Sweet Boy's Split Decision (11)

Five

I underestimated something. I had no idea how ungainly and hard to hold 200 tickets would be. I could barely wrap my hand around the huge stack and it flapped around as I walked. I pretty much felt like a moron and if a sudden gust of wind came up, I might have gone airborne. This was probably enough tickets for a family. It had also cost a small fortune. Not that I minded the money but how in the world did people afford to come to carnivals? I hurried back towards Greg, keeping to the main thoroughfares in case a gang of six-year-old thugs decided to attack me and steal my tickets.

I made it back safely and put my huge stack on top of his counter. "I'd like 100 rings please."

"That's impossible. That would be 66 and 2/3 of a ticket."

Huh? "I have 200 tickets."

"200 tickets buys you 100 games of three rings each. I had no idea you enjoyed ring toss so much."

He didn't crack a smile. He was serious about all of it but it was the end that cracked me the hell up. "I, I don't. I mean I want to play because this is your booth but I thought it was two tickets per ring. I don't think I want to throw 300."

A couple with a small child came up and I let them go in front of me. He was maybe four or five, it's hard for me to tell with kids but he was cute. They gave him three rings and Greg surprised me by picking up the two that landed on the ground and letting him re-throw them. The little boy didn't mind missing, he was quickly distracted when he saw the ducks floating in the next booth.

"I always feel so sorry for those goldfish." There were bags and bags of them lined up on the counter and a whole bucketful of them for when those were gone.

"I never understood what choosing a duck with a colored dot painted on its bottom had to do with receiving a goldfish."

He had me there. Of course none of the prizes actually made sense but I didn't want him to start thinking about that because it might push him over the edge. "Did you do the ring toss last night too? Or do they let you switch?" I pulled off two tickets and handed them to him.

It might have been my imagination but he seemed to touch my palm a lot when he handed me my rings. "I requested this one because it's a quiet game and rather unpopular. Most people switch though."

I missed all three rings. I missed the next three and the three after that as well. "There's a reason it's not popular."

"People seem to like to shoot things much more. The racing games are quite popular, especially the ones using water."

He seemed to have seen more than I had. "Did you walk around last night or earlier? Is there anything good that I should go and try out?" I hadn't seen a fried dough booth yet. "Is there fried dough anywhere?"

"Yes, there are two that I know of. One is at the end of this row." He gave a me a look and I knew he was thinking about me eating deadly carnival food. He didn't know what he was missing. He didn't tell me I couldn't though, so that was a win.

He was staring off into the distance and I tried to follow his eyes but there were just too many options. I handed him two more tickets; I had to get rid of these somehow. "Is there anything that you want to do after you're done working tonight?"

"I really enjoy the giant swings."

It made no sense and I had no good reason but I just couldn't imagine him on a ride.  "Well you're in luck Sir. I have enough tickets for you to take about 50 rides."

"I believe the swings are six tickets but if you're still here at 7:30 or have some left over when you leave, I may go over and ride."

Ride.  Greg riding.  I tried not to snicker but even if it was just swings, me watching him ride was going to happen. I was going to be here and I was going to watch. I almost just ripped him off a bunch of tickets but I knew he would want them to be precise so I carefully counted out 24. "Here you go, you can ride four times. Or whatever you want to do with them, of course."

A rather exhausted woman who was herding five or six kids came up to the booth and I ran away. The fried dough was calling my name and I headed in that direction. The line was about 10 people long but I had done worse for the delectable treat and it's not like I had anywhere else that I really had to be right away; Greg was going to be a while.

Once it was in my grubby little hands I headed back, ripping off a huge piece and shoving it in my mouth before it was even cool. I'm not sure if I actually moaned out loud when I took the second bite but I may have because Greg's eyes got wide. "This is SO good. Are you sure you don't want to try it?"

"There are very few things that you enjoy as much as you seem to be enjoying that. I have to admit that I am a little curious."

"It's the best kind; butter, powdered sugar and cinnamon all on top of the most delicious warm dough in the world. It's indescribably delicious.  It's even better than waffle fries and that's saying something.  Would you like a bite?  I'm happy to share."

"Very well although it seems that you'll enjoy it more than I will.  I'll play along."  I handed him a huge piece and practically held my breath as he tentatively bit into it.  "This is quite good, I can see why you like them. Perhaps this weekend I'll decorate and eat off of you.  You're warm and delicious much like the dough, aren't you Pet?"

I shivered. Literal shivers went down my back and I wondered if he saw me. That bastard was going to get me all worked up in the middle of the carnival.  " That's not fair Sir."

"Well I'm certainly not going to let you lick cinnamon and sugar off of me."  I almost choked and managed to ball up the wrapper and toss it into the trash can to buy myself some time to calm down. Communication fail. I put four more tickets on his counter and missed the next four rings. Miraculously, the fifth one actually landed on a bottle.  " Congratulations. You may choose a prize."

I glanced around to make sure no one was close by and answered "I don't want anything from the box. I'll donate mine to Maya.   What you mentioned earlier though, that sounded amazing."

"I thought so too.   It's probably best that you don't take a prize because I think these dogs may scare your cat."

Honestly, the dogs kind of scared me.