At The Fair

Fair  Episode 2

The four young men were finally in the city for the first time ever! The sights and sounds of the summer fair were all around them. The four friends were having trouble deciding which way to go first. There were buildings all around them. But in between the buildings were wide open spaces made specifically for relaxation. There were fountains and statues everywhere. The streets seemed to be designed more for foot traffic than for any vehicles, even though they were plenty wide enough. The whole city seemed built to put a person at ease.

But the remarkable aspect of the city today was the fair. The summer fair covered the whole city. On every street there were vendors and booths selling every kind of trinket and gimmick that a person could think of. There were fancy rides like Ferris wheels, carrousels, and any other ride that you might imagine. There were jugglers and clowns roaming the streets. There was a big tent in one area with the sounds of exotic animals coming out from it. There was even a man leading a tiger down the street on a leash!

Riley, in his usual excited hurry, said, "Hey, let's get in line for something before it gets too long! If we go fast enough, we can do everything before nightfall!"Just then, from over on a stage a block away came a deafening noise! It sounded like a thousand donkeys braying at once. The friends all turned to see what was making this noise. It turned out to be four clowns all painted black and white. They were beating on some strange objects in their hands where the noise was coming from.

One of the clowns kept screaming about rolling a rock all night. Another one kept sticking his tongue out at the curious crowd that had gathered around them. The four boys were now part of that crowd. Will shouted, "Why are they making that awful racket, Eric!" Eric said nothing because he couldn't hear him, or anything else other than the clowns. The boys soon fled the scene for fear of their eardrums breaking because of the deafening caterwauling.

When they were clear enough to hear each other again, the boys decided that kind of stuff just wasn't for them. They passed many booths with games and many with food. It all had a price. Riley seemed to spend the money he had as fast as he could get it out of his pockets. The other boys were more conservative with their money. Eric finally spoke up and said, "Riley, you might want to be a little more careful so you don't run out of money too soon. You know we'll help you if that happens, but it might cut us all short. We don't want this to end too soon."

"I'm being careful," said Riley. "I won't run out of money. I brought a little extra that I'm saving for later. I just want to make sure that I get everything I want before we're done. We should hurry up though so we can see everything. I don't want to miss any of it!"

Will said, "Well, I'm not sharing any of my money with you! If you spend all of yours, then you can just suffer! I plan on saving mine for something real good. I don't know what it is yet, but I'll know when I see it. It'll be something that I can turn around and sell for even more. I'm going to make a fortune off of this place. Heck, I might even move here permanently when I make enough money!"

Just then the four heard a man shouting in their direction, "Hey you! Get over here!" It was a man from one of the gaming booths trying to make money off of them. They all laughed at his attempt to intimidate them into playing his game and turned to go see the other sights. Just then Eric noticed that Sam wasn't with them anymore. He turned to see Sam standing in front of that rude vendor that they had laughed at a minute ago. Sam was handing him money.

Eric and the others ran over to where Sam was, but it was already too late. The man had the money and Sam had already begun playing the game. The game wasn't very good, but they waited for Sam to get done so at least he got what he paid for. Eric flashed the man a dirty look, but the man just quickly turned away. Eric finally looked at Sam and said, "Why'd you come over here and give this creep your money?"

"I didn't know what else to do," said Sam. "He was yelling at me, and I thought I did something wrong, so I came over here because he told me to. When he said to give him the money to play the game I figured I had to do it, so I did what he told me."

A little exasperated, Eric said, "Next time somebody does something like that, you ask me what to do, okay? These guys will do anything to get your money from you. They'll beg you for it. They'll yell at you, like that jerk did. And some will even try to steal it from you. So you stick close to us so we can all protect each other, right?" Sam nodded gratefully, and the incident was finished.

Eric pointed over to a table with some chairs and said, "Hey guys, it's almost noon. Why don't we take a break for a few minutes. Maybe we'll get some lunch before we go on. We've still got a long day ahead, and it's time to stop for now and decide our next move."