Well, it's been an interesting week. My nipples are even itchier than they were a week ago, and they look bigger, too. The problem with things like this is it's hard to see a doctor on a one time basis, it would be a lot easier if we had a doctor and/or a nurse as a member(s) in the troupe.

I don't think it's anything too serious, but I could really do without the itchiness, especially when I'm busy working or training.

We arrived at the fairgrounds just after 1 PM on Thursday and spent the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening setting everything up. Jack Birchland makes a habit of wiring money for licenses and such several days before we arrive at an event to avoid trouble with police.

Our big acts, specifically the lion taming and the elephants, are held inside a rather large tent, about 100' by 100', the side walls are 15' high and the peak in the middle of the tent is 70' off the ground. Seats are set up near the walls on a series of wooden tiers so people can watch.

A similar tent a short distance away is the home for Jackson's bike stunts, my tightrope walking, the two jugglers and the acrobats. We take our turns using this tent, so each of us gets a chance to put on a few shows through the day. The seating arrangement is similar to the big tent.

The Valbists approached Jack Birchland, the boss, on Wednesday morning as we were having our breakfast. It seems that Eric Valbist had worked as a juggler for a year or two before he became an acrobat, and he wanted to help Pat and Jenny improve their skills. Eric suggested combining the two acts for a while so he could use some time to give Pat and Jenny some training and yet allow them to perform, too. He also suggested that when Pat and Jenny weren't training or performing, they could wander around the fairgrounds while juggling.

Pat and Jenny were happy to agree; considering that they had been facing the possibility of having to self-train, this would be much better.

Once everything had been set up, Eric collared Pat and Jenny and started their training by having them do flexibility exercises. When they asked him why they were doing the exercises, he explained that being more flexible would help them to expand their juggling skills.

He said, "Let's see, if you can bend back or twist around to either side, and become comfortable enough doing that that you can still juggle..."

Jenny giggled and replied, "So the more flexible we are, the more we can do with the juggling act, which improves crowd response."

Eric laughed, "That's right, and improved crowd response means you can draw people to the shows."

After that, Pat and Jenny followed his instructions avidly for nearly two hours.

When Eric decided that they had had enough, he chuckled and said, "Go relax, kids, a good rubdown will soothe your muscles, too."

**********

I was just chilling near our tents, trucks and RVs with beds around ten PM on Thursday when someone approached me, asking for mom.

"Hiya, I'm Larry Banfield, you want my mom for something?"

"Yeah, hi, Larry. I'm Pete Canton, I work for another show, we've got a young guy with two lions and he can't control them worth shit."

"That doesn't sound good, Pete, I hope they haven't mauled him?"

"Not yet, Larry, but they might, you see, the kid is scared of the cats and they can smell it, so they taunt him with paw slaps and roaring."

"All right, Pete, give me a moment." I walked away, then opened the door of our Winnebago, walked back and knocked on the bedroom door.

Mom opened it and I quickly explained the situation. She nodded and said she'd be outside in a moment.

Mom joined us a few minutes later, wearing heavy work gloves that extend to the elbow and carrying two large pieces of fresh meat.

Pete led us around the fairgrounds until we reached their area, then over to a truck with the lions' cage on a trailer behind it.

Mom watched the kid by the cage for a moment, then asked Pete to fetch a small table so she could put one of the pieces of meat down. "I'm going to approach the cage, offer the chunk of meat to whichever lion comes first, then let him smell me for a bit. The one thing that makes a huge difference with animals like this is confidence, a trainer who has confidence and isn't afraid of them gets them to slow down a bit."

Pete whistled, a kid about twelve or so ran over, Pete told him what was needed and the kid returned a few minutes later carrying a small table. The kid had apparently taken a moment to think it out as he brought back several sheets of paper towel to put under the meat. Smart kid.

Mom dropped one chunk of meat on the paper towels, then approached the cage, talking quietly to the lions. When she reached the cage, at a point roughly midway between the two lions, she held the hand with the piece of meat just inside the bars and waited.

The bigger lion, possibly the older one, stalked over, sniffed at the meat, then snatched it from her hand with his long tongue. The meat was gone in seconds, the lion licked his face once or twice, bent his head to sniff at mom's hand, then head butted her hand several times.

