SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
Chapter Thirty Alan and Rose finally located their seats a few rows away from the floor of the arena and settled down. Rose was on the aisle while Alan set next to her. Alan put the stuffed elephant in his lap, opened the program and stared at the pictures while Rose readied her digital camera. “Hey,” she said to Alan. He looked up and saw her aiming the camera at him. “Why are you taking a picture of me?” ‘Because I want to.” Alan shrugged. He turned the program around and showed the camera an enormous picture of a parade while he grinned. Rose took the picture and he went back to reading the program. While he was reading, he became aware that someone was looking at the program with him. He looked over and saw a four year old girl sitting beside him with little blonde curly hair. “Hi,” she said to him. Alan smiled. “Hello there. You excited about the circus?” “Uh-huh.” “What’s your name?” “Rachel.” “Hi, I’m Alan. It’s nice to meet you.” “What you doin’?” “I’m looking at this program. You wanna look with me?” “Uh-huh.” Rose smiled as the little girl leaned her head onto Alan’s arm and looked at the program with him. She looked over towards the aisle when she noticed someone walking down the stairs carrying a load of souvenirs. She stared at the glow sticks for a moment before stopping him. “Could I get two glow sticks please?” she said as Alan turned his head and watched her. She paid for them and showed them off to a perplexed Alan. “You don’t know what these are?” Alan shook his head. “Watch.” She took one and snapped it. Alan’s eyes lit up when the long plastic cord began to glow green. “They’re glow sticks. They glow in the dark, see?” She handed the other one to Alan. He snapped it and smiled when it began to glow. “Brilliant!” he said. “Once more, human ingenuity.” His eyes shifted to Rachel and his smile widened when he saw the fascinated look on her face. “Neat, huh?” he asked her. “Uh-huh.” He saw green flashes out of the corner of his eye and turned his head. Rose was holding on to the end of the glow stick and was spinning it around in front of her. Alan repeated the movement and smiled when he heard Rachel laughing. He noticed her staring at the stuffed elephant intently and he picked it up and made it dance on her head while she giggled hysterically. Her mother, who was on the other side of Rachel, smiled at that. “You make a new friend, hon?” she asked. Rachel nodded. “He’s funny, mommy.” Alan smiled at the woman. “Nice to meet you,” he said. “You too, I’m Jessica.” “I’m Alan and this is Rose,” he said as Rose waved at them. “You’re British?” Jessica asked. Alan nodded. “My husband’s parents are British. They live in Sheffield. I’ve been with him to see them a couple of times. I love England. It’s a beautiful country.” “Yes, it is.” “So, where are you from?” “We’re from London.” “Oh, I haven’t visited London yet. Is it nice?” “It’s okay. It’s a big, bustling city like New York,” Alan said. “Why you talk funny?” Rachel asked. “Honey, that’s not very nice.” “Nah, it’s okay,” Alan said. He smiled at her. “I come from England. That’s why I talk differently.” “Where’s that?” “Oh, it’s waaaaaaaaaay over there across the ocean. It’s an island.” “You talk funny.” Alan feigned anger. “I do not. You talk funny.” “No, I don’t. you do!” “No, you do.” “No, you do!” Rachel said, giggling. He smiled and tickled under her arm before he went back to his program. “You know what?” Rose said. He looked at her. “What?” “I think you oughta become a grammar school teacher. You’re just brilliant with children,” she said. “I love children. They’re so innocent and they’re not afraid to be themselves and have fun. It’s too bad they can’t stay like that.” “You still talkin’ funny.” Rose giggled when Alan snapped his head around and gave her a wide-eyed look. He smiled when Rachel laughed at him. “See, I told ya, you oughta be a teacher,” Rose said. “I think you’d be much happier doing that than working at Torchwood.” “Yeah, you’re right; I might look in to that or do something with kids. I…” He turned his head around when Rachel took the elephant from his lap. “Rachel Anne, you put that back this instant,” Jessica said. “Ah, it’s alright, she can play with it as long as she gives it back,” he said. He turned his attention back to Rose while Rachel quietly played with the elephant. “What time is it?” “Five minutes to eight.” “Could you pass me my candy floss then?” Rose reached down between her legs and grabbed the plastic bag of pink candy floss. “Thank ya muchly,” Alan said, taking it from her. Rose grabbed the popcorn and ate some while Alan tore open the plastic bag. He grabbed a wad of candy floss and was about to put it in his mouth when he felt something on his arm. He looked