Chapter 43

“Then I’ll go. You can watch from here.” He heads for the ticket booth.

On Felicia’s left, thousands of white lights flash “Crafts 20 Great Shows,” and she shivers. Carnivals and circus clowns bring contrived thrills and forced laughter. Felicia can’t remember when or where she learned this, possibly another truism from Sister Mary Seraphia’s third grade.

She tells him about a woman who stood up on a wheel when it stopped. Roger turns back. She has his attention.

She embellishes the tale, hoping to discourage him. “Then it started to move, and she was…decapitated.”

Roger is taking a dollar from his Hopalong Cassidy wallet, money left over from a recent visit with his dad. He stops and appears to consider her story more seriously “What’s decapitated?”

“Her head fell off, that’s what.”

“Seriously?” He sees her smile, and they laugh.

Felicia backs down for the moment, thinking he knows how to get to her. “Maybe later, okay?”