Joy at the Fairgrounds

When I was about to recount this experience, I was a schoolboy at St. Paul's. As we would today describe them, my parents were "swingers," thus I was one of the few boarders. Naturally, I was unaware of that at the time. They just said they had "business to attend to," so I spent months at a time being sent to St. Pauls.

In any case, I had gone to the kitchens on a calm Saturday in May to get some milk for a cup of tea I had just brewed. The kitchen maid, Sally, was standing there with a sink full of dishes and her arms up to her chubby elbows. "Hello, Sally. What is that odor?" I enquired. There was an awful smell, similar to the dreaded deathly-cooked boiled cabbage that was served four times a week.

"Hey, Master Saul, hello. I apologize; I just let one slip.

"Do you mean that you threw out some food that went bad?"

"No, you fool! I just farted, really. "I wasn't expecting no one to come in, Master Saul," she laughed. In any case, why have you come to the kitchen? Covered in suds, she placed the final plate onto the strainer and used a towel to dab at her crimson hands and arms.

"Well, I was simply asking for some milk, please.

She grinned. She had a friendly disposition. "Of course, and did you know, Master Saul, that a fairground has come to town?"

"No."

"Look, this afternoon is all the masters' away. Would you like to travel with me? Nobody will be aware of it.

Well, I was naive as a bit of flint when I was young and disregarded caution. "Yes, please."

And so I found myself having Sally show me around the stalls. She was a pretty girl, not too unlike me, though perhaps not that much older than me, despite her slight weight. I didn't feel awkward because I was among many children who had their parents or guardians with them at the time (this was all many years ago).

Well, Sally was capable of more. She grabbed three darts from a man who appeared to be a Toby Jug and threw them all into the same area to win a massive teddy bear. "Hold on to it, sweetie, we'll get it later."

I tried my hand at the coconut shy but declined to attempt darts. Ten feet and seven feet were the two markers; the latter was for minors. I paid six pence for six small hard wooden balls, which I hurled as hard as I could in the direction of the coconut that appeared to be the closest. My previous ball only managed to catch it on the edge, causing it to somewhat wobble.

"This is for you, let me try it," Sally remarked, passing her sixpence. She received a meager five balls in exchange. The man smiled and said, "Six for kids, five for adults, but you can throw from the kiddie's mark."

The smile, however, was quickly removed from his face when Sally's first ball struck the one I had been going for so hard that, although it was probably glued in, it virtually flew off of its stand. The reward was a goldfish in a plastic bag, which Sally gave right away to a small child wearing pigtails who was standing close by with her happy caregiver, applauding Sally's skill.

The phantom train was next to be boarded. Sally took my hand in the dark and put it wherever it had never been before, but I won't claim that she corrupted me. This was going to be an incredible ride!