"THE LIZARD AT THE CIRCUS" - ACT VII

Act 7

Mickey’s dad was a contract hire, meaning that he was hired for only a year. On his last day, there was a big event that would eventually affect me, as you will see.

By then, I already got so tired with my training and performances. I felt that my body got weaker and I got bruises all over my body. I started questioning whether I could continue to live like this, or whether I should try to escape. Escaping was very hard to do, especially since I was locked inside the cage every day.

On this faithful day, something big happened. As usual, as Mickey’s dad came to train me, Mickey was strolling along with Bill. I overheard that they were talking to other people that Mickey’s dad would be going to England to retire there, maybe to open his own circus eventually. I secretly wished I could go with them…

As usual, Bill started to mock me. However, it didn’t last long. For the new show, they made me a new costume. It was silver in color, with gems sewn into the clothes. They made me put on the clothes even during training, maybe to make sure that it looked nice under the lights. As Bill saw my costume, I could see that his jaw dropped and he became so envious. All Bill wore was just a piece of collar (which he arrogantly told me that he could easily take it off himself without Mickey knowing it).

Lo and behold – during the practice, the fire alarm broke off. In fact, someone came running and shouting “Fire”. It seems that the fire eating people did some mistakes and burnt some parts of their tent. Everybody quickly run away, including Mickey, his dad and my bodyguard, leaving me and Bill alone in my training area.

As I was pondering whether or not I should try to run outside as well, Bill approached me. He was so engrossed with my costume that he sweet-talked me into letting him try my costume. So he put on my costume, and asked me if I would like to try his collar. “Well … might as well” I thought.

At this point, it turned out that our tent started to get caught in fire as well. Right after we exchanged clothes, a piece of the roof caught fire and fell down, almost hit both of us. We both got panic and started to run in different directions. I managed to get out in the last minute, Bill unfortunately didn’t. He got hit by burning roof right before he approached the exit. “Aarggh Bill …” I thought to myself. Even though he was always mean to me, I felt sorry for him, as we were pretty much the only 2 non-humans in this circus.

After I got out, and after the firefighters succeed to extinguish the fire, people started calling my name, looking for me. Meanwhile, I heard Mickey looking for Bill also. Now I’m in a great dilemma … what should I do? I mean, since I’m in Bill’s costume now, I can come to Mickey and easily pass on as Bill and the rest will think I’m the one dead inside the tent. On the other hand, I could run to the others and start to do the tricks and they will know that I’m Ricky/Stu and the one dead in the tent is Bill. However, it will leave Mickey totally devastated.

Uurrgghhhh…. Decision decision decision…

I began to relook my life. Yes, I love being a famous performer and all, but at the same time, I still feel very lonely, and I was kept inside the cage all the time. Not to mention, the trainings and the performances were very hard on my body, I don’t think I could last that long living like that. On the other hand, here it is, a boy who adores me just because who I am. Yes, I’m still not totally free, but I’m not kept locked in the cage, and more importantly, for the first time in my life, I have a friend, someone who loves me for me.

With that in mind, I run towards Mickey. When he saw me, he opened up his arms to hold me, saying “Oh Bill … you survive!!!” In the same time, the rest found Bill’s body (with my costume) and started crying loudly. Oh well… I guess Ricky is officially dead now, and I can’t perform my tricks EVER again. It was a small price to pay for my newly-found life, but I had no regrets.

"THE LIZARD AT THE CIRCUS" - ACT VI

Act 6 – Mickey and his pet

I began to get to know almost everybody in the circus. There are some people that adored me, but I could feel there are others that despised me. Maybe because I overtook their slots in the circus, I don’t know for sure…

As you know, the circus hired a trainer to teach me new tricks. He actually is nice guy, but sometimes he gets upset with me if I couldn’t do the tricks or didn’t do it properly. However, he has a boy, named “Mickey”. Mickey is about 6-7 years old. His dad brings him to the circus every time he trains me.

Mickey is the nicest, kindest, gentlest person in the world to me. At first, I think he was amazed by my ability to perform, but I think he began to like me as a friend. He always encouraged me when I learned new tricks, never laughed at me if I failed, and always very supportive. In between training, he would pat me down (before I got thrown back into my cell). One time he even said “I wish you would be mine… I’ll play with you all the time”. At that time, my pride and my newly-found fame made me think “Geez … Who wants to be someone’s pet?”

Then came the “incident”. True to his words, Mickey tried to bring me out of the circus to bring home one time. Of course, this created a big mess. His dad was scolded big time by the circus. As the result of the incident, Mickey’s dad bought him a new pet lizard, named “Bill”. This is where the story began to be more interesting.

Let me tell more about Bill. Because Mickey likes me so much, his dad bought him a pet lizard that looked exactly like me, down to the length and the color. The difference was of course, Bill couldn’t do the tricks. However, unlike his owner, Bill was an arrogant little lizard. Ever since Day 1, he acted as if he was the cutest lizard in the world. Even worse now that Mickey began to love him, and started to bring him to the circus everyday without a cage. Bill always mocked me, made fun of me and my cage, even dared to call me “poor little prisoner”. That made me really sad.

"THE LIZARD AT THE CIRCUS" - ACT V

Act 5

Fame and fortune unfortunately brought many problems, none of which I anticipated when I did the demo to the boss before. First of all – there was almost no rest at all for me. I was working daily every night, without any breaks at all. In addition, the circus hired trainers to teach me new tricks, so my days were filled with practice, practice, practice.

