Dermot and Sally, The End (or the Beginning) of a Fairy Tale

Photo courtesy of www.kltworks.com

Albert rubbed the stubble on his chin. He liked to contemplate with the prickle poking his fingers. And especially much when all his customers were happy. This new batch though, they looked more complicated than the last. You see, being a Ferris wheel operator wasn’t as easy as it seemed. And Albert was even good at it.  

Every person likes to sit next to someone nice. Nice to talk to, nice to smell, nice to look at, nice to listen to, and hopefully even nice enough to want to share your food with. So when Albert looked out at the ticket holders and saw that most of them weren’t family or lovers but singles, he knew he had a lot of magic to weave. And that wouldn’t normally be a problem for Albert because, as everyone at the fairgrounds knew, Albert was good at what he did. What was a problem though, were the two odd balls.

The first one was a man. The second one was a woman. And they were a bit weird. No one wanted to sit next to a weirdo. It just wasn’t nice.

The man’s arms were filled with food. Albert couldn’t see everything but he did see a big bag of popcorn, a bunch of carrots with their greens still on, a box of wheat thins, a roll of Ritz, two canisters of Pringles, cotton candy, at least two fairground baked elephant ears, a Polish sausage with mustard dripping on the grass, a wedge of cheese, a six pack of root beer, and a couple of chocolate bars that looked as if they might fall out of his pocket at any second. And the guy even had the nerve to blow bubbles with his chewing gum, the only food NOT allowed on the Ferris wheel. Albert sighed.

“I can’t wait to taste all these delicious treats way up high, riding the Ferris wheel like a bird atop  the wind. With all these foods just waiting to be tasted, how can anyone not feel joy? Life is delicious!” said Dermot to himself, taking a bite of a carrot and crunching it right loud.

The woman, who stood a few paces behind the man, was odd too, but in a different sort of way. She was half naked. With only a bikini top and a skirt the size of a wash rag, Albert didn’t know what to make of her. She didn’t even have any shoes on, for Pete’s sake. And she was smiling bigger than-- well, maybe as big as-- now there’s an idea, thought Albert to himself, as he fiddled a little more with the stubble on his chin.

“I can’t wait to feel the sky as it licks my skin, rushing by in a windy frenzy to touch as many people as it can. I’m just so lucky! So lucky I am! I can feel! I am alive! Life is meant to be felt!” said Sally to herself, her arms raised high up in the air.

"Ahhh....would you two mind sharing a chair?” said Albert, overhearing their happy, life-love thoughts.

And just like that, the two odd balls, one enjoying life through flavor, the other through her skin, found themselves each, an open-sensed friend.

*          *          *

“Hey, I’m Dermot.”

“Ya? Well, my name’s Sally. Do you got any red vines in there?”

“Red vines?”

“You know, only the tastiest candy ever made.”

“Seriously?

“Seriously.”

“Woa. I gotta go get us some. Do you think he’d hold the ride?”