That Time I Joined the Circus by J. J. Howard

Author:J. J. Howard [Howard, J. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2012-12-17T05:00:00+00:00

That evening, Jamie helped get my iPod hooked up with the speakers. The other day he had come back with a RadioShack bag full of magical cords, so now I could control the music from inside. Another donation to my cause. I hated feeling like a charity case.

This thought strengthened my resolve to do well tonight. A few early customers were already coming down the midway, mostly families with kids in strollers, and some middle-school-aged kids.

“You have everything you need?” Jamie asked when we’d checked out the sound and experimented with the volume a couple times.

I tried to look confident. “Yep. Thanks, Jamie. For the love seat, too. That was really great of you.”

“Least I could do,” I thought I heard him mumble before he turned away.

How could Jamie possibly be this awkward with every girl he had kissed? Or maybe he usually confined his conquests to girls he was unlikely to ever see again, girls left behind at each circus town when we pulled up stakes and left.

I watched Jamie walk off, pushing away the confusion and awkwardness I felt about that situation. I had other confusing and awkward fish to fry. I ducked back into the trailer and scrolled through my iPod until I reached my give-me-ten-dollars-and-I’ll-tell-you-your-future playlist.

I took my seat at the table and closed my eyes, listening to the first song, “Fortune Days” by The Glitch Mob. I shuffled the tarot cards, spreading them out before me. I was very glad I had spent so much time playing poker with Eli, because I at least knew how to shuffle really well. I selected a card by feel, pulled it out, and opened my eyes. The Fool: the beginning of a journey or adventure. That sounded about right.

“That’s a good card,” I heard a deep voice say, and I looked up, startled, into Nick Tarus’s very dark eyes.

“The Fool?” I raised an eyebrow at him. Somehow I could talk to Nick without forgetting how to use nouns. I guess starting off being screamed at and insulted had sort of broken the ice with him, in a weird way. “It’s a card about beginnings, I know that. But the name of the card isn’t too complimentary. After all, the thing I’m the most worried about is whether or not anybody will want to have their future told by an unpleasant teenager.”

“Ouch.” Nick mock-winced. “That hurts. But you’re an old soul — shows in your eyes. You’ll be fine.”

The way he said it, flat-out like that, no joking or irony, seemed almost to make it true. And then I snapped out of the spell his eyes had briefly put me under and felt nervous again. Who was I kidding?

“Practice on me,” I heard him saying.

Had everyone in the whole circus decided I needed practice?

“But your mom is a professional,” I told him.

“My mother, yes. But I never let her do a reading for me,” he said as he expertly shuffled the cards. “So I really won’t know any more about it than anyone coming in off the street.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.