Get caught up on Susie’s Adventure and read the previous chapters.

Susie’s Shell Searching Adventure /// Chapter 3

What Susie and Mel didn’t realize when they agreed to go with Pedro, was that he was very serious about heading out first thing in the morning. In the stupor of sleep, Susie could hear someone repeating her name.

‘Susie, despiértate señora. Despiértate. Hoy es el día, el más importante día en tu vida. El día que vamos a El Circo de Los Ángelas.’

When Susie opened her eyes, all she could make out was the triangular face of Pedro, so close to hers it seemed that he might kiss her.

‘Aha, señora! You’re a late riser, I see,’ said Pedro. He poked at Susie with a stick as he backed away from her.

It wasn’t even light out and Susie tried to protest this before Mel jumped in to agree that Susie had, in fact, slept quite late. ‘What time is it?’ Susie said.

‘Party time.’ Mel smiled.

Pedro threw his arms up as high as he could bend them and said, ‘That’s right! Say it loud!’

Susie was rather unimpressed and she made her displeasure known, but Pedro and Mel seemed to be in cahoots. Nothing could bring their spirits down. Mel’s especially. She just kept on smiling, glad to be among people who wouldn’t make fun of her.

‘Ahh, no!’ Pedro said to Susie. ‘This will be the time of our lives, I know it. El Circo de Los Ángelas, just imagine.’ He took a moment to peer off at the dark, too early sky. Then he resumed prodding Susie with his stick. ‘Now, up with you! We must begin our descent. Come now, I’ve made you some tea.’

‘Tea?’ Susie said.

‘Cold tea, yes. Made from the dew of the morning and infused with the freshest lemon grass. It is God’s nectar, te lo prometo. Come, come, drink so we may fall,’ he said.

Susie rolled over and tightened up her sash. She slimed on over to the tea that Pedro had poured onto a leaf and began to drink. Maybe it wasn’t God’s nectar exactly, but it certainly was heavenly. Upon finishing, Pedro and Mel implored her to follow them as they began their descent down the mountain and towards El Circo de Los Ángelas.

As they hiked down the mountain, Susie and Mel attempted to get to know Pedro a little more. They began to ask him the most ridiculous questions they could think of and demanded that he answer them truthfully. 

Early in their travels, Susie looked smugly at the night sky and said to Pedro, ‘What’s your favourite moon phase?’ 

Pedro let out an enormous, guttural laugh and looked at Susie. ‘The moon is not yet out tonight,’ he said. 

‘But it is night, and the question still stands,’ Susie said. 

Pedro laughed again, quieter this time. He said, ‘I am a fan of la luna nueva, amiga. It means I get to draw my own existence on the world, and that I have far more light left to give.’

Susie was rather unsure how to respond to such an answer and she looked towards Mel for assistance. Mel carried forward like there was nothing strange. 

‘What’s your favourite thing about the circus?’ she said. 

‘Ah, el circo. El circo is a place that accepts everyone as they are. No matter how weird or strange one’s talents, he can have a role en el circo,’ Pedro said.

‘And you’ve been before?’ Susie said. 

‘Never!’ Pedro said. 

‘Then what brings you this time?’ Mel said. 

Pedro said, ‘because, amiga, some places call for your presence even though you’ve never met. They insist on your coming unto them. I have a purpose in the circus, and I intend to stay there. I intend to find a home there.’

Susie looked at Mel again. Weird, she tried to signal with her antennae, though she was uncertain whether Mel caught her meaning. Susie said, ‘what? you’ve had a place like that?’

Mel smiled. ‘Does heaven count?’

Susie couldn’t help but smile as well. The reality of heaven wasn’t of much concern to her, but she could see it was important to Mel. She wanted to be supportive of what was important to Mel, inasmuch as reciprocity existed. She assured Mel heaven could count, so long as it meant she was able to be with those she cared about forever. That was the only form of true eternal happiness she could understand. 

They hiked down the mountain for some time, carrying on with random conversations here and there. Susie and Mel discovered Pedro was a fortune teller. He said that would be the talent that would get him into the circus. His ability to tell one’s fortune and speak to her soul was second to none. When Pedro communed with the spirits and shared their message with the world, what he foretold had never failed to transpire.

In the course of their conversation, Pedro asked Susie about her sash and she explained that her shell had been stolen. Pedro didn’t seem to notice that this was their true reason for attending the circus. Instead, he complimented the sash, and told Susie that the sash did more to show who she was than a shell ever could. Susie had to admit, she was starting to adjust to not having her shell. The sash was cute, but even that didn’t feel necessary anymore. At times, she thought, especially around Mel and Pedro, she felt okay with being bare.. With laying her full and true self out before them. 

When they reached the bottom of the mountain they had to slime around some shrubbery, twisting, contorting and clambering atop or about the barriers. When they finally emerged they were greeted with the giant, blue, neon sign identifying El Circo de Los Ángelas. 

‘It’s so bright,’ Susie said. 

‘Like our futures,’ Pedro said. 

‘Where do we start?’ Mel said. 

‘Where else?’ Susie said. ‘Back at the beginning.’

They walked beneath the sign, leaving the past behind and focussing on the future: their friendship, their homes, their true and unfiltered selves.

 

Thank you for reading.

 

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