The Colossal Bull

“Welcome! Welcome! This is the Lazarus Circus, and I’m Laz! Tonight, we will be shocking, provoking, and most importantly entertaining!” Laz yells into a microphone, hanging from the large colorful circus tent. Surrounding him is a lackluster crowd, half full. However, Laz doesn’t let it affect his showmanship.

“There will be beards on women, a man with great vision, a tiny man with strength so grand! A man wrapped in bandages, someone missing appendages, let’s just see how the ending is! Come on out, Ms. Hairay.” As Laz says this a stunning brunette walks out into the center, and her beard drags behind. She grabs the microphone hanging in the center of the tent, and begins to sing, so beautifully. Her long complex notes, ranging from high to low stun the audience, and reel them in.

“Welcome to the Lazarus Express; a circus for the best; their ain’t no contest, between us and the rest” Ms. Hairay sings.

As Laz begins to walk off into the back, Ms. Hairay’s music begins to muffle. Immediately backstage, he passes all of his performers. The short man is pacing back and forth, as the wrapped man fiddles with a coin in his hand. After he passes those two, he passes a man with one arm, who sticks his arm out for a fist bump. Laz ignores him, and with anger in his stride, he walks out of the large tent. He looks to be on the verge of yelling, but before he let’s it out, he looks around making sure no one can see him. Then, he belts out a quick yell. “Why!”

He looks around again, and then begins talking to himself. “Why do the crowds not grow, why don’t they like my show, is it not stunning? Am I not cunning? No, that can’t be where the solution lies, maybe my show needs to grow in size!” The extravagance of his showmanship never seems to fade, and now it will help him persuade.

Laz, not owning a cell phone, walks over to a payphone. The only one available to him, is a phone that’s been graffitied on so much, it looks like a neon clown. However, Laz is not phased by it. He walks up quickly, and throws a quarter in the machine, and dials a number quickly. The blistering sun is causing him to perspire, but Laz is a showman.

“Hello? Kary. It’s been a century since we last spoke.” Laz performs while holding the phone against his shoulder. His arms cross, and he begins to slow dance with himself.

“Hey Laz. What do you need?” Kary responds through the phone.

“What makes you think I need a thing, maybe I want to give you a ring, what do you think? Should I Marry Kary?” He says as he continues to dance.

“Laz, let’s not play games, you only call me when you need something, so what is it?” Kary responds impatiently.

“I’d rather speak face to face, in my space or your place, whichever you prefer or do your desires differ?” Laz says very secretly.

“Fine, I'll meet you at your circus in three hours.” Kary responds.

“Sounds great, I’ll see you at 8.” Laz responds. Kary let’s out a sigh that immediately let’s you know she is rolling her eyes. Then, she hangs up the phone, and Laz looks at a crusty old watch on his left arm. “Oh, crap!” Laz yells. Then, he begins to sprint back to the circus. Where he performs the rest of the show gloriously to the unamused audience members. Three hours flew by like a firework show, spectacular, and usually feeling unfinished or underwhelmed. However, at the end of his act, instead of saying his normal farewells, he decides to make a claim, unaware of Kary’s presence backstage.

“Now, before I say my farewell, I must come clean and tell my audience the facts, about the acts to come, the raging fun, of battles won, with a bull that rages, you can’t contain it, it’s...it’s magnificent. So in a day or two, I’ll see what I can do. But if you buy a ticket from me, you may be the first to see, a bull like no other.” As Laz finishes his over the top speech the lights turn off, and a flash of smoke replaces Laz, and he disappears as the lights turn on. Even though a few people saw him running into the backstage, most were left with curiosity and wonder; something people rarely feel.

As Laz turns the corner he is confronted by Kary. “A day or two?” Kary says furiously.

“What, do you need more time?” Laz says in a humorous way.

“Is this funny to you?” Kary responds.

“Look Kary, you and I both know that you can carry this work load.” Laz says, now attracting the attention of all his performers. Kary, aware of this attention, waits a moment before responding.

“It’s gonna cost you.” She finally says.

“Well, of course it will. What about a quarter of the full amount we get from the bull for about a week.” Laz says quite comically.

“How much do you think that’ll be?” Kary says more interested.

“10k or more I’d say, and that’s just a day!” Laz exclaims.

“10,000 dollars a day? So 70,000?” Kary says in shock.

“Okay, let’s get started today.” Laz says as he sticks his hand out, shaking Karly’s hand.

