Joe goes to work at the carnival

an excerpt of a ghost story novel

(This is an excerpt from my published paperback novel BY THE LIGHT OF THE CARNIVAL)

The storm had stopped before Joe got to the town of Clayburg. The main road snaked along the marsh of the river. When he got all the way over to the other side of town it was obvious where the carnival was, though he still had a stretch of blacktop to go.

The double Ferris wheel was poking high above a distant row of trees. He drove past skid marks going off the road. “Some crazy drunk.” The road wound around a strip of woods, and then he parked in the designated muddy patch of field cordoned off with yellow plastic flags. He took a deep breath and puffed out his chest. His orange t-shirt with a seed company logo on it was still wet so he decided not to tuck it into his wet jeans. He stepped over the yellow flags and walked past a booth where a deeply tanned carnie was putting up posters of a toothy grinning blond woman in a red swimsuit. “We don’t open ’til tomorrow.”

“I work here now.”

The beefy man held out his hand for shaking, and said through a toothpick, “Well, hello. I’m Ken. It don’t look too exciting around here right now but I hope you can last out the whole week.”

Joe nodded his head. “I will. I need the money.”

“Well don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

Joe swallowed. “What do you mean by that?”

Ken gave a sarcastic wink and then changed the subject. “Can you count change?”

“I’ve already been asked that, and I’m already hired.”

“It’s just funny how many people can’t count change these days. Looks like you got caught in the rain.”

“Yep.” Joe pulled out on his wet shirt. “My name is Joe.”

Ken nodded cordially. “Oh, well then, hello. Now here’s some excitement for the summer. Take a look at this gal. What n*****s.”

“Fawcett what’s her name?”

Ken stopped what he was doing to glare at Joe. “Farrah Fawcett Majors and this is the best selling poster of the year. Of all time. This is the only poster anybody wants. We can’t keep ourselves in enough of them. We’ll make extra money this year just for these lady n*****s. If your attraction has this poster then you’ll get customers.”

Joe stepped up to take a closer look. “You really can see her n*****s. Wow. I can’t believe they can show that nowadays. Cool. What a hard-on! She’s in that TV show, huh?”

“Of course. Where have you been, boy? In a barn?”

Joe looked sour. “A farm. And that new Charlie’s Angels show, sure, I heard about it. Who hasn’t. But it’s on ABC and we don’t pick that station up where I live.”

The carnie rubbed his fingers gently over one of the posters. “Aw, she breaks my heart. Remember. Keep her in stock and you’ll make a lot of money this week.”

“Sure.”

“And what else is going to be your shtick this week?”

Joe looked around. “My what?”

“Your way of making money when you’re not making money. Catch my drift?” Ken winked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Where’s the boss right now? Where is Mrs. Ta … Ta … Lawn?”

“Toulon. It’s French. But she ain’t French. American. Just a fruity name. And it’s Miss even though she was married, they say. Some mob guy who got bumped off. Go figure. Only in America can you just walk around and pretend none of it ever happened.”

Joe looked around at the rides, in alarm. “Oh. Really. Wild. Well, do you know where she is right now?”

Ken pointed with his toothpick. “She’s usually in that trailer. That’s the office. But at the moment she’s in that tent with all the arcade games. You can’t miss her. She’s the one with the beard.”

“Yeah, I’ve met her when I signed on. Is that beard real? It don’t look real.”

“At her age, none of her hair is real.” Joe looked confused. Ken chomped on his toothpick. “She dyes it.”

Joe nodded. “Oh.”

“Good luck. Watch your back. And one more warning, watch out for that glass house. Don’t go in that damned trailer joint at midnight.” He pointed down to the very end of the row.

“Why?”

“It’s fucked up.”

“How.”

“Just stay out.”

Joe asked again, “Why?”

“They say it’s haunted.”

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