Day 11

Start writing a story that…

Step 1: includes the words: circus  poet  street

Step 2: include a dialogue that begins with: Don't go with her

Step 3: add this word: together
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Sondra stood beside her father at the center of the growing crowd and handed him the bowling pins. He smiled and held the pins to his chest. The crowd leaned toward them, elbows bumping and coats shuffling against the tightness of the circle they had formed.

"Ladies and gentlemen," her father said in a stage whisper. "More than 20 years ago, the great Russian circus star Ivan Strolovitch performed an amazing juggling act."

They leaned further, straining to hear him.

"No one else has been able to do it since. Until today!" he shouted, and raised the bowling pins above his head.

The crowd erupted in cheers and clapping, and Sondra smiled as she pointed toward her father with a flourish of her hands. Her father then proceeded to do his act, which was impressive more as a result of his showmanship than his juggling skills. Sondra stared at the audience. She knew the points at which to clap or cheer or look concerned so well by now, that she hardly had to pay attention to do her part.

Instead she watched the men and women in the crowd, wondering about their careers as bankers or teachers or cooks. It would be so wonderful to have that kind of steadiness, she thought. To know with near certainty where you will be living and working each day. Someone had once told her that they envied her life. They had called it bohemian and artistic and exciting. But as this person left in his working car to go to his comfortable home, she wondered if he would feel the same way if his parents had encouraged him to become a street poet or acrobat instead of attending college and planning for a future. She longed for the apartment in the city or the Cape-style house in the suburbs. Anything that was solid and gave her roots.

She sensed, rather than heard, that her father had started calling for volunteers. She approached the crowd and picked out a young man with green eyes and neatly trimmed black hair.

"Would you like to help the Great Tortellini?" she asked.

"Don't go with her, Todd," said a young woman, clutching his arm.

"I'm just going to assist the magician, Sweetie," he said to her. "It looks so cool."

He kissed his girlfriend on the cheek and turned back to Sondra, his face awash in excitement. Together they walked to the spot where he was to stand. She positioned him to face her father with his arms raised to his sides, ready to catch the small hoops that were now being spun in the air.

As the hoops began flying, Sondra looked back at Todd's girlfriend who was pouting in the crowd. The girlfriend glared back at Sondra, but only received a smile in return. Sondra then stepped closer to Todd in preparation for the next part of the act where they would stand back to back so that she, too, could raise her arms to offer more targets for the hoops. As soon as her father began talking to the crowd again, she slipped in behind Todd, pressing her back against his. For a moment, she felt solid and supported by roots.