The Summer of Cotton Candy

  The next morning when Tamara picked her up at eight, Candace tumbled into her car yawning.

  “Couldn’t sleep?” Tamara asked.

  “I was up late emailing with Josh.”

  “Oh,” Tamara said, her voice suddenly frosty.

  Candace wasn’t in the mood to deal with that so she let it go. “That was cool last night when you showed up at the same restaurant.”

  “It was pretty funny,” Tamara said, her voice relaxing. “You know, my parents kept suggesting that we ask you and Kurt to join us.”

  “Oh my gosh! Are you serious?”

  “Totally. I finally said, ‘What part of date don’t you understand?’”

  “I bet that went over well.”

  “My mom was ticked, but my dad thought it was hilarious. I think he thought we had interrupted enough. That’s why he paid for your dinner.”

  “He what?” Candace asked, suddenly alert.

  Tamara glanced at her, looking puzzled. “Kurt didn’t mention that?”

  “It must have slipped his mind,” Candace said grimly. “I went to use the restroom, and when I got back he was staring at the bill with a weird look on his face. I was afraid it was more expensive than he had thought, and I volunteered to help, but he said that he’d already taken care of it.”

  “Okay, that’s odd. My dad paid for it and had Anton put a note to that effect in the bill holder.”

  “I wonder why Kurt didn’t say anything?” Candace asked. It seemed really weird to her.

  Tamara shrugged, clearly not as worried about it. “Maybe it made him uncomfortable or embarrassed, or he just didn’t know what to say.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “He was probably planning to impress you by paying for your dinner, and Dad ruined his plans. Guys are weird. Sometimes they get all proud about the strangest things.”

  It made sense, but Candace still didn’t like it.

  After eating breakfast at Denny’s, they headed for the mall where they walked around and did some serious window shopping. Next they headed for the movie theater where Candace was determined to catch up on the movies that she wanted to see.

  It was a good day mostly, but every time Candace brought up work or anyone there, Tamara got all weird acting. Candace was getting tired of it, but didn’t know what to say or even how to bring it up. So she kept her mouth shut.

  “Wanna go for coffee?” Tamara asked as they left the last feature.

  Candace glanced at her watch. It was already nine o’clock. “I better not. I’ve gotta be to work early.”

  “Oh, that,” Tamara said shortly, a note of disdain in her voice.

  “Are you going to come by the park tomorrow?” Candace asked.

  “Maybe.”

  “I’d love for you to meet Josh and some of the others.”

  “We’ll see. I’m not sure I’ll be in the mood to meet new people.”

  “Well, then just come by and say hi. Work that season ticket.”

  “We’ll see.”

  They had reached Candace’s house, and she got out of the car slowly. “Well, see you tomorrow, hopefully.”

  “Yeah, night,” Tamara said before driving away.

  Candace stood and watched her go. She couldn’t help but feel like she was losing Tamara, but she wasn’t sure why or what she could do to stop it.

  Candace didn’t sleep well, plagued by worry over Tamara and anxiety over going back to work and seeing Kurt. The stress of both was too much to let her sleep more than a few fitful bursts.

  The next morning she was moving slowly. She was so exhausted she barely made it to work on time. When she got there, Martha was waiting for her with arms crossed and a stern look on her face. Uh-oh, Candace thought. She had no idea what for, but she could tell she was in trouble.

  10

  “What is it?” Candace asked Martha.

  “You signed up to work overtime yesterday, and you didn’t show up.”

  For a horrible moment she felt her heart plunge, but a moment later it rallied. “I didn’t sign up to work overtime,” she protested.

  Martha raised an eyebrow. “Then do you care to explain how your name got on the list?”

  “I don’t know how my name got on the list, but I didn’t put it there. I can barely handle working forty hours a week. Why on earth would I sign up for more?”

  “That’s what I would have thought, but apparently you did.”

  “Show me,” Candace demanded. And in that moment she realized that she was more like her father than she would ever have dreamed. If they wanted to declare her guilty, they were going to have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

  Martha led the way through the Locker Room. There, near the entrance, was a wall with sign-up sheets on it. Under Wednesday, someone had written her name. Only they had misspelled her last name, leaving off the p in Thompson.

  “That’s not my handwriting, and whoever wrote it didn’t even spell my name correctly,” Candace said, anger flooding her. Until that moment she had thought there must have been a genuine mistake, that somebody with a similar name had signed up, and people had misread it. Now she knew that someone had deliberately done this to her, and she had a pretty good idea who.

  “Do you know who might have done this?” Martha asked, her conviction wavering.

  “Lisa. Becca warned me that she played tricks on people, and she hates me. Tuesday night when I was on my date, it was with her ex-boyfriend.”

  Comprehension dawned in Martha’s eyes. Slowly she began to nod.

  “I’m going to get her,” Candace vowed.

  Martha put a hand up. “You don’t want to do that. If you start trading revenge with her, it’s going to get ugly. It’s going to get out of control, and someone could get really hurt. Leave it to me. There are proper ways to deal with these things.”

  “What are you going to do to her?” Candace seethed.

