Another Day, Another Dollar

by Amber Lynn

  Dad drove us across town to the fairgrounds. As we got closer to the giant circus tent, I began to realize not only did my mother bring all the kids from school there for my birthday; she also brought the dang circus. Banners were posted everywhere saying “Welcome to Avery Claven’s Circus Birthday Party”.

  Horrified was too mild a word for the feeling crawling under my skin. I wanted, no that wasn’t right, I had to wake up from the nightmare before things got any more out of hand. I closed my eyes and opened them, hoping the scene would change. When it didn’t work the first time, I kept trying.

  I gave up after the tenth time and focused my efforts on figuring out a way to dig myself out of the car. The only saving grace was that none of the people I was living with in the present were there to witness my humiliation. I assumed the day ended so horribly that I chose to wipe it from my memory.

  Dad parked up by the front of the huge tent in a special parking spot designated for the “Birthday Girl”. The song “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” started playing in my head.

  “Mom this is really too much. How many kids did you invite?” It looked like there was room for more than just the kids from my school. I was afraid the whole state had shown up.

  “We put the announcement in the school bulletin, so technically all of the kids from kindergarten to fifth grade,” she replied, getting out of the car. Dad joined her in vacating the car.

  So at least a couple hundred kids were likely to show up, and why not, it was a free circus. Whatever was going to happen when I got in the tent horrified me. I was frozen in place; there was no way I could go in there. My mom finally realized I wasn’t moving and opened my car door.

  “Out you come, Avery. The show is going to start in ten minutes, and you have to be in your throne when that happens,” she said.

  “You did not just say throne. Seriously, Mom, was I switched at birth? I can’t believe we’re related sometimes. When have I ever indicated this would be something I liked? I’m pretty sure from the moment I was born, it was clear this kind of thing wasn’t for me.” I shouted.

  Thankfully, no one was around to hear the tantrum. There was only so much I could take and having a circus thrown in my honor was a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

  “Avery, don’t talk to you mother like that,” my dad said sadly, as Mom started to cry. No fair, crying was supposed to be my gig that day.

  “I know you don’t like this kind of stuff, but I’m trying to make up for past mistakes,” my mom said. “Before you were born you had a sister who died kind of suddenly. We still don’t know what happened, but I think I’ve been trying to do all the things with you that she and I never did together. I don’t understand why I was given two daughters who are tomboys.”

  Those few words explained a lot. Nate went phoenix when he realized I wasn’t coming back anytime soon. I’d never really thought about what my parents might have gone through. It was really hard not to tell her she didn’t have two daughters that were so unlike her, just the one.

  I’d thought they’d figured things out before I was ten, but unless she was acting, she didn’t know I’d finally resurrected. I tried to think back to a time when they changed, thinking it would help me put an age to when they knew, but Mom had never toned down her psycho.

  “What was her name?” I asked. I was a little curious to see what name they’d give me.

  “Yara,” my father responded without hesitating. I wasn’t expecting them to give me my very first name. I figured they would go with the last one I was using.

  “That’s a pretty name. Do you have any pictures of her that I could see?” I asked.

  “Maybe someday. For now we have them locked away,” my mother answered, the tears were drying as quickly as they’d appeared.

  “Well, if I have to go to this party, we probably better get in there. We don’t want the elephants to get restless,” I said finally stepping out of the car. They both smiled and ushered me inside.

  When we made it inside, it was as bad as I expected. Kids and their parents were running around everywhere. I saw many people who I recognized from my childhood and it made me wonder where they all were in the present. Not enough for me to try to look them up, but I was willing to let Vinnie do a little research for me on the subject.

  Sadly, Mom wasn’t joking about the throne. There, with a tiara sitting in the seat, was a throne in the middle of the center ring. So throughout the whole show I was going to be stuck with people staring at me. The anger quickly started to burble back up from the pit of my stomach, but I didn’t voice it in front of the audience.

  We made it to the throne and Dad put the tiara on me. Little did everyone, including my parents at the time, know that I was actually a queen. That made me wonder when Nate first noticed we were soulmates. He was created full grown and I was pretty sure I didn’t come along for a while, so if he originally saw me when I was ten, that could pass Rick in my creeper column.

  “Thank you everyone for coming out to enjoy our daughter’s birthday party with us. A little girl only turns ten once, so we wanted to go all out for her this year,” my dad said into a microphone he seemed to produce out of thin air.

  My mom grabbed the microphone away from him, which didn’t surprise me. She’d always liked to be the one running the show.

  “Please enjoy the show and stay for cake and ice cream afterwards.” The audience clapped as the lights dimmed and clowns filed out from pretty much every direction.

  Oh God. The nightmares were never going to end. How many ways could you traumatize a kid before child services gets called in? I was pretty sure my parents were getting really close to that limit. Even though I didn’t remember that day, I knew where my fear of clowns came from. I’d always thought it had been a little irrational.

  They brought out their little clown car and started jumping into it. The more that went in, the more I wondered if I had my fire powers in that body. I thought a torched clown car would be a great way to get the party over quickly. Once they did their thing and exited the ring, three elephants came out and did their tricks followed by tightrope walkers.

