Remember that incontinent old circus
bear they used have? Remember its blunted teeth and the way its claws
had been pulled out? Remember the dry manky shite stuck to the fur at
its rear? It used move around really slowly looking pathetic. It was
different on the poster, standing on its hind legs at full height,
roaring, snapping free of its manacles. It looked fierce in the
artwork but not in real life. They used leave it tied up outside,
even in the rain, remember? Remember how we used throw sticks at it
and run away when it raised its head to look at us? As if it could
do anything. Remember how sad its eyes were?
Crowds used react funny when it entered
the ring. They were expecting the monster from the promotional
material but what they got was this shambling shadow of an animal.
Alberto would taunt the beast and it would open its jaws (as it had
been beaten to do) and Alberto would stick his head in its mouth.
Remember? We used laugh that he risked being sucked to death.
Sometimes the bear got its moves wrong and Alberto would lash seven
shades out the thing with his crop. It was difficult viewing. Alberto
was vicious. A vicious drunk. There was never much clapping from the
audience at the end of the bear act.
Alberto resented the rest of the
performers. He used bully them. The women and dwarves got it worst.
Alberto liked to make them feel inadequate because they actually had
talent and this made him feel inadequate. Alberto knew he was
dependent on the bear and he knew the bear was fading. The way he
used beat the thing, it was like he wanted it to die quicker and
hasten the whole charade to an end. Maybe there was something about
the bear that reminded Alberto of himself. I think that was a theory
one of the clowns had or maybe it was the pretty acrobat girl that
said it.
Anyway, the bear didn't die, did you
know that? No, it actually outlived Alberto. Story is, Alberto got
really drunk one night and started kicking the thing and asking it to
stick up for itself. To do something. He was laughing and saying the
bear was a joke, that it could do nothing. He kept spitting swigs of
vodka in the bear's eyes and laughing - swigging and spitting and
laughing until he finally fell over into an inebriate
heap. The other performers just watched, doing nothing to help the
bear because they feared Alberto.
Although they didn't help the bear, the
other performers didn't help Alberto either when the bear did the one
thing it could to avenge itself on its cruel master. Clawless,
toothless, arthritic, the bear is said to have lumbered over to the
semiconscious Alberto and sat on the man's head. Then the bear took a
shite, a huge shite, a massive shite, a really unbelievably colossal
shite. A shite that was described by one onlooker as, 'the biggest
shite ever in the history of shites'. The bear crapped on Alberto's
head and remained squatting there, pinning the struggling man down
and causing him to choke to death on bear shite. No one did anything
as Alberto's limbs gradually ceased flailing and he left this world.
Then there was silence. The bear looked around at the gathering and,
for a time, everyone just looked back. Then someone broke the silence
and soon enough everyone joined in. I heard it was the biggest
applause that bear ever got.