  “That’s my problem, not yours. I’m sorry that this happened to you.”

  “I’m not in trouble, right?” Candace asked, still angry at being set up and unjustly accused.

  “No, you’re not. Now go to work.”

  Candace’s spirits improved slightly when she discovered the cart was in the History Zone but then plummeted again when she learned it was in the Ancient Egypt area. To the best of her knowledge, Kurt never worked in that part. Although she could imagine him dressed up like a pharaoh.

  She trudged toward her area, wondering what exactly Martha would do to Lisa and hoping it included firing her. Otherwise, Candace was pretty sure she would kill Lisa when they were tied together for the Scavenger Hunt. Either that or, through his klutziness, Roger would kill all of them. Of course, Pete might find a way to do that anyway.

  She passed through the colonial area and looked quickly around but didn’t see Kurt anywhere. She took the bridge over the river and ended up on the island that encompassed Ancient Egypt. As she stared around looking for her cart, she felt again the same awe as when she had first seen the island as a child.

  Egypt was overwhelming with its three pyramids stretching toward the sky. The largest one was in the center. Candace remembered hearing somewhere that, like the pyramids in the real Egypt, they were supposed to align with each other, just like the stars in Orion’s belt in the night sky. Around the three pyramids there was a bazaar with permanent tents and carts offering food and merchandise. It was always a busy, noisy place with the merchants hawking their wares loudly.

  The Great Pyramid was a popular, fast-moving ride where riders pretended to be amateur archaeologists trying to outwit and outmaneuver traps set by the ancient pharaohs. Players who shot a mummy with an old-fashioned toy pistol anchored to the dash of the jeep won a piece of the pharaoh’s treasure, usually a shiny plastic stone or piece of jewelry or a cup.

  The pyramid to the right of The Great Pyramid contained a restaurant called King Tut’s, which boasted “A buffet fit for a pharaoh.” The walls were decorated with all manner of hi
eroglyphs, and diners could request a translation card to help them read the various writings.

  The third pyramid was called the Tomb of the Pharaohs. The entire pyramid was one gigantic maze filled with wall paintings and educational displays. Just to keep players from getting too complacent, the walls were movable, and the entire pattern of the maze would change every month.

  Candace hated mazes. She didn’t have the world’s greatest sense of direction, but that didn’t entirely explain her fear and dread of them. No, it was that she hated feeling trapped, and she had spent enough time in a house of mirrors at a carnival when she was eight to never want to feel trapped or disoriented again. Ever. She had, in fact, never been inside the Tomb of the Pharaohs for just that reason.

  Even though Ancient Egypt had the one attraction in the park she would never, ever see, it also had one of her favorites. In the Nile River around Egypt, there was a boat ride called Queen of the Nile. Two elaborate barges that resembled ancient royal Egyptian vessels circled the river. Both ships were magnificent, and they differed slightly from one another. The larger of the two was called The Spirit of Cleopatra, and the smaller was called The African Queen as an homage to the Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn movie.

  It took her several minutes, but she found her cart in a remote corner close to the river. Becca, it seemed, had no trouble finding the cart, because ten minutes later she arrived, carrying her usual muffin bag.

  “I brought you the same one you’ve been having.”

  “Thanks, they’re really good.”

  “Lots of people like them. Even Dr. Scott, the president of the park, is hooked on them.”

  “The president spends time in the park?” Candace asked, surprised.

  “Sure, he walks through at least twice a week. You’ve probably seen him. He’s usually wearing a dark suit with some sort of red tie and a baseball cap.”

  “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that guy,” Candace said. “That’s the president?”

  “Yup. He likes to make sure everything is running smoothly and see what’s going on for himself. That’s why he spends so much time in the park. Personally, though, I just think he likes it better than being cooped up in his office.”

  Candace laughed at that. “You could be right. Well, I better get you your cotton candy so you can get back to the Muffin Mansion.”

  “Thank you,” Becca said.

  The swap made, Becca waved and headed off, weaving between the throngs of people beginning to fill the area. It wasn’t long before several in the throngs had patronized Candace’s cart. She looked up at one point, and it seemed as though a sea of cotton candy was floating above the heads of the crowd.

  She started laughing, and for the first time since arriving at work, she felt her mood truly lighten. With perfect timing, Kurt appeared, looking incredibly out of place in his green tunic and leggings.

  “I didn’t realize that Robin Hood plundered the rich as far away as Egypt,” she said, amusing herself.

  “Not usually, but I do make exceptions, especially when there are lovely damsels to rescue,” he said.

  “Am I in need of rescuing then?” she asked.

  He moved in closer. Somehow, when he was in the costume, he seemed larger than life and more handsome than ever. “I think you are,” he said, his voice a low purr.

  “And from what —”

  She didn’t get to complete her question because he took her in his arms and kissed her. Unlike the kiss on her doorstep, this one was bold, strong, and seemed to last forever. When he let her go, she gave a little sigh of disappointment.

  “There, I have rescued you from your ordinary day,” he said, a look of triumph on his face.

  “You sure have,” she murmured.

