Mary Child's Story

C, then an E.. No, no. Mary looked down at the complicated sheet music, scribbing out a note and changing it to another, then humming out the new melody to see if it fit. She was sat in the dirt by the trailers, red skirts dusted with orange dirt and ink from her fountain pen as she ran over the melodies she had to learn for her inbetween acts. Mainly choir songs, latin and french, but some were old english nursery rhymes... Her favorite was London Bridge and the one about the circus elephants. She was only a child after all, in her early teens, and had never really had a chance to listen to good nursery rhymes before.

A creak! A door to one of the caravans began to open and she blushed, hurrying to try and pack up her things before someone saw her. She grabbed her sheets, but one slipped from her grasp, catching in the breeze and drifting off.
"No!" She exclaimed, covering her mouth as she said it, and watched the paper drift towards the open trailer door, a boy with brownish hair stepping out. Realising who it was, her eyes widened and she ran, hidding around the side of a trailer. She bit her lip and gripped onto her music and skirts tightly, looking down. The ringmaster was going to be so grumpy with her...

Mary Sighed and began to walk backstage to see if she could find a spare copy of the sheet music she had lost... The ringmaster would kill her if he found out she hadn't learnt the song yet... She brushed off her skirts as she opened the flaps in the tent to the back stage area. She didn't realise there were others in the tent. Softly, she started to sing what she had learnt so far, trying to remember the words.

"Are you going to scarborough fair?~ Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.~ Remember me to one who lives there.~ She will be a true love of mine.~"

Her voice was pure, steet, but eerily haunting, the kind of voice that gave you goosebumps if you listened to it for too long. She hummed to herself as she looked at her sheet music, not looking where she was walking, then suddenly, Bam! Mary walked straight into someone, causing her to fall back, dropping her sheet music. She gasped and looked up to see who she had run into, appologies flooding out of her mouth. A young boy, quite short, maybe around her age, with a lolly pop in his mouth. Next to him stood a girl. She didn't know their names, she was only new to the circus.

"Oh I am so sorry! Im dreadfully sorry! Please forgive me! Oh, I didn't mean to, it was entirely my fault..." She continued to appologise as she attempted to get together her sheet music, pages scattered everywhere.