She laughed and slowly reached under the lion's head, scratching at his throat, which soon had the lion purring quite loudly. After a few minutes of this, the other lion moved forward to get in on it, but the first lion turned his head and growled, causing the second to back away.

Another minute or two passed, then the big lion turned and stalked over to his corner, where he laid down and watched all of us.

Mom pulled her arm out, walked back to the table, picked up the other piece of meat and headed over to the second lion.

Over the next five or ten minutes, the process was repeated and the young lion "trainer" was literally stunned by mom's confidence.

When she finished, she walked back to us, then asked Pete to find his boss as she wanted to discuss something with him or her.

We stood around waiting for nearly twenty minutes before Pete returned with an older lady, whom he introduced as Mrs. Alice Underhill.

Mrs. Underhill turned to face my mom and stated, "I hear you were asking for me, would you mind telling me why?"

Mom grinned and replied, "Well, your young man there is scared of the cats, he needs to learn how to be confident around them. I'm Esther Banfield, I do the lion taming for our show, Jack Birchland's. I can take your young man here and turn him into a good lion tamer/trainer."

Mrs. Underhill laughed, replying, "I've heard of you, if half the stories I've been told are true, you're one of the best tamers alive right now."

Mom giggled, "I don't know that I'd say that I'm that good, but I have a lot of experience which will help with training your young man."

Mrs. Underhill laughed even louder, "That's an understatement, Esther! I'm Alice, by the way. So you want to take Terrence here with you? How long would he be staying with you for training purposes and would he have somewhere to sleep while traveling with you?"

Mom replied, "Yes, I want him with us, six months to a year, maybe longer and if he doesn't have a bed, we have several fully equipped tents."

Alice Underhill turned to Terrence, asking, "How do you feel about this, Terrence?"

The young man in question blushed rather visibly, "She's Birchland's tamer? Mrs. Underhill, I've never seen anything like what she just did."

"Well, Terrence," Alice responded, "She's been taming and training lions for nearly twenty-five years, so she's damn good at it."

"Ma'am, she acted like they were nothing more than overgrown house cats. I want to be able to be that confident," Terrence stated.

"Are you willing to go with her and let her teach you, then?" Alice asked.

"Yes, ma'am, the truck and trailer is mine, I've had my driver's license since I was fourteen, so that won't be a problem."

Alice chuckled, "I know that, Terrence, you've worked with me part time or full time for nearly ten years now. Pack up, you're hers for now. Esther, I'd like to get semi-regular reports on his training if that's possible, he's a good kid and a hard worker. Take care of him for me."

Terrence nodded and picked up a few things that had been lying around, then stuffed them into the back of the truck. At some point in time, someone had added a camper style roof to the back of the truck, turning the F1500 long bed into a small but cozy living space.

Mom waited until Terrence was ready, then we got into the truck and Mom gave him directions to our area of the fairgrounds.

**********

Mom decided to keep the two male lions in Terrence's cage on his trailer, she didn't want our lone lioness to end up with another litter right now. The two male lions put up a bit of a fuss at not being able to be in the same cage as our lioness but eventually settled down.

There's a lot of support staff for any carny group, callers, animal tenders, odd jobs folks, etc.

We have Lance Abrams who mostly tends to the horses, but also helps with other animals, along with Kerry Ellis and Vince Tanner.

Brant has a couple of young guys, Carter Thomas and Greg Darcy, who help tend to the elephants and their cage.

Mom usually takes care of our lioness and her kits by herself, but now that we have Terrence with us, he'll likely help out with that work. Mom can also get help from Quentin Lorenz who has been, up till now, the only person other than mom that could clean our lioness' cage.

Then there's Tina Hanson, Lisa Marks, Dave Peters, Elijah Riordan, Ricki Keswick, Albany Johnson, Vicky Sanders and Frank Canning. These folks are our callers, our outside talkers in carny speak, the ones who stand out in front of the tents and pull people in to watch the shows.

Jackson Pelt's younger brother Jeremy helps him to keep his bikes and associated gear in tip top shape.

There's also Ursula Walker, Sam Granger, Tipper Falls and Zoe Shaughnessy, they walk around clearing up litter, we like our area to be clean. These four are all older folks, all but Sam over forty; all four have been injured and couldn't continue doing their former activities or stunts.

