Writer's Games: Carnival

Finals: Yukiko Scarlet

"Stay away you meanie clown!" Yuki shouted.

The mean clown lurched closer to Yuki across the balance beam. He scared Yuki. She reached out and pushed his leg off the beam. She scurried backwards to the safety of a solid ground underneath her feet.

The clown swayed back and forth. He fell off the balance beam to the ground fall below. That was what he deserved for being such a scary clown.

Yuki crawled forward to peek at him. His mask had come off in the fall. A frown came across her face. She had thought the clown was one of the mean men. The clown wasn't one of the mean men.

Oh well. He had seemed so very scary as a clown, after all.

Yuki turned away from the balance beam to find her way to another way out of the funhouse. She just wanted to get out of the carnival and find her momma and her mummy and cry. Crying wasn't a very big girl thing, but Yuki figured it was appropriate to cry once this was all over.

This fun house seemed to go on forever. And even worse, a headache started to pound in Yuki's head. Everything around her started to seem foggy.

She ran as fast as she could to get out of the house. Finally an exit loomed in her sight.

A small started to grow on Yuki. She ran faster towards the opening. She jumped out of the funhouse with a happy squeal.

And found herself falling from high up to the ground. Yuki let out a cry and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Is this really our only option?" A hoarse voice asked. Momma!

"I never should have taken her to the carnival," Kiri's voice said bitterly.

Kiri! Kiri wasn't in a forever sleep!

"It's not your fault," Mum's voice said. "You couldn't have known that that horrible Rioux would run a stoplight..."

Yuki heard footsteps then Papa's voice say, "That was the lawyer. He said the case is as good as won."

Yuki's eyes flew open.

"Yukiko?" Her Momma gasped.

"Momma?" Yuki's voice hurt as if she had a cold. She ignored it to ask about the questions on her mind. "Where? Where am I? Where were you? Where are Vi-Vi and Ellie and Rigby?"

Momma stroked Yuki's cheek and held her hand. "You're at the doctor's office, Yuki. I've been here with you the whole time."

Yuki began to cry despite her desire to act like a big girl. "But you weren't there! I was stuck in the carnival with the bad grownups and my friends Vi-Vi and Ellie and Rigby went away and I was all alone!"

"You're not all alone now," Momma said.

"But- but," Yuki's lip quivered, "Where's Vi-Vi? I thought I sawed her minutes ago."

Mum spoke up in a voice that Yuki was not meant to hear. "Mrs. Rigby's daughter was named Viola. And the Mercer kids, the other little ones they hit, that lost the battle a few days ago: they were called Eleanor and Rigby."

Yuki suddenly found she could hear someone crying from the room next to hers. Was that Vi-Vi's mommy? She thought it was.

Kiri sat down on the other side of Yuki, effectively distracting Yuki from all the topics that had just been at hand. "How you feeling?" Kiri asked.

"Now that you're here, I'm the bestest!" Yuki said. She tried to sit up but found herself coughing instead.

Momma stroked Yuki's hair. "Take it easy, Yuki. Do you want something to eat?"

"Course I do," Yuki exclaimed, "I feels like I haven't ate-ed in forever!"

Momma let out a light laugh. The sound made Yuki giggle.

"I can get that," Papa said from the back of the room.

"Thank you," Yuki sang. The words ended in another cough.

Momma's hand moved to hold Yuki's. "Is there anything else I can get for you, honey?"

This sounded like a very important question, so Yuki thought very hard. "Yes," she decided. "You can promise that I'll never ever have to go to the carnival ever again."