Hunt

Like perfectly wrapped cellophane, you preserve us all inside your hallowed stone sanctuary. The dizzy, dry-mouth, too sweet coloration inside that remind one of too many chemicals and preservatives and fulgurating nature of this sort of hell-house that is insinuating us of its nature with a blinking lighted entrance at the front door, ———WELCOME ONE & ALL!———like an incessant wink of a licentious, creepy, old person… and the sensory overload of it all makes me want to run far away. But I can’t.

“I’m not.. not going in there!” You say, hands on hips, your eyes darkly downcast.

“What about Manny, we have to go in and find him!” I yell, and I feel you gently pulling me down to put your soft hands over my mouth.

“Can’t let that crazy house hear you. It’ll rearrange the rooms again and we won’t find our son, Harry…” you whisper in my ear and I nod, as your palm smoothly moves away from my mouth.

“I’m sorry, luv.” I feel myself breaking down, and I bite my lip, my eyes welling with tears.

You wrap your arms tightly around my waist and pull me close.

“I’m… pretty…” I hear you start to quack out and then I quip, “You are a pretty bird, luv!” And you scoff with a bright red blush.

“I am the best one so I guess I’d have to bum rush the joint first and check out the risks, counter attack and then grab our son and get out as…” you say in an anxious, fast paced manner that makes my heart race, so I take you by the hand, lean down kiss the side of your mouth and gently start walking side by side your lovely frame as we go into the large circus tent together.

Suddenly, we see a man on his head doing a perfectly straight head-stand in striped clothes.

“Pardon me, sir…” I feel my throat getting clogged. It was Manny’s deep wish for us to take him to the circus. But, Robin and I find the whole circus thing creepy. Clowns, acrobats, the whole shebang… I just get a funny feeling about it. ESPECIALLY since in this circumstance as this circus was all about shapeshifters, the “fun house,” was the whole damn thing and it constantly looked liked a Topsy Turvy nightmare constructed out of a world that reminds one of that Dutch artist M. C. Escher. Robin and I fancied that the clown tent was alive and could hear us. We based it on our own haunted, crazy house back at home.

My world is exactly a disorientating as that lithograph picture M.C. constructed, with two different sorts of gravitational forces at odds with another in one world, stairs swarming the top and bottom like a suffocating wasp’s nest…. And everyone just going about their day like nothing is wrong. That feels like our everyday, sort of hell, honestly.

But, after Manny’s terrible family life with his actual bio dad being an abusive piece of shit, and us rescuing him and making him a part of our family…and Robin convincing me of course with a date night later on…. I decided to not let my fears get the better of me. Yea, it’s tougher than you think, even having Robin with me to keep me feeling better… it is so hard.

The man was looking at me intently, waiting for me to continue my speech but I couldn’t speak anymore and Robin noticed.

“Uh, what my dear partner is trying to ascertain is… have you seen our son?” Robin asks. “He is short. Young, about ten. Blue hair. He needs supervision or the young lad’ll get into a heap of trouble, we reckon, hehehe,” Robin nervously laughed, jabbing me in my side.

“Ow, hey!” I start to say but he gives me a look and I laugh as well.

“No. Didn’t see anything. The crowd just dispersed after the last show. Check in the ticket area or where the candy floss is being made. Felicity likes to have the kids frolic around over there somewhere!” The man says, but then makes an ‘Ommph!’ noise.

“While you two are shakin’ like a leaf over there by the mermaid’s old tank, I saw a paper scuttle in, looks like a crossword puzzle of sorts, with a name… Manny…?” The man reads and you run over with haste, picking it up.

“You read that while being upside down?” I ask and you give me a look that has me straighten my posture and not say anything else about the man’s reading habits. Your looks can say a full speech I feel. Such as that last look said, “Don’t make personal comments on others we don’t know intimately!”

You stand up straight, letting out a quick breath and fixing your dark greenish, brown hair, stating proudly, “I’m excellent at crossroads… ahem! I mean… crossword puzzles. Little lad must’ve learned it from me.” He huffs haughtily and I sigh, rolling my eyes. “Chip off the old block!”

“Old block is right, luv!” I tease and he scoffs loudly, and I hear the man chuckle, getting up from his headstand, laughing heartily.

“Why.. you! You’re incorrigible! Incorrectable! Wrong! You’re..” he scrunches up his nose and stomps a foot so gently you barely see it, much less hear it without truly paying attention (I know it’s because he doesn’t want to kick up too much dust on his black slacks). “Wrong.”

“Well, that settles it,” I say and you frown, looking confused as I walk over to look at the crossword puzzle.

