Silver
1
When the carnival came to town…
It was Isolde’s idea to come here to begin with. Ewen, lost in the trap of people, looked around bewildered. He surveyed the glittering scape of fantastic oddities, but couldn’t discover one fantastic thing among them. He thought: I would rather be home watching the Forty-Niners take on the Giants. Ewen closed his eyes and could almost feel the couch’s soft contours fitting his rotund frame to perfection.
Isolde held tightly to Ewen’s hand and led him through the wondrous scene. Clowns on stilts sauntered past like space mutants. The sky overhead was glazed purple and the moon was starting to peek through it. A Ferris wheel, pinned against that sky, moved and stopped, moved and stopped, the chairs with legs dangling bobbing up and down as if in invisible waters. “Come on,” she told Ewen, clenching his hand ever tighter.
Ewen, who had a sinister fear of heights, wasn’t quite sure how he wished to approach the situation. It would at least get him out of the sea of people.
“I bet you can see for…”
“Ticket please.” The man behind the counter wore his sad, carnie face respectfully. Flecks of grease swirled colorfully with the sweat on his face. His cheeks were ruddy, sun burnt and his eyes were as lusterless as a couple of raisins.
Ewen spoke up: “But we haven’t…”
“Than two dollars,” said the man.
Ewen turned to Isolde. “But I’m not sure if I want to…”
“Two dollars,” said the man.
“Come on. It’ll be all right.”
Ewen handed the man the money.
“You can see the whole countryside from up here,” Isolde said excitedly.
Ewen grunted his disdain and squinted his eyes just barely.
“Come on,” said Isolde. “You gotta look. It’s beautiful.” She thought the town looked like a jewel, sparkling. Isolde didn’t think she had ever seen so many lights on at once.
“The heights,” Ewen grimaced. He had his Yankees cap pulled down over his eyes, his lantern jaw protruding woodenly.
Then the ride stopped them at the top and Isolde could see EVERYTHING. They had passed this way several times before, the jewel dropping before their eyes like fireworks, but now the display was stopped and it was breathtaking.
Isolde leaned forward to get a better look and the chair rocked.
“Jesus Christ Isolde!” Ewen moaned. “Don’t do that!”