down and noticed Rachel had her head on his arm while she was eyeing the pink confection. “Problem?” Alan said as Rose sniggered. “I want.” Rachel said, reaching for it. Jessica sighed. “Rachel, leave the man alone, will ya?” she said exasperated. “It’s alright, really, I don’t mind sharing,” he said, handing her the bit of candy floss. “What do you say?” Jessica prompted. “Thank yooooooou,” Rachel said. “You’re welcome.” He reached into the bag and pulled off another piece. He munched on it contentedly as the lights began to dim and calliope music began to play. Between the two of them, Alan and Rachel quickly finished off the bag of candy floss. Rose glanced over at them and smiled when she saw Rachel leaning her head on Alan’s arm while they both watched the show. She noticed that Alan was just as transfixed as Rachel was and knew it was a good idea picking the circus instead of a Broadway show. They were watching a scantily clad woman riding bareback on some white horses when Alan suddenly leaned over to Rose. “Dear, can you finagle your way backstage and steal a few of those Vegas showgirl costumes they’re wearing, so you can ride me bareback?” he whispered in her ear. He snickered when Rose shot him a look. “Down boy,” she whispered as Alan laughed harder. They watched as the woman stood up on the horse and rode him around the ring. “I can do that, you know. I just choose not to,” Alan whispered to Rose. She snorted. The woman did a flip and landed on her feet on the back of the horse. “And that, I can do that too.” “Yeah, right, pull the other one.” “I can.” She noticed a concession vendor walking by them. She got a couple bags of peanuts and dropped one in Alan’s lap. “Here, feed your elephant,” she said. Alan stared at her. Then he reached in, grabbed a peanut and chucked it at her cheek. “Oi!” she said as Alan laughed. “I’ll take that back if you don’t behave.” Alan clasped the peanut bag to his chest with a frightened look on his face. He smiled when Rose laughed and popped the peanuts in his mouth while he turned his attention back to the show. “I can do that too, I just choose not to.” Rose sighed when he said that for the trillionth time. “I am gonna throw you in that cage and let the lions and tigers have you if you don’t shut your gob,” she said, pointing at the lion tamer. “I’m just telling you that I can do everything they’re doing. I just don’t want to upstage and embarrass you.” “Fine, you know how to lion tame, get down there and do it.” “Okay, you come in there with me so I have someone to rescue.” “I’m not a damsel in distress, thank you.” Rose’s mouth dropped open when she heard him cough and say “The Wire!” in the middle of it. “Oh, sorry, peanut got lodged in my throat for a moment,” he said, thumping his chest with his fist. He flinched when Rose gave him a look of death. “I’m just saying, dear, you were the one with your face in the telly.” He began to cough again. cough cough Cassandra! cough cough Gamestation! cough cough He thumped his chest again. “Blimey, those peanuts are rough on my trachea,” he said as Rose eyed him. “I guess I need to be more careful in future.” “N’yuk, N’yuk,” she said. Finally, they reached the finale, a man getting shot out of a cannon. “Better cover your ears,” Rose hissed to Alan. “When the cannon goes off, it’s loud.” Alan nodded. He leaned over to Rachel. “Hey, cover your ears, the cannon’s loud,” he whispered. Rachel gave him a confused look. “Like this,” he said, slapping his hands over his ears. He nodded when Rachel imitated him and settled back to watch the finale. “Here we go! Everybody count down!” the ringmaster yelled. There was a loud bang and Rachel wailed as the man sailed out of the cannon into a net on the other side of the arena. “Mommy!” Rachel said, hugging her around the waist. Alan and Rose stared at her sadly while Jessica tried to comfort her daughter. She smiled at them. “Don’t worry, she’ll be alright,” she said to Alan. “Thanks so much for sharing your things with her.” “You’re welcome and here, she can have this. I think it’ll make her feel better,” Alan said, handing her the glow stick. “Thank you, here’s your elephant back,” Jessica said taking it from Rachel’s lap. The lights came up and people began to file out. “Bye, Rachel, it was nice meeting you,” Alan said. “Say bye,” Jessica said. Rachel turned and reached out for him. Alan leaned over and gave her a big hug. “Bye bye,” she said in her ear. “Bye, sweetie, thanks for watching the circus with me.” He leaned back up and Rachel and Rose waved at each other before they grabbed their things and stood back up. Rose took Alan’s hand and when there was an opening in the crowd, they eased in and walked back up the stairs towards the exit.
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