THE FAIR

By

Betsy Jorgensen

The lights danced in their predetermined path across the sky. Both stars and bulbs lit the fair grounds on a warm summers night. One girl, by the name of Ginger, came every year to the fair. She paced around the hay covered dirt paths and smelled the very familiar smell of cows in the barn. She felt she belonged in this time of year.
In her little pre-fair ritual, she circled the grounds, trying to find the best place to go first. Onward she traveled, never entering the grounds, always on the outside. It kind of reminds her of how she walks through life, never seen, seldom heard. She saw the cows and the pigs, the ducks and the chickens.
The people of her little town circled also, though they didn’t realize it. The centered on the midway, full of food and games. They stood in line for the rides, and wandered though the grandstand. But they were always circling, trying to find the one thing that would make the fair a worthwhile trip. Ginger knew this, and as she circled, she watched these lost souls of the fair amble into the night.
After a half hour, Ginger found herself back where she started. With a clear internal map of the grounds, she walked straight to what she had seen. First she went to a little mini dough nut shop, and got a bag of mini doughnuts and a glass of lemonade. Though she had passed many such stands on her trip around, this one was the farthest away from her starting point, and always seemed less busy.
From there, Ginger went to go see the “freak show”. The smell and taste of fear and urine came from some of the cages, the sent o f preserving fluid from others. She knew the baby calf was a fake, but ohhing and ahhing with the rest of the town made her feel like she was someone who belonged.
After finishing her food, she turned around to go on her favorite ride, the mary-go-round. While she was on it, she remembered a certain book she had read, and wondered if she would age too quickly if she stayed on too long. She shook her head at her foolishness. As she got off the ride, she saw some of her classmates pointing and laughing at her. She ducked her head in shame and scurried to the grandstand across the park.
In the grandstand, there were many booths, but Ginger knew there was one that she wanted to see right away. Madam Asta always had a booth in the corner of the grandstand, and Ginger had been waiting a whole year to go. The tent looked a little silly inside the building, but nobody questioned Madam Asta’s ways. She sat in her tent, and answered questions And sometimes, when she said the time was right, she told the future.
Ginger entered the tent, waiting a moment at the entrance for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. Inside the tent sat Madam Asta, a table with a deck of cards on it, and an empty chair. Madam Asta ushered Ginger to sit, and started to shuffle the cards.
“I see you have made your decision....” said Madam Asta, laying the cards on the table.
“Well, I guess I have” said Ginger, peering at the layout. “I don’t really think I had much of a choice.”
Madam Asta looked at the cards closely before she answered. “According to the cards, it was the best of many choices...” she said. “But sometimes the cards are wrong. What do you feel in your heart?”
Ginger looked Madam Asta in the eyes and thought a moment. After weighing her motives, and the feelings of others, she nodded her head. It was her best choice.
“Good,” said Madam Asta. “Now go do what you need to do. I will be gone before you start.”
Ginger exited the tent in the same manner she entered, without pause, without wonder. Making a beeline towards the entrance, she gazed one more time at the fairgrounds. ‘I’m going to miss here..’ she thought.
When she got to the entrance of the fair grounds, at the very point in which she had started her romp, she knelt down. Reaching under the cuff of her pants, she drew out a strange looking vile. Inside the vile was a mixture of her own virgins blood, fresh talc powder, and filings of silver. As she had walked the grounds, it had left a small trail behind her. Kneeling slightly outside the circle, she chanted softly to herself. A raised shape of a pentagram bubbled out of the ground. People began to scream, but none could cross the lines in the ground. The very air that had so recently been filled with the smell of cotton candy started to smell faintly of brimstone. Ginger looked at the air, now shimmering with the power of the abyss that she called to her bidding. But she was at a loss for what to do. the demons of hell scared her, and she almost ran.
Remembering what Madam Asta said, she reached to her chest, and placed her hand over her heart. With one swift motion, she reached into her chest and removed the beating muscle. Before her life faded, she flung it into the flames that once was the fair grounds. As the blood loss caused her head to swim, she fell backward into the dirt, and waited for the power to come to her.
The lights above her danced in their predetermined course, and all at once, the power that she had so longed for came to her in a rush. She sat up, and felt to hole in her chest, finding no scar and no blemish. She looked at the stars above, and with a thought, rose to meet them, leaving the smoldering grounds behind her.
And as she rose, her heart burning in the fire, she smiled at the one place in that town she had felt at home, as it returned to the one place that people had expected she had come from.