The Crystal Premonition

Tales of the Fairground : IX

' I'm looking for my father and I'm unemployed,' said the man in the faded blue jeans. ' Can you spare a buck?'

Father was standing outside Madame Amphora's ' Fortunes Told ' booth. Mother and the kid were inside. He reached into his wallet and gave the man a ten.

' Looking for my father,' he repeated to himself. Its the euphemism to justify and rationalize all that is not going well. The expression produces an empathy that preserves the relationship with all that is not right and allows for a continued communication on the issues. It avoids the critical natures that come with engaging the daily activities.

In maintaining contact it presents an innocence on issues of right and wrong, that are largely way beyond the ken of the average man. Not taught in schools or the colleges, it involves factors outside of the usual disciplines a person may be accustomed to. To approach such knowledge, we are simply that, the endearment of children lost who are not to be blamed for being so.

What it produces in our social circles is the notion that we are still family. That we don't have to prove our deserving or self worth in order to receive the daily bread. But its important that we are there, in our boots.

Father snapped out of his reverie and walked over to the ' skeet shoot.' The skeets fly out on an electronic screen and its shot at with a shotgun modified electronically and produces a recorded sound of the blast. Behind him, mother and the kid emerged from Madame Amphora's.

She smiled but didn't say anything. Father had won a large teddy bear. They walked over to the parking lot with the kid wobbling with the over sized bear.