A RISING STAR, THE BRIGHTEST STAR

Well,I must say, life is settling down quite nicely after all the recent alarms and excursions. The "box office" has recently improved, our incompetent Latvian juggler is actually managing to keep two or more of his plates twirling on their bamboo poles at the same time (a bit of a metaphor for life itself, when you think about it) and - oh yes - toffee apple sales are going stratospheric.
All these things are welcome, of course, but, to be honest, they are a little bit pedestrian compared to the latest development at this "circus of fools"........Stromboli and I are in love!
No not with each other. Not in that way at least. I know showbiz types say that any publicity is good publicity but I could do without ending up on the cover of some obscure magazine dealing with the more unsavoury aspects of inter species behaviour and I am not talking about Hello magazine either.
The big snag is that we have both fallen in love with the same divine creature. Of course the added snag in my case is that I have fallen head over heels for a member of another species.
On reflection, its not a problem really as my love is a purely spiritual thing. Love her? Why, I idolise her. I look up to her. I have to for she is Mariella, one half of the Circus' High Wire Act and she is on a higher plane than the rest of us - at an estimate I would say about thirty feet higher.
Of course, as you know by now, Stromboli is an honourable man and his love for this wonderful creature is pure, if a little confused by messages from the loin department. After all he is one of Adam's descendants. Thank heaven I am spared this torture.
She is wonderful though. I wish you could see her. Dressed in the purest white with some sparkling sequins dotted around her costume, she climbs step by graceful step, up to the wire and Stromboli and I and the audience wait in a breathless, expectant silence.
We are waiting for her to show us that the affairs of the world are of no more consequence than a speck of sawdust in the ring below.
We are waiting for her to show us that a human being can, at least for a brief moment, fly high above this tired, soiled old world untainted by it all. And she does. She does. Up there, there is one who is all white and shining and smiles.
One night - I think it was the night that I fell in love with her - I happened to look up just as she was smiling directly down at me. I remember thinking that if St. Francis of Assisi had a little sister she would look just like Mariella.
For a slender few seconds I imagined that I was up there with her looking down with pity and compassion on a world that had long ago lost its way and whose inhabitants were, at this very moment, looking up at us and hoping to be shown it anew.
Do I over romanticise? Do I guild the lily? Am I too sickly sentimental to be allowed to socialise with diabetics?
Perhaps. Perhaps. But I know one thing: As she comes back down that ladder to join us mere mortals again I find myself mouthing the last words from that beautiful book, the Great Gatsby,.........."Come back. Come back. O glittering and white."

The illustration above is of Miss Mariella on a visit to a local school. Amongst other things, she set the children straight about why it's not a good idea to run off to the Circus, even if your parents are very annoying!

I have had a missive from Melissa Crawley - Williams (not the Suffolk Crawley-Williams surely?) She asks me if I am an animal keeper. No dear, I AM a circus monkey. Its not a nom de plume. Also she risks my monkey wrath by praising those b****y M***k**s again. Still, as judging by her picture, she is an extreeemely pretty young woman, I'll forgive her.
By the way, was that a day at the races or do you just like big hats Melissa?
If I didn't have Mariella in my life you would be next in line for a bit of inter species worship.
Ooo stop me before you fall in love with me. TTFN. c.m.