Shadows at the Fair by Lea Wait Page A

university graduates, you know. He had a good job at the First Federal Bank, and I taught botany and zoology at the high school and sometimes at the community college, when they needed someone. We worked hard, too. A penny saved is a penny earned. Both our families were there. I never really thought we’d leave. But, life changes.” She looked at Maggie. “Sometimes the Lord hands you problems to deal with that make life pretty difficult.”
    Maggie wondered. “And so you left your home and your families?”
    “It was hard after Danny died.”
    Maggie looked at her questioningly.
    “He was a good boy, but, you know, bad things sometimes happen to good people. The good die young. Anyway, life wasn’t the same for Abe and me after that, so one day Abe came home and said he’d just up and retired early from the bank, and we put the house up for sale. I’d been collecting silver flatware and jewelry and such for years, after I inherited some from an aunt in St. Louis. So we took my collection and we started to do some shows. We took the money from selling our home and we got a good deal on a used trailer.”
    She turned around and looked at her mobile home. “At first it was fun. After thirty years of fixing supper at six o’clock and going to school meetings and choir practices, it felt great to have no deadlines or schedules, except for the dates we had shows lined up. We’ve traveled all over the East Coast and the Midwest. Before, I’d only been as far east as Chicago, once, to see Danny.”
    “You mean you really live out of the trailer all the time? You don’t have a home?” Maggie tried to think of all that would mean. “Where do you get mail?”
    “We use my brother’s address. He collects mail for us. Once a month or so we let him know where we’ll be and he sends it on to us. Sometimes in care of the show manager, you know. And we call back to the family every few weeks. We keep in touch. But it’s not as easy as we’d thought. When shows go well, we’re okay. But if we get a couple of bad shows in a row, well, we don’t have that many friends we can stay with. Most of the folks we know live in Iowa, and there aren’t that many shows there. We go south in the winter. There are lots of shows along the Gulf, and the weather’s warm. Then we come north in the spring and do New England and Ohio and all in the summer. But the trailer’s getting a bit of wear on it.”
    That was a major understatement. Maggie wondered how they even got it to start. And with the rust patches it looked as though it would soon be hard to guarantee that anything in the trailer would still be there after they’d driven over a bump.
    “The Lord is there to lead and protect us, isn’t he, dear? Beggars can’t be choosers. So we’re doing all right. Although we’re getting a little old to do this all the time.” She leaned even closer. “I’m thinking that maybe we should just stay on the circuit six months of the year. You know, find a little place back in Iowa for some of the time. Be better for Abe, as he’s getting on and doesn’t seem as interested in the traveling as he used to. Maybe it’s time we thought about retiring again.”
    Maggie agreed. “Makes sense to me. By the way, did you see Harry anywhere else tonight?”
    “Just talking with Vince, like I said. And then—after Susan started screaming.”
    “What about Joe? Or Susan?”
    “Didn’t see Joe. Susan I saw a few minutes after I saw Harry. She was walking at a right fast pace, heading toward her van. She went past Abe and me here; we were having some tea and tuna sandwiches, you know, before bedding down. I don’t think she even saw us; we had pulled out our folding chairs and were sitting here in the doorway, where we’re standing now. But she looked as though she had something on her mind. She was going along a mile a minute. You’d think she’d be tired after a setup day, and then the reception. My feet were aching like two coals