Shorts

I wasn't inspired to write today.

I decided to go out and find something to help inspire me but it didn't come

Then I thought back on the advice my writing teacher Dan Lalande told me once. He said if you're having trouble getting started or even finishing something, to just write it.

Don't worry if it's good enough. You can fix it later. Just write.


The Kraemer Brothers traveling circus was well known in the eastern region. Everyone had seen them perform at some time or another. Some even grew up watching them.Wherever they went they were a regular attraction.

Leo Warner, the fearless Lion Tamer and Strong Man extraordinare dazzled others as he wrestled with his pet lion, Josef. The Incredible Ivanka, which wasn't her name, was a contortionist. The audience would gasp at the odd and insane shapes she'd put her body into. And the main attraction, Charles and Ichabod Kraemer, the trapeze artists, famous for performing without a safety net ever!

Yes, The Kraemer Brothers traveling circus was well known in the eastern region.

But they weren't in the east.

It had been over a year since the circus had gone west to spread the love of the performing arts. At first it was great. They'd stop in a town or city, stay the night, perform the week and be in a new location by the next day. Now the days got longer, the roads more treacherous, and the towns and cities further apart. For the first time ever they had to ration out their food in hopes that they'd make it to the next town.

These are the kinds of hardships a traveling circus endures. They all knew the risks and were offered the chance to settle in the east. None of them stayed, they all felt like they were a family, and to stay behind would mean they'd never see their family again. So they travelled together. A big happy family.

But one member of this unusual family was never happy. Young Dot Kraemer. The daughter of Charles Kraemer and a lady he had a fling with in his youth, Dot was abandoned to the care of the traveling circus. Her mother ran away and left only a note telling Charles the child was his. He did his best to raise her, and with the help of the rest of the family, she was healthy enough. But she was miserable. Dragged into a situation she never wanted.

Dot hated the circus. She hated not having a normal life. Most of all she hated her father for dragging them into this mess. She remembered very vividly her father and uncle Icky (as she called him) having an argument the night before they all left the east. Ichabod insisted they stay but Charles kept preaching about spreading the love for performance.

"After all..." He said, "wasn't it father who suggested we travel from city to city out east? If he had stayed in one place our circus would've ended years ago!"

Dot would've loved to see the end of the circus. Anything to live a normal life like a normal kid. She sometimes dreamed of running away.  To someplace with lots of grass, open fields, and a cozy house with a white picket fence. She'd grown flowers and when people came to visit they'd tell her how lovely her flower bed was.

But instead she was stuck in this personal hell.

Dot had spent the day riding in the back of one of the covered wagons with the costumes and props. She spent the day formulating her escape plan.

The caravan came to a stop that night in the valley of two hills. They set up camp and split up the rations. This was the last of the cured beef. If they didn't reach a city by tomorrow some of the performance chickens would have to be slaughtered for food.

Dot ate very little that night and went to bed early. She pretended to sleep when Charles and Ichabod checked on her. She waited silently until the caravan had gone to sleep. She quietly dressed and pulled out the suitcase she had packed. She took a small portion of the rations. Enough, she hoped, to last her until she reached the next town. She put on her jacket and snuck out the back of the wagon.

She could hear Leo and Ivanka talking by the fire. She crept carefully out into the darkened hills. She thought she had seen a town south of the road a few meters back. She climbed to the top of the hill and peered out over the horizon. Everything was pitch black. For a moment Dot considered turning around and heading back to the caravan. The safety of the only family she had ever known called. She looked down the hill at the caravan. The faint light of the campfire was mostly obscured by the wagons parked around it.

Dot took a deep breath. And headed south.