Shadow in Serenity

four


Jason always got off the school bus with a smile on his face that suggested he had a secret. But today, his smile was not secretive, but exuberant, as he bounded into the house, dropped his backpack on the floor, and ran to find his mother. “Mom! Mom! We’re gonna be rich! Did you hear?”

Carny came out of the back of the house and caught her son. “What?”

“That man. Logan Brisco. He came to school today.” Pushing past her, he ran into his room. “He’s gonna give us free passes.”

Carny watched as he grabbed his piggy bank and shook it, dumping pennies and nickels all over his dresser. “Passes to what? What are you talking about?”

“I’ll give him everything I’ve got, Mom! How much do I have?”

“Slow down!” Carny turned her son around and forced him to look at her. “Let’s go over this now. You’re telling me that Logan Brisco came to your school today?”

“Yeah. They let him talk during assembly. And he said he’s gonna hold workshops for us kids after school, so he can explain the whole park to us and get our ideas and stuff. And if we get our parents to give him money, we’ll be part owners!”

Carny let her son go, and he turned back to his pennies. “Jason, he’s a crook. A thief. You can’t give him your money.”

“Mom! Everybody else believes him.”

“Everybody else is going to get stung.”

“Oh, yeah?” Jason swung around. “Then how come he didn’t just take the money the other night? Lots of people were ready to help him, until you stopped them. If he was a crook, he would have taken their money then.”

“Is that what he told you?”

“Yep. And after he talked to us, when the kids were going back to class, he came up to me and remembered my name! He’s a nice guy. I like him. You’re wrong about him, Mom.”

As he spoke, Jason arranged his pennies into little stacks of ten, and Carny grabbed his hand. “Jason, I don’t want you talking to him anymore. Do you hear me? And I won’t let you give him one cent!”

“But Mom!”

“End of discussion.” Making her oversized shirt into a catchall, she raked the pennies into it and headed to the kitchen.

“But Mom! That’s not fair! It’s my money!”

She dumped the pennies into a bowl on the counter, then grabbed the phone book. “You’ll keep your money, Jason,” she said, flipping through for a number. “You can keep saving for that four-wheeler you want. I’m not taking it away from you. But neither is he.” She picked up the phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“The school,” she said. “I’m going to tell Mr. Anderson to keep that man away from you kids. He’s a thief, and he shouldn’t be on campus.”

“But Mom! People will hate you if you keep messing him up! Don’t you want us to have a park?”

“There isn’t going to be a park,” she said. “Don’t you hear what I’m saying? It’s a scam! He’s a con artist!”

Sarah Jenkins, the school secretary, answered, and Carny took a deep breath. “Sarah, this is Carny Sullivan. Is Mr. Anderson there?”

“Sure he is, Carny, honey. But before I transfer you, let me tell you that I think your intentions were good Saturday night with that Mr. Brisco fella, but you’re wrong. I can just feel it. I have feelings like that, you know. Just sensations, but they’re usually right. I can sometimes just see things, feel people’s thoughts, that sort of thing. I think during my last abduction those aliens gave me some kind of psychic ability.”

Carny closed her eyes and decided not to touch the subject of Sarah’s infamous alien abductions. “Then why haven’t you won the lottery, Sarah?”

The woman gasped. “Well, I never said I knew everything.”

“And how many con artists have you known in your life?”

“Well, certainly none. But I’m sure I’d know if —”

“I’ve known dozens,” Carny cut in. “I know their lines, I know their techniques, I know how they smile and how they walk. And I know how they make people believe them.”

“Just because your parents are dishonest doesn’t mean everyone else is.”

She grunted. “Sarah, it’s not just my parents. It’s all the carnies who work for them. People I grew up learning from. I moved to Serenity because the people here are honest and good, even if they are a little naive. I won’t let him brainwash you or anyone else — we’ll leave that to your aliens. Now, may I please speak to Mr. Anderson?”

Mumbling something incoherent, Sarah transferred the call.

The moment the principal answered, Carny could tell he was in a bad mood. “Hello?”

“Mr. Anderson, this is Carny Sullivan. I understand that you allowed Logan Brisco to indoctrinate our children today. My son came home ready to give him every cent he has.”

“Now, Carny,” Mr. Anderson said in a condescending tone, “I didn’t let him speak. I had a dentist appointment this morning, and Sarah, who had good intentions, let the man have the stage. I wouldn’t have. But now that he’s shown us that several school projects can come out of his work, I’m thinking maybe it didn’t hurt anything. It might be good for the children to get involved. They’ll see what goes into a business enterprise like this.”

“He’s a liar, Mr. Anderson. I don’t want him within a hundred yards of my son.”

“Come on, Carny. You’re overreacting. He strikes me as someone who knows what he’s doing. He’s not just trying to grab people’s money and leave town. He’s taking his time, giving people a chance to think about it. I’m beginning to think that maybe this could improve our town.”

“I can’t believe you! Serenity has everything. It’s the sweetest, cleanest, most peaceful town I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen plenty. Mr. Anderson, let’s just say he is telling the truth and there is going to be a park — which I’m absolutely positive there isn’t — don’t you realize that it would ruin this town?”

“This town could use a few changes,” he said. “Mr. Brisco is bringing us hope. All he wants is a little cooperation.”

“And a lot of money.”

“He doesn’t have to build the park here, Carny. If we give him too much trouble, he’ll take his plans somewhere else. Hugh Berkstrom had a meeting with him this morning. Hugh has a good head for investments. He wouldn’t even be considering it if it was a scam.”

“Oh, no,” Carny groaned. Surely the richest man in town had more sense than that! “Why won’t any of you listen? You all know where I came from. You know how I was raised.” She took a calming breath and tried again. “Look, Mr. Anderson, what if — just what if — I’m right, and Logan Brisco is a con artist? What if he got everybody in town, including the children, all worked up, and managed to walk out of here with all our money? It could ruin us. We’d never recover. This town has so many blessings from God, but if we do something stupid out of greed, we could destroy those blessings. Don’t you see how high the stakes are in this?”

“And what if he’s honest?” Anderson replied. “What if he gets impatient with us and goes somewhere else, and the next thing we know some other town is getting the park and everybody there is getting rich instead of us?”

“Then we’d find another way to stimulate our economy. But we’d still have this beautiful little town and all the good people in it, and our spirits would be intact, and so would our savings. We could do the right thing to help our people, not something that will completely break them.”

“That’s not good enough for me,” Anderson said. “And it’s not good enough for most of us here. Please. Just stay out of it.”

Frustrated, Carny hung up and threw herself on the couch as her son came back through the room at a clipped pace, lugging his backpack. “Where are you going?” she asked.

“To Nathan’s.”

“What’s in the backpack?”

He gave her an exaggerated look of innocence, which appeared more than a little guilty. “My homework.”

She got up and took the backpack from him. “This must weigh thirty pounds,” she said, unzipping it. “What a surprise. Money. The same money I just poured into that bowl.” Glancing toward the bowl, she slapped her forehead. “And now the bowl’s empty.”

“Mom! You’re ruining my dreams! I just want to be a part of it!”

“Over my dead body.” She put the backpack on top of the refrigerator. “I have to go somewhere for a few minutes. You stay at Nathan’s until I get back.”

“Mom, are you going to cause trouble for him?”

“You bet I am,” she said, grabbing her keys. “Logan Brisco has met his match.”