The Carnival of Wishes & Dreams by Jenny Lundquist

Author:Jenny Lundquist
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

 19

Audrey

AUDREY GOT OUT OF THE line for funnel cakes and followed the woman in the pirate costume. She never got a look at her face, but she thought she saw a tendril of curly red hair—the exact same shade as her mother’s—pull free from the woman’s pirate hat.

Could her mother be here? In Clarkville and at the carnival? Audrey guessed it was possible; her mother had loved the carnival—it had been her favorite night of the whole year.

She swallowed; but if her mother was back in town, why hadn’t she come home? Didn’t she know how much Audrey needed her?

She followed the woman, pushing her way through the thick crowd, until all at once Audrey couldn’t see her anymore. She came to a stop and heard screaming overhead.

She looked up; the cages of the Zipper were spinning just above her, and she could swear she saw the gleeful faces of Erin and Julia inside as they came bearing down upon her. Audrey ducked, certain she was going to be crushed. Then the cages were snatched away and went spinning back upward into the air.

“Watch where you’re going!” the carnie operating the Zipper yelled. “Stay behind the yellow line.”

“Sorry,” Audrey mumbled. She stepped away and glanced over just in time to see the woman in the pirate costume duck into an extremely large, red-velvet tent. Audrey hurried over, but just as she was about to enter, a voice said, “Hold it right there.” A carnie with a bald head and a row of eyebrow rings blocked her way.

“I need to get inside,” Audrey said, trying to move past him, but he wouldn’t budge.

“Sorry, no can do.”

“But that woman just walked right in.”

“She works here. You have to have one of these, see?” He flashed a staff badge that had his name and position. He was Stan Axelrod and he was doing security.

Audrey stared at the tent. Could it be that her mother was working for the carnival? She had always been intrigued by the carnies and said it must have been exciting to wake up every weekend in a new city. But when she said it, Audrey figured it was just another one of her spells she was going through, where she’d lie in bed for hours and dream of the other lives she’d rather have than the one she did have: being a wife and a mother in Clarkville.

Had she done it? Had her mother become a carnie?

Audrey spent the next twenty minutes standing by the tent, waiting for the woman to come back outside. But the only thing that happened was that Stan the Security Man just stood there glaring at her.

Ethan passed by with a few of his friends.

“Hey, Audrey!” called Travis McManus. “Your brother puked on the Clown Faces.”

“Shut up,” Ethan said. “Why do you always have to be such a—”

“I saw Mom,” Audrey blurted.

Ethan froze. “What?”

“I saw Mom,” she said again. “She’s here.”

Ethan let out an irritated breath, then turned to his friends. “I’ll catch up to you guys later,” he said.

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