I take your sweaty hand in mind and say, “If I am wrong, you’re always right!”

You give me this funny, flustered look that I love and the man cracks up.

“It means …he loves you!” The man whispers with a wink and then hurries off, waving to us and wishing us much luck to find our wayward son.

“I knew that!” You tell the man and this time I laugh.

Finally, we both settle down and look at the crossword puzzle closely.

“It’s most definitely Our Manny’s writing!” You say after much silence.

“I believe you are right, luv,” I agree and he nods with a dramatic movement.

“Of course I am, silly thing. Anyway…That circus guy said,” you start to say to me as you tap at the water tank behind us, “that this is the old mermaid tank. Maybe the new one is where Manny is?”

“Like he left us clues? How likely is that? That sounds way too convenient…” I mutter and you sigh impatiently.

“We have to find him! We have nothing else to go on! Come on, Harry, we have to!”

“Okay. You go to the new mermaid tank, I’ll go find the horseshoe, and we will meet where they keep the seashells-” I mutter and you shake you head, leaning into my stomach and holding me tight.

“No. Mustn’t get separated again…” he says into my jacket and I touch his cheek softly.

“Sorry, yes. I agree. Let’s go.”

We shuffle off, holding hands, and somehow find the new mermaid tank, but no Manny.

The mermaid is a green skinned, long limbed creature with black, sharp teeth.

“She uses sign language to talk,” the ringmaster tells us, and we nod, and I feel my darling’s hand sweating bullets as she signs out the she saw a little boy with blue hair earlier writing on a crossword.

We try to not run off, but we walk faster than we intended and feel a sprinkle of water hit us as we leave.

“Sorry, our mermaid likes to play pranks!” The ringmaster says, and we barely look back and say, “No worries mate!” Before running off like a bat out of hell.

We ask about the horseshoe but see nothing…

But…

The last exhibit of the freak show: the one hoofed horse lady.

We took one look at her and bolted!!

“Ah, fuck a duck!” I muttered in fright under my breath, but you just glared at me, making me give you a mischievous grin.

Suddenly, we ran right into someone and we all fell.

I landed almost on top of you, I heard you grumbling.

“You’re such a lanky tall thing! Get off!” you growled as you tried to push me off but I blew you a kiss and said, “Stop pushing me away, you like it, mate…”

“You cheeky oaf! I ought to smack the upside of your head for being so cheeky!” You were definitely blushing again but as soon as we saw that streak of familiar blue we stopped our weird flirting straight away.

“MANNY!” We both yelled, climbing over each other stupidly to see our son better.

Manny smiles at us and we both move into hug him at the same time, bumping our noses into each other’s.

“Ya big lummox!” You tease, and I grin.

“You silly, old, cranky bird…” I tease back.

“Dad! Papa!” Manny cried out. “Sorry I got lost!”

“Aww, no worries, mate, we were so worried but we are glad we found you. Must be because we love you!” I say with a smile.

“Duh! Of course we love you!” You grin and kiss the top of Manny’s head.

Manny smiled widely, hugging us tightly. “Love you both too! Did you end up seeing any seashells by the seashore? She was selling them…”

“Seashore? Uh… no, we hadn’t…” I answer, looking at you confused, and you shake your head, scratching your neck in a questioning way.

Suddenly, the scene beneath us starts becoming gravely and sandy, and not as steady, and I grab onto my family as as strange wave floats near us, looking sticky, unreal, almost petrified but the movement is there.

We’re all too shocked to move or speak until the green skinned mermaid comes terrifyingly into view, her large black vampiric teeth showing almost too boldly in a huge grin.

I try to run with my family in tow, the word hunt a now obvious plot to hunt customers….

Suddenly, we get sprayed by the strange wave, and she giggles, her large fin like hands uncovering small glowing shells inside her palms.

“Two for five dollars… pllleasse?” She hisses out.

I grab some money in my wallet, not even counting, and take the shells. Her slimy hands feel so slippery as she grabbed the money, and I feel sick to my stomach but brave for giving her the funds.

Manny seems to want to stay, laughing and enjoying the mermaid, but I see you are completely petrified, unable to move as I hold you under my arm… and we finally leave with the shells in tow and the transforming seaside starts fading away in the distance.

“I love crossword puzzles, such a great way to hunt for treasure!” Manny says as we leave and you laugh in a stressful way, almost ironically as I know you do crosswords at home all the time. Apparently, hunting for words can be a dangerous game. We are all exhausted, but happy, our family at least surviving our first trip to the circus.