Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Carnival's in town!

The Carnival is in town! Oh, yes with those rides your not sure are going to stay bolted together when your in it. "Hey Lady come on, throw the darts and win a prize" the carnival guy yells at me. The lady at the ticket booth is missing her front teeth. My son and I get on the scrambler. He's 7. The greasy haired man with the cigarette hanging from his mouth buckles us in. Both of his hands together only have one handful of fingers. Reed looks at the guys missing fingers and looks at me with this strange look on his face. He looks back at the carnival guy and while making that motion of cutting your throat with your hand he says "If you see me do this, it means I'm going to throw up, so you better stop" Carnival guy tips his head back and lets out a laugh. Cigarette ashes fall between us on the seat, and he turns and walks away. I knew we were screwed. He started up the big orange scrambler. Shit, never tell them you might throw up, if you do it becomes a game. Around, and around we go, my son is doing the CUT, Cut, stop the ride motion. Carnival man smiles and puts his fingerlesss hand on the lever and cranks it up faster. "Hail Mary full of grace" I start to say. Oh yeah, we are the only riders too. Reed and I are both about to lose it when toothless Carnival Ticket booth lady walks up and says "Hey Eddie, your old lady want you" Eddie slows the ride down. He walks off and Toothless lady unbuckles us. We stumble off and out through the little metal door. We are both so dizzy we can barely walk. We made it, Oh thank you God! I think we will be okay. Reed's friend runs up and shoves a big greasy funnel cake under his nose.
"Wanna bite?" he says? Reed glances my way and all I can say is "Hail Mary..."

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