edison is the (carnivalking) wrote in repose, @ 2015-11-19 03:30:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | *log, bruce wainright, eddie nelson |
eddie and bruce mee at the carnival
Who: Eddie and Bruce
When: Recently
Where: Carnival grounds
What: surprise! bruce isn't dead
The carnival after dark was a sight to see. Colored lights were strung along tents, thrown in trees and draped along trailers. The smell of sugary treats, coffee and beer was strong in the ice cold air and mixed with the mint forest that loomed along the edges. People milled around in this small fairytale, talking about the shows they had saw, counting their money to see if they could afford a dance. There were all kinds of people, eccentrics to the lonely, with plenty in-between. The carnival had something for everyone and if they made the pilgrimage out in this weather, Eddie made sure that it wasn't for nothing.
Tonight, Eddie closed the show out with his masterpiece: a sphinx that told riddles. It was a beautiful animatronic with the face of a woman that didn't exist and a lion body that looked strong and dangerous. It blinked, stared, yawned and licked its paws. It asked in a soft voice (boys who ordered dances after the shows would recognize one of the dancers had a similar tone) if anyone was clever enough to solve the conundrums and people tried. Usually, no one could solve the riddle, so Eddie would end the show having the Sphinx jump through a ring of fire, but tonight was different. A girl from the wrong side of the tracks who looked like she had been roughed up more times than smiled at guessed cloud. The sphinx blinked in surprise, purred that she was correct and the crowd applauded that someone managed to overcome impossible odds. Eddie, who was dressed in a smart blue suit with a black bowler hat (people always asked if he was frozen in the 40's and then thawed out for the single purpose of performing) took the girl's hand, gave her a sweeping bow and then awarded her with a necklace that looked like it belonged to a drowned princess. He remembered looking up, seeing the softness in her otherwise hardened expression and he didn't feel so alone anymore. His heart was a broken, terrible thing that could only be stitched together with kindness and brilliance found in others.
In that second, he loved this stranger and she loved him back. It was simplistic. Beautiful. The lights faded, the show ended. Beautiful dancers offered shows, barkers directed others to the tent of horrors, and clowns cartwheeled towards the concessions.
Eddie let the woman's hand go, tipped his hat and then walked with New Jersey confidence out to the back. He gave a pep talk, made sure his acrobat didn't twist an ankle and then eventually mosied over towards concession to make sure the clowns weren't being too frightening tonight. They were monsters, but they were his monsters, after all.