When they are back in a hotel, Bobby decides she wants to try going out in a dress. She doesn't really know what it's like to act like a girl and wants to practice. She steals a dress from another little girl in the hotel and sneaks out on a Sunday morning to play in the park. At the park she is attacked by a strange man. He tells her he knows she's a boy and starts taking her clothes off. When he discovers she is really a girl he starts calling her a whore and telling her she will burn in hellfire. Bobby is crying and scared, but manages to grab her flash paper and light the whole back, burning herself and her attacker and making an escape. Back in the hotel she is discovered by Aunt Tilly, who immediately understands what happened and holds Bobby until she stops crying. She baths her and cleans her wounds and reads her stories, and even gives her Wilhelmina to keep.
Aunt Tilly helps Bobby keep her secret, saying how bad it would be for all of them once Robert does find out. She also begins finding ways to spoil Bobby, buying her toys and books for the first time in her life.
Soon after this, stock markets crash and The Great Depression begins. No one has money for magic shows any more and soon the group is out of money. They return to the circus campground, which has turned into a tent city for the unemployed artists in LA. Bobby finds Rosie again. Her father ran away and her mother is sick, so she doesn't have time to play any more. One night Rosie sneaks into Bobby's tent, saying that they took her mother to the hospital. The next morning Jocelyn goes with Rosie into town, and discovers that her mother died in the night. Bobby tells Rosie that she will look after her. Rosie had guessed that Bobby is a girl and agreed to keep it secret. Bobby attempts to hide Rosie in her tent, but Aunt Tilly finds her eventually and agrees right away to look after her as well.
Bobby wants to spend some of her money on Rosie. They go into town she buys new clothes and toys for her, and ice cream sundaes. When they arrive back at the camp the police and army have arrived to try to kick everyone out, but Robert is there placating the crowds with magic and comedy. The soldiers ask him to come perform a show for them, and give everyone another week to leave the camp.
But at the show Bobby makes a mistake and reveals a trick. Something had gone wrong and she cut her leg, and became scared and made a mistake. That night their father is furious, and twists her arm up behind her back like he always does, but this time goes to far and breaks her arm again.
He runs away after this and Jocelyn drives Bobby to the hospital.
They spend a few more days at the tent city. Their father is more and more angry and irritable every day. One night Boots is attempting to take out the garbage and trips and spills it everywhere. It seems to set off something in Robert Lassiter and he loses it, jumping up and attacking Boots with all his pent-up frustrations. Bobby is so scared for Boots that she does the only thing she can think of to draw her father's attention to herself - she takes off her clothes, revealing the fact that she's been a girl all along.
Bobby attempts to get out the pistol, but in doing so she reveals the location of the money as well. Enraged, her father wrestles the pistol from her and tosses her aside, directly into the fire. Boots comes to rescue her as the rest of the camp is thrown into a panic trying to collect the escaping money. In the chaos her father fires the pistol, killing Boots who reverts into his horse form before death.
In the chaos following, their father disappears and is never seen again.
Bobby, Jocelyn, Aunt Tilly, and Rosie all return to their ranch home and begin a new life again. Rosie and Bobby start to attend the school, and Bobby is now able to be a girl openly for the first time. She says though she still forgets she isn't a boy sometimes, and gets into lots of playground fights trying to protect Rosie. Jocelyn goes back to knitting, and Aunt Tilly performs in town on the weekends. Jocelyn also gives birth to a baby, sometimes a girl and sometimes a foal, and she becomes the new family secret for them to look after. Life is still hard for them all, but they have hope that they can make it together.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Strengths: Resourcefulness, staying calm in dangerous situations, patience, very strong desire to look after the people she loves, great onstage presence Weaknesses: Selfishness, wanting to protect the people she cares about to the point of smothering them, poor interpersonal skills
Abilities: Bobby is a fairly normal 10 year old girl in terms of abilities. She has was she refers to as ‘her magic’ around horses. She has a way of making horses feel calm and relaxed and able to approach her, and has always been able to ride them without being taught. She has what would normally be called ‘horse whispering’. She is also a talented performer and stage magician.
First Person:
[The video opens near the town square. Every surface is dusted with a thin layer of early December snow. Most people are trudging around it, hoods down against the cold.