  After the clowns, the show could only improve, and the next act was definitely worth admission. Oh wait, that was free. Well, the act was really cool anyway. Two sphere cages were brought out and placed on either side of the stage.

  Six guys on dirt bikes rode around and did tricks on the floor as the spheres were double-checked for safety. Then three guys entered each of the spheres and started riding around inside of them. How they didn’t run in to each other I didn’t know, but they spun in circles for five minutes without any incidents. When they stopped and waved to the crowd, it went wild.

  I wondered if Nate would have a problem with me learning how to perform the trick. It had to provide an adrenaline rush like nothing I experienced before, and I wanted to try it. The fact that I could move and levitate the bikes if things got out of control, meant I could probably convince him to at least let me try it once.

  “That was awesome,” I said to my parents as I clapped along with the crowd.

  “We’re glad you enjoyed it,” my mom said, smiling wide. She should’ve been taking notes for birthdays to come, but I didn’t remember seeing any other death-defying stunts on future birthdays.

  The ring announcer came out and called an end to the show. He directed everyone to a buffet waiting behind the tent. Not wanting to be trampled, I waited with my parents until the crowd thinned out. Once everyone was outside, we made our way that direction.

  Outside, I found the buffet that was promised, along with a petting zoo. Most of the smaller kids were gathered by it, trying to pet the baby sheep. I continued my sweep of the area and found a massive sheet cake with a gift table that was piled high with presents.

  I hoped they didn’t make me open them in front of everyone, which was something I did remember my mother doing in front of smaller crowds before. If it was up to me, I’d just donate
them all to charity without even opening them.

  “Come on, let’s go cut the cake,” my mom said dragging me towards a cake that could feed an army.

  Upon seeing the cake, I turned bright red. It had a giant picture of ten-year-old me with angel wings and a halo and said “Happy Birthday to Our Little Angel”. Again, very happy that no one from my house was there to see that day. If Rick ever got wind of it, I was going to have to kill him.

  “Really, Mom, were the wings necessary?” I asked.

  “Oh hush, it’s a perfect cake. Now go ahead and cut it, so you can take the first bite,” she replied.

  I did as she directed and saw that it was a chocolate cake. Crap, it wasn’t until I was fifteen that I started hating the taste of chocolate. I hoped she didn’t mind me only taking that first bite, because I was pretty sure any more would make me throw up. I didn’t reckon that was a memory she wanted to have of my birthday.

  I cut off a small piece and put it on a plate. With my fork, I scooped up as small of a bite as I could manage and brought it up to my lips. I’d forgotten not to breathe, and the smell of cocoa was overwhelming. I wondered how bad it would look if I plugged my nose.

  I quickly put the bite in my mouth and swallowed without chewing. I tried to hide the cringe and slight shiver as I tried to will the smell to leave my nostrils. I didn’t think I was able to taste the cake itself, but the lingering scent was enough to make it seem like I had.

  “Mmm, it’s really good, Mom,” I said, plastering on a fake smile.

  “Of course it is,” she said, like any other option would be foolish. “Let’s go sit at our table and let everyone else get some.”

  I was all for getting as far away from the cake as possible, so I let her lead me away. On the way to the table, I stealthily threw my cake into a garbage can we passed by. Hopefully she didn’t notice it had vanished.

  While we sat there, parents brought their kids over and forced them to tell me happy birthday. Most of the kids looked like they’d rather eat dirt. It didn’t go unnoticed by me that I didn’t actually have any friends. It never really bothered me, and even though I’d found friends in the present time, I knew I’d still do well by myself.

  After thirty minutes people started leaving. Once it got down to only about twenty stragglers, my mother decided I should open the presents. I guessed it was better than her making me do it in front of hundreds, but I was still not happy about the idea.

  I sat at the gift table and started unwrapping mostly coloring books and Play-Doh. There were a few Barbie dolls that maybe I could turn into robots to go along with my Furby. As I was getting towards the end of the pile, a hand with another present appeared in my face.

  “Hi, Avery,” Eva said. “I got you something really special.” Eva looked just like she did the other times I’d met her, but she had done her hair and worn clothes that made her look even younger. I wouldn’t have said she looked ten, but she could probably pass for sixteen.

  I was pretty sure I should act like I didn’t know her, so as I took the gift from her, I said, “Thanks, do I know you?”

  “That’s a very good question,” she replied. “Do you want your parents to know about your high school buddy, or not?”

  “Avery, do you know this girl?” my mother asked, looking suspicious. I wondered if she could pick up Eva’s weirdness.

  “Sure, she’s my high school buddy, like she said,” I replied.

  “Well, it’s really sweet of her to show up for your party. Why don’t you run off and play with her for a while? The rest of the presents can wait,” Mom said, which surprised me a little. I thought she was enjoying watching me squirm in front of everyone.

  “Great idea, Mrs. Clavens,” Eva said, and grabbed my arm.

  She pulled me along with her gift still in my hand. After Nate told me how much trouble me and Eva used to get into together, I was a little worried about what she had planned. Since I was only ten on the outside, I didn’t think we’d be going skinny dipping, but there were a lot of other activities that would get me in trouble.

  CHAPTER 20

  Time is a very curious thing