Free Puppet Pandemonium by Diane Roberts

me.
    Waldo called Bubba to the front of the class. At first Bubba refused, but after lots of urging, he reluctantly came forward.
    “Listen, Bubba,” Waldo said. “Baker can't do his job alone. He needs a good stage manager. Someone he can count on to keep the prop and scenery kids in line. Think you could do it?”
    “Huh?” Bubba said.
    “Baker needs help big-time,” Waldo said.
    “Well …”
    “You'll be the boss,” Waldo said. “They'll have to listen to you.”
    This made Bubba's eyes widen. “Maybe. I'll think about it,” he said, and sat down.
    When Gram left, everyone clapped and clapped. They had laughed in all the right places. Waldo spun his head around and blinked his eyes. “Not bad for my first time out,” he said. “Not bad at all.”

T he first day of the festival finally arrived. Franklin was overflowing with visitors. There were people everywhere. There was a parade that night, and fireworks, too.
    “Hey, Dad!” I yelled over the noise of the Franklin High School band marching down the street. “This is awesome!” He nodded and waved to people he'd grown up with as they rode on floats down the center of Main Street. They were whooping and yelling like wild cowboys.
    “Look over there,” Dad said, pointing. A cowboy rode a longhorn steer with only a rope around its neckto guide it. “That's old Bull Corn,” Dad said. “There has been a longhorn steer in this parade for as long as I can remember.”
    Gram was having a ball too. She loved a parade.
    “Maybe Ricky can be in the parade next year,” Dad said.
    “I don't know,” Gram said, shaking her head. “Seems to me they should invite Waldo. He would really like it.” She winked at me.
    Buffalo Gulch's band was just as loud as Franklin's, and Murray and Hannah were waving to everyone they knew, which was a lot of people.
    “Look,” Murray called. I looked up and was startled to see a real buffalo being led by two men from Buffalo Gulch. Cheers went up as he passed. He had a blanket draped over his back that said in big purple letters, GO BUFFALOS! I had never seen a real buffalo before!
    My dad gave me a wad of cash, and Murray and Hannah and I took off for the rides. The Ferris wheel went up higher than the treetops. I felt like I could see for a million miles.
    “No!” I yelled when the wheel climbed to the very top. My stomach did double flips. We rode it five times until I felt dizzy. The carousel blared out music from the calliopes. There were a million lights covering it, and the line of people wanting to ride stretched all the way to the courthouse. The music reminded me of theorgan music that had played back in Seattle at the Wonderful World of Puppets.
    We rode the Tilt-A-Whirl and went through the haunted house four times. Finally, we were ready to eat. Kids from our class were walking around the festival together. Hannah introduced me to some people from Buffalo Gulch.
    “C'mon,” Hannah said. “Let's get some food.” Every food booth we passed looked and smelled delicious. We tasted everything from corn dogs to cotton candy to candied apples. The vendors served Frito pie, funnel cakes, fried potatoes, jumbo onion rings, fried Twinkies, ice cream, sodas, apple pies, corn on the cob, Texas barbecue, turkey legs, and buttered popcorn. They even had fried Oreos.
    “Let's see you try your Oreo method on that,” Murray told Hannah.
    She patted her stomach. “I just might.”
    Big tents were scattered on the courthouse lawn. Inside were all the contest entries. “There are your mom's cakes!” Hannah cried, running over to a table covered with a red-checked cloth. Mom had entered three desserts in the competition. For the past two weeks, our house had smelled like the corner bakery on the square. I think she'd even slept in her apron. Murray, Hannah, and I had stopped by the kitchen every afternoon to sample.
    “Keep this up, Carole, and you might get elected mayor one day,” Gram had told her after taking a