Scary & Freaky stories: The Paranormal World

Uncle Andy and the Fire Breathing Dragon

Shadows lurked at the edge of the circus camp spread around the black mountain of the Big Top pitched beside Shady Creek in a field outside of Sarasota, Florida. The evening cooking and warming fires of the circus people mingled bacon smells with wood smoke and waves of warm air. The railroad tracks marched across a distant meadow with the circus train stretching out on them like a pencil line. One of the shadows materialized into a gypsy wagon with rickety wheels, chipped red and blue paint, faded orange letters, and a scattering of white stars circling a black crystal ball decorating its weather worn sides. Madam Cecelia sat in the oval doorway of the wagon holding the original black crystal ball in her hands. She turned the evening cool, smooth crystal ball over and over and she held it up to the light from the small fire burning in front of her wagon and admired the patterns of the flames as they danced across the crystal ball’s surface.

Then the texture and temperature of the ball changed. It began to warm up gradually like a frozen hand thawing out in a mitten. Soon the crystal ball became too warm for Madam Cecelia to hold and she dropped it on the seat beside her.

“Ouch, that was hot!” Madam Cecelia exclaimed. She leaned over so far that her yellow turban slipped over her eyes and the sleeve of her green and purple striped robe completely covered the crystal ball. She pushed her turban back on her head, pulled her sleeve off the crystal ball and stared into it. Then she asked the cool March air, “Why are you here, Bettina?”

Madam Cecelia stared into the crystal ball and she saw Bettina doing a back flip at the dinner table back at her home.

“I’m going to find Uncle Andy and join the circus!” Bettina proclaimed to those at the table.

Bettina knew exactly where to find Uncle Andy. She read in the Sarasota Spectator that circus owner Robert Ringling had done something different this war year of March 1944. Instead of following the usual custom of dress rehearsing his show in New York, Robert Ringling decided to try out his company right here in Sarasota, Florida. He called his production staff, performers, and musicians to the circus winter quarters and rehearsed and practiced them for weeks. Bettina had read about it in the Sarasota Spectator every day for the past three months. Today, March 26, 1944, the Sarasota Spectator reported that the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus had performed without a hitch and all of the proceeds were going to charity. This would be the last night in town for the circus. It was heading north to New York and then on to Hartford, Connecticut in July. Bettina had recently learned that her Uncle Andy had been an acrobat with the circus for six years.

Bettina couldn’t believe when she came up out of her flip and saw Uncle Andy sitting in the seat of honor next to Papa. Uncle Andy smiled at her. “So I finally get to meet my niece, Bettina. Wonderful flip, just wonderful. You can show me the rest of your act after dinner.”

Bettina’s eyes lit up like she had swallowed a firecracker. She choked on the tea that she had begun to sedately sip to please Papa.

“Papa, can Uncle Andy and I practice acrobatics after dinner?”

Papa set his tea cup into its saucer so hard that tea sloshed over the edges unto Mama’s white lace tablecloth.

Papa seemed to stare straight through Uncle Andy, which Bettina found odd. After all, Uncle Andy was at least twice Papa’s size with red hair that clashed with Papa’s brown hair, and bushy red eyebrows resembling a burning bush. Papa’s glare rested on Mama. “Helen, I forbid you to encourage that child in her absurd fantasies! Circus acrobat, indeed!”

“Dreams aren’t absurd, dear. It takes faith and imagination to dream,” Mama said.

Glaring at Bettina, Papa said, “I forbid you to wear anything but white dresses and pink hair ribbons, and I order you to keep both of your feet on the ground at all times!”