𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐨|| 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 [𝟏]

Chapter One

1933

Four years earlier
I sit on my bed as I read a book Mum has recently bought me, 'The Story of Doctor Dolittle'. John Dolittle is a respected physician and quiet bachelor living with his spinster sister Sarah in the small English village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. His love of animals grows over the years and his household menagerie eventually scares off his human clientele, leading to loss of wealth.

"Cassie, your aloud to see her." My father says with slightly red puffy eyes, as he walks into my shared tent with both my parents.

I nod my head and place a small piece of paper in my book, and set it down in my bed as I follow my father into a smaller room. Most of the performers are in the room where my mother's sick body lies. The doctor said she caught pneumonia, and that's there's a high chance she won't shake it. That was a week ago and she's getting really bad.

I walk up to her as she lies on a mattress on top of a bail of hay, (that's how we sleep here in the circus, it's still quite comfortable so I'm not complaining)

"Hey, sweetheart." She says weakly as she holds my hands in hers.

"Hi, Mum." I still hadn't lost my English accent. Even though I'm twelve and I've been in America for about six years now.

"You finished that book yet?" She asks me trying to make light conversation,

"No, not yet. But I'm nearly finished. Thank you for getting it for me." I say just above a whisper, I can feel tears threatening to fall out of the corner of my eyes as I look at my mother's Snow White skin.

"Of course sweetie. But I want you to have something as well." She says as she weakly takes a small golden pocket watch with a golden lid to put a picture in.

She hands me the watch with a small weak smile on her face. "This has been passed down from my grandmother. To my mother, then to me and now to you, I want you to pass it onto your kids one day-" she cuts herself off by coughing harshly,

"Mum? Mum are you okay?" I say as I lightly shake her forearm. I can feel the salty tears falling down my cheeks as I look at her.

"You'll. Do great. One day sweetheart. I know it, I love you." She says as she finally stops coughing but her eyes start to flutter close slowly,

"Mum! No please, no, no, no. Please don't go." I fanatically say as I shake her hand. "Please come back," I whisper as I rest my head on her chest as sob silently.

I look down at my pocket watch in my hand and think back to when my mother gave it to me. 'You'll do great one day sweetheart. I know it. I love you.' What constantly plays over and over in my mind again.

Will I do great one day?

"Cassie. What the hell are you doing in here? You have to help the others pack up, we're leaving for Queen's in two hours." My father says as he walks into the small tent I sleep in.

After my mother's passing my father became kind of a dick towards me. I don't know if he's trying to get his anger out and uses me to get it out or if he blames me for my mother's death.

"Yes, sorry Dad," I say as I slip the pocket watch into my trousers pocket and make my way to the animal trainer. I'm now fifteen and have been in America eight years and my English accent is kind of gone, but it's still quite auditable.