Very+Serious+Children

by Caroline Adderson

Hi, my name is Nicky. My name is probably the only normal thing about me. You see, my mom and dad are clowns. When they are performing in the circus they go by the names of Mr. and Mrs. Toots. They wear makeup and funny clothes and their hair is red. Real red. They have natural colored wild red hair. Their noses are foam balls. When they are not performing they are known as Mr. and Mrs. Grant. Even then they seem like clowns. My mom wears dresses with polka dots and my dad wears a bow tie. They both wear striped socks. They spend their lives making a joke out of everything. Their wedding rings are buzzers that give your a tingling shock when you shake hands with them. We spend our life on the road in a camper going from town to town. My brother and I don’t have to go to school. We spend every night at the circus watching the performances. Sounds great doesn’t it. You know you always hear those stories about kids running away to join the circus. Well I’m just the opposite. I want to run away from the circus. You see, I am a very serious kid. I want things to be normal. I want normal parents, not parents that joke around 100% of the time.

read page 36 - Because our parents lived for fun to page 37 - day of your life.

I want a real house not a cramped trailer. I want a real school, not just correspondence school. And most of all I want a friend, a real friend. Then my mom and dad have this really horrible idea. The decide that my brother Saggy and I should join the circus and become clowns too. No way is anyone going to shoot me out of a cannon. I want to be an astronaut when I grow up. So I decided. I would run away. Here is the letter that I wrote.

Read letter on page 87

You won’t believe what happens when my brother Saggy and I run away with my new friend Ginn. My brother ends up in the hospital. Am I in trouble now!!

By the way do you know what a typewriter is? That’s how I am writing this story. The ribbon is running out of ink so I quickly solved that problem. It’s July. We are in Saskatchewan. So I just mixed up some Saskatoon berry juice and viola! Instant ink. (Show red typing in the book)

You will want to read to see what happens to me and poor sick Saggy. You won’t believe it!!!