I began to watch him, mesmerized. Then I started to realize that he was like a human super hero, and even though magic isn’t real, he made it come to life. Except his power wasn’t strength, flexibility, or anything such as that. He had a much greater talent. His power was to capture the audience, using nothing but a few small knickknacks and his own mind.

These were my thoughts a few months ago when I started a remarkable journey, but in order for me to begin the story I need to take you back to the start of it all. Let me give you my background. I was born and raised on Eagerton Farm, and if there’s one word I could use to describe my mama it would be southern. She has been a southern bell since birth, but then she went on and married a Yankee and they’ve been fighting ever since. Everyone is always surprised when I tell them that I’m growing up on account of the fact I’ve been raised by two children.
Oh, and then there’s the subject of my name. Mama and Daddy bickered on that one until I was five years old. He wanted me to have a proper northern name, but Mama said I ought to be named after her grandmother. Mama won that one, and now I’m Annabelle. We live right outside Smithville, the tiniest town in the U.S.A, and I loathe it. People say that country girls always desire to live in the city and city girls likewise want the farm life, but that’s not necessarily true. I’d be happy to go anywhere else!
My whole life I’ve felt stuck here. I’ve been working on the farm for as long as I can remember. I know no other life besides this, but I can sense that there’s a better one out there just waiting for me to grab it. Our tale starts on my nineteenth birthday, when I woke up with a huge challenge ahead of me. I’ve been telling myself every day that when I was old enough I’d get myself out of here somehow, and starting today I was going to develop a plan.
I began to plot. My mind was spinning with ideas, but the more I thought about it, the harder the situation became. I was educated in a miniature school that most likely no one but the people from Smithville would recognize. My diploma was a sheet of college ruled paper with some class names scrawled on it. Surely no one would hire me with that. I had no money because the job that has taken up my whole life, being a farm hand, didn’t pay because it was my family duty. It seemed like the only job I could get was going to be in farming, and there was no way I was doing that.
I kept thinking throughout the day. Eventually all of my chores were finished, and still nothing came to my mind on how to fix my problem. Dusk had just set in, and I decided to take a walk in an effort to clear my head. I soon passed the grounds of our small farm and entered the town, and that’s when I saw it. There was a huge circus set up in town. It was nothing like I had ever seen before. Festivals such as this never came to towns as pint-sized as ours, but maybe this was luck giving me a second chance! If I could work here at the carnival I could travel everywhere, or at least I could be out of town while I find something different to do with life.
It was a chance that I would take. I strolled up to the entrance gate and reached into my overall pockets to see if I had any loose change that could pay my entry fee. I was in luck. I pulled out some crumpled bills and put them on the table. The man at the desk let me through into what seemed like a different reality. There were tents all over, bright colors were beautifully painted on almost everything. I smiled as I saw huge pieces of cotton candy being formed in a machine. The air was filled with the wonderful smell of fried carnival food. Movement was everywhere.. Each tent was filled with a different side show.
I began to take action, as I stepped into the first tent. I walked into a clown show. I took my place among the crowd and began to laugh as my mind got caught up in the show’s humorous performance. After the show had finished, I went around asking the actors if there was an opening. I wasn’t really overjoyed about the idea of being a clown, but I told myself that I could work my way up from there. After an hour of endless job searching, I was still out of luck.
I looked at the cheap pink watch on my wrist. The circus would close in only five minutes! I started to sulkily make my way back toward the entrance when a thought occurred to me. They might not be leaving yet!
“Excuse me, sir,” I started to say as I tapped the man at the desk on the shoulder. “How long is the circus going to be here?”
“Two more days and we pack up,” he grunted
I hollered out an excited thank-you, as I ran through the shadows back to the farmhouse.
The next morning I woke up before the sun and speedily finished all my work before noon. After I pinned up my long auburn hair and snatched my emergency savings from under my pillow I set out for town. Soon I was back in the circus grounds. There was no time to waste on sightseeing today. I was here on strictly business. I only had two days, and if I couldn’t make it out by then I didn’t know if I ever would.
