Chapter 2

The Burnsville Festival

∞

The five of them got out of the van. Tommy slid the van door shut after Jessica got out. They all turned toward Burnsville and the sounds of joy-filled screams that emanated from the town’s center.

They’re actually going to let us just go there? They’re not going to come with us? Whitney asked Tommy.

Nope! Tommy answered with a smile. Jacob’s dad says that it does no good to lord over your chitlens. That’s what he calls kids—chitlens.

Jacob leaned into the passenger window where his mother sat. She handed him two twenty dollar bills and told him to ‘spend it wisely.’ Jacob nodded his head reassuringly and backed off of the van. His dad pulled away with a wave and they were off.

“What time they pickin’ us up, Jake?” Jessica asked as she started heading toward the town. The closest they could get dropped off was three blocks away and they barely got that far. There were cars lined up along both sides of the road, which narrowed after the Fifth Street junction.

“They’re not. Dad said for us to cut across Jessup’s creek. He says the walk will do us good.”

You didn’t tell me I was going to have to cross a creek, Tommy! I can’t cross a creek! Whitney thought to him as she pushed the button that extended her cane. Jacob had already started off behind Jessica and Tommy began walking too. Riley reached up and grabbed Whitney’s finger.

“I’ll make sure that your sister don’t get lost,” she said.

Oh great, Tommy, Whitney thought to him. I’ve got an eight-year-old chitlen for a chaperone.

Tommy laughed and started to pursue the others.

Uh, hem, she thought to him. I’m still going to need you to walk behind me. Otherwise it’ll take me a week to catch up to you guys.

“Wait up guys,” Tommy called ahead. Both Jessica and Jacob stopped walking and looked back. Tommy walked so that he was behind Whitney and as soon as he was, Whitney began to tap her cane from side to side, and started walking.

Jacob and Jessica waited until the rest of them closed the gap. “I don’t get it, Tommy,” Jessica said as she resumed walking again. “If she can’t see or hear anything why would she even want to come at all? It’s not like she can really do anything.”

Is this the girl you have a crush on, Tommy? Really? Because I’m about to show her just what I can and can’t do!

“She’s no different than anyone else,” Tommy said (ignoring Whitney’s comment). “She might be blind and deaf, but she still gets sick of being cooped up in the house, and she still gets tired of our parents.”

AUNT AND UNCLE! Whitney corrected.

“Oh, yeah. I guess that makes sense,” Jessica replied.

Jacob drifted back until he was walking right next to Tommy. “You gonna ride the Tasmanian Twister with me?” he asked.

“Hell yeah!” Tommy confirmed. “Might even do it more than once.”

Language, Whitney thought to him.

“What about Whitney?” Riley asked looking back over her shoulder to Tommy. “Is she gonna ride the rides too?”

Um ... NO! Whitney thought to him.

“I doubt it, sweetie,” Tommy said.

“Well, that’s okay,” Riley said. “She can just stay with me. I can’t ride the big rides yet either so we’ll just stay together while you guys go on ‘em.”

How cute, Whitney said matter of fact.

Tommy was still walking behind Whitney so she could see where she was going. Jessica was in front of her and off a little to her right, Jacob to the front and left, while Riley still held her hand. She could see the back of herself as they walked, had to give Tommy a mental kick now and then to keep his eyes from drifting to Jessica instead of watching her path, but it was the town itself that had her attention.

The closer they got to Burnsville, the more people there seemed to be. On the outskirts, where they were dropped off, it was all parked cars, as if the town were being invaded by metal monsters that died before they got there. But those metal monsters hadn’t died. Their occupants had just abandoned them, leaving them for later, when they’d need the monsters again to take them home again.

There were people crossing back and forth between two large pavilion tents, both of them had white and red stripes along the tops. Everyone inside the tent seemed to have one form of food or another. A teenaged boy and his girlfriend walked from the first tent. The boy, carrying two hot dogs in each hand with a big smile on his tan face, the girl holding their sodas, laughing righteously, eyes bright and happy. They walked to the pavilion on the right, which had rows of picnic tables beneath the canopy. Almost all of the seats were filled with happy people stuffing their faces with burgers and fries, hotdogs, sausages, slices of pizza, sodas of every color, and lots of beer. Those that weren’t drinking soda, were drinking beer.

And the aromas that drifted to Whitney’s nose were an incredible mix. She could smell almost everything that she could see, but she could also smell something else. Cinnamon. The smell of cinnamon taunted her nostrils, flaring her stomach with hunger and desire. She loved her Aunt Carol’s cinnamon rolls, could eat them by the dozen if she were allowed, and wanted whatever brought that scent to her nose.

“What do you think? Start off by filling our guts with junk-food so we have something to puke up later when we ride the Tas?” Jacob asked. He punched Tommy in the arm after he said it.

“Ow,” Whitney called out. Shoot! She thought to Tommy, knowing that she’d just screwed up. Why’d he do that? It took me by surprise.

“No friggin way!” Jacob said. “Did she feel that?”

“Don’t be stupid, Jacob!” Jessica said as she got into the line to the concession stand. “No way could she have felt it when you punched him in the arm! Could she?”

“Umm, no,” Tommy said. “Of course not. She probably just got bit by a mosquito at the same time.” Tommy emphasized the words ‘bit by a mosquito,’ and gave Whitney a mental kick so she’d try to help him play off her guffaw. Whitney took the hint, reached over with the hand she was using her cane with, and began scratching her other arm with the cane dragging in front of her.

“See! Idiot,” Jessica said.

Jacob seemed to think about it for a second. “You sure, because I would’a swore she even leaned to the side a bit when I hit you,” he said.

“I’m sure,” Tommy said. “As far as I know that whole twins can feel each other’s pain thing is a total myth.” He added, hoping his friend would buy it, but it turned out that he didn’t have to worry about it because the conversation got turned on its head right at that point and thoughts about whether or not Tommy’s sister could feel her brother’s pain were totally forgotten.