Street Fair by Mary Calhoun

Every summer the last week before school started, the Street Fair came to town. At fair time people came from downriver, from upriver, from across the Mississippi, and from back country. At Street Fair time all roads led to the trading center. Carnival rides and tents blossomed in the street between the stores. At the busiest corner a large platform was erected for bands to play on — sometimes the town’s brass band, sometimes a western music guitar band brought in for square dancing. At the other corners were free “acts”: this year the Great Rudolpho, walking the high wire each night at 7 and 11 pm.; Albert and Alberta, trapeze artists; and the Rozzi family and its educated dogs.

What a nice, lazy summer it had been! Katie stretched happily, thinking back: the week of day camp at the park, where she had learned to shoot an arrow; the day of the excursion-boat trip on the river, when she and Edwin Jones had explored the engine room of the old boat until they had been found; swimming with her parents on the river; the week she and Sue had spent at Sue’s uncle’s farm.

There hadn’t been any big problems this summer. Enough money to live on now that Dad’s mystery writing was going well. And best, all the people she loved around her: Mother; Dad with his jokes; sweet, plump Sue (always clucking like an anxious mother hen whenever Katie set out to do something interesting); Miss Howell, last year’s teacher, moving back to her apartment this weekend now that school was about to start — dear Miss Howell,

“Yes,” Katie John thought, “life is pretty nice. No more worries. After all, what big problems could come up now?”

She stretched again and yawned. It felt good to be at home with the world. ... If only Sue would hurry up. She could hardly wait to start for the fair.

Katie John looked through the window to see if Sue was coming up the sidewalk. Instead she saw a group of people in front. Why, they were having a picnic right out in the street. Car parked, doors opened, a fat lady in the front seat, a picnic basket and the food spread out on the stone, grownups and children sitting on the curb eating. Must be a farm family come to town for the fair.

The town certainly was filling up, full of people and excitement. Katie could hear the music from Main Street, and the sound of the rides. Today was Tuesday, second day of the fair, Children’s Day, when rides were only a dime, best day for families and kids. Main Street must be packed. She couldn’t wait. . . .

“I’m going, Mother!” Katie called back to the kitchen, then stopped at the front door. She watched with mounting anger as the picnicking family tossed away paper and remains of the food on the grass.

The people slammed the car doors, and started down the sidewalk toward the fair.

“Hey!” Katie called after them, “Aren’t you going to clean things up?”

Nobody even turned around except the little boy, who stuck out his tongue at Katie John.

“Hey!” Katie ran out to the front gate.

The family hurried around the corner by Sue’s house.

“Katie!” Sue had come out and was waving.

Katie John started to run. But at that moment a small brown figure with a white spot on the end of its tail rushed out from a hidden place in the bushes. Her dog Spot ran after its mistress.

“No, Spot. You can’t go. You’d get squashed in the crowds.

She went toward the yard, but the dog only lowered his head, all big brown eyes.

“Oh, Spot, I’m sorry, but you can’t, you just can’t.”

She picked up her dog and put him in the house. Then she ran down the block to join Sue.

“Do I look ail right?” Sue fluffed out her skirt.

Katie John looked at her friend. “Sure,” she said. “You always look nice.”

Katie had combed her fly-away bangs and put on a skirt in honor of the fair, but that had been the extent of her preparations.

Now the girls came to Main Street. They had ears, noses, and eyes only for the Street Fair, spread before them with all its delights: whirling rides, flashing lights, calliope music, smells (hot popcorn, hot dogs, hamburgers — new smells at every step), guns cracking at the shooting gallery, the House of Mirrors, boys calling (“See the Mid-get8 Woman! Tiniest lady in the world! Come in, come in!”), and people. People hurrying, laughing, standing, looking, pushing through the crowd, shouting to friends, waving balloons — holiday people!

“Ahh!” Katie held her breath in delight, and rushed into the crowds. “Sue! Come on!”

“Wait.” Sue followed more slowly. “Watch out!”

She picked up Katie, who had tripped over a cable from the merry-go-round, and brushed her off.

“Never mind,” Katie said. “Come on!”

And then the girls were part of the Street Fair. They already knew just what they wanted to do. Yesterday they had walked up and down Main Street looking to see what the fair offered, but they had saved their doing for today. Both had agreed that the Crazy House would be the most fun, so they saved that for a while. The House of Mirrors must surely be visited too. Katie wanted to try all the tent shows, but she knew her money wouldn’t hold out. Besides, Sue didn’t think they should go into some of them, such as the Hula Girl tent. At last they had picked the Midget Woman tent to be the one show they would visit. "Only I'm not going to look at the snakes," Sue had said, closing her eyes.

“Me either.” Katie John had agreed with one of Sue’s fears for once. However, Katie was determined to go on the Ferris wheel, even though Sue was afraid of that as well.

First on the program was the merry-go-round, for Sue loved it, even though Katie thought it was pretty tame. They bought their tickets and waited for the horses to come to a stop. Sue picked a white horse.

“I’m going to ride sidesaddle like an olden-time lady,” she said, with a rare flight of imagination.

Katie sat sidesaddle on a green horse, but the ticket taker came around and told them they had to ride the right way or they might fall off. The calliope music began, and the horses started to circle, moving up and down. On the second time around, Katie John saw a large brass ring hanging from the canopy. She had heard of brass rings, but she had never been on a merry-go-round that had one,

“Do I get a free ride if I get it?” she called to the ticket taker.

