Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga #1)(5)

He glanced over at a cute young blonde girl about fourteen years old who was walking by. ‘Cathleen, take this giovane donna to Matt and informare him I desideri – that I wish him to work with her together. He’s incaricato to teach her today.’ He turned again to me. ‘Nice to meet you, Kelsey. I hope you piacere, ah, enjoy, working here at our piccola tenda di circo!’

I said, ‘Thanks, it was nice to meet you too.’

He winked at me, then turned around, went back inside his motor home, and closed the door.

Cathleen smiled and led me around the back of the building to the circus’s sleeping quarters. ‘Welcome to the big – er, well, small top! Come on, follow me. You can sleep in my tent if you want. There are a couple of extra cots in there. My mom, my aunt, and I all share a tent. We travel with the circus. My mom’s an acrobat and my aunt is, too. Our tent’s nice, if you can ignore all the costumes.’

She led me into her tent and to a vacant cot. The tent was spacious. I stowed my backpack under an empty cot and looked around. She was right about the costumes. They were hanging everywhere – racks and racks of them. Lace, sparkles, feathers, and spandex covered every corner of the tent. There was also a lit mirrored table with makeup, hair-brushes, pins, and curlers strewn haphazardly over every square inch of the surface.

We then found Matt, who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen. He had brown hair, an average short haircut, brown eyes, and a happy--go-lucky grin. He was trying to set up a ticket stand by himself – and failing miserably.

‘Hey, Matt,’ Cathleen said as we grabbed the bottom of the booth to help him.

She was blushing. How cute.

Cathleen continued, ‘um, this is Kelsey. She’s here for two weeks. You’re supposed to show her the ropes.’

‘No problem,’ he replied. ‘See ya around, Cath.’

‘See ya.’ She smiled and flounced away.

‘So, Kelsey, I guess you get to be my sidekick today, huh? Well, you’ll love it,’ he said, teasing me. ‘I run the tickets and souvenir booths, and I’m the trash collector and stock boy. I basically do everything around here that needs to get done. My dad’s the circus animal trainer.’

‘That’s a cool job,’ I replied and joked, ‘It sounds better than a trash collector anyway.’

Matt laughed. ‘Let’s get going then,’ he said.

We spent the next few hours hauling boxes, stocking the concession stand, and preparing for the public.

Ugh, I’m out of shape, I thought as my biceps protested and tried to unionize against me.

Dad always used to say, ‘Hard work keeps you grounded’ whenever Mom would come up with a massive new project like planting a flower garden. He was infinitely patient, and when I complained about the extra work, he’d just smile and say, ‘Kells, when you love someone, you learn to give and take. Someday that will happen to you too.’

Somehow, I doubted this was one of those situations.

When everything was ready, Matt sent me over to Cathleen to pick out and change into a circus costume – which turned out to be gold, glittery, and something I normally wouldn’t have touched with a ten-foot pole.

This job better be worth it, I muttered under my breath and crammed my head through the shiny neckline.

Donned in my new sparkly getup, I walked out to the ticket booth and saw that Matt had put up the price board. He was waiting for me with instructions, the lock box, and a ring of tickets. He had also brought me a sack lunch.

‘It’s show time. Chow down quick because a couple of buses of summer camp kids are on their way.’

Before I could finish eating, the camp children descended upon me in a raucous, violent flurry of little bodies. I felt like tiny buffalo were stampeding over me. My customer service-like smile probably looked more like a frightened grimace. There was nowhere for me to run. They were all around me – each one clamoring for my attention.

The adults approached, and I asked them hopefully, ‘Are you all paying together or separately?’

One of the teachers responded, ‘Oh, no. We decided to let each child buy a ticket.’

‘That’s great,’ I muttered with a fake smile.

I began selling the tickets, and Cathleen soon joined me until I heard the music of the performance begin. I sat there for about twenty minutes more, but nobody else came in, so I locked the money box and found Matt inside the tent watching the show.

The man I’d met earlier that morning was the ringleader. ‘What’s his name?’ I whispered to Matt.

‘Agostino Maurizio,’ he replied. ‘He’s the owner of the circus, and the acrobats are all members of his family.’

Mr. Maurizio brought out the clowns, acrobats, and jugglers, and I found myself enjoying the performance. Before long, though, Matt elbowed me and motioned to the souvenir stand. Intermission was going to start soon: time to sell balloons.

Together we blew up dozens of multicolored balloons with a helium tank. The kids were in a frenzy! They ran to every booth and counted out their coins so they could spend every penny.

Red seemed to be the most popular balloon color. Matt took the money while I inflated the balloons. I’d never done it before, and I popped a few, which startled the kids, but I tried to make the loud pops into a joke by shouting, ‘Whoopsie!’ every time it happened. Pretty soon, they were yelling, ‘Whoopsie!’ along with me.