The Traveling Circus

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The Traveling Circus — page 2 — The Day Max Lost His Marbles This is how the trip began The trip where we saw a church as big as an ocean liner visited an island with no vowels stumbled across a war torn village and met the mysterious hermit of Vrgada The trip where Max and I almost spent our vacation in prison where we ate krumpir and blitva but never saw the Leaning Tower of Pizza The trip where Max got lost at least twice almost drowned once and was nearly captured by a Minotaur It all started on a freezing winter’s day the day Max lost his marbles I don’t mean that he went crazy though that happens pretty often

The Traveling Circus — page 3 — Max had invented a game with our cat Miro It was very simple Max would throw marbles all over the hardwood floor in the kitchen for maximum noise and distance Miro would pounce from the table the counter or the top of the refrigerator and try to capture them Meanwhile Max would do the same thing Whoever caught the most marbles won It was a game that demanded high intelligence and great rolled under it I had to lie flat on the floor and try to push out the marbles with my ruler On my third try I fished out a postcard You’ve got mail There was a faded picture of a rocky island in the middle of a turquoise sea It was impossible to read the message The writing skill Well this time the stove won Every single marble

The Traveling Circus — page 4 — looked like a bunch of crushed spiders But the picture on the postcard was great You could almost feel the sunshine beating down on the red roofs of the little stone houses Meanwhile here in Montreal the snow was piled up to the second-floor window and I’m not exaggerating by much As if on cue my parents came into the kitchen They can smell a foreign place a mile away Hey that’s the old postcard from Fred my father said The one from K-r-k I’ve always wanted to go to a place with no vowels That’s what you said when we got this card two years ago my mother told him And we went to France instead You want to go to K-r-k Max asked How could you go if you can’t even say the name I’ll learn my father answered When he starts getting his enthusiastic voice and my mother gets her dreamy faraway look I get my familiar sinking feeling Another family trip to an impossible destination is on the horizon this time to a place whose name no one can even pronounce My mother read the card out loud but I think she was

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