I was almost late for school. I rushed into my class when the bell was ringing loudly.

To my surprise, Laura was not in the classroom yet. Laura was a newcomer in the class. She joined us at the beginning of that year and nobody knew where she had gone to school before. She was a quiet red-haired girl, very serious and hardworking. Nobody knew her ever to fail to do her homework. Why wasn’t she at school now?

Though we were not very close friends, I decided to drop into her house on my way home. It was a small brick house at the corner of the street. Laura’s family rented it when they moved to our town.– A slim, elderly lady in a jumper and sports trousers opened the door. I explained to her who I was and she smiled warmly. She told me that Laura had got a bad cold but would be happy to see me, and showed me into her room.

Laura's cheeks were a bit red with fever but she was really glad to see me. We talked for a long time and I found out a lot about her and her family.

The lady who let me into the house was Laura’s grandmother. Laura told me that when her granny was young, she worked in a circus. In fact, she started working there when she was six. Her mum and dad were acrobats and they took her into their performance. The public liked the cute little girl, and Amy (yes, the elderly lady was just Amy at that time) enjoyed wearing glittering costumes and getting applause. What she didn’t like was wearing a wig1 and a clown costume, but her parents often got her to take part in her twin brothers’ clown performance.

‘I really can’t understand why she hated it so much. She looked so pretty in that outfit, didn’t she?’ commented Laura and showed me an old photo of a small girl with painted freckles and a red wig that covered half of her face.

‘She probably worried that her classmates would make fun of her,’ I suggested. ‘You know how cruel kids can be sometimes…’

‘Yes, I know,’ said Laura and her smile faded as if it recalled some bad memories. ‘But my granny was a homeschooler. The circus travelled all over the country and even abroad. They never stayed in one place for a long time and she could not attend school. She learned at home. Or, should I say, in a caravan because they all lived and travelled in a caravan.’

‘It was exciting, I guess,’ I said. ‘But not easy.’

‘Oh, yes, it was difficult but her parents, brothers and the other circus people helped her. Granny was good at languages. Her co-workers came from different countries and taught her their languages. Travelling and communicating with people is good language practice, isn’t it?…’