Chapter 9

Disaster strikes hard

The next three days seemed to go by better than the previous. Each show Nightcrawler made a flawless performance, enchanting the audience with his sleek agile form as he leapt from the trapeze bars.

And like the night before, Kurt spent a good twenty minutes or more talking to his audience at the front gate and signing autographs for the young kids. He couldn’t be happier in his life; everything was turning around. For the first time he was being accepted.

Upon the last day in Sweden, three newspapers had been printed with the circus’ picture on the front page. The first day was a general article, but by the third paper Kurt had been the main subject.

“ ‘Nightcrawler Gives Another Heads-Up Display,’” Kurt read for the tenth time that day, his group now consisting of Chester, Woodhead and the V-Brothers. “They like me. No, the love me! How did that happen?”

Chester smirked. “Kurt, everyone loves entertainment. That’s all it is to them.”

“But they make it a point to see me after the show,” the young mutant responded. “You know they have to have a good reason.”

“To say they saw you in person in case you become famous world-wide,” Chester told him.

Kurt frowned. Obviously they weren’t too happy for his rise to glory over the past few days. Without another word he left them to sit at the picnic table while he went into the tent.

Trent was busying himself by practicing his routine for that night’s performance. Kurt knew Trent would care. He had to care.

“Trent! Did you see this morning’s article?” Kurt called up to him.

Trent sighed as he positioned himself to sit on the trapeze bar. “Yeah, I saw it. Margali brought me a copy this morning.”

“Obviously I’m Sweden’s best attraction,” Kurt replied.

Trent shook his head to himself and continued his act. He knew that young Wagner was letting his ‘fame’ get to his head. He hated to tell him that the moment they were gone everyone who went to the shows would forget about Nightcrawler.

“Don’t you even care?” Kurt called up again after watching Trent do a series of flips back and forth between bars.

After a moment of nothing but working out, Trent landed on one of the platforms and slid down the rope hanging to the side to the ground. “Kurt,” he said while he grabbed his towel on the bench and wiping his brow. “This is just a way to get people to go the shows.”

“You’re just jealous,” Kurt said as-a-matter-of-factly. “For once its not you on the front page.” Kurt held up the picture on the paper depicting Kurt and the girl he would capture during the skit.

“No, I’m not, Kurt,” the American replied. “Truly, I’m not. I was like you were when I first started out, and let me tell you it doesn’t always turn out good.”

“How so?” Kurt asked, although not convinced.

Trent sat down on the balance beam nearby and put the towel around his neck. “You’ll win the hearts of the people, go around being all haughty and proud, but then you’ll start to screw up whether its in your own personal life or during a performance. And once people catch wing of that you’ll go down. You’ll go down real hard.”

Kurt shook his head, his face stern and his tail becoming stiff. “That won’t happen to me. For once I’m getting the attention everyone else gets. And I’m not being criticized for it! What’s so bad about that?”

“Kurt,” Trent laughed seeing his young friend becoming angry. “Don’t get all worked up about it. I’m just warning you to be careful.”

The blue mutant gave a huff and walked off, leaving Trent to shake his head while looking at the ground. Kurt didn’t care what everyone thought. This was becoming his dream. And he knew he could do it right. He wouldn’t mess up like everyone else…. There’d be no way he could.

Margali was none to pleased to find that Kurt took off for the afternoon. She searched everywhere for him until Amanda finally told her she saw him teleport into town.

“What the hell for?” Margali asked. “Mein Gott! He’s becoming more impossible.”

“Trent said they had some kind of falling-out. Guess he lectured Kurt about fame or something to that extent,” Amanda told her. She sat cross-legged at the picnic table, writing a letter to her boyfriend back in Munich, not even glancing up towards her now mad mother.

Margali just threw her arms up in the air as she went off to continue her work. She made it a point to think of a punishment if Kurt didn’t return in time enough for the show, and that would include an earful of a lecture.

Fortunately Kurt did return just in time for the pre-show rehearsal. The visit to town didn’t go as well as he thought it would. A few people that set eyes on him, and probably never knew the circus was even in town, started to scream and run away, all the while yelling, “Monster!” and “Demon!”

Although those events were upsetting, Kurt refused to talk to anyone about it. Especially Trent who had said, “I hope you didn’t go flaunt yourself in town to people, Kurt.”

Even Amanda had shrugged him off when he went to see her. She merely told him a blunt “Whatever” and continued her job of organizing the costumes.

After that encounter, Kurt spent the rest of the time before the show by a tree outback. He looked up at the sky and gave a scowl. “Why, Lord,” he started, an almost hatred tone forming. “Why does something go right and then other things go wrong? Why can’t my life be easier?!”

“Because that’s life.”

Kurt looked up to see Trent walking towards him, dressed in his sparkling white jumpsuit. The only response Kurt gave him was the cold shoulder.

“Look, I’m sorry if I lectured you before. But I don’t want you to do what I did.” Kurt didn’t answer. “Kurt, when I was starting out I made a bunch of money and instantly became famous in the U.S. But I started to waste my money, starting with cigarettes and meaningless items. Then the media became too much and I started smoking more and even consumed alcohol—but that wasn’t the path I wanted to chose. And it was ruining my body. Do you know how long it took me to get out of that funk?”

