Merry Go Round Wanted To Go Home Essay - 3,891 words

I use processes that are most common among my peers to select my books. I usually have one of my parental units, usually my mom, to go out and look for books. This is the way it happens because up until now I had no mode of transportation. I have faith in my mother to make a good choice; she usually does, for she knows most of my likes and most of my dislikes.


This is how its been for a long time, but at least she can pick some pretty interesting books. Three unfamiliar words / unfamiliar usages Alighieri meaning hell or some hellish place Ironmongery heavily tooled, worked, and strangely shaped iron The seller of the lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm in a green town in Illinois, in late October. The lightning rod salesman calls to the boys and asks if their folks are home, they say no. He asks if they have any money, the boys shook their heads. He then asks them their names.


William Halloway and Jim Nightshade the boys reply. The boys begin to tell their story on how they were born only minutes apart around Halloween. The lightning rod salesman decides to give the boys a rod for free because, he feels a storm is coming and its going to hit Jims house. The contraption was covered in ancient dialects, the language of the storms. He goes on about the storm that is going to hit.


Its going to be no ordinary storm, the lightning rod salesman says. He says his name is Tom Furry and for the boys to hammer it high on the roof. Tom totes his bag of contraptions and walks on as the boys nail the rod up. The boys head down to the library for their weekly run. They get to the library and Jim heard some strange music off in the distance. Wills dad meets the boys there; he works as a janitor and is quite old.


The boys looked at some dinosaur books, they all discuss the books that they have picked and they head for home. They are upset that the storm is not coming because; they wanted to see the house get hit by lightning. Charles Halloway wants to run home with the boys, but he stops himself. He thought, Will runs because running is its own excuse.


Jim runs because there is something up ahead. Yet they run together. He wonders why the boys are together because they are complete opposites. He tries to place it, but cant. He heads to the bar for a drink, talks to some people about things, and what was a long time ago. The boys get down town and take their time.


The shop lights are on and people are scurrying about. Will comments, Folks run like they thought the storm was here! It is. Jim shouted, Us. Then the city became dead as they rounded the cigar shop. They saw Mr.


Tetley and said, Hi. They heard something far away on the wind, but couldnt say what it was. They see Mr. Crosetti crying, as they run by. Jim and Will sell Licorice and cotton candy, they stop to talk to Mr. Crosetti about the smells, they cant agree on where it comes from.


Charles heads for home whistling Christmas songs. He passes a store with two sawhorses with a block of ice on them and a man leaving the shop waved to him, he had hairy palms on his hands. Charles reads a sign for a carnival inside, and its written in bold, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD. He did not believe it, it was nothing but frozen river water to him yet he stared long and hard at the block. Jim stopped at the corner of Hickory Street where he saw Will. This is the street where they used to steal apples, plums, and apricots, but the thing happened, it changed the houses, the taste of the fruit, the air.


The street changed from houses, trees, plums, apples, and apricots, to one house with a window, than a stage with actors. The boys looked in through the window, they dont know whats going on, and everything is changing around them. They jump down from the window, Jim suddenly had two library books in his hands, but the boys had not been to the library. Will got a head of Jim and Jim yelled at Will to slow down. Then Jim disappeared, Will just kept running for home, telling himself not to look back. Halfway to home Jim caught up to Will and said no one was home.


Then a piece of paper came blowing towards them. They let it go fluttering in the wind, but it came back to them. The paper read, COMING OCTOBER TWENTY-FOURTH! ! COOGER AND DARKS CARNIVAL! ! Which was tomorrow. The boys read all the names of all the acts, the made-up names of the carnies, and freaks.


Then the wind whipped the paper from their hands. They dont believe the paper. They hear a strange music, smell cotton candy, and licorice, but carnivals dont start at night, only at sunrise. The boys get home and say good night. Will sees his parents in the house doing their usual things, cooking, and knitting. Then it hit him, how small and insignificant they all were in such a huge world, and they were at the mercy of it.


His mother is happy, he doesnt know why. He sees his father, all that is there is a blur of a man, nothing more of him. His dad makes insignificant jokes, but all Will can think about is the carnival. He goes up stairs to his room and puts his ear to the wall to listen to his parents. A man with posters comes up and informs Wills parents about the carnival.


