No one was in sight.  The voices were there, still muffled, and they seemed to be coming from within the tent.  I walked across the open field, the tent growing larger as I approached.  Shadow figures danced along the canvas, hinting at wondrous figures of all heights and shapes inside.

I was startled to see in the shadows a very large man in a tiny ticket booth by the tent door.  An old worn out sign read $2.00.  Relief washed over me as I found exactly two dollars in change I had received when I had bought my espresso the day before.  Without a word, I handed the man my money.  He looked at me with a strange glint in his eye, hesitated, and then handed me a dirty little red ticket with the words "admit one" printed in black ink.  It was all crumpled and creased like it had been used a hundred times before.

When I looked back at the large man he had vanished from the ticket window.  I slowly began to pull back the tent door, when suddenly it became silent.  All the sound I had heard coming from within the tent came to an abrupt halt.  I froze.  All I could hear were the crickets and the sound of my own breathing.  I felt anxious and curious but there was also a sense of trepidation underneath it all that I was trying to ignore.

I peered through the door and saw a dimly lit circus ring in the center of the tent.  There were just a few chairs around the ring, so I walked over to one and sat down.  From the center, all I could see were shadows ringing the space, and I wondered for a moment what lurked beyond my sight.  Where were all the people I had heard?  Where were the figures that had made all of the shadows?

Suddenly, someone came leaping out, doing somersaults from the shadows.  A large clown stopped in the middle of the stage and took a bow towards me.  His face was white with black clown makeup.  The hat he wore was a pointy cone hat with black and white stripes.  His clothes were white and billowy with big black puffs down the front.  One heavily makeup'd eye winked at me.  I was mesmerized; my body felt paralyzed with wonder.  The clown was standing still now staring straight into my eyes.  I shuffled in my chair and he pointed to his right.

Five circus pooches wearing cone hats came walking out on their back two hind legs.  They proceeded to do various acrobatic feats that I didn't know dogs could even do.  The clown was playing an odd instrument, a wierd box with a hand crank that spewed out broody old circus sounds while the dogs performed flawlessly.  When they were finished, they sat in a row and all of them looked straight into my eyes.  I clapped for them.  They remained in their line, looking at me.  I could swear that one of them winked at me...was I just seeing things?

Something shiny caught my eye to the left and I strained to see something...anything.  When I looked back, the performing pooches were gone.  I was by myself again...or was I?  Muffled voices and the sound of people shuffling about came from within the dark shadows beyond the circle of light at the center of the tent.  What was going on?  I just couldn't see.  Then, all at once, the music started up again and out from the dark recesses of the tattered old tent came a troope of little people.  They were the smallest I had ever seen, maybe 3 feet tall at the most.  They started climbing up on each others back to form a totem pole.  Two stacks of five little people each.  The two human totems ran around the stage for a moment before they started leaping off, one by one, doing somersaults in the air on their way down.  I was so caught up with it all, I started clapping without thinking.  They looked a little startled but continued on.

I felt a tap on my shoulder from behind and jumped out of my chair.  It was another black and white clown who handed me a box.  My startled eye caught his eye and it absolutely sparkled with mischief.  The box was red and gold with ornate carving all over it.  I looked behind me and he was gone.  I opened the box more curious than ever to see what was inside.  I found an old rusty skeleton key with a tattered red ribbon tied around it and a tag hanging from it that had the word "continue..." on it.  I wondered what it was for, what did it unlock?  The prospects were numerous, and very exciting.

I stood up and wondered if I was alone in the tent or if they were watching me from the shadows.  Strangely I felt welcome in this wierd little place.  My trepidation turned into complete curiousity.  One by one, the mysterious circus performers materialized from the shadows.  Time seemed suspended when out of the dark bounded a clown into the center of the ring.  He made a low bow, straightened up and waved goodbye.  I knew the show had come to a close for me.  He smiled and backflipped his way into the dark.

It was so quiet, I could hear the croak of a frog from outside the tent.  I started walking towards the shadows that ringed me.  I was reluctant to leave this magical circus but also curious about this old key.  I saw a tiny slit of moonlight in the darkness and walked towards it.  As I stepped outside, I heard the shuffled feet and the whispers again from inside.  I was tempted to pop my head back inside the tent but something told me to leave the moment as it was.

As I made my way back to my house, still clutching the box, I saw something flutter in the leaves up ahead.  As I drew close to the spot, I saw a crumpled piece of paper folded in half under a rock.  The wind had been blowing up the edge of it.  I picked it up and discovered an advertisement for the traveling circus.  Was it the same one I had just seen?  There were no dates or locations.  But I did recognize an image of a spectacled, six fingered man on the piece of paper that I had seen before.  In the basement of our old house, there was a picture on the wall with the same man.  It had been there when we moved in, about ten years ago.  I ran the rest of the way home and went straight downstairs.  I took the picture off the wall and to my amazement found a small door with a key hole in it.  My heart raced.  I fumbled to open the box and took out the key.  It slipped right in and turned in the hole.  The door opened to reveal a small safe,  lined in old red velvet.  On the floor of the safe was a bundle of old tattered papers with a black ribbon tied around them and a tag that said "...the mystery".  The images on this site  are from the package of  papers I found that curious night.