Two days before opening night someone gets onto the lot.
Not the rigging room this time.
The big top itself.
I know because I am on the platform at five twenty three and the north entrance is open when it should not be open and Zane is on the catch bar and he sees it before I do because he sees everything before I do and he is down from the catch bar before I have finished processing what I am looking at.
He says: come down. Now.
Not a request.
I come down.
He crosses to me.
His hand on my arm.
The grip of the catcher.
He moves me toward the equipment rack with the focused efficiency of someone who has assessed a situation and identified the safest available position and is putting me in it.
He says: stay here.
I say: Zane.
He says: stay here Calloway.
He goes to the north en
