Dressed in his pyjamas, Rory looked out of his parents’ bedroom window as he brushed his teeth. By standing on tiptoe he was just able to see – away in the distance through the trees, in the middle of the grassy common known as Brenwell Heath – the roof of the circus tent.

Two cones of blue-and-red striped canvas had been hauled into place, with strong ropes securing the tent to the ground. As a finishing touch, gold pennant flags rose into view on the twin peaks, fluttering in the warm breeze of the early summer sunset, announcing to the world that Teddy Trent’s Circus had finally arrived.

For the next couple of months its trapeze artists and tumblers, contortionists and stunt performers would make audiences oooh and aaah at their jaw-dropping acts.

Except, thought Rory, for the clowns. They’re not talented and they’re not funny. End of. And their bright red wigs are just stupid.

Yet, in spite of the clowns’ failed attempts to amuse him, Rory was smitten with the circus. The atmosphere, the daring displays, the sense of magic, the impossible made real and, of course, the candyfloss. One year he’d been so impressed by the strongman, who had raised two colossal old ladies on a bench above his head, that he’d spent the next week going round the house trying to lift chairs with one hand and getting puffed out and putting them down again before keeling over from exhaustion.

Best leave it to the professionals, he thought.

Over the weeks, months and years, Rory’s first impressions had developed into a big idea and finally into a field of dreams. One day, he told himself, he really would run off and join the circus.

‘And that’s a promise!’ he said aloud and emphatically, which was an unfortunate thing to do with a mouth full of toothpaste. He spent the next couple of minutes wiping the splatter from the windowpane with the sleeve of his pyjamas, before returning to the bathroom to rinse his mouth, lob the toothbrush in the general direction of the holder and sort of put the lid back on the toothpaste.

He would have picked the towel up but it looked quite comfy on the floor…

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