Tears of a Clown
I sat on my seat next to the cage of my t-rex while helpers were applying my clown makeup. I was almost ready. I got into my clown clothes. Tim the T-rex was saddled and feisty.
“Xavier, it’s time for you to get out there!” Someone said as the speaker in the tent began to announce me.
“Now introducing, Xavier the clown on his t-rex, Tim!” I urged Tim to walk briskly out of the performers tent. I cued him to bow down. I ran around the ring just like I practiced in our routine.
“This big guy was found in the Himalayas. We took a piece of his DNA and cloned him. Now watch as this fierce dino attempts this crazy feat of bravery!” I gave Tim the cue to do a back flip through a hoop of liquid nitrogen. It all happened in slow motion, it seemed. He jumped with his powerful hind legs. Just as we were upside down, I lost my grip. I fell off balance just as Tim started to go down. I fell on the hoop hard. I cried out in agony. Tim fell onto my leg and crushed it with searing pain. The crowd became a blur as I blacked out, unaware of people standing over me and rushing around.
The next thing I knew, I was awake in a sterile little hospital bed. I tried to sit up, but the pain of my injuries brought me to fall down again.
“What happened?” I asked myself. I couldn’t remember. I looked at my arms. They were near dead. The liquid nitrogen did it, I thought. I looked around my hospital room. No one was there. No visiters, no presents. Well, I thought to myself, it makes sense since I am a clown and all. I closed my eyes and groaned.
“Scuze meh? Did yous a be needing sum’in?” A low, deep voice said. A nurse walked in that moment. She took my breath away! I started gasping for air. She looked at me with an...
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...her arm stub, and spanked me with her peg leg. I cried as she, one last time, twitched her way out of my life. I walked out of the hospital and out into the bright sun that I hadn’t seen for 9 months. I got sunburned instantly. I ran to Tim who was crunching cars in the parking lot. I sat on his foot and cried my eyes out. He looked down on me as he crushed a really nice Porsche. I hopped onto his back and rode off into the sunset with a heavy heart, back to the circus.
I never got over that nurse. Her image will stay with me for as long as I live. I still cry every night, as if the hurt is still fresh. Her icy coldness leaves fresh tracks in my heart, even still. I always keep hoping that I will see her at a performance and I will sweep her off her feet with my talent. So far, nothing. For as long as I am without the love of my life, I will shed tears of a clown.
As a child the sight of an ambulance would send shivers down my spine, the flashing lights and loud horn, the panic as cars comes to a stop, and the terrifying events that followed. Being a witness to such commotion never seemed as horrendous until I became the person inside the ambulance. After experiencing headaches, sore throat, shortness of breath, and the lack of ability to move my left arm my parents sent out a distressed call to the paramedics who then rushed me into the E.R. Within the hour I was no longer on a gurney, but instead was on a hospital bed, tangled in color-coded wires to keep me alive. Hours passed, possibly even days, when I opened my eyes, only to find the words “ Sabrina’s room” on a dashboard in big pink letters. Injected into my left arm was an IV tube that dispensed antibiotic fluids into my suffering body. As I turned my head to look into the mirror I saw that my hair was shaved and a scar remained with staples over it, forming into the shape of an arc.
Then we start to walk towards the ride and as we walk into the line and wait i begin to feel as if the only thing in my stomach were butterflies. As I hear the ride conductor call us over for our turn I look at my dad one more time and tell him “I’m so nervous.”
Just erupting from a deep blackout not realizing what had just taken place only a few minutes before, as I looked around twelve familiar faces looked back at me with a nervous angst that I myself was about to experience. Eventually coming to my senses I looked at my arm as shock was pouring through my entire body like a ocean flooding a city during a hurricane. My arm should’ve been laying down the side of my body and only the top half was while the other was flipped over facing the wrong direction.
“Are you okay, young man?” she asks. With relief and dread I realize she isn't a nurse, and look up to see an aging woman carrying a satchel over her shoulder. I fake a smile and nod, yet to my dismay she sits down next to me and sets the satchel at her feet. “Do you need anything?”