“Okay, I’ll wait on the benches, and you can explain exactly what you want me to do, okay?” Kary says, while shaking his hand. They both break their handshake, and Kary walks up to the benches and sits down.

Laz leaves the tent, but the little man with strength so grand or Tony, follows him. As Laz walks fast to his office outside of the tent, Tony keeps up. “Hey, Boss! Who was that?” Tony asks Laz.

“That is a friend of mine from college.” Laz responds.

“You went to college?” Tony asks, surprised.

“Yes, I went to college. I majored in business. How else do you think I got to where I am?” Laz says as he stops walking.

“Sorry, I just thought you found a big tarp and started doing shows and just kept upgrading.” Tony says genuinely.

“No, that’s not how a circus works, you need to have business licenses and wages, and then you need to have creativity. To make the show grand. Do you understand?” Laz says intensely.

“Oh, well speaking of wages, I was just a little concerned because we haven’t been paid in two weeks and you just offered this old friend of yours about 70,000 dollars.” Tony says concerned.

“Well, see, currently we aren’t making any money because we don’t have something people haven’t seen before. Kary will be helping us create a lot more income. Then, everyone gets paid.” Laz says trying to seem genuine.

“Alright, well, I guess I’ll go practice.” Tony says glumly.

“Yes, go do that Tony, I’m sure by tomorrow we will have something truly amazing on our hands.” Laz says with confidence and a bit of a villainous tone. Then, he walks into his office, shuts the door behind him, and changes very quickly.

Back in the Circus, Kary is waiting for him on the bench, with a laptop on her lap. She has a laptop that is connected to a larger computer at her home. Laz approaches her, and sits next to her. “Alright Laz, tell me what you have in mind.”

“Well, my mind has been racing, I need you to look at this tracing.” Laz hands Kary a semi-realistic drawing of an extremely muscular, broad, bull. “This bull will be colossal, look impossible, be unstoppable. This bull will fight so strong, and run for so long. It will bend metal, and won’t settle until we fill his insatiable appetite for a fight.” He says in his fantastical way, that manipulates the senses.

“So, just double the top size, triple the top strength, and quadruple the top speed?” Kary says boiling it down to numbers.

“That sounds like the power I need, how many hours do you need?” Laz responds with a smile.

“I can probably get you your bull by tomorrow afternoon. Right, before the show. I can’t do any sooner.” Kary says sternly.

“As long as I can show, the audience before the line grows right out the door.” Laz says as Kary gets up and leaves to work on the bull.

The night comes and goes, but Laz does not sleep. The day moves by even faster and before he knows it, he’s back at the circus. In his costume, suited up for yet another performance. This time, he is hearing a roar from the crowd, instead of a muttering. He is hearing the excitement, he is enjoying every moment of it. But, as he is about to step out, he is stopped by Kary. “He’s done!” Kary says. “But, I don’t think this is a good idea.” She continues.

“Nonsense Kary, this is going to be the most amazing night any of us have ever had. I’m going to do my opening and you get him here when I get back.” Laz says as he immediately walks away. Kary tries getting his attention but he has already hopped out onto stage. “Welcome! Welcome! This is the Lazarus Circus, and I’m Laz! Tonight, we will be shocking, provoking, and most importantly entertaining! This time I mean it, we have a bull, you have to see it.” As he finishes the curtains he came out of swing wide open and Kary is standing there with a large metal box containing the colossal bull. A large black coat covers it’s truly muscular form, it stands at 10 feet tall, and 20 feet long. Weighing in at around 2,000 pounds of pure muscle. When the curtains swing open the bull begins to start ramming the metal.

“Woah folks, looks like we made him mad!” Laz begins. “Does any brave soul wanna come down here and try to calm him down?” He looks around and no one raises their hands. “Alright, I guess it’ll just be me.” Laz walks towards the bull, and as he gets close the bull rams the metal so hard it begins to bend. “Uh. Oh. That’s not good!’

As Laz shouts this, the bull rams one last time, breaking the metal bars and sprinting right towards Laz. The bull bends his head down and head butts Laz crashing him into the stands. Everyone’s screams feed the bulls drive as he begins running through the stands crashing into any and every person he can see. As he turns back towards Kary, she pulls out a heavy sedative that can euthanize large animals, if needed. The bull charges her and rams her, pinning her to the wall, suffocating her. She uses the little strength she has to ram the heavy sedative into his side and releases a large dose of it. With her last breath, she took the life of a beast she had created. A beast she had known for a long time.