I started where I left off. I went into tent after tent. I would watch the shows and then start my task of asking around, hoping that there would be some form of open employment. By ten o’clock at night I had gotten turned down by the tightrope walkers, acrobats, jugglers, ballerinas, all the food stands, and even the staff that takes care of the animals. It seemed hopeless. There was only one more day, and it wasn’t even a full day. The circus would start at five o’clock instead of noon tomorrow. There was no point.
As I walked out of the festival I heard a voice.
“What’s got you down, friend?”
I turned around to see a man sitting on a bench just on the outskirts of the circus. He wasn’t what I would have expected to find in a place like this. Everyone here had faces rough from time and work at the carnival, but he was different. He was young and had a kind face. I quickly explained my dilemma to him. His face changed, and he looked as though he were some sort of philosopher that was lost in thought.
“Why don’t you come back again tomorrow and try your luck. You haven’t seen everything yet,” he said
“Maybe I will.”
I left with that thought turning over in my mind, until morning. I carried out my day as usual. Leisurely doing my daily labor. During the day, I didn’t know what my decision would be towards going back to the festival or not, but when five o’clock came I just had to take another chance. I bolted off to the circus and slammed the last bit of my savings down on the admission table. This was my last chance. I explored the last strip of tents and looked all over for opportunity, but to no avail. There was one tent left near the back of the circus. I didn’t even see it all those other nights.
I stepped into the mysterious tent and sat in one of the old wooden chairs meant for the crowd. It was surprising how many people were at this show considering the size of the town. The audience was packed. The lights dimmed and music began to play, as the show started. Smoke shot up from the sides of the stage, and then a man dressed in black appeared on the platform, as the crowd cheered. I wished I could see him better, but I was in the back of the room.
“My name is Scaro the Magnificent!” he boomed, as he walked across the stage. “I’m going to show you exactly what it means to be a magician.”
He proceeded to make everyone’s mouths drop open with just the smallest of things, even a penny. As he continued to do the amazing, I thought to myself that all those other performances at the circus were nothing compared to this. It would be a dream to put on a show the way he did. The performance began to near its end, to everyone’s disappointment, but there was one more act left.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I will now choose a member of the audience and make them disappear.”
Everyone stared on in anticipation as he moved up and down each row looking for the right person. He was getting closer. I could almost see his face now. He then made my heart jump as he came to my chair and reached out his hand.
“You will be the one. I WILL MAKE THIS GIRL DISAPPEAR!” he shouted to the audience as we made our way through the aisle to front stage.
As we stood on stage, I began to really look at who he was. I had seen this face before! I didn’t recognize him at first because of the large black top hat that shaded his face, but now I could tell who it was. He was the one who was sitting outside the circus last night and telling me that I should come again. There was a human sized box where we were standing, and as the audience oohed and ahhed, I was directed into it.
The Magnificent Scaro looked at me as he was about to close the door to the box I was standing in. His eyes looked into mine. I could tell he was looking for something, but I didn’t know what he wanted.
“Watch as I make her disappear!”
I could hear him yell as he closed the door. As he said some strange words, someone backstage opened the back of the door, and I crawled out. He opened up the box again, and in the crowd’s mind I was gone. To them, I had vanished into thin air. These amusing thoughts came over me as I thought about what this would look like to everyone watching. I enjoyed being a part of this fantastic show.
I sat backstage waiting for the magician to make me reappear, but strangely he didn’t. I kept thinking he was going to. The last minutes of the show began to tick away, but there was still no reappearing for me. He ended the show with a loud and flashy good-bye, and I could hear the spectators begin to file out after lengthy rounds of applause. After the last onlooker filed out, I looked at my watch and frantically realized that the circus closed, for the last time, in only one minute.
I began to crawl out from behind the stage, and was surprised to bump into The Magnificent Scaro as he was going back under the curtain.
“I was just about to come back here and talk to you.” he started to say, speaking in his normal voice again.
“There’s a reason I didn’t make you reappear. I wanted to ask you something before you left.”
I will remember that moment for the rest of my life. The magician made me an offer I couldn’t resist, and that’s how I got the best job ever. I became the magician’s assistant. We traveled from town to city not knowing where life was taking us, but we didn’t care because we both loved the job. I gave The Magnificent Scaro (Charlie to me) what he wanted, which was a friend to travel with. He gave me the greatest job I could ever have, and still today the greatest trick Scaro ever performed was my disappearing act.