The Summer of Cotton Candy (15 page)

“What is that?” Candace asked finally.

“Class registration. I’m starting at Cal State in a few weeks.” “Cool. I’m thinking of going there,” Candace said. “I’m a senior this year, and I have to start applying in a couple of months.”

“It seems like a good school. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

“Why did you pick it?”

“I needed something close to home.” For just a moment the saddest expression crossed her face. Candace was about to ask her about it when Sue stood up. “Well, that was lunch,” she said, her voice cheery. “At least I can swap an air-conditioned restaurant for an air-conditioned restroom.”

“We should all be so lucky,” Candace groaned.

“Make sure you get some sunscreen on,” Sue said, gathering her papers and heading for the door.

“Sunscreen. Check.”

A few minutes later it was time for Candace to go, especially if she planned on picking up the sunscreen. She retrieved some money from her locker and stopped at the first sundry cart she passed. She bought a bottle of SPF 50 and smeared it on her arms, face, and neck. She took the bottle to her locker, used the restroom, and made it back to her cart five minutes late. Lisa gave her a dirty look.

“I didn’t get a morning break, so I’m entitled to five extra minutes,” Candace said.

She got another dirty look before Lisa trudged off. “And if she has anything to say about it, I won’t be getting an afternoon break, either,” Candace confided to her cart.

The temperature was by now over one hundred, and Candace noticed that the drink and ice-cream carts were getting a lot more customers than her cart or the popcorn and churro ones. “Can’t say I blame them. In this heat I don’t want to
smell
cotton candy, let alone have it sticking all over my hands.”

She hoped the cart would move soon, preferably somewhere where there was some shade. Maybe if she ended up in the Splash Zone she could get Josh to dump a bucket of water over her.

Over in the line for the Founding Fathers of America, two guys began to scuffle. Angry words carried through the warm air. Quick as lightning, security descended and broke it up. Tempers were short and someone in the crowd yelled at one of the security guards.

“Make love, not war, I always say,” a slippery-sounding male voice spoke close to her ear.

Candace jumped and turned to see a guy in his thirties, covered with piercings, leering at her. “Can I help you?” she asked him.

“Oh, yeah, Candy baby, I’m sure you could.” He ran his tongue over his lips and leaned closer.

Her internal creep alarm went off, and she slammed her hand against her red panic button. Moments later the same security officers who had broken up the line fight were at her side, escorting the jerk away. She shuddered as he looked back over his shoulder and made kissing motions at her.

An hour later she heard over her intercom that they had shut the front gates because the park had reached capacity. More than a hundred thousand people were in the park, and the shuffle of bodies only added to the heat and the rising tensions. By the time her afternoon break came around, Candace had witnessed two more fights and numerous family “incidents.” The afternoon parade started up, led by a full marching band. It began in the Holiday Zone and wound its way around to end close to the front gates. The music was nearly deafening. Parents were screaming, kids were crying, and Candace’s head was pounding.

A guy walked up, and she eyed him suspiciously. The noise of the band was still deafening, so he held up his index finger to indicate one cotton candy. He handed her a bill and she gave him his change before beginning to twirl a cone around the tub.

Finally the band passed and the noise lessened. She handed him the cotton candy as he looked at her name tag.

“Candy. That’s a pretty name. Appropriate too, given where you’re working. You like it here, Candy?”

“Okay, that’s it. I know your type, creep, so just back off. The name is Candace, but even if it was Candy that doesn’t give you the right to make insinuations or hit on me or whatever. I’ve had it. Get out of here before I call security!”

The guy backed off, hands raised in front of him. Nearby, several people had stopped to stare, and with a sinking feeling she saw that one of them was Lisa, who was smirking. Candace turned and walked straight to the nearest break area, ducked into the restroom, and splashed water on her face.

“Not good. So not good,” she muttered to herself. She replayed it all in her head and realized that she wasn’t completely sure whether he had been insinuating something or had just been friendly. “We’re never supposed to yell at players. Never ever. Well, at least now they have an actual reason to fire me.”

Ten minutes later Martha found her there. She shouldn’t have been surprised. Lisa probably radioed the whole thing in and told Martha where to find her.

“Tough day?”

Candace just laughed bitterly. “Do I seem to have any other kind?”

“No, you’ve got just about the worst luck of anyone I’ve ever seen. Well, barring Roger, of course.”

“I screwed up,” Candace admitted. “I feel like an idiot. You know, I’ve never gotten into a fight in my life? And now in the last two weeks I’ve ended up screaming at three different people. What’s wrong with me? Do I have some sort of repressed anger issues?”

Martha patted her shoulder. “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just being tried, tested, and pushed to your limits. That can be very painful and often frightening as well. I’d be worried if you didn’t blow up every once in a while. At least, to the best of my knowledge, you lose it in appropriate directions.”

“That guy?”

“Security’s been looking for him for the last two hours since he propositioned an ice-cream referee who’s even younger than you.”

“Wow, extra creepy.”

“Yeah.”

“But?” Candace asked.

Martha shrugged. “You still yelled at a player. Several other players have already complained.”

“Great. So am I totally fired?”

Martha laughed. “No. Usually you’d be suspended for four days. However, since you’ve had your share of false accusations lately, I’m going to let you off with a one-day suspension.”

“Tomorrow?”

“No, whatever you have left of today.”

“But that’s only two hours.”

Martha smirked. “Then I’d say you got off lucky. Now get out of here. The hottest part of the day is still ahead of us, and I’m sure you’d like to miss that.”

