Re: [Carnival: Hannah & Zoe]
"I'm not selling anything, really. I'm just keeping people here, talking to them so they don't leave, and I do it until they can be handed over to someone who will sell the carnival with their performances." She smiled a gauzy smile at the darker-haired girl. "But I guess you're right. But women are always performing. I think I realized that when I was about five, that women were always performing. I saw my mom do it every single time she charmed a vendor or a contractor or my dad." Step, step, honesty in the quiet whisper of your voice. "I don't think men always need to perform," she went on, and maybe it was off-topic, and maybe she should notice, but Hannah wasn't very good at saying the polite and right things. Thoughts became words and slipped, and slipped, and slipped.
"Zoe," she said. No, she whispered, as if she was sharing a secret with the very night breeze. "That's a pretty name."
She looked around then, at the lights and the neon, the people, the carnival. "We were closed most of the winter, and the company that owns us now only came a few months ago. Before, it wasn't as nice. But, yes, we're here all year, even when we aren't open," she explained. "When I was small, the fair came to town every year, and it was there for a month, and then it went away. I didn't know carnivals lived in the woods forever."
A tip of her head, and curiosity as she stopped in front of the big tent. There, in front of the tent, people crowded as a man breathed fire on a raised stage. He was perfect, the man, and his flames went farther and farther, and surely he must get tired. But he didn't, and Hannah was looking at Zoe. "You're very new, aren't you?"