The routines grew increasingly difficult, without barely any time to take my time to learn it properly. That made me prone to falls, some of which were pretty painful for me. The trainers didn’t really seem to care, I think maybe because they were under pressure to have me ready to perform the new tricks.

However, the biggest disappointment of all was that I lost my freedom. As you know, I’m a very curious animal. I like to explore things, to further increase my knowledge. Ever since I performed to the boss, I was kept in a locked cage. Granted that it was nice place, with bed, regular meals, et al, but I was no longer free to roam around. The situation was even worse when I became famous. I even had my own bodyguard that carried the cage everywhere.

I became to think whether or not this is what I want for the rest of my life, whether I can stand to live like this forever…

"THE LIZARD AT THE CIRCUS" - ACT IV

Act 4 – Fame and Fortune …

They always say “… and the rest is history.” Well, in my case, it did change the history. I became the star of the circus. The circus underwent complete makeover, from being all-human circus to being headlined by a lizard. I was the only non-human in the troupe, which made me totally proud of myself.

Let me tell you about the first night I performed. It was the night that I would never forget in my life. The management dressed me up in little gold “clothes”, and the stage was completely gold in color, even including the rope. All the lights were on me so much that I felt so warm and sweating under my uniform. But it was SOOOO worth it.

“Ladies and gentlemen … you are about to see something so extraordinary that you won’t believe your eyes. For the first time in history, allow me to present to you … Ricky the Trapeze Lizard!!!”

Geez… I almost shouted that my name iss Stu, but oh well, I guess Ricky is better as stage name. So, I took a deep breath, and I performed the same routine as I did to attract the boss. At the completion, the audience was completely silent for a while, and then it went berserk. The other circus acts that followed didn’t generate as much noise as I did, and at the end, when the boss presented me to the audience, I got standing ovation from the whole audience.

The following nights the shows were completely sold out. Our circus became SO popular that new shows kept getting added. In fact, we started traveling to other cities, other states, and eventually other countries.

And for me…? I became a celebrity. Remember that I told you that I had the inspiration to walk from the green lizard that I saw on TV? I became more famous than him. Everywhere I went, I could see my pictures in the newspaper, in pamphlets promoting the circus, in the TVs … really everywhere. People were shouting my name when they saw me. I told myself “Stu, you’re finally here!”

"THE LIZARD AT THE CIRCUS" - ACT III

Act 3

I thought long and hard about how to impress the boss. This proved to be quite problematic. On one hand, I had to “buy” time long enough for him to be impressed with my skills, but on the other hand, I needed to make sure that he was not scared of me and tried to kill me. But first, I needed to inspect his office.

The boss’ office was an interesting place. It was a pretty large space, adorned by various awards that the circus had received in the past. Also, it had various human art pieces. As I marvelled the various things in there, one particular thing interested me. It was a pair of bookends in the shape of 2 identical lighthouses. It looked like they were made of stone, as they were extremely heavy. My effort to try to move them was totally useless. Great, this is what I need, I thought. This would be my stage. I just needed to hook up my rope to either end.

For days I’d observed the boss’ daily schedule. The boss seldom stayed in the office actually. He came in the morning, checked his computer for a while, and then he walked around to observe what was happening in the circus tent. Once a while he would come back to his office; either to go back checking his computer, or to have his lunch. It must be nice to have someone actually prepare meals for you, I thought.

Ok, back to my preparations. After observing his daily routine, I came to conclusion that my biggest chance was during his lunch time. Besides, he would be busy with his meal, I thought, so that he wouldn’t be able to kill me right away. Next, I needed to prepare my performance.

As I mentioned before, my show had to be short, but full of “WOW” factor. I decided to be only 2 cartwheels, 1 back and 1 front flip on the rope. Simple, short and sweet, I thought. I couldn’t help thinking this was a crazy idea, but, hey, I wanted to live for something. Although, at that point in time, I myself was not really sure what that “something” was.

Finally, that day arrived. This is what I’m living for, I thought. I waited till the boss sit in his chair and opened up his lunch box. However, things didn’t go well as planned. The boss unfortunately saw me before I managed to perform. He shouted “Hey, there’s a lizard in my office!” and threw some books at me. Luckily I didn’t get hit by them. I quickly run away and for the next few days I hide far far away from the boss’ office. Good thing that he didn’t seem to notice the rope that I hooked on his lighthouse bookends before.

I rethought of my strategy. My timing was completely off, I thought. I should have waited till he started his meal. In addition, I needed to simplify my performance. This time, I planned to do 4 back flips in a quick succession. I thought to myself, this would be the last time. If this plan still fails, I believe that this is not meant for me. With that in mind, I started to ready myself for the second try.

This time, the moon and the stars were apparently aligned. Everything went so well. I waited till the boss started eating, and quickly I jumped onto the rope and quickly performed 4 back flips in a row. Oh man, you should have seen the face of the boss! It was almost like his jaw dropped to the floor! As I was prepared to make my exit, I heard him calling another guy, mumbling something like “You cannot believe what I’ve seen!” With that, I thought I should wait a while and saw what would happen.

The other guy came, and they both stood in front of me, waiting. I thought, this is it. I then performed my original set – 2 cartwheels, 1 back and 1 front flips on the rope. They were both completely mesmerized by my performance, it seems, as they stood for a while speechless and motionless. Then, they both shouted happily as if they found a goldmine. Well, apparently, I AM their goldmine.

What follows was something totally unexpected by me. They captured me and locked me in a cage. I was really afraid, but at that time, I kept telling to myself that they would make me a star, so I didn’t need to worry. It was naive thought, I know, as subsequent events showed. But, I was too scared and too excited at that time, to fully aware of the consequences of my act.