Life's Little Circus

Today would be her midnight. She'd ignore the sunshine and the bustling world surrounding her outside of closed blinds. The world's problems hit the outside of her bubble like baby moths leaving painful dust on a solar light's globe in a garden. A tenth coat of velvety amethyst-colored lipstick gave her otherwise nude torso covering. The shower still ran beside her, filling a stark bathroom with a heavy mist, which covered all but a hand-swept streak of a partially fractured mirror. She inspected herself with a cold stare, one that could be mistaken for the abhorrent burn saved for proper enemies. Her posture was impeccable like her alabaster skin, her pale pink nipples staring back at her at obedient attention, leading the way before an army of lean muscles and slender feminine curves. An abandoned popular magazine on the floor couldn't hold a candle to the powerful doll-like torso in the mirror, and yet scrutinizing shadowed eyes offered not a blink of concession to their own body's obvious radiance. Her spine tensed, squeezing every muscle from her neck down until her scapulae trembled, and in a breath, she swept out of the bathroom, the rusty squeak of the shower shutting down the room into silence.

Although the frills and glitter of a satirical caricature of a ballerina costume suited her no less than the laughter and bright lights that would soon find the body that the great goddess Athena had personally sculpted, this was her uniform. Where a suitcase or an end table would elevate a wallet and keys for any respectable working woman, instead a lone lacy parasol awaited a dispassionate grasp, meanwhile shedding the occasional tear of glitter from the previous performance. Standing before her worn apartment door, in a room lacking any color or excessive decor, she commanded her body to lower its guard just enough to yield to her only honest expression of the evening: a physical and psychological sigh.

With the flutter of a heavy traditional red-and-white striped curtain, the same body would emerge with the most magnificent act, glowing with glorious superficial rapture, her strong body curving to showcase a colorful, glistening fairy-like essence. Fluffing to life, her sidekick, a bipolar parasol, spread its tears of joy like a rainbow above her head. She perfectly disguised a lifeless corpse for another two-hour execution, and a full house of 500 mindless puppeteers applauded her act.