Kurt gave a huff. “You’re lecturing me again. You think I’ll become you.”

“No, I didn’t say that.” Trent shook his head. He knew this was hopeless. It was becoming one of those situations where Kurt would have to discover things for himself. “You’re on in ten minutes. Margali’s been looking for you.”

Kurt barely glanced at Trent’s retreating form. He was so angry at Trent, Margali, Amanda, Chester, and especially God. Why did his life have to be so hard all of the time?

“Kurt Wagner! Where have you been?”

“Sorry,” Kurt said as he entered the small room under the stands in the tent.

Margali stood with her hands on her hips, ready to slap Kurt’s blue face as hard as she could. But now wasn’t the time. “They’re lined up and ready to go. Hannelore is just about done.”

“Fine.”

Although Kurt’s performance went smoothly, the love for the show wasn’t in his heart like it had been all week. He was angry. The only thing he wanted was some consideration for his desires, but no one ever gave it to him.

And unlike the past nights, Trent didn’t even give Kurt thumbs up when the group of monks, angels, and the devil came back from their act. The two ignored each other as Kurt went to a side isle to watch the rest of the show.

What amazed Kurt was that when Woodhead introduced Trent, he caught himself hoping that Trent would make a mistake. For once, let someone else look like a fool besides him in front of everyone.

Kurt’s thoughts trailed off to more of the line that Trent was once again producing a flawless, complete, and fascinating end-of-show performance. It almost made Kurt sick that the audience was constantly giving quick applauses for some stunt Trent pulled. Why are you thinking like this? His inner conscience asked him. And to be frank, he didn’t know why.

Before Trent finished off his performance, he stopped for a two-second breather by landing on the platform and putting powder on his hands to keep them from slipping on the bar. During this brief moment, his eyes caught wing of Kurt sitting on a milk crate in the side isle, but he didn’t give a reaction like a wave or even a wink.

Instead Trent turned his attention back to the swinging bars. With one springy jump, Trent reached out for the bar as it came back to him. Letting it swing for a moment while he hung there, he prepared his legs to get enough momentum to flip himself to the second bar. Then the unthinkable happened. Trent’s timing was off by a second…and he missed the bar.

Kurt stood straight up, his heart rate quickening and his lungs paused from breathing as he watched Trent fall to the net below.

The audience gasped as the aerialist plummeted head first into the net. His body bounced from the net repelling him until it slowed and stopped. Several seconds went by and Trent Brown didn’t move.

“NEIN!” Kurt yelled as he ran from the isle, as did Margali, Chester, Woodhead, and several others from backstage.

“Trent! Trent can you hear me?” Chester said crawling up onto the net. People in the stands started standing up to get a better look at the scene below.

“Is he alright?” Margali asked from the side of the net.

“Get the blasted paramedics here now!” Chester yelled as he looked over Trent’s motionless body.

“Trent!” Kurt yelled as he climbed and crawled on the net to where his idle lay. “Trent…C’mon, quit playing games.” Tears welded up in Kurt’s yellow eyes as his hands picked up Trent’s limp one. The acrobat’s eyes stared blankly up at the swinging bars above.

“He’s still alive…” Chester said. “He’s breathing, but they’re quick and short breaths.

“Kurt, come down from there,” Margali said just as the paramedics came running into the tent. “Kurt, come here.”

“Trent…Trent please don’t leave me. God, please don’t take him!” Kurt said as Chester pulled him back.

The three paramedics blocked Kurt’s view of Trent, and he was unable to go watch because of Chester’s hold on his shoulders. “Chester, let me go…” he cried, tears falling down his face.

Blurred conversation filled the tent. The audience waited eagerly to see what the condition of the fallen acrobat was, as did the circus members that gathered around the net. Margali waited, her arms around her daughter’s shoulders, but none was as scared as Kurt. If something happened to Trent—

The paramedics backed off and two of them started to pull Trent off the net. The other went to Margali and shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said loud enough for Kurt to pick up his words. “He broke his neck and there was nothing we could have done.”

“NEIN! Trent, Nein!” Kurt cried, freeing himself from Chester’s hold, which loosened when he heard the words of the paramedics. Kurt jumped off of the net, stumbling to the ground as he watched Trent’s body disappear into the isle.

“Kurt, you can’t do anything,” Chester said as he followed after Kurt.

Kurt sank to his knees and pounded his fist onto the ground several times. “It can’t be…No! It can’t be like this! He’ll be all right! They can fix him!”

“He’s gone, Kurt…. He’s gone….”

“No…” Kurt sobbed, tears falling to the dirt ground. “No…he’s not gone…”

Margali and Amanda knelt down next to Kurt, Margali pulling Kurt into a hug. Kurt’s face buried itself into her chest, crying so hard he thought he’d pass out. She stroked his hair as she breathed raggedly, tears streaming down her own cheeks. Amanda held onto her mother as well as Kurt’s hand.

Woodhead cleared his throat and went to the microphone, asking politely if the audience would find their way back to their cars in an orderly manner. Respectively, they all complied and left the circus to mourn the loss of a great man.

*******

German Translations: Mein Gott-My God

Nein-No