Don't know how to work this in...

Yesterday, Jeremiah, one of the elephant handlers my husband has been working with in Baraboo, Wisconsin, "blew the show." In circus terms, "jumping the show" or "blowing the show" means that you left it. People may have known you were going to leave, people may have known you left, or it may be a complete surprise. Most mud shows lose people every day; many of the more transient areas of circus, like the tent men, concessions workers, and grunt help, have trouble with this, while usually performers stick out the season. It is not unheard of for performers to blow though.

So Jeremiah decided to stay behind when the elephants and camels left Iowa to return to Wisconsin. I know lots of details but have heard conflicting stories, and am having trouble dealing with all of it and figuring out what the truth is. But that is mostly because I knew Jeremiah, and it breaks my heart that he has given up on his dreams (which is what I think has happened).

So, it occurred to me that I do need to have an important person in my story blow the show. Not Jeremiah's character, who will go a different direction at this point, but someone important will have to blow the show. The transient nature of circus workers is going to pretty much require this in my story.