Shadow in Serenity

twenty-eight


That night, Carny got a phone call from her parents.

“Honey, wait till we tell you. You won’t believe it!”

“What?”

“We made a huge score last week. Your father’s a genius. Course we had to leave Arizona real fast.”

She groaned. “Where are you now? Prison?”

“Durango,” Lila said. “Anyway, it looks like your father and I might be able to retire by the end of the year. And guess where we want to settle down!”

Her heart plummeted. “Where?”

“Serenity! Won’t that be a hoot? All of us together again? Cooking up who knows what! And I’ll get to see that little grandbaby of ours whenever I want! And once that amusement park is open, we can set up some of our flat stores in it.”

Don’t panic, she told herself. They’d never really come here to set up their rigged booths. It was just a whim.

Her father took the phone. “Honey, what’s the progress on the park? I think we need to be in on the planning stages, if we’re going to get involved.”

“Mama, Pop, it could be years before the park is built, if ever. Besides, you’d hate it in Serenity. It’s boring and dull and nothing ever happens. All we do is work and go to church. I’m telling you, you wouldn’t last a month.”

“Well, if it’s so boring, why do you live there? Our Carny wouldn’t settle for a life of humdrum. No, siree. If it can satisfy you, it can satisfy us.”

She was getting a headache. “Besides, I don’t think they’re planning the kind of rides and booths you have. They’re shooting for all new, original ideas. And there won’t be any games or freak shows. And they’re doing complete background checks before they’ll hire anyone.” She was making it up as she went along, but she was desperate. “Mama, if you and Pop apply, they’ll find out your history. Besides, they all know my background, so they’d know yours the minute you introduced yourselves.”

“Details,” her mother said. “Your father will work all that out.”

She rubbed her temple. “Mama, I hear Jason coughing. I need to check on him. Can I talk to Ruth real quick first?”

“Sure, honey. The days are going fast. Before you know it, we’ll be right there in Serenity! ‘Bye.”

Carny let out a heavy sigh as Ruth came to the line. “Carny?”

“You’ve got to talk them out of this, Ruth. They can’t come here.”

“I know.”

“Really. They’d never fit in. I mean, the people here are innocent and trusting. Mama and Pop would take advantage of them. I couldn’t take it!”

Ruth hesitated for a moment. “Well, frankly, Carny, I was thinking about coming too. At least for a while.”

Carny sighed again. “Don’t get me wrong, Ruth. I love you, and I’d love to have you here. I love Mama and Pop too. If only they weren’t always looking for an easy mark.” She wanted to cry. “Do you think they could ever change?”

“It would be about as easy as me dropping three hundred pounds.”

“Do I need to worry? I mean, do you think they might actually come?”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

“Well, I’ll just have to talk them out of it. Man, they should put a badge on me here. I feel like I’m single-handedly keeping Serenity clean. I never expected it to be this hard!”

That night, as she tried to sleep, Carny kept dreaming about Logan picking pockets at a huge amusement park with rides that looked like crude children’s drawings, her parents selling Chemo Tonic, guaranteed to fend off all types of cancer, as well as gout, gallstones, and toothaches, and Ruth sitting in all her glory while people paid to stare and laugh at her.

One thing was certain. If all this came to pass, Serenity would never again live up to its own name.