**********

I was able to watch Mom early on Friday morning as she demonstrated to Terrence her ability to control the three adult lions.

While she was putting them through their paces, she was also talking to Terrence. "Confidence is the key, Terry, if you show them that you're not afraid of them, over time, they'll begin to think of you as a strong member of their pack, one they can't terrorize into submission."

Terrence thought for a moment, then replied, "So by showing them I'm afraid, I'm letting them control the situation when I should be?"

"That's right. If you want to succeed at this, you need to reach deep inside yourself and learn to control that fear."

Terrence paced back and forth for a few minutes, then stood there, taking slow, deep breaths. When he finally turned back toward her, there was a visible change in his posture and movement, he practically stalked across the space, previously he had shuffle walked.

Mom noticed the change, smiled and tossed him her second whip. "Let's see what you can do, young man."

The next hour was spent with Terrence learning the various motions and calls. The lions were in a fairly good mood, which made it easier for Terrence, but by the time he stepped back and let mom take over again, he was quite obviously sweating and nervous. One of the males had actually stalked up close to Terrence at one point, trying to intimidate the young man, but he had stood his ground and the lion walked away.

Mom chuckled, "Not too bad, young man, but they still know that you're at least a little bit afraid of them. You'll get there, it just takes time."

**********

The Valbists and the two jugglers spent the early morning on Friday practicing as a group. The idea was to get Pat and Jenny used to the way that the acrobats moved and to teach the two young jugglers how to time their throws so they wouldn't actually hit the acrobats.

Pat and Jenny stayed on the ground while the acrobats took to the swing bars, ropes and stationary bars they used.

It was a gruelling session, but by the end of it, the two jugglers felt they could give at least an honest effort. Considering that the balls Pat and Jenny were throwing each weighed about two pounds or so, and they often had four or more in hand, it required a fair amount of energy.

Eric smiled at them, as did Maria; Pat and Jenny might be new to all of this, but they were willing to work hard to learn.

**********

The first show in the big tent was Mom with the three lions, Terrence assisting her as needed.

The show went fairly well for the most part, the big male tried to intimidate Terrence twice, and like that morning, Terrence stood his ground. The lion continued with the act as if the moments with Terrence hadn't happened, and Terrence was relieved that he hadn't been hurt.

He'd still been scared of the lion, to an extent that the lion picked up on it, but Terrence had gained the lion's respect by standing firm. Just before the first show ended, that lion paced over to Terrence, rose up and placed his paws on Terrence's shoulder, then licked him.

Seconds later, the lion had dropped to the ground and rejoined the other lion and the lioness, going through their final paces.

Terrence came very close to filling his underwear at that point, but somehow shook it off and followed Mom and the lions out of the tent.

**********

At about the same time as the lions' first show was taking place, the acrobats and jugglers had their first show.

The five acrobats jumped, spun, flew all over the place, going from one piece of equipment to another with eerie skill and grace. Pat and Jenny wandered around underneath them, tossing their weighted balls in a spinning circle, narrowly missing the acrobats many times.

There were a few points when they didn't miss, just a slip in timing, but the flexibility of the acrobats prevented any serious injury. Eric, Sherry and Tommy would have bruises later, but that wasn't all that unusual; sometimes they would land on an item wrong, bruises were normal.

Even with the accidental hits, the show was a decent success, they had filled more than half of the available seating in the tent.

It might even be said that the accidental hits helped to show the realism of the acrobats act, that even they could be affected by mistakes.

**********

Barry and his elephants were next in the main tent. This was a first for Barry, his previous experience with elephants had been when he spent a summer working for a zoo in his home town, he'd ended up cleaning the elephant compound there on a regular basis.

He'd been working constantly with Sasha and Vandal, the two elephants Jack had picked up a few months before.

He had the two elephants walk around the open space, then up reinforced boards and stepping through huge hoops. Every now and then, he'd give a command and one or both of the elephants would rise up on their back legs while trumpeting, then drop to the ground again.

Elephants aren't as flexible as cats by a long shot, so there was more walking them around, through the hoops and over obstructions like twelve inch by twelve inch ten foot long pieces of lumber, there were a few of those scattered around the tent at various levels.

