Acrobats And Popcorn

It all started with a click. Long, strong, double-jointed, calloused, tan fingers snapped. Clicked. Snapped. Brought rhythm to a dull meeting. "What do you think, Cara?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said: "I don't know why helium clowns try to walk a tightrope. These airy-fairy artists will never be heavyweights wielding power in world affairs. Their words may be true enough and may even reflect public opinion yet they are but lightweight characters who perform mere balancing acts."

Long, tan fingers pointed at an older man. "Joe, what do you think?"

Joe leaned back into the cushions and nodded. "You might as well laugh at the circus as believe the tiger and lion will be tamed with words or cultural inuendo."

The double-jointed fingers snapped, the thumb thrumed past the third digit and cracked another staccato snap. The square-tipped fingers rapped a drum roll on the tabletop and, after a heartbeat or two, cracked another whapping snap. "Bill. What's your input on this?"

Bill's gray eyes twinkled but the effect was partially hidden behind the over-sized tortoise shell frames of his glasses. "Staying with the circus analogy, it's definately time to tear down the Big Top and pack the elephants into cattle cars ready for transport."

Strong fingers rapped another drum roll and slapped the polished surface of the table. "That's it then. Who gets to say the magic words?"

"You're fired?" Cara, Joe and Bill chorused together.

"Yeah, you're fired . . . . "

The next fifteen minutes could have been an improv stage performance or a group of three men in business suits and a woman wearing a straight skirt, stockings and stilletto heels, all practicing for a tomahawk throwing competition. "You're fired. No! You are fired. Yes. Fired."

The weekly meeting was called to order the following Friday. After the minutes were read, someone asked, "Was any action taken on last week's resolution?"

Double-jointed fingers snapped and a staccato voice rumbled from the back of the room. "Uh . . . no. We decided it was more entertaining to watch the three-ring circus perform than to exercise our ego."
Acrobats And Popcorn © 2006 Chaeli Lee Sullivan