On my way back into town, thought Will, I threw away my tickets. But — look…
Jim still has his, in his hand.
Will trembled.
What did Jim think, want, plan, now that dead men lived and only lived through the fire of white-hot electric chair machines? Did he stiff very much love carnivals? Will searched. Faint echoes, yes, they came, they went in Jim’s eyes, for Jim, after all, was Jim, even standing here with the calm light of Justice falling on his cheekbones.
“The Chief of Police” Will said. “He”d listen to us — “
“Yeah,” said Jim. “He”d wake just long enough to send for the butterfly net. Hell, William, hell, even I don’t believe what’s happened the last twenty-four hours.”
“But we got to find someone higher up, keep trying, now we know what the score is.”
“Okay, what’s the score? What’s the carnival done so bad? Scared a woman with a mirror maze? So, she scared herself the police”d say. Burgled a house? Okay, where’s the burglar? Hiding inside an old man’s skin? Who”d believe that? Who”d believe an old old man was ever a boy of twelve? What else is the score? Did a lightning-rod salesman disappear? Sure, and left his bag. But he could’ve left town — “
“That dwarf in the side-show — “
“I saw him, you saw him, looks kinda like the lightning-rod man, sure, but again, can you prove he was ever big? No, just like you can’t prove Cooger was ever small, so that leaves us right here, Will, on the sidewalk, no proof except what we saw, and us just kids, the carnival’s word against ours, and the police had a fine time anyway there. Oh gosh, it’s a mess. If only, if only there was still some way to apologize to Mr Cooger — “
“Apologize?” Will yelled. “To a man-eating crocodile? Jehoshaphat! You still don’t see we can’t do business with those ulmers and goffs!”
“Ulmers? Goffs?” Jim gazed upon him thoughtfully, for that was how the boys talked of the creatures who dragged and swayed and slumped through their dreams. In the bad dreams of William, the “ulmers’ moaned and gibbered and had no faces. In the equally bad dreams of Jim, the “goffs”, his peculiar name for them, grew like monster meringue-paste mushrooms, which fed on rats which fed on spiders which fed, in turn, because they were large enough, on cats.
“Ulmers! Goffs!” said Will. “You need a ten-ton safe to fall on you? Look what happened to two folks already, Mr Electrico, and that terrible crazy dwarf! All kinds of things can go wrong with people on that darn machine. We know, we seen it. Maybe they squashed the lightning-rod man down that way on purpose, or maybe something went wrong. Fact is, he wound up in a wine press anyway, got run over by a steam-roller carousel and’s so crazy now he doesn’t even know us! Ain’t that enough to scare the Jesus out of you, Jim? Why, maybe even Mr Crosetti — “
“Mr Crosetti’s on vacation.”
“Maybe yes, maybe no. There’s his shop. There’s the sign: CLOSED ON ACCOUNT OF ILLNESS. What kind of illness, Jim? He eat too much candy out at the show? He get seasick on everybody’s favourite ride?”
“Cut it, Will.”
“No, sir, I won’t cut it. Sure, sure, the merry-go-round sounds keen. You think I like being thirteen all the time? Not me! But for cri-yi, Jim, face it, you don’t really want to be twenty!”
What else we talked about all summer?”
“Talk, sure. But throwing yourself head first in that taffy machine and getting your bones pulled long, Jim, you wouldn’t what to do with your bones then!”
“I”d know,” said Jim, in the night. “I”d know.”
“Sure. You”d just go away and leave me here, Jim.”
“Why,” protested the other, “I wouldn’t leave you, Will. We”d be together.”
“Together? You two feet taller and going around feeling your leg-and-arm-bones? You looking down at me, Jim, and what”d we talk about, me with my pockets full of kite-string and marbles and frog-eyes, and you with clean nice and empty pockets and making fun, is that what we”d talk, and you able to run faster and ditch me — “