Carnival Day For Ethan (standard:other, 1376 words)
Author: Preston	Added: Jul 28 2002	Views/Reads: 3019/1962	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Just one day in the life of Ethan Perry

Carnival Day For Ethan 

The smell of popcorn and cotton candy initiated a memorable appreciation
within him even before Ethan Perry got to the carnival in that old 
field on old route 17 that seemed to attract every orphaned event 
destined for Barton County.  He had waited with impatient eagerness 
ever sense the colorful flyers announcing its arrival suddenly appeared 
on every available post in town two weeks ago.  Colton Parish had few 
attractions amending its conventional daily subsistence, and any 
issuance, which offered something out of the ordinary, was bound to 
create some degree of excitement for everyone. 

Having opened its gates an hour earlier at 10 o'clock in the morning on
the warmest Saturday in June, the best day yet this year, half the 
town's population already filled the carnival's grounds with merriment. 
 After all, why wait til the last minute, right?  Something like this 
only happened every few years in Colton so why waste a second of the 
thrill it offered. 

Ethan's only agenda for the day was to turn himself loose and experience
everything there was, ride every ride, see everything they had to show, 
just to exhaust every bit of passion that was stockpiled within him. 

The first attraction through the gate was a candied apple stand followed
by a cotton candy and a soft drink booth.  They always appeal to the 
new arrival's culinary compulsion right off,  and Ethan would not be 
the rare exception.  The bright red and shinny candied apple was sweet 
and delightful until it worked its way up the little pointed stick and 
toppled off and hit the ground, rolling away like a kitten that didn't 
want to play anymore.  A good portion of his available funds lay there 
swathed in a mass of dirt.  He wouldn't let that dampen his spirits; 
after all, he hadn't come here to eat, he could do that at home. 

Most of the riding attractions, however, didn't embrace much appeal for
him, but that teacup ride with all its twisting and turning motions 
looked like fun.  It was great, Ethan discovered, but it also left him 
with a queasy stomach.  Perhaps it was best that he hadn't been able to 
finish that apple, after all. 

He spent the next few minutes just walking around marveling the sights
and listening to the sounds of energized amusement of the other 
visitors, mostly kids.  Perhaps he would not risk another thrill ride 
for the time being and see what those tents with the elaborately 
dressed men out front calling for attention were all about. 

The one that attracted Ethan was a red and white striped canvas shelter
where adults and children alike began to gather. 

...found in the jungles of deep dark Africa, Ethan heard the man say in
an astonished voice as he pushed into the gathering crowd.  ...inside 
the tent for your astonishment...and you won't believe it until you see 
it...the snake boy of the jungle.   One dollar will get you inside to 
see a freak of nature that you will simply not believe. 

Well, he couldn't miss this for anything, Ethan knew.  He paid his
dollar and went inside the moldy smelling tent.  Other people, those 
who just couldn't miss this either, filled in behind him.  He was being 
pushed further and further to the front where a small stage jutted out 
from the back of the tent.  After a few tense moments the same man from 
out front stepped up on the raised platform and held up hands his to 
make an announcement. 

“Now, folks,” he said in a staid tone, “I want to remind you that taking
photographs inside the tent is prohibited.  Please, no pictures. 

With the preliminary necessities completed and disposed of, the man
stepped aside and a man of twenty-five years or older, Ethan estimated, 
came through the curtain.  He was undressed to the waist, exposing a 
scaly torso.  Even his arms and most of his face were covered with the 
same repulsive looking scales.  It looked more like an unfortunate 
disease than it did a snake's body.  The man was most certainly a boy 
at one time, but Ethan doubted that he had ever seen a jungle much less 
lived in one other than the jungle of his imagination.  Ethan continued 
to gaze at the spectacle but he felt indefensibly cheated.  This little 
hoodwink had depleted the substance of his total funds.  So far, the 


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