In 1928, John Ringling hired a tightrope act called The Great Wallendas after seeing them perform in Cuba. The troupe was led by Karl Wallenda and featured his wife and his brother. Their name changed to The Flying Wallendas after they fell during a performance in the 1940s, and a reporter noted that they "fell so gracefully that it seemed as if they were flying."

The troupe survived the Hartford Circus Fire in 1944, but in 1962, as they were performing a seven-person pyramid on the high wire, three of their members fell to the ground. Karl's son-in-law and nephew both died within hours, and his adopted son was paralyzed. In 1963, Karl's sister-in-law fell to her death, and in 1972, his son-in-law was electrocuted when he touched a piece of the metal rigging.

In 1978, Karl Wallenda himself fell from the high wire during a stunt between two towers of a hotel in Puerto Rico, at the age of 73. Several of his grandchildren still perform under the name The Flying Wallendas.

During the parade, Lana smiled and waved and beneath this mask, she worried about Mitch. He had always helped Bettina out during past performances. He was the horse handler, after all. And now Lana was the entire equestrian act. He should have been nearby to help her. Or even just to walk beside her, since she didn't really need him for this part. She had never noticed if he had escorted Bettina, if he wore a costume.

Now that she was behind Felix and Elly, she had a good view of the couple during the parade, where previously she had only been able to view Olga's backside. Felix's backside was a mite better to look at. She turned back to the audience every time she thought this.

Felix certainly knew how to work the crowd. He played the part of Marc Antony, holding Elly close, sweeping her back and kissing her. There was a whole part of the spec Lana had never seen, where a clown dressed as a Roman gladiator – possibly Julius Caesar – came out and challenged Marc Antony to a duel. Of course Felix appeared to win easily, and the crowd laughed at the antics of the clown as he fell down over and over again and went into over exaggerated death throes. Then when Felix turned his back, the clown jumped up and ran Felix through with his sword. Lana winced, then laughed herself when she realized it was all playacting. The clown grabbed Elly for a kiss, then Felix ran off the diminutive Roman emperor, and the parade continued.

Lana kept peeking in on the show after the spec, desperate not to miss her entrance cue. It was quite different to be the spotlight instead of a team, where she could follow everyone else. It was also nerve-wracking not to have the other part of her act. Who would she reach out to if Mitch didn't show up?

Her act was early on, after the juggling and before Felix's act. In one of the side rings, clowns piled into a little car and played cops and robbers; in the other, three tiny dogs jumped through hoops and trotted across poles.

Lana readied herself as the juggler balanced on a teeterboard and two clowns threw a variety of household objects at him to keep in the air. The crowd cheered, and the juggler tossed all of the objects back into a trunk, and they began to move their props out of the way. Then the lights dimmed and the music became quiet and wistful, and Lana removed Snowflake's bridle and sent her off into the ring. The horse moved through the darkness like a ghost, and the crowd was captivated, holding their breath.

It had been a long time since there was a new act, Rooney had said.

Lana did a soft ballet run after the horse, thinking she might simply reach out to a member of the audience instead of Mitch. She went to jump onto the sidewall, then felt a hand grasp hers. She nearly broke character in her relief. She turned to face him.

It was Felix.

He gripped her, his eyes intense.

This part she didn't have to fake. She tried to pull away, reaching for the galloping Snowflake.

And Felix pulled back, just like Lana had rehearsed with Mitch, pulling her up into his arms.

Her body reflexively did what she had trained it to do, embracing Felix as tightly as she had embraced Mitch just hours ago in the audition. Then she leapt into her act.

It was as if her new costume made her feel that much more magical. She reached for Felix, saw his face blur as she hung off the side of the horse. Then she was jumping and flipping and twirling, and loving every bit of the audience's attention.

It wasn't until her penultimate trick that she knew something was wrong. This was not going to be her day to ascend. She was in the backbend, reaching for Felix. He was smiling and reaching for her too, but Lana's eyes skipped to the shadow behind him. She barely had time to make sense of it before she completed that trick and did her double somersault dismount. She lifted one arm and bowed, and then Snowflake halted beside her and dipped into a bow as well. Then Felix joined her.

The audience was going mad, cheering and stomping. Her act was a hit! For a brief moment she thought this could be it. Maybe she could ascend, tonight! Before she could comprehend what was happening, Felix had turned her face to his and kissed her. She couldn't help herself. She kissed him back.

It was the crowd, it was performing, she loved it all, and she loved Felix at that moment because he was part of it. He had been there for her, after all, when Mitch hadn't.

The sharp crack of a gunshot startled Snowflake, who spun and galloping out of the tent. Lana felt Felix pull on her, and then she was falling with him hanging like a dead weight from her neck. He suddenly had a black hole in his forehead, and his face was blank, so Lana wasn't sure how to react. He wasn't in pain, and he wasn't afraid, and the audience wasn't screaming.

Then a jet of blood spurted from the hole.

"No!" Lana cried. She looked up to see who had fired the gun, and her eyes fixed on Mitch. He stood in the shadows, holding the smoking gun. He made eye contact with her, then stepped back, until the shadows took him.

Now the audience began to panic, but the clowns dashed in and squirted water on each other, while Elly ran out to help Lana pull Felix's body out of the spotlight.

"Tch, what a pity," Rooney sneered, looking down at Felix's prone body. "But the show must go on!"

Lana couldn't speak. She stared at the blood dripping from her own face and her arms. Felix's blood. When she met Elly's gaze, the other woman's face was expressionless. Lana knew in her brain that Elly had probably seen Felix die many, many times over the years, and she herself had seen Felix decapitated. Lana could not comprehend the fact that Felix would rise again. He had died, inches away from her.

