Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town 2)

HALFWAY HOME, Will felt a shadow breathing hard behind him.

"Theater closed?" said Will, not looking back.

Jim walked in silence beside him for a long while and then said, "Nobody home."

"Swell!"

Jim spat. "Darn Baptist preacher, you!"

And around the corner a tumbleweed slithered, a great cotton ball of pale paper which bounced, then clung shivering to Jim's legs.

Will grabbed the paper, laughing, pulled it off, let it fly! He stopped laughing.

The boys, watching the pale throwaway rattle and flit through the trees, were suddenly cold.

"Wait a minute ..." said Jim, slowly.

All of a sudden they were yelling, running, leaping. "Don't tear it! Careful!"

The paper fluttered like a snare drum in their hands.

"COMING, OCTOBER TWENTY-FOURTH!"

Their lips moved, shadowing the words set in rococo type.

"Cooger and Dark's ..."

"Carnival!"

"October twenty-fourth! That's tomorrow!"

"It can't be," said Will. "All carnivals stop after Labor Day--"

"Who cares? A thousand and one wonders! See! MEPHISTOPHELE, THE LAVA DRINKER! MR. ELECTRICO! THE MONSTER MONTGOLFIER?"

"Balloon," said Will. "A Montgolfier is a balloon."

"MADEMOISELLE TAROT!" read Jim. "THE DANGLING MAN. THE DEMON GUILLOTINE! THE ILLUSTRATED MAN! Hey!"

"That's just an old guy with tattoos."

"No." Jim breathed warm on the paper. "He's illustrated. Special. See! Covered with monsters! A menagerie!" Jim's eyes jumped, "SEE! THE SKELETON! Ain't that fine, Will? Not Thin Man, no, but SKELETON! SEE! THE DUST WITCH! What's a Dust Witch, Will?"

"Dirty old Gypsy--"

"No." Jim squinted off, seeing things. "A Gypsy that was born in the Dust, raised in the Dust, and some day winds up back in the Dust. Here's more: EGYPTIAN MIRROR MAZE! SEE YOURSELF TEN THOUSAND TIMES! SAINT ANTHONY'S TEMPLE OF TEMPTATION!"

"THE MOST BEAUTIFUL--" read Will.

"--WOMA N IN THE WORLD," finished Jim.

They looked at each other.

"Can a carnival have the Most Beautiful Woman on Earth in its side show, Will?"

"You ever seen carnival ladies, Jim?"

"Grizzly bears. But how come this handbill claims--"