finally had enough. Frustrated, agitated and disappointed, Pongo the clown (Richard giggler as others knew him) called it quits. The prospect of continuing being a clown now seemed pointless. At first he joined the “Carnevil” circus way back in 2000 in the hope of realising a child hood dream of being a circus clown. He expected everything: Fame, fortune, the possibility of eating all the cream pies he wanted, but most importantly, making millions of people happy whilst keeping his dignity. But now that reality or, what was now apparent, his illusion was smashed to pieces like the piecrusts of the numerous pies that were hurled at him. He now despised seeing the damn pies, let alone eating them. Regardless if they contained excrement, custard, jam or chocolate.
In reality, Pongo spent most of his time cleaning monkey crap from the cages (sometimes whilst the monkeys ceremoniously peed, scratched or bit him). Any spare time he did have were spent getting pies thrown at him from all angles regardless if it was a side show, practising for his big shot in the circus ring (which the opportunity never came) or when he was sleeping. At first he didn’t mind, new people were going to be whipping boys at first and it was normal and only his strong will kept him from breaking. But when it continued for nearly 6 months, he started to lose heart. Pongo cursed himself for not realising his career was a dead end sooner, instead taking him years to realise his error.
But that was all about to change, it was time to stop clowning around and take up a more serious approach to life. The prospect of being an accountant, lawyer, computer technician or even Tesco shelf stacker enticed him. Maybe one of those jobs could be his true calling, anything away from this rancid job he had now.
Pongo slowly made his way towards the ringmasters quarters, his long clownish shoes squeaking and honking all the way as he weaved and jumped past numerous obstacles of trash like rotting discarded food that now housed the numerous worms and maggots that invested the circus. It was a pig sty the whole site, just as well he was leaving, some other poor soul can clean it up instead.
Another 20 shoe squeaking paces later he was at the caravan of the ringmaster. He didn’t know the outcome of the following conversation. Sometimes his boss was reasonable and gave him time to get jabs for Monkey bites. Whilst other times he swore that the ringmaster was the devil incarnate. Once, Pongo refused to clean the cages because he had to take time off to learn new tricks and new balloon sculptures. When the ring master, Mr Tanworth, got word of his laziness, he quite literally went Ape- Sh*t. Cleaning the cages personally and collecting the crap only to smear it over his books, his bed and the insides of his trousers. Never again did Pongo ever feel clean from there on, regardless if he washed or not, he felt soiled and dirty and he knew most people felt the same way.
But that wasn’t the only reason why he believed that Mr Tanworth was the devil. At night he could hear chanting or reading something in an ancient language as if to complete an unholy ceremony. Whilst on that very same night strange things could be heard and things went bump in the night. Could they have been linked?
Pongo knocked on the old wooden door 3 times and waited to enter, Pongos head began working quickly to formulate some. Several seconds past, but they seemed like minutes, till the old door creaked open and he was allowed into the Ring masters quarters. Tanworth sat in a leather chair dressed in the Carnevil ringmaster suit.
The whole caravan was decorated with numerous symbols that both symbolised the devil and represented the style of the carnevil circus: sinister, gothic, weird and wonderful, perhaps as if on the verge of twisted but yet sane enough to look and gaze in wonder. The table was a strong oak table lacquered with trimmings of Red and gold to show class. On that desk lay numerous papers, pens and inks ready and waiting for a days work as well as numerous curios like a skull penholder. Behind Tanworth was a star with 5 points scratched onto the wooden wall.
“What is it my child?” Tanworth had been calling each of his circus members like his own family, never did he refer to their real names, and this made the whole ordeal much worse for pongo.
“Mr tanworth, After some careful thought, I decided that I would like to leave the carnevil circus, I had a change of heart in my career and so I would like to inform you that I want to leave”
“So what has made you see life this way?” Tanworth asked, his voice now having a slight faint sense of boredom
“My ideas of being a clown were greatly misfounded, my career as a clown hasn’t achieved any real progress I was hoping to see myself be in the big round top performing in front of the public and satisfying their demand for laughter and something to brighten up their lives. But I don’t see that happening, I don’t get even the chance to attempt it, I see no point in staying”
“I see, anything else?”
“Also I would like to inform you that something strange is happening around the circus. Each night I heard odd things happen, sometimes I am very sure I could hear screams, laughter and unholy things at night and I am thoroughly convinced its not coming from the ghost ride. It’s as if this place was cursed...”
Tanworth wasn’t amused, first he has the guts to say that he’s leaving the carnevil circus, both his friends and his only family and then insult the circus his life hood, and say it was cursed was simply disgraceful. It was about time the spoilt little child clown pongo was shown his place in life and in society. Tanworth decided now was the time to be blunt.
“You can’t make people laugh, I’ve seen your side performances, nobody laughs, I’ve even seen children cry and adults groaning. Hell, the only time any of us laughed out loud at your exploits was at the time you nearly got your privates cut off trying to pull lola the tight rope walker. If we made you do that trick in real life you would have been a one hit wonder, your career would have been finished and you would have to cope with the humiliating ordeal afterwards.” He leaned forward. “Think what your comrades and the public would say about you then? Hey! Its that Co*kless wonder! He must have been pretty desperate to have a sex change at the time!”
“Don’t you think I live a humiliating life already? If you really did consider me “Family” Then why did you treat me so badly? Making me shovel crap all through the years and be given harsh treatment from my fellow family members.”
“You haven’t seen the world in its true colours have you? Look around what do you see? What did YOU see and feel when your own mother and father were brutally murdered by some unknown thugs on a street? “
“Don’t bring my parents, my true family into this!”
“Oh and why not? Don’t you want to know the reason why? I tell you why! This world, the lord has created is nothing more then an illusion, his ideals are false and so is society! Look around you, you see hunger, famine, poverty, discrimination, torture, abuse, violence, drugs and this is what many governments call a better world? Laughter and good things in life only merely cover the imperfections of life and those who try and find something to laugh about”. Tanworth didn’t mention the fact that he had plans to change the world, even if it meant calling on the very services of Satan to convert the harsh world that god had so proudly screwed over. All this time his dearest son pongo had heard the numerous ceremonies and summons that had taken place, the poor fool, he didn’t know what he was getting into. He had to divert the argument away from the ritual killings and the creatures, hell, the whole circus was secretly devoted to satanism. He began to get closer and began speaking in a harsh whisper
“You want to take up a job in a career in computers and business? You want to work in giant, sterile, unemotional steel citadel to work for fat cats and those who eat before you? Where each day, each person must work for his or her right to stay in a cutthroat market? Is that what you really want?”
“You think this world is all doom and gloom? At least out there in the open I have the world to choose from! Life is full of creed and corruption. communism, the dreams of an ideal utopia failed because we all have dreams and feel want in our lives! I can see and do what I wish in the outside world unlike in this, this, hell hole!”
“How dare you...how dare you...insult-”
“How dare you take 4 years of my life! I won’t stay here for another second let alone wait for a response for my treatment, you can go to hell!” Before the ringmaster could respond, Richard stood up, his anger boiling his blood ready to explode. Finally he took action for once in his life and left the caravan and the circus once and for all. To hell with his pay or even the consequences of leaving without the divine Ringmaster’s blessings vowing never to return to the carnevil circus or any circus.
Tanworth leaned back and grinned, he felt he needed to say something about poor pongo’s treatment. “I don’t know... Richard... there’s something about you that just p****s me off. That’s why”