Nathaniel was standing outside of Winthrop Place in the early hours of Thursday. The lights of the seventh floor were on. He cocked his head a little and thought hard. Has anyone lived there? Have those lights been on before? He crossed the street, the questions subsiding away in his mind.
Entering his room, Nathaniel set the ticket he had gotten himself for the circus onto the stool next to his door. The circus being here reminded him much about Finnburg. The ringmaster's green eyes reminded him of the parks, just like the old man of that ethnic grocery store. He hadn't gone there in a while. The circus was a fond element of his childhood, he and his parents spending long afternoons of the spring time there. However, thinking of the circus today, he came to think another thought. I never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns when they all came down and did tricks for me.
Nathaniel needed to only look a little harder and he'd be able to see another's feelings. It would shake his core or brighten his day. And it all depended on the other person.
Around 6:40 PM, Nathaniel got up from his chair and walked out the door and down into the street to the circus. He showed up to the place, the roller coaster looming over the whole event. It looked shaky and he could hear the creaks from it.
Nathaniel came through the entrance and bought a cup of water to drink. The money had come from Nathaniel's pay from work and the greenback dollars felt holy in his hands. The drink of the water, it tasted even more holy. He decided to take a look in the house of mirrors. Nathaniel had always liked the wobbly, slushy, and bendy shapes his body would turn into. It was harmless deformation of a human body. Something that Nathaniel would've liked more of at a circus. While walking to the house of mirrors, a few looked at him, wondering why a 23 year old man was here alone. He simply would pass them with a glance and be on his way.
He walked through the corridors of glass and chuckled with each turn, bend, twist, and arch of his body. He was like a slithering snake and he was like a large fat man with more dough than money left. He seemed to wound up and shrink up and wiggle. His whole body seemed good and his smile seemed bigger and fuller and the laughter of a child escaped him many times.
At one mirror, while stretching his arms upwards, and expanding his stomach into a long thin caterpillar-like shape, a voice suddenly called out.
"You gonna drink the rest of that water?" the voice asked.
Nathaniel realized there was a person behind him, and he turned around.
"I was planning to." he said. "Why'd you ask?"
"Oh, I just like water," they said. Nathaniel did not know what to say to this, but the other person seemed worth a chat and some time with. There's something about them, Nathaniel thought.
"Hey," Nathaniel began to say somewhat suddenly, "you wanna see if those twins are actually magical? The boy and the girl?"
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