Until one small figure scrambles into shot, collecting handfuls of snow in small, bare hands. A child of maybe seven or eight, dressed in knickerbockers and a knitted sweater, anachronistic against the stark modern backdrop of the fountain, is working hard to create one snowball from the meager snowfall. The child obviously isn't dressed for the cold and shivers now and again, but doesn't seem to mind. The snow is obviously much more exciting and worth working through the cold for. Someone comes to closer and they speak for a while, out of range of the device's speaker, but the child makes a mad dash when the woman tries to hold out a hand to hold.
Which results in the discovery of the device.
A small freckled face comes in very close to the lens, inspecting it with calm and careful interest.]
Does everyone speak to these things in this place? I don't know why they would do that I don't think they talk back. See, my name is Bobby Lassiter and I think my magic brought me here. But I wish I hadn't left Rosie behind. Now I'm going to look silly because i just talked to a box.
[The child makes a high pitched noise, almost a scream and almost a whiny before cantering around in a circle and flopping onto a snowbank.]
See? Now I look crazy AND silly and I will get sent to the loony bin and no one will ever see me again.
[The video feed ends with a fit of giggles.]
Third Person: Bobby is really never sure she will ever understand why grown ups always feel the need to lie all the time. She asked Jocelyn once, but she only told her that she isn't big enough to understand yet this is another great big fat lie because Bobby is big enough to perform on stage and ride horses and really she knows a lot more about things and the world that Jocelyn ever did.
Well. Maybe. Jocelyn seems a lot more grown up these days then she used to.
But it just frustrates her to no end because grown ups pretend they know better, but they don't. Her father is always telling Bobby that he's doing things for her (or him, things get confusing in your brain when one lives their whole life as a secret) but Bobby think maybe he does things for him really. He's always talking about carrying on the name Robert Lassiter on the stage. He wants his name to live on as a greatest magician of the 20s because Bobby keeps doing it after him. Well, maybe this is just childish thinking but Bobby is fairly sure that isn't for her (or his) benefit at all. So why does she have to keep eating oranges and sunning herself for her health and practicing all the time with him watching her (practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect) if it's just for him. Why doesn't he have to not slouch on the train and eat things that are good for him? It just isn't fair, is what it is. Bobby's fairly sure even he got toys and books when he was ten (or seven or whatever age her father thinks she is) but has there ever been the whiff of a toy or a book for her? None.
But mainly she can't help but think about what Rosie said, right before they left the camp that first time. She asked her if she thought she deserved the whipping she got. Bobby couldn't answer that, not really. It did hurt a lot. But why would her father (her father) have done it if it was bad for her? Rosie didn't think so. Bobby isn't sure what to think.
Canon | Bobby Lassiter | Mister Boots | No reserve | 3 of 3
Aunt Tilly helps Bobby keep her secret, saying how bad it would be for all of them once Robert does find out. She also begins finding ways to spoil Bobby, buying her toys and books for the first time in her life.
Soon after this, stock markets crash and The Great Depression begins. No one has money for magic shows any more and soon the group is out of money. They return to the circus campground, which has turned into a tent city for the unemployed artists in LA. Bobby finds Rosie again. Her father ran away and her mother is sick, so she doesn't have time to play any more. One night Rosie sneaks into Bobby's tent, saying that they took her mother to the hospital. The next morning Jocelyn goes with Rosie into town, and discovers that her mother died in the night. Bobby tells Rosie that she will look after her. Rosie had guessed that Bobby is a girl and agreed to keep it secret. Bobby attempts to hide Rosie in her tent, but Aunt Tilly finds her eventually and agrees right away to look after her as well.
Bobby wants to spend some of her money on Rosie. They go into town she buys new clothes and toys for her, and ice cream sundaes. When they arrive back at the camp the police and army have arrived to try to kick everyone out, but Robert is there placating the crowds with magic and comedy. The soldiers ask him to come perform a show for them, and give everyone another week to leave the camp.
But at the show Bobby makes a mistake and reveals a trick. Something had gone wrong and she cut her leg, and became scared and made a mistake. That night their father is furious, and twists her arm up behind her back like he always does, but this time goes to far and breaks her arm again.
He runs away after this and Jocelyn drives Bobby to the hospital.
They spend a few more days at the tent city. Their father is more and more angry and irritable every day. One night Boots is attempting to take out the garbage and trips and spills it everywhere. It seems to set off something in Robert Lassiter and he loses it, jumping up and attacking Boots with all his pent-up frustrations. Bobby is so scared for Boots that she does the only thing she can think of to draw her father's attention to herself - she takes off her clothes, revealing the fact that she's been a girl all along.