I stood over my comatose body, examining every single part of what I saw. My hair, a mess of brunette waves was now shaven completely off. Instead, someone replaced it with a cream bandage like the one plastered around my
It was early afternoon at my house and I was so excited to show all the kids my new crested gecko. I sat staring into the beautiful twenty gallon aquarium that had held my first pet. Gizzmo. He was the most adorable thing on the planet. And now everyone could see it for themselves.
Across the lanes, racers started their engines. “3… 2… 1… GO!”(5) In a matter of seconds, the dinosaurs were around the bend. Even before the race began, everyone knew it would be a two-man match. They swerved in and out, and the fight for the lead alternated every few seconds. “I’m going to beat you today!” Tyrone shouted, flashing the same little smirks as before.
“I’m ready now. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!” I screamed, but 4 out of 5 brothers shook their head. Of course it was Ricky that didn’t shake his head. He was the brother who let me be included always.
“No Braden, she’s not dead,” a deep voice, belonging to my dad, reassures my six-year-old little brother. I try to pull my hands toward my ribs in an attempt to sit up, but in return: an excruciating pain shoots through my left arm; a shrill sound comes out of my mouth; and tears start flowing down my face.
Who brought me here? Out of impulse, my hand travels to my face, pressing the throbbing area on my right temple. I felt a scar and flinched at the pain. I tried to get up. Once I stepped on the cold, white tiles, I instantly fell back on to the bed. My body, engulfed in pain as if objecting my decision to stand up. I lay there pathetically, waiting for the pain to wash away. Staring at the ceiling, illuminated with a white fluorescent light. Perhaps waiting for some help by the hospital staff. I still didn't know how I got here, who took me here, how long I've been here.
He’s a young man, the clown, with white socks striped in black, and black suspenders over a white T-shirt. White face, red nose. His MO is to follow people and imitate their motion without their noticing, to the glee of the sizeable, ever-changing audience. We’re sitting here on the steps of the Museum, hot and sweaty, watching the show.
As were “on deck” waiting to go on, I notice my dad in the corner of the room, who made it just in time to see the performance.
I said, "goodbye" to the nurse and left that awful place. Outside, I took a deep breath of cool fresh air. I practically ran to get inside my safe car. When back inside i cried in excruciating pain, I couldn't even feel my face. I sat there for a while thinking of those three terrifying words, Dr. Rust's office. I inserted the key into my ignition, turned it and drove away. When I knew I was home safe, I looked into my rear-view mirror. When I saw that old rickety building filled with bad experiences, I realized that that had been the most uncomfortable place I had ever visited, and I surely wasn't going to return.
OUCH! My leg crippled with pain. I tried to shuffle my way to the window, but it was excruciating. As my senses kicked back in, I felt pains shooting up and down my body. Peering down at my hands I screamed. My hands were covered in cold, congealed blood.
Oh my God! TJ!“ It was just my mom.She was crying and calling my name again and again.I was so embarrassed and disappointed of my self.I had let her down. After, two of the EMT guys put us on an ambulance. Finally,we made our way to the hospital. My friend john and me were sent in palo alto medical center. It took us about fifteen minute to get there. My friend john was alright. He had a couple of stitches in his head and his arm. He got relieved after a couple of tests but, I was severely injured. I was lying on a hospital bed and thinking what I would have done in the past. Cause this terrible accident happened to me. I was sent to el camino hospital, where I went to the operation theater for my hipbones surgery.The doctor told me after surgery that my hipbones was fractured the reason they had to put a plate in hipbones to stay together.Although, my left arm was also fractured the reason I could not feel my arm. After surgery, they took me to the other room and gave me a couple of injections. Momentarily, I went to sleep. I woke up in the next day and thinking hopefully it was just a dream,but it’s not. I opened my eyes and saw a couple of relative looking me like a stranger. My dad came over my bed and gave me a hug and I literally started crying after thinking about the accident. I could not believe after a massive car accident I was still alive. Doctors kept in hospital couple of