They were surprised, as they read over the names. Will thought to himself, There is something going on. He saw the same paper that they had earlier in his tree and it read, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD. He hides under his covers and just remembers he has Jims books. He keeps saying to himself that there cannot be a carnival because they do not come this late in the year.


Jim lay in his bed noticing he still had his library books in his hand. Thinking about what his mother once said, that he almost died when he was three. A boy who talked less and smiled less as the years increased. The trouble with Jim was, he looked at the world and could not look away, and when you never look away all your life, by the time you are thirteen, you have done twenty years taking in the laundry of the world. He sits there and talks to his mother about things. Jim looks out his window for the storm; he feels it and decides to take down the rod to see what will happen.


Just after midnight the lightening rod salesman looks through a store window where he saw a block of ice. Inside of it was the most beautiful woman in the world just sleeping, trapped in the ice, forever young. The lightening rod salesman remembered to breath. White moths are tapping against the storm windows. Long ago traveling in Rome and Florence, he had seen women like this, kept in stone instead of ice and in Louver, he found women like this kept in paintings rather than ice. He wonders the color of her hair, how tall is she and what color are her eyes.


But he new the color of her eyes even if she did not open them. He enters the cold store, moths tapping at the window. Midnight, Will heard something. He sat up in bed. Across the way, Jim sat up also.


Simultaneously they both lean toward their windows. They thought they heard a calliope. A train appeared, the engine, coal-car, and numerous cars that followed. The engine? The boys were puzzled.


Simultaneously both boys vanished coming back with binoculars. The engine? No other train like that since 1900? The rest of the train is all odd, its the carnival train. The boys listened; it sounds like church music. The boys think, Why would a carnival train have church music?


Jim shouted out his window, Lets go watch them set up! Will hollered back. The boys described the train as a funeral train while they slide down the drainpipes after it. Will cried, Jim wait! Jim was a kite with the string cut, running after that train. Will catches up as they are yelling at each other.


Jim said, There is no one playing the music. Watching closely as the train crosses the bridge. Will said, No jokes. But they both looked at the calliope pipes and heard the music but no one was playing it.


They continue to chase after the train. Jim and Will had heard train whistles before. They had heard none like this before. The protests of a million people dying, their moans and groans before death. The train stops in a meadow, it was silent like it was dead, no movement, no life. A man came out and made a gesture and the train came to life.


Workers popped out of nowhere with animals. Once everything was all put up, all the workers and all the sounds, the life disappeared. Everything was black and white. Charles Halloway stood in the open library window, he saw the boys and said their names, as was puzzled why they were out at three AM. The boys think about how dead the carnival was. Charles saw the moonlight glimmer off the mirror maze in the far distance.


He thought he would go there, and then he thought, he wont go. He said, I like it. I dont like it, he said. He left for home; he passed the empty store window.


Inside stood two abandoned saw horses, between lay a pool of water. In the water was ice and in between the ice floated strands of hair. It was like the carnival was built by shadows and was one itself. White moth wings lay on the inside windowsill of the store. Wills dad was puzzled and questioned Will about three AM and wondering why the train had come at that time.


They both thought it was a special hour. Women never wake then but men in middle age know that time well. Charles is yelling at Will. Regardless, Will should have never been out.


Charles questions why things are the way they are trying to understand everything about men and women correlating to three AM. The sun was up; both boys peered from their windows then raced to see if the carnival was there. They questioned if last night was a dream. The carnival was there. It was like any other carnival alive and colorful with people about but this does not answer what they saw last night. It was nowhere near the horrors they had seen the night before.


Jim and Will met their seventh grade school teacher, Miss Foley. They asked her if she had heard anything last night. She said, No. The boys were reluctant to let her in the mirror maze. All the hair stood up on the back of the boys necks as they entered the mirror maze to search for Miss Foley. She was walking blind: the boys called for her but they only found cold glass.


They eventually find her. She is all shaken up because she ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: beautiful woman, merry go round, police station, lightning rod, wanted to go home

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