The boy was alone. He stood against a small trailer, black hair hanging down. His arms were crossed over his chest defensively. He stood silently, as though he were waiting for something, someone. He stayed there until the carnival grounds became alive, until he was pulled away by a man. The man was the head of the carnival, the boss of all the lions, tigers, bears, the clowns, trapeze artists, bearded ladies and the contortionists. He was the ringmaster. He was the typical ringmaster in appearance, short, top hat, suit, and jolly disposition reserved for customers. But towards the boy he was a nightmare.

The ringmaster had found the boy as a toddler sitting alone on the midway past closing time. Half of his face was bandaged in white gauze. The ringmaster picked him up and examined him. He looked closely into the uncovered eye. The boy blinked back at him with a bright green eye, showing no fear of the strange man. He put the boy back on the bench and stared at him for a minute more and then began to carefully remove the bandages covering the toddler’s face. Slowly he started to see what lay beneath. The ringmaster gasped in horror as the last bandage came off. Quickly, he grabbed the boy and covered him cradling him like a baby he looked around for any signs of the parents. When no sign came he took off toward the back of the carnival grounds plotting how useful the boy could be with a face like that.

“You’re on stage in five boy!!” the stage manager roared, while numerous people rushed around trying to get ready for their acts.

The boy stood in a nearby corner while a large man clamped chains around his wrists and ankles. He sighed audibly and touched the mask on his face. A loud cheering could be heard from the stage as the tallest man in the world ducked through the back stage door.

“You’re up kid,” he told the boy, clomping a massive hand down on his shoulder. The boy crumpled a little under the weight as he and his handler lined up, ready to make their appearance.

“And now, for our final act!” the ringmaster shouted to the crowd lining the inside of the circus tent. “This boy is horrifying, terrifying, absolutely hideous! He’s so dangerous we have to keep him in chains! I now give you, The Two Faced Boy!” At that word the crowd cheered. The handler pulled on the chains and he and the boy came flying on stage. The man kept pulling as the boy pretended to put up a fight. He was supposed to be horrifying and dangerous after all. The stage lights stung the boy’s eyes as he looked toward the shadowy audience. After a long choreographed struggle to centre stage, the ringmaster approached, faking fear.

“Play it up more,” he viciously whispered. The boy lashed out at him, flinging his arms and gnashing his teeth. His look of hatred was pretence. The ringmaster jumped back as the audience gasped. He came forward again this time reaching and snatching the mask off the boy’s face. Light spread over the usually covered area and into his injured eye. He fell to the floor in pain. As he tried to cover himself the ringmaster grabbed his head and forced him to look at the audience. Gasps and screams could be heard from the shadows. Children buried their faces into the safe folds of their parent’s coats. People pointed and whispered.

“See what this boy has become! He’s uncivilized and deformed! His face is a horror to everyone!” the ringmaster shouted over the commotion.

The boy struggled to get away. The pain pulsed up and down the right side of his face; his eye had started to swell. With his left eye he could see all the horrified expressions of the people in the front row, but for one girl. She was sitting in-between her mother and father staring up at the stage. She had blonde wavy tresses of hair and was dressed in a pretty blue frock. But what seemed different to him were her eyes. They were so brilliant blue he could see them from up on the stage. But something was different; they seemed glazed over. It was like she was looking at the boy but not seeing him. He stared at her for a second before another stab of pain hit his eye. The ringmaster was still holding him in front of the audience and laughing. The boy wrenched himself away and grabbed the black mask that had been forcefully ripped off. He quickly positioned it back over his face.

“Take him away!” the ringmaster yelled, and the handler dragged the boy offstage as the crowd jeered.

Backstage was just as hectic as before. Now that this morning’s freak show was over it was time for the bigger circus acts. In one corner ten clowns were trying to fit into a tiny car. In another corner the trapeze artists were stretching and getting dressed. Further away you could hear a lion roar. The last chain around the boy’s wrist was unlocked when the ringmaster came storming in from the stage. He walked over to the boy and stood over him menacingly. The boy looked up slowly and the entire backstage area got quiet.

“Yes sir?” he said timidly.

“You call that an act boy?” the ringmaster shouted. “Half the bloody audience probably felt sorry for you!” He knelt down and grabbed the boy around the jaw. “Next time get it right, or you’ll be locked in the cage with the lions,” he threatened, saliva spattering all over the boy’s face. “Now go clean the stables!” He smacked the back of the boy’s head and pushed him off. The room was silent when the ringmaster looked up. “What are you all looking at? Get to work; the next show is in half an hour!”

The boy grabbed a bale of hay from the corner and started to drag it out to the stables. No one made any move to help him.

