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I felt the initial exhaustion etched into my face as I walked into the arena, but thirty minutes later, I felt myself I brighten when I saw her under those circus lights. She was a guest acrobat in that night's circus show; dressed in a dark blue leotard with silver glitter, leaping and flexing ever so gracefully, she took my breath away.
I gave a start -- again, the azure sky appeared on the other side of my eyelids. I turned to either side. Nothing. Only the memory of her body pressed against mine lingered.
I read in the evening newspaper later that day that a show was coming to town. It was a circus, the usual kind that captivated the attention of small girls holding multicolored light-flashing spinwheels, and little boys holding massive bags of artificially-colored cotton candy.
I thought about the days I spent two summers ago, alone with Chelsea in my arms on an open field two streets behind my house. We had decided to go there on a whim one day, banking on the shade provided by the large tree-pavilions to cool us from the summer heat. She was beautiful--as girls are in summer--and the clear Mississippi sky was as expansive as our love.
Summer... what can I say. So many good times, so much good company. Endless nights being on the phone, until I drifted to sleep and my phone died. Trips to visit friends and by friends to visit me. Carefree bliss is as rare as it is precious.
In the wake of the conquistadors and the Spanish missionaries, the Americas were left in a state of ruin and disease, plundered and used for profiteering. What was the point? To secure a brief moment in history of a selfish brilliance?
My thoughts broke into a million, limp pieces, like my heart did months ago. They were ragged, fragmented, and I knew that the process of re-stitching them, for the third time in my life, was going to be torturous--one by one, no matter how gingerly I treated them, the molecular pieces of history and memory would plaster themselves on my skin.
Support? He looked to the crowd for the look in their eyes, the trust and the belief that together they could craft something better for the country, and the world.
He turned to his attendant, and said, "Next time, not so many people. I want a moat separating this stage from the crowd."