Eventually, Charly and Mimi came over and pulled Lana away. "He will be fine," Charly said. "Remember how this works."

Now, without Felix's dead face staring her down, Lana's thought processes could comprehend the other half of it. "Mitch," she gasped. Her stomach hurt. She sank to her knees between the grip of the two girls holding her. "Mitch did it," she said.

"Of course he did," Mimi said. "He always does."

"Shush," Charly said.

"It hurts," Lana moaned. She touched her belly, and her hand came away bloody.

"He only fired one shot," Mimi said in surprise.

"Put me down," Lana said. They did.

Above her, Mimi hissed, "Did Mitch do that too?"

"No, no, that's how she got here," Charly whispered.

"How did you get stabbed?" Mimi asked Lana. "I think it's time the story came out."

"Tansy did it," Lana gasped. "She – I – Freddy. She was Freddy's girlfriend. She was pregnant. And Freddy was seeing me on the side."

"You were the other woman," Mimi said. "And she stabbed you."

"Yes," Lana managed.

Mimi stood back up and said to Charly, "Bettina's finally free of all that."

"You don't know that," Charly said.

"Usually it's Felix and Bettina and Mitch. Bettina goes back and forth, and Mitch kills Felix. Now the same thing happens, only it's Lana in the middle, on the first day Bettina is doing a new act? You think that's a coincidence?"

Charly said nothing.

"Mitch has done this before?" Lana said.

Mimi waved a hand. "It happens a lot. Hasn't happened since you got here, but I mean, it used to happen a lot. Like every other performance."

"I thought he was different," Lana said. She stared at the ground until a fresh wave of tears blurred her vision.

"Oh, honey. We always want our man to change for the better," Mimi said. "Never gonna happen, though." She glanced around. "Well, I gotta go prep for my act," she said. "I hope nothing too bad will happen."

Charly stayed with Lana for a bit after that, through several acts that clearly ended in disaster from the audience's reactions, but eventually she had to get ready for the trapeze finale. She sighed. "I always hate these ones, where you know it's coming," Charly said. "At least you didn't have to dread going out there your first time solo."

"Yeah. Lucky," Lana said.

Slowly she stood up. Her stomach didn't hurt much anymore. She wished Mitch had just talked to her instead of assuming there was something going on between her and Felix. It wasn't her fault Felix kissed her. And it could have been Mitch there in the spotlight with her.

So much for her new act helping her to move on. It seemed there was a lot more going on here than her own personal issues.

She ducked just inside the tent and watched the girls on the Spanish Web and the tiger act. She barely flinched when the big cats went crazy and attacked Rooney. The ringmaster invited them, "Come on," he shouted. "Come and get me." It was a bloodbath. She almost wished the cats would escape and come kill her, too. Although she didn't think she could bring herself to the level of inviting them. They probably wouldn't even see her standing in the shadows under the bleachers.

As the trapeze troupe was making their way up the narrow ladder, Lana caught a glimpse of movement in the shadows. She craned her neck to see who it could be creeping under there, but the man had his back to her. She saw a flash of a match, then fire was ripping up the tent walls.

Suddenly the band stopped the trapeze music and began playing a song Lana recognized from every Fourth of July parade that had ever marched through Noble, Oklahoma: "Stars and Stripes Forever." As if on cue, the performers in the ring hurried out, while the smoke thickened and suddenly the length of one wall of the tent was in flames, and the audience started to panic too.

People shoved and pushed and trampled each other trying to get out of the tent.

Lana watched it all. The animals ran wild, and lanterns were kicked over and began new fires. She actually stepped into the ring to see the disaster unfold. Above her was fire, all around her. Part of her felt nihilistic and just wanted to burn away. She flinched when hot ashes dropped on her bare shoulders, but chose to stay.

Through the thick smoke, she saw a crowd of performers, their sequins bright in the firelight, hauling someone into the ring.

The strongman and two of the trapeze flyers released the man they carried, and then Lana could see that it was Mitch.

"No!" she cried out. Her voice was drowned by the roar of the fire, and the booming of the band, and the screams of the audience. She covered her mouth with her arm and ran through the smoke, dodging rubes who had lost their way in the fire.

Several of the people in the crowd had long sticks in their hands, broom handles, she couldn't tell through the smoke.

"Why you gotta always do this, Mitch," yelled one man over the din. It was Red. He wasn't wearing his hat, and the side of his face was crushed in and oozing blood onto his shoulder.

"Yeah, Mitch. What you got against Felix?"

Between their jeers, Lana saw them raise their sticks and bring them down on Mitch again and again. He was curled up on the ground, protecting his head with his arms.

"Stop it!" she yelled.

It was like they couldn't hear her, even though she was right there now. Elly stood at the front of the crowd, a silent statue in green, her hands behind her back.

Now Lana jumped in front of Mitch. "Stop!" she yelled at them.

"Come on, kid, get outta the way," Red complained.

"Don't do this to him, please," Lana said. "Haven't we all had enough pain without killing each other too?"

"Tell that to him," said the other man, who Lana saw was Marco, the trapeze catcher.

"Yeah!" called someone from the crowd, who Lana couldn't see. "He killed Felix, now we're gonna kill him!"

"This isn't right!" Lana exclaimed, prepared to fight off the entire crowd.

Then she felt a hand on her leg.

"This is what I deserve," Mitch said quietly.

Lana looked at him, and he looked at her. There was pleading in his eyes, but it was pleading for Lana to let him be killed.

"You don't deserve this," she said. "What you did was wrong, but this isn't right, either."

"Please," Mitch said, and bowed his head.

Lana bent down and grabbed his face and kissed him.

Then she stood again and stepped back.