It was mid-afternoon by the time the boy had finished cleaning. His arms were sore and tired and his hands were itchy and red from the hay. Slowly he made his way back to the small trailer he shared with four other circus workers. He stepped inside. The trailer was furnished with four cots and a small sink with a mirror in the corner. The boy looked in the mirror. He reached up and pulled the black mask off carefully. The skin underneath was extremely dry and flaky. All the pigment had been burned away and was deathly white compared to his tanned skin. Ugly thick, red purple scars ran like veins across the affected area, and the skin around his right eye was swollen and almost purple. The eyeball had gone completely white and most of the eyelid was gone. The boy stared at himself in the dusty mirror. “Why is God punishing me?” he thought sadly as he ran his fingers along the scars, wincing slightly. The boy closed his good eye and tried to remember the night that caused his pain, but nothing different than his previous memories came. All he could remember was that terrifying shriek of a woman and a wall of flame. The boy let out a sigh and opened his eye again. With one last look he replaced the mask over the horrible burns and left the trailer. He sat down on the steps and waited. That’s all he had to do. Wait for the next show. The next tortuous humiliation.

“Hello?” a small voice said.

The boy looked up, startled, and saw the girl standing a few feet away. She had long almost white blonde hair and was wearing a pretty blue dress.

“Hello? Anyone there?” she asked again. Her voice was sweet, almost innocent. She wasn’t much younger than the boy. “Hello?”

The boy cleared his throat. “Uh…I’m…h…here” he stuttered.

“I thought I heard someone,” she said smiling. She had perfect white teeth and a beautiful smile. The boy looked her up and down. Black Mary-Janes, white socks, a pretty sky blue dress. She was a visitor.

“Y…You’re not supposed to be back here,” the boy said, standing up and stepping toward her.

She frowned. “Why not?”

“Because…”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Because…”

“See you can’t tell me why ‘cause there is no reason why I can’t be back here,” she giggled and stepped toward the boy.

“But…I’ll get in trouble…if…if someone sees me talking to you,” the boy tried again. She was making him nervous. He had never talked to another child before.

She stepped toward him again. “Why?”

“Because…”

“No answer again, huh?”

“No, stop it! I…you can’t be here. I’m horrifying, terrifying, absolutely hideous!” the boy shouted, echoing the ringmaster’s words. The girl took a step back, then smiled again and stepped forward, coming very close. He looked into her eyes and immediately recognized her. The brilliant blue eyes gave it away.

“You’re the Two Faced Boy!” she cried, almost too happily.

“Don’t call me that!” the boy yelled back.

“Sorry.” The girl looked down at the ground.

“It’s…okay. I’m sorry for yelling.”

The girl continued to look at the ground, almost as if her spirit had been crushed by the boy’s outburst.

“Look at me,” he told her. The girl looked up but past his eyes.

“No look at me.”

“I am looking at you,” she said.

“No you’re not…” he said, trailing off his defiance with a sudden realization.

Her eyes shifted slightly. “Am I now?”

“Yes.”

She smiled again.

“How do you do that?” the boy asked.

“What?”

“Smile.”

“How do I smile?” She was confused.

“Why are you so happy when God has punished you with blindness?” the boy tried again.

“You think I’m being punished?”

The boy nodded, forgetting that she couldn’t see him do so. “So am I. God thinks I’ve been bad so he burned me and sent the ringmaster to punish me.”

“You’re burned?”

“That’s why I’m the Two Faced Boy. One side of my face is ugly.”

“Lemme see,” she said.

“But…”

“Just lemme see.”

The boy took off his mask, wincing a little as the clouded light hit the scarred area. “Show me where,” the girl instructed, holding her hands up for the boy to guide her. He took her hands gently and put it over his scarred face. She carefully ran her fingers over the crude scars and puffy blind eye. She pulled her hands away and the boy looked for any trace of disgust in her face. There was none.

“I’m not being punished,” she said after a long silence. “I used to think so…but…but then I realized that God wants me to do something, that my blindness is useful.”

“What did he want you to do?”

“Perhaps find you.”

“But how am I important?”

“I think that’s for you to find out,” she smiled mischievously. That perfect smiled again.

“Boy! Boy where are you?” a harsh voice in the distance called. The boy turned toward the voice. When he turned back the girl was gone.

“Wait!” he called. “You need to tell me how to find out!” The boy looked around anxiously.

“Boy!” the ringmaster called again, he was getting closer.

The boy ran over to the fence that separated the trailer area from the carnival. The girl was gone.

“Boy!”

He had to think fast. What was he going to do?

“Boy!”

Was there another place in the world out there somewhere? “That’s for you to find out,” The girl’s voice rang in his head.

“Boy! Get out here!”

“Maybe God has some plan for me. What is it? Where am I to find it?” There was no time to ponder the doubt. The boy jumped the fence and ran into the midway.

“Boy!” the Ringmaster  appeared around the corner into the empty yard only to hear the frightened screams float in from the midway.