  “Eeeewwww.” She turned and saw a chorus of five-year-olds making faces. She laughed and felt herself turn bright red.

  “And now that I have rescued you, I am off to rob from the rich.” He swept away, leaving her to deal with the face-making children who thought that — gross as the display had been — it was not enough to distract them from their desire for sugary goodness.

  By the time Candace had handed out cones to all of them, her replacement had arrived. She didn’t say a word, but handed Candace a slip of paper. Candace unfolded it and saw that it was a note to report to the nurse’s office. She looked up questioningly at the girl who had brought it, but the new girl was already busying herself with the cart.

  Candace shrugged and headed off, grabbing her muffin which she ate on the way. Thanks to her first experience with the cart running away from her, she knew where to go. The same matronly nurse who had helped her then was there now. Candace showed her the note, and the woman handed her a cup with a label on it.

  “What’s this for?” Candace asked.

  “Random drug testing. Today we picked random last names from the last third of the alphabet.”

  “Drug testing? Seriously?” Candace asked.

  “Yes, it’s in your employment agreement, dear, if you want to read it.”

  “No, that’s okay. What do I do with the cup, though?”

  For just a moment she thought the nurse was going to start laughing. She only smirked, though, before saying, “The drug test is a urine test. I’ll need you to go fill that. The women’s room is down the hall on your right.”

  “Eew,” Candace said before she could stop herself.

  At that, the nurse did start laughing. “You’ll be fine.”

  Ten minutes later Candace was finished and had put the cup in the appropriate box in the bathroom. She approached the nurse. “Is there anything else?” she asked.

  “No, that’s it. Results will be available in a day or two and are sent to your supervisor. You can go back to work now.”

  Candace left and wondered if the whole trip to the nurse was supposed to count as her break or if she was now free to take it. After a minute’s debate she decided it would be best to return to the cart. There had been enough craziness already without her getting accused of going AWOL on a break.

  Back at the cart things were quiet. The sea of cotton candy was slowly being replaced by a sea of balloons. Candace watched them as they moved this way and that in the breeze and in response to the movements of their owners. Some drifted along slowly while others moved at a good speed. She wondered idly what it would be like to be one of those balloons, tossed by the changes in air currents.

  The girl who had relieved her must have left a pen behind. Candace spread out a couple of napkins and began to doodle on them to take her mind off everything else. Pretty soon one of the doodles started to resemble a ride. She stared at it, thinking hard, before drawing some more.

  A different girl came to relieve her for lunch, so Candace took the pen with her. She stopped by The Dug Out, and Roger gave her a couple of sheets of paper that she could draw on. She thanked him and found a quiet bench where she could continue drawing.

  Art was one of the school classes she had always liked. She didn’t consider herself an artist, but she could draw basic shapes pretty well. She continued sketching as her ride came to life. At the top she wrote the name: The Balloon Races.

  “What are you drawing?” Josh asked, sitting down on the bench next to her.

  “It’s nothing,” she said, suddenly embarrassed and not sure why.

  “Come on, let me see. That’s a ride, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The Balloon Races. Cool name.”

  “It’s an indoor ride. You get into a basket that looks like the basket of a hot-air balloon, and then you rise into the air and soar over cityscapes and parklands. There are these levers that can control just how high you go. You can even turn this knob to make yourself go faster.”

  “You’d have to space the cars out to account for people going slower or faster.”

  “Yeah, but it’s doable.”

  “This is really cool,” he said. “Are you going to enter it into the contest?”

  “What c
ontest?” she asked.

  “The scholarship contest. It’s open to high school employees of The Zone. You enter your ride ideas, and the winning one gets built in Zone World. The winner gets a full scholarship to Florida Coast University for a degree in design or engineering or something related.”

  “No, I haven’t heard of it,” Candace said.

  “You should totally enter. This is awesome!”

  “No. This is a daydream, not much more than a doodle. I wouldn’t stand a chance. And even if I did, I’m not going to Florida. I’m going to Cal State.”

  “Well, then, what are you going to do with it?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “Probably toss it.”

  “Can I have it then? It’s cool.”

  “If you want it,” she said.

  “I do. Here, sign the bottom for me.”

  She did, feeling a little strange.

  “Awesome. Now I’m in possession of a certified Cotton Candy original.”

  She laughed. “The first and last piece in her promising art career.”

  “Then I’m even more honored.”

  She stood. “Good. You’re honored, and I’m almost late. I’ll see you later.”

  As she walked back toward Egypt, she thought about what he had said about the scholarship competition and found herself wishing that she actually had taken some real art classes. Maybe then she’d have something worth entering.

  11

  Saturday when Candace arrived at work, it wasn’t Martha, but another supervisor, Ron, who was waiting for her with crossed arms. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Candace said. “What has Lisa signed me up for now?”

  “I can assure you that Lisa has nothing to do with this,” Ron said. “Grab your stuff and go home.”

  “What? Why?” Candace asked, startled.

  “You failed your drug test.”

  “I what?” Candace asked, confused.

  “You failed. As in, the screening showed traces of illegal substances in your system.”

  “No, it couldn’t. I mean, how could it? I don’t do drugs.”