Chapter #10 Carne Vale - Flesh Farewell

..STER!

It was a startling way to start a day. The sound of a hollow trailer being used as a drum.

'LesTER!, where are you?'

The door sprung open and in came an enormous bolt of light. It was fractured and piercing. From a prone to sitting to fully erect in two quick motions. More to avoid the laser beam of sun that penetrated even two tightly shut lids. Rick was moving in three different direction as his intuition was screaming at him to be ready for anything today.

'Where's Lester?' ..... 'LESTER!'

Then there was a response from the only person who made a difference to Wayne at the moment. Had he received an answer to Lester's whereabouts his only reply would be a demand for that person to go get him. 'Get his ass back here, we need to start getting the show up.'

It was so different than what he had been used to. At home there was a schedule to avoid and too many ways to waste away a life if you so chose. Even with all his problems there turned out to be something good happening right now, well, if you overlooked that at this very moment Rick was sitting up on the hardest bed made of plywood and two by fours inside a prison cell sized room, with what looked like three closets of laundry strewn about the floor.

And the proportions were off too. It was clear that Wayne had come to the door, but only half of him showed up. So odd that he should only have his bust appear in the bottom half of the doorway. Strange indeed. As fast as he was in the room he was gone. Shutting the door behind him, Rick's pupils had hardly pulled into tiny black dots as they were forced to dialate to the dark blue edge of Rick's grey iris. 'Blink, squint, blink'

'Wayne!' Rick was bound to ask some question that had an answer that would be known shortly.. But Wayne was already moving down the side of the trailer as described by the path of drumbeats traveling down the side of this trailer of rooms. How many there were was unknown. Who all was inside, unknown.

'Wayne....e' This one came from behind, at the end of the trailer, or in this case the front of the trailer because Wayne had already passed that section of the bunkhouse.

'Wayne....!'

Lester!
'Wayne'

'Lester, get up and meet me at Marc's.' 'And don't go back to sleep.'

'LEESSSTER!'

Rick pulled the door open and walked out.... straight out.... and fell down hard.

Instant fear, vertigo, grasping and slipping on the brass colored doorknob on a plain wooden door the door catches on the back of his heel and take his left boot right off his foot. It was all air that came from his lips as he hit the ground. By the time he hit the ground he was horizontal to it. His torso was the lowest part of his body and hit first, pushing every cubic feet of air that occupied the lungs to be ejected in one moment. Hips, thighs, and feet came next and last was the shoulders. A perfectly awful fall from the floor of a trailer with four and a half feet in between the ground and the floor. Good morning Rick, get up, dust yourself off, and pray that it's the last time you do something stupid like that. Wayne had told him to use his eyes to see the future. 'See it once and know it for the next time.'

'What did you do?!' Wayne stopped and for him that was something.

'Falling..' 'Holy shit Wayne, that a BIG step!' It was ok, he was ok.. That fall would hurt some, killed others, and maimed the rest but Rick Waters was able to go from the ground to bent over, then dust himself off and stand up straight. 'I don't want to do that again Wayne...' 'Remind me the next time I wanna do something stupid like that again, ... OK!?'

I don't care what you do at home Rick, just don;t bring it to work. You do something stupid like that when we're putting this show together you can just walk away right after.' Wayne stopped again after walking away. He turned and Rick could see that he was being looked at again. 'We don't want no mistakes.

And he was gone. Lester was up now, and so was Dave. Onehead one doorway it seemed and Rick traded looks with both men who stood 10 feet tall now that Rick was standing on the ground, the ground level that is..

'I can;t believe that just happened.' 'You guys missed it, I walked right out my door here. Rick pushed the door and it open into the bunkhouse and then slowly returned back toward its jamb.

Rick motioned with a flat hand swiping off the floor of the bunkhouse and down to the ground. Halfway down there was a hand flip and a final drop to touch the ground. 'It was totally wrong, totally hard, I do NOT want to do that ever again.'

Lester's head had popped back around door number one and retreated into room one. Thudding was heard from inside the room. 'Thud thu thud' .... "Thud thud thud thud thud'

Door number one was beginning to open as the sound came to and end. Lester's head was the first thing to exit as he went from being bent over to standing tall. But his head was still the only thing out the door as he looked one way and then the other.

'Is there any blocks out there?' 'Something to use as a step?'

