The Story of Viola Lee

 

Gypsy Viola Lee had been a part of Corellis circus for many years. She never seemed to age, her hair was as dark as coal with only the faintest hint of silver running through it. If you asked the remaining Corelli generations no one remembered when she had arrived or where she had come from.

But everyone remembered the day she died and what happened subsequently…

Viola had an uncanny knack for perfectly accurate fortune telling, those who paid their money and sat across from her in her small tent were brave souls indeed, for not everyone got good news.

Such was her reputation that Corellis Circus drew large crowds in every town it visited, with long lines stretching to the circus boundary. Some came as curious observers, too scared to enter the famous tent, some just to watch people as they came out from their reading. Generally, people were either overjoyed or ashen faced and the odd few fainted clean away upon leaving.

No one ever divulged the secrets from within the tent that Viola dispensed with a wave of her hand over the crystal ball or tarot cards but men often spoke of her unwavering gaze and her piercing blue eyes. A gaze the circus folk were unwilling to look into with many avoiding eye contact and actively making sure their paths never crossed hers. This fear was compounded when she pulled aside one of the Corelli women and warned her to keep her daughter away from the horses stable. A few short nights later the same child was trampled to death when one of the horses became spooked and managed to bolt the stables dragging the poor child with it. Despite calling for the local town doctor nothing could be done and she died in her mothers arms.

After that day most of the circus people shunned her, she was well looked after and always got whatever she wanted in food and luxury items after all, said George Corelli the head of circus, ‘She is my star attraction!’  Although even he was a little nervous whenever she approached him and he would scuttle away at the earliest opportunity. If Viola knew anything about him she never said anything, but sometimes she looked at him a little too long and would seem to almost shake her head at him.

Unusually, or perhaps not, given her dark beauty, Viola had her fair share of admirers, fearless men who would visit at every opportunity for her ten minute readings. She appeared to have no time for any of them or their gifts, which were abundant and generous. Fine wines, luxury chocolate and flowers would often be stacked up outside her tent until the end of the night when she would silently distribute them as little gifts, leaving them on the doorsteps of her fellow circus folk. Whether anyone actually accepted the gifts or just binned them discreetly was unknown.

The story from here has several versions but this version is pieced together from eye witness accounts and from George Corelli himself.

On the night of December 3^rd 1902 it was bitterly cold, Viola was exhausted from the many lines of visitors and when she finally drew down the front of her small striped tent she headed back to her painted caravan for her evening cup of tea. At least three people including George Corelli and his son Frank saw her walking back through the vans with her coat drawn up around her face.

Sometime around 2 AM David Crosby one of the fire eaters was having a late night cigarette outside his van when he saw flames coming from Violas pitch. He immediately ran towards the glow of the fire shouting for help. The flames were too intense for anyone to break into the van and even with a chain of people with buckets of water they were unable to reach Viola.

The next account comes from George Corelli. On the morning of December 4^th after the fire had burnt itself out, George and Frank began to gingerly sift through the wreckage of the van. They steeled themselves for the discovery of Violas remains only to discover nothing. 

Puzzled, George called some of the others to help him remove the remaining pieces of the van, they cleared everything to ground level, still nothing. Suddenly one of the young trapeze artists gave a shout. Under the ashes was a metal casket sunk into the ground, with the help of two shovels they prised open the lid. The body of Viola Lee was laid out as if she were asleep, she was quite dead of course clearly deceased from smoke inhalation but incredibly, unmarked! In Violas hands was a tiny metal box containing a letter addressed to George Corelli.

The contents of the letter are laid out word for word below :

 

Mr Corelli,

On December 3^rd 1902 I was murdered by Victoria Hollingsworth, wife of John Hollingsworth. She was possessed by jealousy because Mr Hollingsworth visited me on several occasions bringing expensive gifts. He was merely trying to find ways to appease his wife, looking for answers in my cards. I tried to tell him to stop visiting but he would not.

This I knew would be my undoing. The metal casket in which I lie was commissioned by me and installed by Joseph Coren over several nights whilst the circus was on and the pitches were quiet.

You must only hand my body over to Joseph and no one else. He will collect me on the evening of December 5^th. When my body has been prepared, I must be dressed in my finest clothes and seated at my table in my tent. A five wick candlestick must be lit at 6pm every night and placed on my table prior to commencement of the circus. You must allow people to continue to visit me.  At 10pm the candle should be extinguished and the tent flap drawn down until 6pm the following night.

DO NOT ALLOW ANY PERSON TO ENTER THE TENT OUTSIDE OF THE HOURS OF 6PM UNTIL 10PM.

If my wishes are met with you can live your life in peace. If my wishes are not met YOU WILL HAVE NO PEACE.

Viola Lee

 

George Corelli didn’t immediately show the note to anyone except his son. When the evening of 5^th December came Joseph Coren arrived with a horse drawn hearse and took Viola away.

The circus closed as a mark of respect and George gathered his thoughts. News soon spread; mourners arrived with bunches of flowers leaving them at Violas tent.

Almost two weeks later George and Frank were considering reopening the circus when Joseph Coren returned by cover of the night, once again in his horse drawn hearse. He off loaded the fanciest of coffins and opened the lid to show off his handiwork. Viola had been stripped of flesh and was now a bleached skeleton that smelled of formaldehyde and death. She had piercing blue glass eyes that looked somewhat out of place in their bony sockets. George recoiled in horror, how could he fulfil her wish of being on display without causing the hoards of people visiting immense offence?

Nevertheless, he did as he was told and actually marketed it as a Victorian Horror exhibit which had even more people clamouring to see their most famous circus resident.

For three months all went well, every wish of Violas was adhered to, to the letter. A young circus hand was assigned the task of lighting and extinguishing the candles and drawing down the tent side. He claimed to have seen the crystal ball glowing in the dark and strange noises coming from the tent it made him intensely nervous.  He was late, only the once. At 6.05pm he lit the candles and without meeting the glassy gaze of the corpse he left hurriedly. As he left he caught his foot in the tent rope, twisting his knee clean out of its socket. Took him months to recover. Needless to say the candle was never lit late again.

Each time the circus moved on George carefully packed Viola into her coffin and loaded her into a specially built caravan decorated with her name.  Then one day the crowds stopped coming. A new circus was suddenly overtaking them in popularity with its elephants and lions and alleged Siamese twins. George had never agreed with animals being at his circus, preferring to rely on human stunt artists and of course his famous Viola.

He continued to carry out Violas wishes, although now barely a handful of people would come to see her. People were becoming more sceptical and memories of her stunningly accurate predictions started to fade.

When only 6 people came to the circus one night George decided to pack up and move to the next town. He packed Viola away and made the decision that she would not be shown again.

Within a week Frank caught smallpox and George lost three of his troupe to a rival circus. He didn’t immediately make the connection until his trapeze artist slipped and fell to his death also during a practice session. Frank was gravely ill and George raced against time to reinstate Viola.

Once she was back in her tent things settled down and Frank slowly recovered. Although she was no longer the star attraction she once was George was able to peak new interest by publishing Violas letter in local newspapers and giving the story of the creepy misfortunes that befell the circus when her wishes were not obeyed. It was enough to keep the circus ticking over until the Corellis sold the it to a new family along with the strict instructions for keeping Viola happy.

The circus is still touring to this day and if you make your way to the far edge of the circus, beyond the big top you may well see the faded striped tent that contains the worlds most famous and feared fortune teller of all time.

Sarah Russell 

Dark Wishes Designs 2020

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