I smile as Red welcomes the first act of the evening. "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce the magical, the alluring, the sensational, The Real Mac-aroni."
Mac walks up from where he was sitting on an old stump. He has an ax slung over his shoulder and a log under his arm. "I am going to dazzle with acts of bravery, acts of strength, acts of–"
Plum starts giggling loudly, and Mac can't help but grin, breaking his acting bravado. "I'm the strongest man in the world," he says, showing us his muscles, which there are a lot of. Then he sets the log down on his stump and he swings that ax, slicing through the log as everyone in the family cheers, laughing hard, hollering and hooting as he lifts the ax overhead in a victory dance.
Red calls the next act forward. "Now, it's time to see our performer who travels far and wide. You may know her as the elusive, as the marvelous, as the magical Lemonada."
Lemon stands, and somehow, she has found a turban and a tasseled shawl, wrapped around her as she sashays before us all. "Hello, my darlings," she says with a dramatic accent. "I would like to read someone's palm to find their fortune." She walks over to Rye. "May I have the privilege of taking your hand and reading your love line?"
Everyone laughs riotously because the idea of Rye falling in love is ridiculous. He plays along though, knowing Plum is watching every move. He gives her a smile and Plum skips over, climbing into her grumpy uncle's lap.
"How do you read palms, Auntie Lemon?" she asks.
"You must look ever so carefully at this line here. But there's a tragedy in your future, Rye. Look," she says, pointing dramatically to the center of Rye's hand as Plum's eyes widen in shock and glee. "His line cuts into two, which means–"
Plum shrieks. "What does it mean? What does it mean?"
"It means he must make a choice or he will never love at all."
Rye rolls his eyes and Plum laughs, jumping out of her uncle's lap as Red takes the center of the yard once again. "Okay, now that we have that figured out, let's see what the next act is. Who do we have? We have Graham Cracker," Red says, and he points to the right, where we see Graham riding a unicycle very, very poorly through the grass toward us until he falls off very, very dramatically.
"Okay, so that act needs work," Red says as Graham clutches his belly in laughter. Next up, Fig knots a cherry stem with her tongue, which has her father grumbling and her brothers shouting at her –you better not be doing anything like that with any boys from town.
And then Annie brings out some apples and shows us her juggling skills. Plum does a hula hoop routine. And Rueben shows us a magic trick in which he disappears, goes into the house, and returns with a can of beer.
"That's not a magic trick," Bartlett jokes. "That's you going into the house and getting some Rainier. And you didn't even bring me one."
Reuben laughs. "Well, I guess you need to work on your act. Speaking of, what's your act?"
"Hey, hey, hey," I say, standing. "Me first."
Redford nods. "Exactly. The lady goes first."
I already have my slackline ready between the two trees behind Red. He helped me put it up earlier today. "Okay, I'm a little nervous," I say, walking to the tree to the left. The line is about twelve feet in the air, and Red helps me with a ladder.
I climb it and Bartlett immediately begins to shake his head. "You can't go up there."
"I can," I say. "In fact, I could do this about 30 feet in the air. The show must go on, Bart! This is Plum’s circus."
Plum smiles. "Can you really tightrope walk?"
"Sure thing, kiddo," I say.
I begin to walk across the slackline between the two tall trees. Red is beneath me. I know he's doing it in a fatherly way, thinking he'll catch me if I fall. And Bartlett is suddenly underneath me too, though his shoulder is still bandaged from the bullet he took for me.
And honestly, I'm not going to tell them that if I fall from here, it's going to be so fast that they won't have time to catch me. Right now, Bartlett just wants to believe he would, and that is enough.
The thing is, I'm not going to fall. I can do this.
I walk the slackline once and then twice, and then I jump off of it, landing in a headstand. Then I do four cartwheels toward Plum, landing in a perfect split. Then I do a backhanded jump. I land in a handspring, place a few more cartwheels, and then I do a pirouette right in front of her.
"Happy Circus Day," I tell her, and everyone stands, giving me an ovation I do not deserve. "Stop it," I say, blushing.
Fig is gobsmacked. "Abby, you said you were a gymnast. You are freaking amazing."
Annie nods in agreement. "You really are incredible. Have you ever thought of opening a gymnastics studio? The kids in Home would love something like that. You know, there's an open building right next to the toy store."
"I've been there," I say. "Bartlett took me to Home Grown for dinner."