The Beginning Read Online Free PDF Page B

an arrow, but now you really couldn’t tell what shape it was. We turned the way we thought the arrow was pointing, to the left. We followed the gravel path to the gravel parking lot. There were maybe twenty other cars in the lot.
    “Well, I don’t feel so bad now. Someone must be here,” Frankie said.
    “Yeah, at any rate we’re not the only ones.”
    “Unless, of course the cars belong to the employees,” Frankie joked. At least I think it was a joke.
    We parked the car and walked the gravel pathway toward the park entrance. At least we were hoping that’s what the sign said. When we came out of the foliage we saw one small, carnival like ticket booth. The girl sitting in it was reading a magazine and chewing gum. We had to knock on the window to get her attention.
    She looked up at us and simply said, “What do ya want?”
    I let Frankie take this one. If I had to speak I probably would have yelled at her.
    “Good morning. Two adults, please.”
    She looked at him. “Ya never been here before, huh?”
    “No, ma’am, we have not.”
    “Well, go in. If you like it you can pay when you leave. Saves me from having to give you your money back.”
    With that she turned back to her magazine and ignored us. Frankie and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and went in.
    Again we walked along a gravel path that was overgrown with trees. We were walking for what seemed like several minutes. I was starting to wonder if we were ever going to get there when the pathway opened up to a very wide area. You could tell the ground was once painted yellow. We were in the area called the sun. We knew that because we saw a large, much worn sign that said “The Sun”.
    Going down that same pole there were other signs directing you to the other “planets” in the park. They were: Planet Kids, Planet Super, Planet Future, Planet Dinosaur, Planet West, Planet Movie, Planet Magic, and Planet Fairy Tale. Simple names, but you knew how each planet was themed
    “Well, where do you want to start?” Frankie asked me.
    “Wish I had a map,” I said.
    “Yeah, I haven’t seen one and that oh so polite lady in the box didn’t offer one. Maybe there aren’t any.”
    “Ok, let’s start from top down. The second arrow from the top says Planet Kids. Let’s go there first.”
    “Ok. Makes as much sense as anything else I’ve seen here today.”
    We walked along another gravel path way to Planet Kids. The very first thing we came to was a carousel. The horses weren’t as creepy as the ones in my dream or even in the book, but they weren’t that far off either. The carousel wasn’t running but it was playing music. The music coming from it was once cheerful, I guessed, but whatever was being used to play the music was pretty worn out and the sound was more like a record album left in the sun.
    I hadn’t noticed, but there was a man painting one of the horses by hand. He looked up at us and smiled. “Hi, folks, would you like to take a ride on her?”
    I looked toward the voice. It was Jerome from the restaurant last night. He was dressed in jean shorts, a white t-shirt, and white tennis shoes. At least I assumed his shoes were once white, right now they were kind of grey and had paint splattered on them. He was also wearing his name tag from the restaurant.
    “Hello, again,” he said smiling. “I remember you from the restaurant last night. What are you doing here?”
    “We came for a visit, wanted to check the place out. I’m sorry did you say you remembered us?” I said.
    “Yes, ma’am, you and the gentleman here stood out because you weren’t from around here.”
    “You’re just off the highway; don’t you get a lot of people from out of town in the restaurant?” Frankie asked.
    “Sometimes. But usually when they see the condition of our town, they just stay in their room till morning.”
    Frankie and I just looked at each other. That was the impression we got too. In fact, we almost did that.
    “Jerome,