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Show ; 4f p CARNIVAL NIGHT 1 . J By MARY KEMPE CHEATHAM looking at Patty's happy face, It is I who am without the magic. The barkers called from their concessions, drawing the crowds with" Imperative cries. Girls passed, carrying feathered kew-pies, kew-pies, spangled whips, bright birds and monkeys on sticks. There was a blend of hotdog and hamburger odors, coffee aroma, the roasting roast-ing fragrance of peanuts and popcorn. pop-corn. Everywhere were people, eating ice-cream sandwiches, drinking pink lemonade from sweaty glasses. Patty, high on the merry-go-round, clung lovingly to her horse's bridle and waved to Ellie every time she passed. "That was fun," she beamed, finished fin-ished at last, running to Ellie for new adventure. They joined hands and started over the grounds. "Who's your girl friend. Sis?" asked a man's voice. Instantly guarded and alert, Ellie turned to look. She gazed warily, straight into two gray eyes. So gray, she thought I'll always be a pushover push-over for gray eyes. He was not a dressed up young man, but he looked nice with his soft shirt open at the neck, showine his tanned "would you like to go to the carnival car-nival with me?" "Yipes!" uttered the little girl, almost al-most toppling off the step backward "Would I!" "Be careful!" cried Ellie, thrusting an arm about the little shoulders. She laughed in spite of herself to see the change in the young face. There was nothing serious about it now. It was afire with the dazzle of carnival lights themselves. "I'll go ask Grandma," shouted Patty, bounding across the lawn. "I'll be right back." "Bring a wrap," called Ellie after the swinging pigtails, "It may be cool on the rides." She went inside for her own light coat and to go over her makeup at the dresser. Her face in the mirror was smooth and quiet, showing only in pallor the turmoil of the empty months. It was still quite a good face, the eyes a t f" street to the old ' grounds, the carnival was ! flpa .nole Uke a magnet From ' on the top step in f its Blodgett's boarding he could see them hurrying j ifjroups and couples, laugh- a chatting, their merriment i a bacfc her on toe early j & Cars whizzed by, carry- . flT'till it seemed the entire "l.of the little town was i one direction. All, that iti gmnd possibly Mrs. f l who, now that the supper ! f 1 over, sat contentedly in Unresting her feet 1 ' 1 was nothing in the world ? music, reflected Ellie. ' , her head wistfully against 1 rail The nostalgic ripple 1 1 half sad, came to her on 1 C bursts of breeze, cutting into ' Lrt with the sharpness of pain. 1 fid h,r eyes to shut out the j & her eyes to shut out the ' S , 0f the couples-always the " m passing through the early 1 Zlm$ into each other's eyes, firing words of which only the i je need be heard. ' rivals are 'or couples, she IMhf. No, for children, too; for . rfles, even for old people, visit-t visit-t M (heir neighbors and winning ! JL nd blankets. But not for i Btone alone. Never for some- done. You could walk 1 toush the crowded grounds unto un-to the blaze of lights, caught In 1 Hit Ware of melody, and become i it loneliest person in all the nrli She had been doing fine gj the carnival came to Grey- yfhy, she thought, oh, why, 1 did the carnival have to come? Ste opened her eyes, at a soft tea on her knee, and saw Patty Brown, little neighbor girL sitting Bile step below her. fee," sighed Patty, on a long, niimful breath. "Isn't It LONESOME" LONE-SOME" j Elie smiled. "For you, too?" she uiei "Mr. Kenyon already knows yon haven't got a boy friend," soothed Patty. "I told him when he asked this afternoon." Patty nodded, hard, "Yes," she aid soberly. "Everybody's gone to it carnival but us. I guess you and a, and Miz Blodgett and my Gandma, we're about the only ones ii town that didn't go. Miz Blodgett, ibe never goes anywhere, anyway, : ud neither does Grandma since my i Grandpa died. My Grandpa was f mil! He always took me to car-L car-L nivals." She shook her head in rap-I rap-I taojj recollection. ! "You live with your grandmoth-' grandmoth-' tr!" Elie asked. She felt suddenly ukmed ol how little she knew the neighbors. She had been boarding it Mrs. Blodgett's several months, since tint she came to Greyville to mrk in its dress factory and to , mrk even harder at the serious business of forgetting Bruce. , "Ever since I remember," an-mred an-mred Patty. "My Grandpa loved i arrivals hie I do. Grandma was toys scoldin' him about it, but ! W take me every night and we'd