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Eva heard him, and replied, "Maybe if you do it, he will see it... from wherever he is. Wouldn't it be good for us cousins to put on a show to honor his memory?"
Yes, Pavel thought. It seemed a fitting way to say good-bye, and papa would certainly approve. "Let's do it!" Pavel announced.
Mother and Uncle Matis gave their permission, and the cousins spent the rest of the day rehearsing and spreading the word.
When they were alone, Gayle said to him, "You're very brave to go up there again." Pavel didn't feel brave at all. He hadn't practiced seriously on the wire since the accident. But he reassured her, "I'll have some help. Come with me and I'll show you."
They walked inside and he took the small wooden case from the nightstand. "It was my grandfather's," he said to her, opening it.
But in a moment she watched his face fall in utter disbelief. The medal was gone! The next day Pavel waited outside the motor home as his cousins finished their preparations inside. He paced nervously and watched the crowd of neighborhood children and parents gather in the sunshine around the makeshift ring.
The weather was beautiful, if a bit breezy, but Pavel's emotions were stormy over the loss of the medal. He had searched his room and Anna's but had not found it. When he asked Anna if she had the medal, she replied curtly, "No."
Pavel had not told his mother, but she could tell something was wrong. Unsure of what else to say, she told him, "I'm sure you'll do fine."
Pavel gathered with his cousins by the rigging, as Gayle approached with Anna in her arms.
"Pretty med-oh!" Anna said as they approached the open area.
"Meadow?" Gayle asked, looking around. "It's just a field, silly."
"Noooo," Anna said, and pointed at a locket Gayle had around her neck. "Pretty med-oh."
Gayle stopped, her mouth gaping. Anna was trying to say "medal," not "meadow." She fixed Anna with her gaze. "Anna, listen, this is important. Do you have Pavel's medal?"
"No. 'Nanas has it!" she said.
"That's it," Gayle thought. "I know where it is! She handed Anna to Pavel's mother, and ran toward the house. In Anna's room she searched through a zoo of stuffed animals. Finally, hidden in the middle was the little yellow monkey Anna had named "Bananas."
And there was the medal, its ribbon wrapped around Bananas' limbs and torso so many times that Gayle didn't know where to start unwrapping. Gayl6 took Bananas, medal and all, and hurried back to the field as fast as she could. But as she looked up her heart sank. Pavel was already on the platform at the top of the highwire rigging. She sat down with the crowd and held Bananas tight.
The show started with Jan pedaling a bicycle across the wire while Eva balanced on his shoulders. The wire fit perfectly into the groove of the wheel rim, making handlebars unnecessary. Jan was able to hold a much- needed balancing pole in his hands.
Pavel felt uneasy, and tried not to think about what would happen if they should fall and the bike fall on top of them...
Next, Karel donned a dark hood and walked without a pole to the middle of the wire. To the crowd's delight, he took out a rope and skipped it about a dozen times. The crowd cheered. Pavel knew that Karel could see through the hood - it wasn't quite opaque -- but that fact did little to ease his mind.
Next, Eva sat down in the middle of the wire in a side-saddle position with her feet resting on the guy wire. Milan crossed the wire toward her at a very fast pace. A heartbeat before crashing into her he leaped headfirst, thrusting the balancing pole out in front of him, rolling forward over it and up onto his feet again.
The crowd loved it! They applauded and cheered wildly! Pavel had seen this routine hundreds-of times, but still had to remind himself to breathe after Milan made his leap.
Pavel stood on the platform with only Eva and Ludek now, and felt very alone. Somehow he had to summon the courage that, like the medal, had vanished. "Ready, Pavel?" Ludek asked.
Pavel took a deep breath and thought of some of the good times he had with his father. In a moment it relaxed him and helped to untie the knot in his stomach. With the crowd silent and waiting, he knew it was time to push on.
"Okay, I'm ready," he told Ludek.
He climbed up to sit on Ludek's shoulders. He shifted his weight to help them both get settled, then Ludek placed the unicycle on the wire. He carefully mounted it, then pedaled them backward to the middle of the wire.
The crowd gazed at them in silence. It was broken only when Pavel looked at Eva and said quietly, "Hup!" She fired three clubs at him in quick succession, and he launched them into a cascade.
The crowd responded with applause.
He gathered his clubs and looked at Eva again. Hup!" he commanded, and she threw the final two clubs. Pavel shifted them to the starting position in his hands, slowly extended his reach and gripped Ludek a little tighter with his thighs. He looked up with no hesitation and threw quick, precise triple spins. The pattern was perfect and held above him. The crowd cheered before he was again conscious they were there, and he felt a chill of pride within. This was the first time he had ever done a five club routine on the wire!
He took a moment to enjoy the thrill, then stopped and tossed each club back to Eva. Ludek pedaled to the platform and they hopped down to join Eva and wave to the crowd.
"You two were great!" Eva yelled as the crowd rose for a standing ovation.
Pavel beamed finally. He had faced his fear, and found that the memories of his father had served him just as well as he had imagined the medal would have served him.
On the ground there were congratulations all around. "Your father would have been very proud of you!" said his mother with a big hug.
Gayle walked up with Anna in her arms and smiled. "Anna has something for you," she told Pavel.
"Pavel's med-oh!" Anna said as she held out Bananas.
Pavel was overjoyed! He hugged Bananas, then threw his arms around everyone and laughed as Gayle told the story of how she found it.
As she concluded, Anna cried out and reached for Bananas.
"It's all right, Annal" Pavel said as he handed the stuffed animal back to her. "Bananas can keep it for as long as he needs it!"
(Michael Pikna was raised in a circus family, but abandoned the career after his first attempt to walk the high wire. He is now a therapist for a Jefferson Center for Mental Health in Lakewood, Colo.) |