Carlos hadn’t been to a circus in years – not since he was little. But there had been a raffle at work and Carlos had won a coupon for a free ticket. He kinda hoped that his brother and/or his dad were in town so he could invite them to go with him.
Carlos made his way to the ticket office that was set up, standing in the line with his coupon as he looked at everything around him. Some things were different than what he remembered or imagined a circus to be like, but not everything could be a dated cliche trope he supposed.
Once at the ticket office he smiled and offered the coupon. “Hey… this any good?” he asked in a joking manner.
“Oh, I went underage drinking and some things got wild!” He giggled, avoiding the true answer to the question, “It’s not important- is there another test?”
Carlos shook his head. “No, not right now,” he said. “I need to think about your situation and come up with a way to get some kind of sample from you. The most I can do is maybe skin or hair samples… urine samples too, I guess.But I’m hesitant to do anything for fear of hurting you, you know? And that stuff might not tell me very much about you, considering your… unique circumstance.”
“Ah-“ Skip finally felt that uncomfortable stage of being the wrong person for the wrong things, all he wanted was just to give out some of his blood, too bad he had forgotten he couldn’t bleed. But his bones were still thick and gurthy with marrow- couldn’t they be robbed? “Sorry about that.. I guess I forgot.. Are you gonna dismiss me now- or anything else?”
“Well, I can get cell samples from inside of your mouth to start on,” Carlos said. “Though I feel like it could be just the beginning of figuring out what’s going on with you.” Carlos then paused. “That is… if you’re okay with that.”
“Oh, yeah it’s fine.. Do you have a kit or something?” The acrobat asked as he perked up and looked over the scientist with intrigue, “Maybe I could get my date to see you- I’m pretty sure he bleeds,” He laughed gently, shaking his head with a soft smile.
“Yeah, I’ve got a kit,” Carlos said as he turned in his chair. He opened a drawer and started searching for a sterile cotton swab. “Who’s your date, by the way? Just out of curiosity?”
A hand moved to his mouth with fingers brushing his lips as he smiled over them. “Mr.— Ah, I mean Earl Harlan.. He’s a few years my senior, but I don’t mind.. He’s a sweetheart.” He paused his slight tangent and glanced up, “You know him?”
Carlos blinked. “Uh, sort of. I know of him. He was the scout master in town, right?”


