An Itinerant Mind

For the benefit of Mr. Kite....

Prompt 3. Andre got fired - why?

Some years ago Andre took part in a fund raiser down in Whynot, North Carolina. This, as some of you will already know, is the home of the world famous 'Bertha Boa's Flying Circus.' It was a good cause, and one close to Andre's heart. 'Go Fly A Kite', a campaign run by The Kite Foundation, encourages children to get out... and fly a kite, (it's not clear if Andre cared THAT much about the kite flying part).

A galaxy of stars had been gather, but that was long ago and far, far away, so instead a group of musicians and actors had come together to take part in a 'Super Circus' event. Some of them were giving concerts in Bertha's Big Top, and top of the bill was Elton John, (this was before he became Sir Elton and had to be moodily wrapped in endless white satin). Elton and Andre hit it off straight away, initially resulting in Andre drumming for Elton as he knocked out a medley of his greatest hits.

The Hendersons were all there to dance and sing, having come straight from their hugely successful gig at Pablo Fanque's Fair. They'd brought Henry The Horse and Matilda the Mule with them to waltz together. They'd all been brought to the party by Ringo Starr, and this provided another show stopper as after making a few phone calls to friends, Ringo and Andre staged the biggest drum battle in the world.

As the event was spread over a whole week, Andre and Elton kept bumping into each other, until Andre had the bright idea of cleaning Elton's super-sized novelty spectacles that is. By then they were firm friends and Elton prevailed upon Andre to take part in a very special event at the closing ceremony for the Circus.

Next day Andre donned a sparkly helmet, skin tight jump suit and a cape featuring the flag of the USA. Waving to all his fans, our monkey hero climbed into a huge cannon. Elton compèred the televised closing show, whipping everyone up into a charity donation frenzy. As the ten million dollar barrier was crossed, (this was a few years ago remember), Andre was fired out of the cannon.

He flew through the air with the greatest of ease, this daring young monkey was no flying trapeze artist. The crowd roared and then yelled as he fell from the sky... straight into a net hung between two biplanes from Bertha's flying stunt team. So popular was the stunt that the number of donations were doubled within an hour. Andre discovered he had a taste for charity, though not so much for being a simian cannon ball, and so embarked on a largely secretive career of funding worthy causes.

Word count: 459.