Bobby attempts to get out the pistol, but in doing so she reveals the location of the money as well. Enraged, her father wrestles the pistol from her and tosses her aside, directly into the fire. Boots comes to rescue her as the rest of the camp is thrown into a panic trying to collect the escaping money. In the chaos her father fires the pistol, killing Boots who reverts into his horse form before death.
In the chaos following, their father disappears and is never seen again.
Bobby, Jocelyn, Aunt Tilly, and Rosie all return to their ranch home and begin a new life again. Rosie and Bobby start to attend the school, and Bobby is now able to be a girl openly for the first time. She says though she still forgets she isn't a boy sometimes, and gets into lots of playground fights trying to protect Rosie. Jocelyn goes back to knitting, and Aunt Tilly performs in town on the weekends. Jocelyn also gives birth to a baby, sometimes a girl and sometimes a foal, and she becomes the new family secret for them to look after. Life is still hard for them all, but they have hope that they can make it together.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Strengths: Resourcefulness, staying calm in dangerous situations, patience, very strong desire to look after the people she loves, great onstage presence
Weaknesses: Selfishness, wanting to protect the people she cares about to the point of smothering them, poor interpersonal skills
Abilities: Bobby is a fairly normal 10 year old girl in terms of abilities. She has was she refers to as ‘her magic’ around horses. She has a way of making horses feel calm and relaxed and able to approach her, and has always been able to ride them without being taught. She has what would normally be called ‘horse whispering’. She is also a talented performer and stage magician.
First Person:
[The video opens near the town square. Every surface is dusted with a thin layer of early December snow. Most people are trudging around it, hoods down against the cold.
Until one small figure scrambles into shot, collecting handfuls of snow in small, bare hands. A child of maybe seven or eight, dressed in knickerbockers and a knitted sweater, anachronistic against the stark modern backdrop of the fountain, is working hard to create one snowball from the meager snowfall. The child obviously isn't dressed for the cold and shivers now and again, but doesn't seem to mind. The snow is obviously much more exciting and worth working through the cold for. Someone comes to closer and they speak for a while, out of range of the device's speaker, but the child makes a mad dash when the woman tries to hold out a hand to hold.
Which results in the discovery of the device.
A small freckled face comes in very close to the lens, inspecting it with calm and careful interest.]
Does everyone speak to these things in this place? I don't know why they would do that I don't think they talk back. See, my name is Bobby Lassiter and I think my magic brought me here. But I wish I hadn't left Rosie behind. Now I'm going to look silly because i just talked to a box.
[The child makes a high pitched noise, almost a scream and almost a whiny before cantering around in a circle and flopping onto a snowbank.]
See? Now I look crazy AND silly and I will get sent to the loony bin and no one will ever see me again.
[The video feed ends with a fit of giggles.]
Third Person: Bobby is really never sure she will ever understand why grown ups always feel the need to lie all the time. She asked Jocelyn once, but she only told her that she isn't big enough to understand yet this is another great big fat lie because Bobby is big enough to perform on stage and ride horses and really she knows a lot more about things and the world that Jocelyn ever did.
Well. Maybe. Jocelyn seems a lot more grown up these days then she used to.
But it just frustrates her to no end because grown ups pretend they know better, but they don't. Her father is always telling Bobby that he's doing things for her (or him, things get confusing in your brain when one lives their whole life as a secret) but Bobby think maybe he does things for him really. He's always talking about carrying on the name Robert Lassiter on the stage. He wants his name to live on as a greatest magician of the 20s because Bobby keeps doing it after him. Well, maybe this is just childish thinking but Bobby is fairly sure that isn't for her (or his) benefit at all. So why does she have to keep eating oranges and sunning herself for her health and practicing all the time with him watching her (practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect) if it's just for him. Why doesn't he have to not slouch on the train and eat things that are good for him? It just isn't fair, is what it is. Bobby's fairly sure even he got toys and books when he was ten (or seven or whatever age her father thinks she is) but has there ever been the whiff of a toy or a book for her? None.
But mainly she can't help but think about what Rosie said, right before they left the camp that first time. She asked her if she thought she deserved the whipping she got. Bobby couldn't answer that, not really. It did hurt a lot. But why would her father (her father) have done it if it was bad for her? Rosie didn't think so. Bobby isn't sure what to think.