Candace hugged Martha before taking off. She managed to make it home in twenty minutes, which had to be some kind of record. She stripped out of her sweaty uniform and donned cool shorts and a tank top. She put aloe on her burned arms and settled down with a book to enjoy her air-conditioned room.

A couple hours later her parents headed out to their friends’ house for their annual Fourth of July barbeque. Candace was not in the mood to celebrate. She missed Tamara and still couldn’t understand what had happened between them. They usually spent the Fourth of July together laughing and stuffing their faces with hot dogs. It just didn’t seem right without her.

“You’re sure you don’t want to come?” her mother asked as she was leaving.

“I’ll be fine. Besides, I might go out later with some friends,” Candace said, mostly to reassure her mom.

“Okay, have a good evening, honey,” her dad said.

She had the house to herself, and she celebrated by eating cake for dinner. She had just settled onto the couch with the remote control when there was a knock at the door.

She ran to see who it was and surprised to see Kurt standing on the doorstep. She opened the door. “Come in,” she invited him.

He came inside, looking around as though worried about where her parents were. “They’re out,” she said after a few seconds.

“Oh,” he said, visibly relaxing.

“What’s up?”

“I just came to see if you were okay. I heard what happened today.”

“About how the creepy guy hit on me and I yelled at him, or that I got suspended?”

“All of it,” he said.

She shrugged. “I’m fine. Much better than when that supervisor accused me of taking drugs.”

Kurt nodded. She felt like asking him why he hadn’t come by then but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He was here now, and that was what was important.

“So, I was wondering,” he asked after a moment. “Would you like to take a walk to the park?”

“The Zone?” she asked.

“No, the park park. You know, grass, trees, swings. There’s going to be a fireworks display a little later.”

“Sure, that would be great. Just give me a minute.” Candace ran upstairs to put on her tennis shoes. She stuffed some cash in her pocket just in case. She could put her key in the other pocket and be purse free. She was headed back downstairs when she realized that this was technically their second date.

She froze halfway down, wondering if she should go back upstairs and change, or at least put on makeup, brush her teeth, or something. But he had already seen her and was waiting by the front door ready to go. Too late. Candace continued down the stairs, grabbed her key off the hook near the door, and they were off.

The park was only four blocks from her house. The sun hadn’t set yet, and the air was very warm, but not nearly as scorching as it had been earlier in the day. Candace’s burned arms were beginning to tingle, and she was grateful that she had applied sunscreen when she did.

As they walked they chatted. Kurt had a wealth of knowledge about esoteric history trivia, thanks to his time spent working in that part of The Zone. She thought she could listen to him tell stories and anecdotes for hours and never get bored.

When he paused, she asked, “So, did Deborah ever beat Benjamin Franklin with a rolling pin?”

“What?” he asked. “Where did you hear that?”

“Nowhere,” she laughed. “It was something I made up earlier today.”

“Okay, clearly you are seriously deranged,” he said, also laughing.

Laughing felt nice. Actually anything that wasn’t crying or screaming felt nice. When they reached the park, they hunted until they found a nice grassy spot with a clear view of the sky.

“I should have brought something for us to sit on,” Kurt said.

“A little dirt and grass never hurt,” she said, finding a place on the cool ground.

The sun began to set and the moon shimmered on the horizon. “I’d love to travel to the moon someday,” she said. “Do you think we’ll ever have a chance to?”

“I don’t know, maybe. Did you know that Robert E. Lee’s horse was named Traveller?”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah. Someone even wrote a historical novel from his point of view.”

“From the horse’s. Seriously?”

“Yup. Richard Adams, same guy that wrote
Watership Down
, wrote the book.”

“Wow. That is cool and bizarre. Have you read it?”

“No. It’s on my list, though.”

“What else is on your list?”

“Lots of stuff. Look, it’s dark.”

He was right. The sun had finally set, and the skies were dark. He glanced at his watch. “Fireworks should start any minute now.”

As if on command, a rocket burst in the night sky, signaling the start of the show. Candace watched for a moment in rapt amazement. Pink, purple, green, red, blue, and white bursts lit the sky, some exploding with a bang and others with a sizzle. Candace thought briefly of Tamara. They had been watching fireworks together since they were four. She wondered what Tamara was doing tonight. She forced her thoughts away from her old friend and onto the light show above her.

Candace had always been amazed by the beauty of fireworks, and she marveled more the older she got. Sometimes a single rocket went up by itself while others exploded in groups of three and four. She admired the people who spent so much time orchestrating something so unique, so beautiful. It made her ache inside.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Very much so,” Kurt answered.

She turned and saw that he was staring at her instead of the fireworks. Her breath caught as she stared at him, so close in the darkness. He bent close and kissed her just like in a fairy tale, and the fireworks continued to shine and sparkle and boom around them as time itself stood still.

The next day was supposed to be even hotter than the Fourth, but they lucked out and continuous cloud cover all day kept the air much cooler. Candace was still prepared, though, and was wearing plenty of sunscreen. Her arms were only mildly pink from the day before, and she wanted to keep it that way.

About halfway through her day, Martha came by to check on her. “Now remember, if some guy harasses you —”

“I push the red button,” Candace said.

“And if someone starts something —”

“I push the red button.”

“And if someone pushes your buttons?”

“Then I definitely push the red button.”

“Very good,” Martha said. “Now that you’ve passed that little test, would you be up for something different?”