Carnival of Death Read Online Free

place to ply her trade.
    “And what might that be?” he asked, never losing the smile.
    “I’m a palm reader.”
    “You any good?”
    Gloria was tempted to pad her résumé but thought it might not be wise. She said, “Pretty good.”
    “Follow me,” Cap’n Bob said. He led her to a big trailer in the back of the lot, opened the door, and motioned her inside.
    Gloria had a momentary flashback to her experience with the cop, but she could handle herself better now. If the cap’n gave her any trouble, he’d be sorry.
    Cap’n Bob didn’t try anything funny, however. When they were inside, he put out a hand and said, “Show me.”
    Gloria took his hand, pretended to study it, and gave him some of the usual baloney about his life line and his heart line, explaining what each one meant and elaborating on the shape and length of his.
    “You’ll do,” the cap’n said, taking back his hand. “Do you have a costume?”
    “I can come up with something.”
    The cap’n seemed satisfied with that answer, and he explained the percentage of the take he’d get for allowing her to work the carnival.
    “That’s to pay for your booth space and my traveling expenses,” he said. “You can rent a spot in one of my trailers or buy your own.”
    “I’ll rent a spot for now.”
    “I’ll put you in a trailer with one of the other performers. When do you want to start?”
    “Tonight would be fine.”
    “I’ll set it up,” the cap’n said, and Gloria had been with the carnival ever since. It was a good enough life, better than a lot she could think of, and she’d grown to feel as if the carnival was her home and the carnies her family. She didn’t mind the traveling, and she felt safe and happy most of the time.
    Not anymore. Not since things had started happening to her, things she didn’t understand at all.
    She’d developed a good line as Madame Zora. She could string most people along for ten or fifteen minutes with no trouble at all, feeding them a line of bull that they seemed eager to hear and believe. If it made them happy, what was the harm? She didn’t believe any of it herself, and there was no harm in that either.
    No harm in any of it, until a few weeks ago. Just about the time when that new security man had started to work. Matt Axton, he called himself, but Gloria knew better.
    He’d arrived, and that was when things had started to happen. Gloria had started to see things, real things, not just lines in hands but things that were going to happen. She knew they were going to happen.
    At first it was nothing much, like she knew a man was going to stumble when he left her tent, or she knew a woman was going to forget her purse. Little things that wouldn’t seem to mean much, maybe, but they gave Gloria a little bit of a hollow feeling inside.
    After that, a man came in and after looking at his hand she knew that he’d lost his grandfather’s pocket watch. More than that, she knew exactly where it was. When she told him, he couldn’t believe it, but he rushed out of the tent to go home to look. Gloria knew he’d find it. She should’ve felt good about that, excited that she seemed to have the gift after all. But she wasn’t excited. She was scared. Something had happened. She’d changed, and she didn’t know why.
    She remembered one particular day when a tall man walked into her tent. A woman was with him, and they were both smiling, happy to be together, having a fine time at the carnival.
    “Hey,” the man said. “You must be Madame Zora.”
    “Yes, I am she,” Gloria said. Among the other things she’d learned from Frances, she’d picked up a few rules of good grammar. “Please be seated.”
    The man looked at the woman, and they both laughed. “Can you do us both at once?” the man asked.
    Gloria didn’t smile. The hollow feeling was back, and it was worse. “Not for the single price.”
    The couple laughed again, and the man said, “Didn’t expect you to.” He pulled a