Thedrumroll went on and on, as if for a hanging rather than a circus stunt. The chain of the bicycle rattled relentlessly in the silence inside the light. Beyond the light, in the darkness, the heartless crowd laughed and clapped and cheered. And through the sound of their applause, low, but building,came the growl of the tiger, pacing behind the bars, waiting its turn.

Thedrumroll never stopped. The clown rode in tighter and tighter circles, faster and faster. The wheels of the bike began to scream. The crowd shouted for more.  Stop it,  Nita yelled.  Stop it! Can t you see it s killing him 

 As often as possible,  growled the tiger. And never often enough.

The crowd roared louder.  Stop it!  Nita shouted back, but now they were drowning her out, too.  Stop it!

 STOP!

She was sitting up in the dark, alone. It took her a ragged three or four breaths to realize she was in her own room, in bed, and that her own shout had awakened her.

Nita sat still for a few moments, praying that she wouldn t hear anyone coming to find out if she was okay. She wasn t, but she still hoped no one would respond. There wasn t anyone in the house who d been sleeping well for a while now.

She stayed still for a long time. Mercifully, no one showed up, and Nita began to relax, realizing that she might have expected this outcome if she d really thought about it.Dairine , when she slept these days, slept hard, in utter exhaustion. Their dad lately had been doing much the same, a change from the previous month, when he had hardly slept at all. It didn t take a wizard to figure out that he d beenafraid to fall asleep, because of who he would, again and again,not find beside him when he woke up. Finally his body had overruled that kind of behavior and now was trying to sleep too much, to not wake up at all, if possible. Thereasons were thesame, and just thinking of them made Nita want to cry all over again.