Script quote tattoo on a forearm

The big top came down on Tuesday, not all at once the way Father always said it would, but in slow sections, like a sail giving up its wind. Mr Pellow sold the striped canvas to a scrapyard in Wigan for eighty pounds and a promise that he would not sue them. The lion, Duchess, went to a sanctuary near Bodmin. I held her head while the van ramp came down, and she looked at me as if I had sold her myself.

We are down to four wagons and eleven people, and half of them are only here because nobody else would take them. Mrs Okafor still does the knife-throwing, though the board has more holes in it than wood now. The clowns have stopped painting their faces on Sundays to save the greasepaint.

Last night I found Father's sign under the spare cot, the one he painted the year we bought the Hartley tent. The gilt has gone green at the corners, but the lettering is still there in his flowing hand: For all the bad that seems to plague us, I swear to you there's good. He used to say it to any child who cried at the fire-eater. I thought it was nonsense when I was twelve. Tonight I think he meant it as a promise to himself, and I am going to hang it on the caravan door where I can read it on my way out.

Come home at Christmas if you can. Bring nothing. We have plenty of nothing, and it is warm enough in the kitchen wagon.

Your loving sister, Ada