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When the Circus Comes to Town: Part Two

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     The four boys lay on their stomachs in the darkness, their heads peeking under the skirt of the brightly lit circus tent, somehow expecting to see the worst. But no, what they saw proved to be quite the treat. The lovely trapeze girls were walking near where the boys lay undiscovered. Ma had once said that show people, especially the women, were all frauds. They presented themselves as beautiful on the stage or screen; however, if you ever got a closer look, you would see that it was all due to heavy makeup and tight girdles. That's all it was. They were far from attractive. Ma was definitely wrong about that, at least in this particular case. Those girls were something to behold. Though Orvil hadn't yet been burdened with the curse of hormones, he could recognize true works of art.  He longed to see more of the same.      Much to the boy's disappointment, a troop of clowns emerged through a gap in a partition. Their enormous shoes made wet flopp...
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When the Circus Comes to Town: Part One

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       The cup sailed past Grant's head, smashing against the kitchen door. The faces of all four brothers reflected looks of horror; however, Orvil’s expression was mingled with an extra element of dread. They had been tasked with doing the dinner dishes, and relations had deteriorated, as they often did. Yet now they all shrank at the thunder of approaching feet signaled that at least one of them was about to die. Orvil knew who that would be. At this moment, he was almost resigned to his fate, and he was not quite sure why he should care.           Sure enough, Ma and Pop burst through the door, instantly scanning for injury and evidence of blood or the dismembered body of one of their four sons. Nothing. The parents moved to the next two evaluations in quick succession: what was broken and who was guilty.           The three semi-innocent brothers, Grant, Fred, and Ray , didn’t immediately kn...
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Old Tavern Tales Part IV

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       “I can’t quite make that claim as my greatest success,” announced the old man.   “But it certainly required more finesse than classic spell craft.   In fact, I would regard it as downright unconventional.      “This was when I was living in Wales, some forty years ago.   The son of the local nobleman had returned from America for his brother’s funeral.   This Master Larry had spent the last seven years earning his Non-Degree from Columbia University in New York.        “I didn’t know him before he left, but let me tell you, the man who returned was one self-centered, self-indulgent low-life.   Oh, during the day time he wasn’t so bad, but while at University he had passed his Nightlife 101 class with honors and had then specialized in advanced courses within that department.   Well, let’s just say that the previous seven years had been little more than a blur for him.”  ...
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Old Tavern Tales Part III

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       “Effective,” nodded a tall, gaunt woman.   " Mine was rather trickier still.   And my solution was quite sublime.”   The little bent man faded back into the Mob, knowing his moment was over.      “I was living in Romania at the time.   I was just a girl really.”   The traveler sized her up, unable to determine an age.   Her black hair curtained down to her knees.   The hollows of her face suggested age but hinted at something else.      “There were just the three of us, myself and two other women, working for the Count.   I myself served as a maid, but I spent most of my time trying to keep that wretched castle warm, in fact, warm would be a generous word.   The castle was high in the Transylvanian Alps.   It was always cold and damp, even in what was supposed to be the Summer.        “The other two girls cooked and helped me with the...
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