He nodded, bored.

Next time around Katie tried to grab the ring, but her arm was a good two feet too short.

“That isn’t fair!” she said to Sue behind her. “No kid could reach that far.”

The merry-go-round people just put it there to tease children, she decided. Well, she’d show them. Next time she passed the ring, she watched to see exactly where it was. Then she pulled her feet up onto the saddle of her horse and got up, holding to the pole in front of her.

“Katie, don’t! Be careful!” Sue cried.

“Nothing’s going to happen ”

Katie John stood up, holding the pole with her left hand, and grabbed the ring with her right. But the ring didn’t come loose. As Katie seized the ring, her horse moved away from her. She hung from the ring for a moment. Then it broke loose, and she dropped to the deck of the merry-go-round.

The ticket taker came hurrying around. “What happened?”

“I got the brass ring.” Katie John held it up.

“Wha—” He stared up at the place where the ring had broken off, then muttered angrily. The horses were slowing to a stop. The man grabbed the ring from her hand and jerked his head at a horse. “Okay! Get on.”

“But I don’t want another ride,” Katie added, “Let my friend have it. See —” she said to Sue, who was looking frightened, “nothing happened.”

“Huh!” said Sue, closing her mouth.

After Sue had taken her second ride, the girls walked on. Next was the Ferris wheel. Sue stayed on the ground and waved to Katie, who called from the air, “I can see the river! There’s Betsy Ann and some other kids way up the street.”

After that they bought popcorn and went to the Crazy House. Just before it, Katie John paused. A small tent had been set up next to it since the girls had looked yesterday.

GYPSY FORTUNETELEING read the sign. Stars, zodiac symbols, and the palm of a hand were painted on the tent walls. In front on a camp chair sat a heavy woman with golden rings in her ears. She wore a bright scarf bound across her forehead and knotted in the back. Under it her black hair hung down to her shoulders. She was chewing gum and shuffling a deck of cards.

“A Gypsy!” Katie whispered to Sue. "I’ve never had my fortune told. Have you?”

Sue shook her head.

"Let’s!”

The girls approached the fortuneteller. Silently she got up and fed the way into the tent. It was almost dark inside. The woman sat down behind a small table and motioned the girls into two chairs.

“Cross my hand with silver,” she said rapidly.

“How much?” Katie asked.

“A quarter, kid. Make a wish.”

Katie John thought and nodded. The fortuneteller began slapping picture cards down on the table, her lips moving.

“Twenty one! You aren’t gonna get your wish, kid. Now for what’s gonna happen to you.”

She put a picture card of a lady in the middle and said that was Katie John. Then she laid out cards in a square around the lady — a star, a tree. “Success, good health,” she whispered.

Katie John looked at the Gypsy’s thick fingers, wearing many flashing rings, then up at her brown face. As the woman chewed her gum, her earrings swung with the rhythm of her jaws. Could this woman really see into her future? Could she tell what was going to happen to her? How could she know? How could the cards know?

“This is the strangest fortune I ever read,” the Gypsy said. “You’re supposed to be the queen of hearts, but you aren’t. I see bad news — something awful is going to happen. No, I guess it means you are gonna to find buried treasure. Sure, that’s it. And that’s all.”

She slapped her hand on the cards.

Katie John stared at the cards, forgetting the woman and Sue. Buried treasure!

“Oh!” she breathed.

“Want your fortune told?” the Gypsy was asking Sue, but Sue shook her head.

Katie John saw a glass ball on another little table at the side. The woman noticed her glance.

“Fifty cents, and I will look into the crystal ball, see lots more, explain your fortune in the cards.”

Katie had only fifty cents left, and she hadn’t been to the Crazy House yet. But the crystal ball! What strange pictures might the Gypsy see in it? How could she see pictures in it?

“How does it work?”

Katie picked up the ball to look at it. It was heavy, and the glass was cloudy. She couldn’t see anything in it.

“Hands off the ball, kid! Fingerprints.”

The fortuneteller took the ball and rubbed it on her skirt.

“I’d better not,” Katie said. “I don’t have enough money.”

“So. Your loss.” The woman said.

The girls stepped into the sunshine and the noise of the fair.

“Do you suppose she really was a Gypsy?” Sue wondered. “Goodness, Katie John, I didn’t want my fortune told after I saw yours.”

Katie’s eyes weren’t seeing the street.

“Buried treasure,” she murmured. “But where should I dig? Oh, probably she makes it all up. Come on, let’s go to the Crazy House.”

After the Crazy House, which was just as much fun as the girls expected, they decided to try another ride. Wandering up the street, they came to the platform where Josh Carney and his western band were playing fast guitar music for the square dancers. The girls stopped to watch.

Then they moved on.

“Oh, that’s what I want to try,” Katie said, pointing to the caterpillar ride.

The ride consisted simply of seats set in a circle on a deck. When the circle got to spinning rapidly, a caterpillar cover rose up over the seats. That was the fun of the ride — though Katie John thought it looked pretty strange to see a caterpillar racing around in a circle as if it had its tail in its mouth, Whoever heard of a racing caterpillar anyway?

“I wonder what it feels like to be spinning around in the dark under the cover?” Katie John said. “Would I get dizzy? Or would it be a wonderful feeling, like whirling around in a dream?”

“Well, I’m not going to find out,” Sue declared, “I might get sick, and I couldn’t get out with the cover pinning me in, I don’t like to be shut up in things,”

Katie John bought her ticket.