i lo on the rides and buy cotton ' ""Jr. My," she breathed, "I sure ; Ha Grandpa." , Ellie studied the serious small bet, framed by the smooth brown r Rtails. Here too was someone : justing to a loss, and she had not i (ten taken the trouble to find it t She had seen Patty often ; m& running errands for Mrs. Kodgett and playing hopscotch or 9tb on the wide front sidewalk, t she had been too absorbed in w own affairs to ask about the How selfish people are, tought Elie, "Titty," she asked humbly. wide, deep blue, the hair a dusky cloud, brushed back from a widow's peak at the forehead. With lipstick lip-stick and rouge and a deliberate turning up of the lips at the corners, it was even an animated face. By concentrating on Patty, Ellie found she could keep the lips curved upward. up-ward. She would forget all other carnivals. "Oh, my goodness," complimented Patty. "You look beautiful!" Ellie laughed. She tucked the child's hand under her arm and they started for the park grounds. The groups were dwindling now. As Patty had said, most everybody was already there. "It's funny you haven't got a boy friend," Patty mused. "Pretty as you are." "I used to have one," Ellie obliged, out of a long silence. "His name was Bruce." Patty considered gravely, but asked no more questions. "Oh, look!" thrilled Patty. "There it is. Please, please, let's go on everything!" "Most everything," Ellie amended, "not the really rough rides. But the others." She held tight the warm, squirming squirm-ing hand in her own, to fortify herself her-self for the first glimpse of the sprawling tents. "You have to get over this, Ellie, my girl," she told herself, gulping down the lump in her throat "Tonight's as good a time as any." It was like all carnivals before, without the magic. No, she decided, throat His face was tanned too, right up to his straight black hair. "Oh," said Patty, startled. "She's EUie.. She lives at Miz Blodgett's." "Yes," agreed the man. "Remember, "Remem-ber, you told me that this afternoon when I got your ball out of the street" "Uh-huh, I remember," said Patty. "He's Mr. Kenyon," she told Ellie, "the man that was riding around in the loudspeaker car. He told me his name today." "Fun and frolic for all," mimicked the young man, using his hands for a megaphone, "that's me." "Since Ellie hasn't a boy friend," Patty suggested, "maybe you'd like to take us on the ferris wheel?" Ellie's chill expression warmed to a flush. "Pat!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Kenyon already knows you haven't got a boy friend," soothed Patty. "I told him when he asked this afternoon." 'Tat!" protested Ellie again, feebly. "She used to have one,"sPat continued con-tinued helpfully, "but not any more." "I used to have a girl friend too," offered Mr. Kenyon. "I know how it is. I'd like to take you on the ferris wheel. Take over for a few minutes, will you, Mike?" he called to a man at the shooting gallery. Helplessly, Ellie found herself engineered along. "So you were asking about me," she managed at last "Yes," he answered. "In a little place like this, who wouldn't be? You're an attractive girl, you know. This is a nice town too." "What - ever happened to her?" asked Patty, "the girl friend you haven't got any more?" "She didn't like my job," replied Mr. Kenyon. "She said she couldn't see any future in it, but it was the only work I knew." "Huh!" snorted Pat, "She must nave been silly!" "Oh, no," said Mr. Kenyon, "but she made me mad and we had a ' quarrel. I told her there was another girl who would like it fine. There wasn't, of course, but my real girl thought so." "Pat's right," agreed Ellie. "She was very foolish. There's no more future to anything, than love." They walked up the ramp and the carnival man fastened all three into a seat, with Patty in tke middle. The wheel started its wonderful backward back-ward swoop, taking them up, up, above the tents, above the trees, above the little trailers' where the carnival workers lived. The stars were close, and the people, oh, so small and far below. Ellie shut her eyes, recalling another carnival, another an-other time. She opened them when a hand reached out to clasp her own. "Hello, Ellie," said Mr. Kenyon softly, the gray eye3 looking deep into hers. "Hello, Bruce," whispered Ellie with a quiet smile. His arm, to reach her, had also to encircle Patty, who seemed not to notice. They had stopped at the top now, rocking gently in the night Patty stared over the seat edge into SP"Oh my," she quavered. "THIS MUST BE ALMOST HEAVEN1" |