Amber by Dan-Dwayne Spencer (e book reader .TXT) 📕

each other, Flower wasn’t. She didn’t even smile. She stared at the metal arch with tears in her eyes.

Kelly Carter stood under the arch. With a bewildered expression, he stared at his hand sliding across the invisible barrier.

Flower had been holding that very hand

“At the last moment, he pulled away,” she muttered.

Quizzically standing there, he looked up at us, then back toward Homer and Calypso. A sinister grin spread across his face and he slowly returned to stand with the crowd watching the Hoochie Coochie Show.

I turned to Flower and exclaimed, “You couldn’t get him out?”

She wiped at her cheek. “He couldn’t find the faith.” She stiffened and sadly pressed her palms over her eyes, clearing her vision of remaining tears. “I think he intended to stay.” She turned to face me. “Not everyone wants to be saved.” Joy turned to sorrow as we stared back at him.

As true as her statement was, it didn’t make us feel better about having to leave him.

“Exactly what happened while we were away?” Flower asked. “I expected you guys would sleep until we returned. I mean…you all were so tired and we’ve only been away an hour.”

Rose spoke up, “Kelly… I mean Mr. Carter came over to the car and woke us. He was excited about being here and wanted us to come inside with him to see the sideshows.”

“We didn’t know not to,” Roger added. “A little heads-up would have been nice.” He sighed. “Those beautiful girls were so friendly. They promised us…things.”

“Actually,” Rose added, “Jimmy didn’t want to go in without you two. He said he was too freaked out, but Roger,”—she cut her eyes his direction—“he called Jimmy a chicken.” She looked up to the heavens. “Why do men do the stupidest things?” Despairingly, she shook her head. “Well, after Kelly embarrassed him, he bucked up and went with them.”

It finally registered what Roger had said. I jerked my head in his direction and asked, “Those girls promised you things? What kind of things?”

He started to say something, then looked over at Rose and Flower. “I’ll tell you later, but I’m not sure it’s physically possible.”

Jimmy said, “They hypnotized us. I’m sure of it. They wanted us to stay inside the barrier.”

Startled, I asked, “How do you know about the barrier? I found out about the curse only a little while ago.”

“I don’t know nothing about no curse,” Jimmy said, “but the dancing girl’s hips told me I would never leave the carnival.”

Frowning, I suddenly had a mental image of their belly buttons growing lips, talking, and sticking out little pink naval tongues.

Roger exclaimed, “I don’t know if it was some kind of sign language or what, but I could understand every wiggle they made, like words.”

Flower faced Rose. “You didn’t go in?” Her expression showed how completely puzzled she was. “I mean…I’m glad, but why?”

“I knew better, but the truth is I didn’t obey,” Rose said with her eyes locked on her shoes. “I went in with Jimmy. As soon as we passed the carousel, the guy with the dancing girls stopped us.”

“That was Homer, I think he’s become one of Venus’ minions,” Flower said, “and, those girls aren’t human. They are Nymphs.”

“The one chasing us is named Calypso,” I said. “I heard Homer call her name.”

“Calypso?” Flower asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “That’s what they called her.”

“I’ve heard of her,” Flower replied. “Calypso is a particularly nasty character. She’s a Nymph, dedicated to Venus, and she is empowered more than the rest of her kind. They are all gifted, if you want to call it that, or blessed by their angel to entice men with their carnal movements and sexy dancing. But Calypso is far more dangerous—she is so powerful she was mistaken for a goddess.”

“She is definitely endowed,” Roger enthusiastically replied.

I corrected, “Flower said empowered, not endo—”

Roger laughed, “I know what she said.”

“Whoever they are,” Rose added, “they led Jimmy and Roger over to the sideshow where they both stared like fools at those belly dancing chicks. I tried to make them come to their senses, but nothing I did worked. So, I left and came here to wait. You showed up a few minutes later.”

“Rose, you were there with us. Why didn’t you get hypnotized too?” Roger asked.

I laughed and interrupted, “That’s easy. Even I know the answer—she’s a girl. The dancing girls couldn’t put her under their spell because they have power over men. Flower said so herself.”

Flower gave me an approving nod. Despite having to leave without Kelly Carter, it felt good being together again. Reunited, we walked across the meadow back to the van, but somehow nothing looked as perfect as it had when we arrived. Alongside the van, a red AMC Gremlin sat half in the grass and half on dirt. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it as we drove away. It would be there forever.

Inside the van, Flower found a pen and some scraps of paper to write on. She made us keep quiet while she wrote out the angel’s prophecy, recreating it word-for-word. She scribbled a few lines onto the paper and stopped, turned to me, and asked if I remembered a line or two. When we had it as close to verbatim as possible, she pulled away from the meadow and down a dirt road. It only took minutes before she turned off the dirt road onto one with a fresh coating of asphalt.

“I’m starving,” Roger bellowed.

“It has been a long time since we ate,” Flower replied. “I think we could drive into the real Eudora and get a bite before we get back on the road.”

We entered the town on a road called Church Street. I wasn’t sure we were even in a town, there were more grass and trees than buildings.