Circus Solace by Chris Castle

them walked down to the clearing and then began the mazy walk through the caves to where Max lived. Matt had not seen them since that first day, though he had often looked for him from his window. He cleared his throat. 
    “Mr. Everheart? Max?” he called out. The three of them listened to his voice echo down the tunnels and into the dark. 
    “ Welcome ,” he answered, though it was hard to decide if he was close-by or far away. The sound of shuffling footsteps grew and grew until Max finally appeared at the mouth of the cave. He appeared bigger but leaner; Matt thought he looked less ravaged, as if something in him had been restored.
    “Mr. Everheart,” Matt began. “This is Mr. Stopper. I’m sure Lucas mentioned the idea of working as a pair of strongmen?”
    “Well, I’ll be damned,” Mr. Stopper whispered under his breath and for a moment, Matt worried that the man would be frightened, or worse, offended by whom he was meeting.
    “Mr. Stopper, this is Mr. Everheart,” Pa said.
    “Son, are you a zombie?” Mr. Stopper said, though there was no malice in his voice. It reminded Matt of the time Lucas asked him if he was a Capricorn.
    “ Yes ,” Max drawled and it seemed as if everyone was holding their breath. “ And you are?”
    “Well,” the old man said and Matt looked at Pa, who was looking anxiously from one to the other. “I guess you could call me surprised, but mostly you can call me Tom. Tommy.” He stepped forward and stuck out a hand, which Max took. The two shook and in the next moment everyone let out a deep breath that seemed to whistle all the way down to the end of the cave.
    The four of them walked back to the gardens and Max set up in the long shade of the trees. Mr. Stopper stood in the sunlight and the two began to practise their routine together. For a while, Matt and Pa just watched as the two of them pulled trees marked with a chalk ‘x’ by Lucas, clean out of the ground down to their roots. Within an hour, the two of them had cleared every part of the garden. Next up, they casually chucked steel tent poles and acrobatic equipment from one to the other and set up the pitch for Sara’s act and Helter-Skelter-Sally’s high wire performance. By the time they stopped for drinks, Mr. Stopper was talking away and Max nodded, sometimes speaking and always smiling. Even as they sipped their drinks, neither of them appeared to have broken sweat. For a moment, Mr. Stopper talked to Pa about foundations and Matt spoke to Max.
    “Is everything okay with Mr. Stopper?” Matt asked, pouring more lemonade for Max and handing it over.
    “ He likes books ,” he smiled and sipped his drink for a moment. “ He’s always telling stories… like a book…the way he talks .” Mr. Stopper overheard and ma’s wink appeared as he raised his glass.
    “You live a life, you earn the right to tell stories,” Mr. Stopper said coming over to them. He brushed his glass against all the others.
    “You look bigger,” Pa said to Max, unable to hide his interest. It was true. The shape of his bones was covered and his skin had sheen to it, like spring leaves.
    “ Been eating ,” he said after a while and Matt tried to stop his mouth fall into a perfect ‘o’ but failed.
    “ Plants…not people ,” he added and grinned. “ I’m a…vegetarian zombie .”
    “Well, that’s a relief,” Mr. Stopper said at last and everyone laughed, Max loudest of all.
                                              *
    Matt and Pa worked so hard that days blurred and were lost, until it only became about finishing the work. The two of them were covered in sweat and blisters, so the idea of hosting an event, a circus for a town full of strangers, no less, became secondary to the mission of getting it done. It was only at the end of each day, when they sat looking back to the grasses and the trees that reality returned to them. Sometimes, as they talked, watching the sun go down,