'I got out just fine, c'mon... water's fine.' It was easy to laugh at himself, he wasn't hurt. It still hadn't dawned on Rick what he should be worried about and what he shouldn't be worried about. In fact, it was like things were in reverse. Just minutes after a 5 foot fall to the cold hard earth, rick had no remnants of fear of pain. The fall was going to be the easiest thing that happened to him today and Rick was prepared for anything. That was a great way to tackle the job ahead. Little did he know, Rick was going to do more and accomplish more and hate something more than he ever did in his life. Right now he was happy to laugh at a fall that could have ended it all, at leas that how it appeared.

'Come here Rick.'

Lester's foot was now out the farthest. It was looking to Rick that exiting the trailer is something that takes some thought, any thought would have helped him if he had had one prior to walking off a 5 foot drop to the cold hard earth below.

'What are you going to do, Jump?' "I'm not going to catch you..'

'What?'

'I said I'm not going to..' and Lester was walking on him already.. A foot on the shoulder, a hand on the head, a change in the center of gravity and he was standing face to face with Lester.

'ca-t-c-h....' 'you'

'You won't have too'.' 'But thanks for helping me get down'

'suure'

'You going to Marc's now?'

'No..' 'Kelli said she was going to make me breakfast and I'm going down to the trailer'

'I guess I'll just

'Come with me.'

go with you, yeah.'

I would rather just have you tell me what I need to do Lester. The closer I am to you the easier your job is going to be. And I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to.'

'Well I won;t ask you to walk off any trailers so.. don't do it.'

Let's get our breakfasts.

He walked past Rick without a pause. He wore a red polo shirt, black jeans, black boots, and a scarf hung around his neck. The two ends hanging over his shoulders and swinging side to side with each step. Lester covered ground like a machine. Walking was not walking but more of a jog for Rick's average legs. Lester was built for speed and Rick was built for... 'Rick was built for...' He knew there was something Rick was built for but even today the judge was still out.... SO he decided that if he wanted to be built for anything 'Rick was built for everything...' and his step grew longer and before long they were side by side and even as they made there way up to the dirty little trailer with steam coming from the shit tube and the smells of breakfast coming from inside.

'Kelli's here?'

'I'm in here Lester' Wayne was here a minute ago and said you were on your way. 'He was in a hurry, but said that if Rick made it down here I should bring him a band-aid...' Her voice was coming closer to the outside as she spoke. When she said band-aid she was at the screen, opening it, bandaid in hand.

'Here Rick' 'What did you do?'

'I broke my ass on the ground.' 'I'm gonna need a bigger bandaid'

'Broke my ass on the ground...' Lester echoed Rick's words as if they were his own.

'You mean you took a shitter out the side of the bunkhouse cuz you thought you could fly.'

'Give him two band aids Kelli, I think he'll need them by the end of the day.'

'Kelli smiled at Rick and stepped all the way out of the doorway and down to the ground. 'You're ok though right.. Rick?'

'I'm glad I didn't break my neck before I got to see what the hell is going on here. Like breakfast? Did you make me some breakfast too or do I have to sit here and watch Lester eat?

'I'll get something for you too, but you owe me later.'

'Yeah, I'll pay you later.'

Kelli went inside and pans rattled and scraped and banged inside. After a minute or two she was back outside, holding two steaming plates of eggs and toast. Little plastic forks stuck out from under the pile of yellow eggs. Rick couldn't help but covet the eggs for the few moments that he wasn't sure that he would eat. The moment to smell of food reached inside and made him think about the taste, he realized how hungry he seemed to be this morning and how good it was going to be to eat a home cooked meal, even if the home was just a tiny trailer in the middle of nowhere, at least nowhere that anyone knew who he was or why he was there,

And as good as it was it was gone and they had said a good morning, goodbye, and were off.

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The life of a carny is good or it is bad, depending on who is asking the question. The fact that the work was back-breaking and seemed to go on forever, somewhere in between life continued to weave a way into and through the people of the road. This was the last few good years of carnival work. The employess that would erect the show were a collection of loners and travelers. Each one had an individual story to tell and a reason to be there. Soon after the industry was brought to its kneed by federal tax collectors and handed over to corporations who hired employess and made things right. CARNE VALE was the most revealing novel written by Francis D. Walsh; the similarities are ominous and the differences hardly noticeable as Rick Water lives a life much like the author's but different too. Why love and lust and freedom meant so much to one person may never be known, but the need to get away never seemed to die.