Page 119 of Our Own Light
“Fantastic.”
Josephine chimed in from behind him. “Aunt Betty, we saw a man flying through the air and another who made himself into a pretzel! And then we bought a pretzel, too.”
“Oh my, that sounds wonderful,” she replied, moving to the side.
Josephine bounded into the house, and Oliver could hear her fading calls of “Aunt Mary! Aunt Mary! We saw the pretzel man like Mister Oliver said we would!” Meanwhile, Aunt Betty welcomed Effie and Floyd with a short, warm embrace. When she turned to Oliver, she wrapped her arms around him, too, only it wasn’t a short embrace, but a long one, one that was so heartfelt, so sincere, Oliver could barely hold himself together for it. After only a few seconds, his legs started feeling wobbly, as though they had been transformed into two noodles.
“I’m so happy you stopped by,” she said as they parted. “It’s always nice to see all of you together.”
Oliver took a breath to compose himself. It still felt so foreign to receive that kind of physical affection from anyone other than Floyd (and maybe from Josephine, who had taken to sitting close with him while he read to her some evenings).
“Well, we love visiting,” he said.
Effie remarked, “Josephine is real fond of Mary.”
“Mary loves children. Especially your Josephine.”
Aunt Betty led them into the library room where Josephine and Mary were starting to play cards. Floyd left for the kitchen to fetch everyone some club soda, which Aunt Betty and Mary often liked to serve, and Effie started browsing the bookshelves. Soon, Floyd returned with a large bottle of club soda and several small glasses on a tray.
Watching the scene, Oliver took a long breath, his chest expanding like every second of his new reality was filling him up with more love than he thought he’d ever have in a lifetime. He wasn’t alone. Not anymore. None of these wonderful people ever made him feel bad for talking too much or making silly jokes or filling up half of a bedroom with his selection of clothing and hats. They loved him. And he loved them, too.
Josephine’s voice broke through his overly sentimental thoughts.
“Mister Oliver?”
“Hm?”
“Did you really try to run away and join the circus when you were little? Aunt Mary said I made it up. But I remember you telling me that.”
Oliver chuckled. “You’re almost right. I can’t blame you for forgetting the specifics. I think you were half asleep when I told you the story.” He rocked back on his heels again. “No, I never ran away. I wasn’t as brave as you, Josephine. Gosh, I still can’t believe you snuck off to Charleston by yourself. On a train, too,” he said with a playful wag of his finger. “Me, on the other hand, well, I was too scared to venture off of our property when I was your age, mostly because my parents forbade it, and so I started my own circus.”
Mary raised both of her eyebrows. “Your own circus?”
“It’s the reason I’ve mastered so many magic tricks. Magic was my special skill. I’m not sure if I had yet realized that magicians were a whole separate entity with their own shows and everything, rather than being circus performers, but well, I knew I couldn’t be a lion tamer or a trapeze artist, and so I thought that coin and card tricks would be the next best thing.”
“Who else was in your circus?” Mary asked, though from her tone Oliver could tell that she was only humoring him.
Oliver had noticed Mary often looked at him like he was some silly kid, which, he supposed, she wasn’t entirely incorrect about in some ways.
“Oh, tons of people. I had the largest circus in Cleveland.”
Jo’s face was scrunched up in confusion. “Really?”
“Yes, but I’m sad to say that no one came to see us. Probably because everyone except for me was invisible.” At that, Mary burst out laughing. Oliver could hear Effie chuckling nearby. He thought he ought to explain the silliness to Jo. “Get it? No one came to see us?”
Jo wrinkled her nose and said, “Mister Oliver!” though then she laughed a little, too.
Floyd came up beside him, his arms crossed over his chest, and cocked an eyebrow.
“Invisible circus performers?”
Oliver smiled and shrugged. “Oh, it’s not that strange. Is it?”
“Only a little,” Floyd said before whispering, “It’s sweet, too.”
Oliver’s cheeks started to burn. It was incredible that Floyd’s sweet comments could still overwhelm him sometimes.
Over the next few hours, everyone spent time together in the library—telling stories, playing cards, watching a few of Oliver’s silly magic tricks—and then Oliver, Effie, Floyd, and Jo left to return to their farm outside Charleston, traveling by car. Oliver had purchased one not long after they had moved so that they could visit Aunt Betty and Aunt Mary more easily.