Sara McNiel continues the story this week by taking our protagonists to even more places than they could have ever imagined. We hope you enjoy this story.
You’ve had the time of your life exploring the circus, and you just can’t stop seeing more. As you wander, you glimpse pointed red and yellow cloth, sticking up from the midst of the crowd. You approach and realize there stands an enormous tent, bigger than anything you’ve ever imagined possible. You’d heard about it from people in town–This is the largest circus tent ever brought to Texas, and you are about to discover what lies inside!
As you and your brothers enter, a door to a giant room catches your eye. There has to be something special in this room, and that must be why the tent is so big, you think. After carefully turning the doorknob and walking inside, a huge room, walls covered in blinking, multi-hued lights and inset buttons, awaits you. Suddenly the door slams shut behind you, and everything start spinning. You and your brothers to fall to the ground. Once you’re finally able to catch your balance, you run back out the door. But when you and your brothers walk back outside, you realize this was not the same circus you were just visiting. What on earth will you do now?
- Go back inside the tent to try to find your way back to where you came from
- Try to see what the other tents around you might hold
- Walk through the crowd to determine if anyone else is as confused as you are
Choice 1–You and your brothers go back inside the tent to try to find your way back to where you came from.
You and your brothers go back into the circus tent, but you realize this isn’t even the same tent you were just in. You notice a tiny glass room that looks only big enough for a small child. A sign pointing to the room reads, ‘Admiral Dot: The Famous Tiny Man’. This catches you in disbelief, and you must go investigate to see if it’s true. As you approach the glass room, you look in to find that there truly is, in fact a grown man standing only 48 inches tall. After seeing this man, you realize that anything is possible.
Choice 2–You and your brothers try to see what the other tents around you might hold, hoping you might find another way back to what you remember.
“Come one, come all! See Chang, the famous, the glorious, the amazing, tallest man in the world,” shouted a man standing next to another tent, this one large and striped in white. You and your brothers glance at each other and without another word start running into the tent, tacitly agreeing you must meet this man! Once you finally make it through the line to enter the tent, the largest man you’ve ever seen towers over everyone. He is draped in a long red robe, accented with golden thread. He is over 8 feet tall, and looks down to smile right at you as you approach. You feel a pang of guilt because Mama couldn’t join you. She’d have loved to meet this huge man with the gentle smile!
Choice 3–You and your brothers walk through the crowd to determine if anyone else is as confused as you are.
After stepping out of the tent, you and your brothers try to take in what’s different about the sights and sounds. While your brother chatters about what he sees, a stir and then a hush descend on the crowd as two people pass through.
“They’re really here! How can this be?”
They are dressed in far grander fashion than you and your brothers have ever seen before. The crushed velvet cloth on the girl’s dress is a rich purple color, lined with gold and silver thread, and the man’s suit is made from a silk so fine and shiny that it reflects light in seeming defiance of the sun’s glory. The pair pass you in their stately procession, and you cannot figure out how you wound up in the same place where these two grand people are visiting. Someone whispers to you, “It’s the Prince and Princess of Wales!”
