The Tight Wire

the train.

It was a cold winters evening in Bedfordshire, and Jay Bonham was taking a stroll through the fields that lay on the outskirts of the main city. She didn't have anywhere to go, and she had finished work early, so she came to the fields to clear her head. Recently she had a lot to think about.

Only 2 months ago she caught her boyfriend whom she had been with for 3 years in bed with some random girl. Needless to say she was furious at the time, and she immediately kicked him out of their shared apartment. But no matter how angry she was, she was still heartbroken that he would betray her like that.

Screw him. He doesn't deserve your pity.

She pushed her hands deeper into her pockets to retain what little warmth she had left in her as she came across a gate separating 2 fields at the very top of the hill she was walking up. She gracefully put her hands on the top metal bar of the gate and flipped her legs over her head and landed on the top of the gate in a crouching positing.

She smiled to herself. She used to be a keen gymnast, but she retired when she was 18. She still loved to do little moves like that whenever she had the opportunity. It made her feel like she still had a link back to her days in the travelling circus she was a part of.

She looked out over the city and noticed a train go down the line towards the city.

That's weird. What a train doing going down here at this time of day? It's 11:47 in the evening for gods sake!

This was no ordinary train. It had several different coloured cars. It felt oddly...

Familiar.

On one she could see in bright blue letters:

Pinder's circus.

Jay's jaw dropped.

Why are they here? Are they doing another tour? Why didn't Artemis tell me? She knows I live nearby!

Jay watched the train as it stopped in a station on the outskirts of town. She could just make out figures of people unloading stuff from the train. Joy rose up inside her chest.

They are performing here!

Jay immediately leaped off the fence and bolted it down the hill towards the train line.

"Artemis, you are so dead for not telling me you were coming!"
Jay said to herself as she leapt over a hedge and kept running towards the train.

Her home.

She could see her family again!