...and then ran off, running all around the circus ring, dodging the other clowns and just barely kept from messing them up. Amy's mother ran after her, but slower, having to lift up her frilly skirt and her big feet keeping her from running very fast.
Amy, still running, brushed against her brother. Jeff's bowling pins suddenly dropped, one by one, on top of his shiny bald clown head. He still managed to keep control of his unicycle however, going through the midst of the clowns and somehow kept from bumping into them.
Slowly, one by one, the clowns all exited until only Jeff, Amy, and their mother were left. Amy still ran around, being chased by her mother, who now had a baby carriage that was left. Faster and faster they went, the little baby clown followed by the mother clown, the music in the background picking up momentum, while Jeff's unicycle kept going inside the ring in ever wider sprials and and circles, still manageing to maintain his balance.
Just as the musiced reach it's climax, Amy tripped. Her mother caught her, put her in the baby carriage, and ran out the exit with Jeff following after them on his unicycle.
The audience in the circus tent had been laughing the whole time at the clowns' antics; now the stood up and applauded. As the clapping died down, the ringmaster came out and spoke, "Ladies and Gentlemen, may we have another round of applause for our circus's three newest clowns-," and Jeff, Amy, and the mother came back out. Jeff bowed out the waist; Mom, who was holding Amy gave a half-curtsy; and Amy simply waved to the audience, "-BubbleLulu LaRue and her two children Jeefo and Amybelle!"
*****
Jeff, Amy, and their mother-or Jeefo, Amybelle, and BubbleLulu LaRue as they now thought of themselves-didn't go back to their house. BubbleLulu called in,quit her job at the travel agency, and made arrangements to sell their house and have all their possessions transported over to the circus. They were given a mobile trailer of their own, and Jeefo and Amybelle were arranged to study under the circus tutors.
They performed again for the next two nights while the circus would be in town. After the third night, When Amybelle had gone to bed and Jeefo was studying with other circus teenagers, BubbleLulu heard a knock on her trailer door.
She opened it and saw JoJo McBride, one of the other clowns. "Hello, JoJo," she said. "What brings you here?"
"Well, I was wondering," said JoJo, "since after we have everything packed up tomorrow the circus will still be in this town for one more night, if maybe you'd like to have dinner with me? And afterwards we could go to the town drive-in movie theater?"
"Why JoJo," said BubbleLulu coyly-or as coyly as she could sound with her Minnie-Mouse soprano, "are you asking me out on a date?" JoJo nodded.
BubbleLulu could still remember her old life from before she and her children were turned into clowns,even if only the way she recalled a dream or old movie. She could count on her hands the number of dates she'd had since her husband died two years ago. None of them led to anything serious, mainly because she'd been more concerned with her job and taking care of her kids.
BubbleLulu looked at JoJo from behind her plum-sized nose. He was handsome, in a goofy sort of way. He was a big man, over six feet tall and barrel-chested. His skin was the same creamy white hue as her own, with a fluffy fringe of orange hair surrounding his smooth bald pate. Patches of skin the same shade of orange surrounded her eyes and stretched up to his forehead, topped by arched black eyebrows. His shoes were about a size 30, his red clown mouth stretched from ear to ear, and he had a round red nose that could just about fill up BubbleLulu's hand. 'I bet he's big underneath those baggy yellow pants he's wearing too,' she thought wryly.
BubbleLulu smiled and fluttered her rather large eyelashes at JoJo. "Why not?" she replied. "Let's eat at six and then head of for the movie right afterwards."
"Sure." JoJo turned and walked over to his own trailer. BubbleLulu closed the door and giggled. Jeefo could watch over Amybelle tomorrow and there was a movie playing at the drive in she really wanted to see. It had been a long time since she'd had a date, and JoJo certainly seemed nice enough.
Amybelle was stirring from her bed. "Mommy," she asked, "what was that man here for."
"It's nothing sweety," BubblLulu replied. "Mommy just has a date tomorrow, that's all."