Johnny Watts took a deep breath and plunged into it.
He started with the Fort Worth Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show and spent an hour admiring gentle, white-faced steers, as wide and square as flat-topped desks, scrubbed and curried, with their hair parted neatly from skull to base of spine, then day-old little black lambs on rubbery stalks of legs, too new to know themselves, fat ewes, their broad backs, paddled flatter and flatter by grave-eyed boys intent on blue ribbons. Next door he found the Pomona Fair with solid matronly Percherons and dainty Palominos from the Kellog Ranch.
And harness racing. Martha and he had always loved harness racing. He picked out a likely looking nag of the famous Dan Patch line, bet and won, then moved on, as there was so much more to see. Other country fairs were just beyond, apples from Yakima, the cherry festival from Beaumont and Banning, Georgia’s peaches. Somewhere off beyond him a band was beating out, “Ioway, Ioway, that’s where the tall corn grows!”
Directly in front of him was a pink cotton candy booth.
Martha had loved the stuff. Whether at Madison Square Garden or at Imperial County’s fair grounds she had always headed first for the cotton candy booth. “The big size, honey?” he muttered to himself. He felt that if he were to look around he would see her nodding. “The large size, please,” he said to the vendor.
The carnie was elderly, dressed in a frock coat and stiff shirt. He handled the pink gossamer with dignified grace. “Certainly, sir, there is no other size.” He twirled the paper cornucopia and presented it. Johnny handed him a half dollar. The man flexed and opened his fingers; the coin disappeared. That appeared to end the matter.
“The candy is fifty cents?” Johnny asked diffidently.
“Not at all, sir.” The old showman plucked the coin from Johnny’s lapel and handed it back. “On the house-I see you are with it. After all, what is money?”
“Why, thank you, but, uh, I’m not really ‘with it,’ you know.”
The old man shrugged. “If you wish to go incognito, who am I to dispute you? But your money is no good here.”
“Uh, if you say so.”
“You will see.”
He felt something brush against his leg. It was a dog of the same breed, or lack of breed, as Bindlestiff had been. It looked amazingly like Bindlestiff. The dog looked up and waggled its whole body.
“Why, hello, old fellow!” He patted it-then his eyes blurred; it even felt like Bindlestiff. “Are you lost, boy? Well, so am I. Maybe we had better stick together, eh? Are you hungry?”
The dog licked his hand. He turned to the cotton candy man. “Where can I buy hot dogs?”
“Just across the way, sir.”
He thanked him, whistled to the dog, and hurried across. “A half dozen hot dogs, please.”
“Coming up! Just mustard, or everything on?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I want them raw, they are for a dog.”
“I getcha. Just a sec.”
Presently he was handed six wienies, wrapped in paper. “How much are they?”
“Compliments of the house.”
“I beg pardon?”
“Every dog has his day. This is his.”
“Oh. Well, thank you.” He became aware of increased noise and excitement behind him and looked around to see the first of the floats of the Priests of Pallas, from Kansas City, coming down the street. His friend the dog saw it, too, and began to bark.
“Quiet, old fellow.” He started to unwrap the meat. Someone whistled across the way; the dog darted between the floats and was gone. Johnny tried to follow, but was told to wait until the parade had passed. Between floats he caught glimpses of the dog, leaping up on a lady across the way. What with the dazzling lights of the floats and his own lack of glasses he could not see her clearly, but it was plain that the dog knew her; he was greeting her with the all-out enthusiasm only a dog can achieve.
He held up the package and tried to shout to her; she waved back, but the band music and the noise of the crowd made it impossible to hear each other. He decided to enjoy the parade, then cross and find the pooch and its mistress as soon as the last float had passed.