The show drew a fair crowd, a bit over a third of the tent compared to about three quarters for the lions, but there was genuine applause.

**********

It was my turn next in the smaller tent. My set up wasn't complicated, an eighty foot long rope placed fifty feet up over a flimsy looking net. The net might look flimsy, but it isn't; we've tested it quite a bit, and it will catch someone my dad's size, 6'1" and 215 pounds, quite easily.

The acrobats don't use the net, even though it's available. Dad enforces it with me because I'm a minor and safety of minors is a big issue.

I don't even notice the net any more, I've been doing this long enough that my entire focus is on what I do, not what is below me.

I smile at the crowd as I stand on the board at one end, then bow briefly before I twist sideways spinning into a perfect set of cartwheels. Several seconds later, I stop halfway across the rope, then do a front flip and land on it again before doing a few jumping jacks.

The front flip and the jumping jacks have several people going, "Eek!" as if they think I'm about to fall, then I don't and they sigh in relief. I turn so that I'm facing toward the board at the other end and begin walking along as if I were on the ground, not up here on a very slim rope.

I end up perhaps five feet from the safety of the other board, then turn and do a back flip before twisting and doing several cartwheels.

Once again, I'm in the middle of the rope, and I'm pretty sure I heard several gasps when I did the back flip, then shifted to the cartwheels.

This is where I start having fun, though. I trained with a guy from Europe a few years ago, and now I start dancing on the tightrope. I'm shifting position on the rope as if I were being held in the arms of a lover. The changes in movement cause some watchers to hold their breath.

I'm quite good at this, so I don't know why they seem so scared. All it takes is a lot of practice and knowing where to step all the time.

Finally, after I've danced back and forth along the middle of the rope for a few minutes, I cartwheel to a board, bow and go down the steps.

The applause at the end was quite nice, I like to give a good show, and it's pretty clear that I've thoroughly impressed many of these people.

**********

Jackson Pelt followed my performance, several folks moved in to set up his act, finally getting his approval.

He does some pretty neat stunts, like actually doing a flip while on the bike, twists and spins, riding up curved walls, using them as the launch point for various stunts, there's a few jumps over obstacles and through hoops, but he often does these while spinning or twisting.

He's pretty good at this, most of the time, he's moving at a good thirty to thirty-five miles an hour, so he has to have very good timing.

If I wasn't kept busy by the constant training and doing shows, not to mention keeping up with homework, I'd likely try the stunt biking myself.

**********

The lions and elephants each performed three times on Friday, starting from about mid-afternoon.

In our tent, each of the acts had two performances over the same time period, which gave me lots of time to get my homework done.

At one point after I had finished my homework between shows, I wandered over and watched the horses. Horses are lovely creatures, they're strong and excellent runners, but it is really wonderful to watch them walking around the small space carrying a young child.

Lance, Kerry or Vince will be nearby, sometimes holding the lead rein, sometimes just watching, but always close if something happens.

Watching one of them leading a child around on a horse, especially if the child has never ridden a horse before, can bring me to tears. It takes a lot of trust to let someone put you on a big animal's back and then lead that animal around while you're sitting on it.

I know quite well about that, I was one of those kids eleven years go, and I fell in love with horses, although I never did learn to ride well.

**********

The big tent did four shows each for the lions and elephants on Saturday, and three each for those two acts on Sunday.

The small tent, which is for the jugglers and acrobats, Jackson and myself, did three shows each on Saturday and two each on Sunday.

The horses drew a steady flow of customers, many of them letting their kids have their first ride; most of the kids enjoyed it. There were a few that didn't, and on one occasion, a mother had to come in and take her child off the horse because the child was having a mega freakout.

The games booths did reasonably well; they aren't the major draws for us, just a steady source of income for some of our people.

The big acts, the lions, the elephants, the jugglers and acrobats, Jackson, myself, we pull the crowds; well, our talkers bring the crowds to us.

We made enough between Friday and Sunday to cover our costs and have a bit left over, even the people running the games booths.

Sunday evening was spent pulling everything down and getting it packed.

We'll be hitting the road again in the morning, heading for the Lake County Fair at Eustis, Florida which starts on Thursday.

It won't take us very long to get there from here, so we might have a day or two to just relax and enjoy some early spring days in Florida.