The Trapeze Artist
Will Davis
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 1620400030
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A man will endlessly torture his muscles until they shriek and complain. But he will not give in. He will take a hammer to his ceiling until the neighbors begin to watch from the window and the journalists knock at the door. He will continue to train and hack away at the house until it is finished and the trapeze is in place.
Although his parents thought he was nice and kindhearted and teachers saw him as a good boy, secretly he hated his drab, ordered world and longed for more. Then, when he was fourteen, Edward arrived at his school. Edward exuded the coolness of a latter-day Oscar Wilde. Edward listened to Patti Smith, watched Fassbinder films, knew the writings of Gore Vidal, and, one evening, would kiss him in the moonlight. Forty years old and fleeing from a life he can no longer handle, he stumbles upon the circus. Not knowing why, only that he must, he gets in his car and follows after it, refusing to listen to the doubts that plague him, determined to build a new home and family.
The Trapeze Artist draws together the past, present, and future of one life to create a work of startling dexterity and vision-a haunting and heartbreaking account of a child, a boy, a man, desperate to free himself from the suffocating weight of his desires, his family, and his grief. It speaks of what it is to grow up gay in a straight world, to be unable to communicate with those you love, of the sweat, passions, and tempers of circus life, and, above all, of the joyous longing to break free, and to swing higher and higher...
the scent of sweat, like a gym. Above the crowd a slowly rotating mirrorball sends shards of light spinning out over the gyrating limbs, which every now and then are hit by a strobe and turned into a bullet burst of staccato images, faces and bodies contorted in photographic stills that fade no sooner than the eye has absorbed them. He follows Vlad down the stairs and they fight their way through the crowd to the bar, where Vlad orders two beers from a beautiful skinny boy in a tank top with a
be no other option. ‘It sounds like you want to accuse me of something,’ says Vlad threateningly, his voice deadly cold. He stares at the aerialist for a few seconds, then drops his gaze. ‘It’s nothing,’ he says. ‘I lost sight of you and felt lonely. I’m just tired. I’m sorry.’ Even as he says the words he feels the tension leave, and marvels at how easily a problem can be dealt with simply by ignoring it. The crease down Vlad’s forehead gradually fades and he smiles soppily instead. ‘Poor
at them to go and cool off and someone else is crouching beside him and asking him if he is OK. He feels something wet on his lips and from the taste realises it is blood. ‘I’m fine,’ he says, sitting up. His head swims but then the world settles and he focuses on the aerialist, staring at him from where he stands as if transfixed. Then Vlad turns on his heel and stalks away into the darkness. He looks around and sees the clown has already disappeared. ‘What was that about?’ asks Benny.
says slowly, as the truth dawns on him. The clown lets out a hearty guffaw. ‘Don’t be fucking stupid!’ ‘I don’t believe it.’ Jethro catches his breath. ‘Fuck off, OK?’ They stare at one another. He wonders if the clown is going to charge at him, and thinks he has had more than enough violence for one night. Then it occurs to him, as he holds the clown’s gaze, that he has never seen so much violence in all his life as in the last few weeks, and this fact, along with the serious angry face
will also be watching, and he will wave to them from his vantage point, and a couple of the kids will wave back. ‘Ah – there you are!’ As he descends the rope Sue will materialise from round the back of the stage with a couple of other women in tow, fellow council members she will introduce with such speed that he will miss both their names. The women will smile and one of them will raise an ironic eyebrow behind Sue, as if sharing a private joke. Sue will look up at the trapeze and clap her