Re: [Carnival: Mars, Jamie, Si, David, Hannah]
Houses with eyes and hearts, skin and faces, tugged at half-dead strings to very old memories. They were a little like the ones about Mars, strange and secret and regretful. There had been black secrets in his own extended family, to be sure. There was the father who wasn't there. His mother never spoke of him, but his aunts did. They even knew the names of his children, and cursed them all with relish. There were old stories and family shame, but there were no houses that breathed. What lay at the heart of an amusement park that could magically stop being abandoned when you stepped inside? "Unexpected beauty can just be beautiful, or a lure. The kind you put on the end of a hook for fish, you know." His instincts, which leaned to the pessimistic, suggested there was no cheerful child's magic in the amusement park. What better trap for the unsuspecting innocent than shiny rides and glittering animatronics?
Mars looked happy to be happy, Hannah found a skip in her step, and even Si almost smiled. Jaime seemed uneven, but David could understand that sensation. Hugs all around and off they went, deep diving into the carnival. He had a glint in dark eyes when Jaime asked him what he wanted to do first. "I defer to the group," he said. He added, conspiratorial, "I'm not fun enough to be the one to choose."