Free How to Curse in Hieroglyphics by Lesley Livingston Page B

then sank swiftly out of sight. Dusky twilight swept over the land, and the car headlights began to appear from the direction of the town, bobbing over the low rise of the road in thedistance—a caravan of automobiles with glowing white eyes, all flocking toward the awesomeness that would be Cheryl and Tweed’s very first programmed Starlight Paradise Creature-Feature Triple-tastic-bill .
    And one by one …
    Turning left …
    Instead of right.
    Cheryl and Tweed stood, mouths agape, as car after car after car flicked on the wrong signal flasher and turned the wrong way to go park in the wrong dang field! Not one single family-packed, double-date or evening-out automobile found its way to the Starlight. The sky overhead darkened to pre-show indigo and the screen stayed dark. For the first time ever that the girls could remember, the screen stayed dark.
    Pops didn’t even turn on the projector.
    He ambled out to meet them as Cheryl and Tweed shuffled, zombie-like, back from the dirt road turnoff. “Well, girls, I guess you can both have the night off,” he said.
    â€œIt’s all our fault!” Cheryl wailed. “Our bill is a bomb!”
    Tweed glowered dejectedly and nodded. “Nuc-u-lar bomb.”
    â€œNow, it surely is not!” Pop exclaimed. “It’s a fine bit of programming and we’ll run it all weekend! You’ll see. Tonight, well .” He waved a hand toward the coloured searchlights that criss-crossed the darkening sky; thesinister tinkle of maniacally cheery music drifted faintly on the evening breeze. “It’s just that everyone’s … well, ‘run off to join the circus,’ so to speak.” Pops sighed a little and tugged on his hat brim. Then he shook his head briskly, fished a handful of five-dollar bills out of the pocket of his overalls and handed them to Pilot and the twins. “You three might as well head on over too. Have a little fun, and get yourself some corndogs for dinner. Just this once, and it’s my treat. Just make sure you’re back before bedtime. And tell Artie when you see him that his mom’s gonna tan his hide good if he doesn’t run along home.”
    The girls exchanged a glance.
    â€œSpeakin’ of bedtime,” Pops said as he ambled off back toward the house, “I think I’ll hit the hay early. Tomorrow, I’ve got some work to do on the mini-golf range.”

8
    SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY WENT!
    P ilot and the girls took off for the carnival, not—as Pops had suggested—because there was any sort of fun to be had, but because evildoings were clearly afoot. Judging by Pops’s offhand comment, Shrimpcake was, indeed, still missing in action—most likely kidnapped by wicked carnival folk or trapped in a vat of cotton candy or something—and the rest of the Wiggins townsfolk had been lured from the drive-in with false promises of “superior” entertainment. Naturally, it was up to Cheryl and Tweed to right those wrongs. And it would most likely be up to Pilot to keep them out of serious trouble while they did.
    The trio jogged through the lines of parked cars, heading toward the carnival’s front gates. Nighttime had transformed the World-O-Wonders’s shabby tentsand rickety rides into a place of mystery—sparkling, shadowy, ever-so-slightly sinister. Faces and forms loomed out of the darkness. Candy-coloured spotlight beams cast a garish glow on the faces of parents and kids as they ambled and scampered from attraction to attraction. The boom of the cannonball guy and the haze of grease smoke from the concessions’ deep-fryers drifted on the air. Rides and riders rattled and shrieked. The tin-canned tinkle and wheeze of carnival music rained down out of loudspeakers and was stirred into the laughter and chatter of the Wiggins folk, most of whom were at that moment drifting toward the Curiosities Exhibit—the tent where Artie Bartleby