The Summer of Cotton Candy (21 page)

“That’s the other thing I found out. His parents live hours and hours away. He shares a house with a bunch of other guys.”

“Well, he is over eighteen. He can do that,” Tamara said.

“Whose side are you on?” Candace asked.

“Yours. I’m just trying to maybe help you see things a little more objectively.”

“I think it might be a little late for that,” Candace said glumly. “He was pretty upset. I don’t know. Maybe it’s for the best. I mean, where could this relationship really have gone?”

Tamara shook her head. “I don’t know. If you want to get him back, though, it’s probably not too late.”

Candace sighed. “I can’t even think about that at the moment.”

“You look thrashed. You need some sleep.”

“I had a little bit. I think that’s part of the problem. It’s easier to pull an all-nighter than it is to get like two hours of sleep. Next time I’m going to stay in Grandma’s house.”

“Huh?”

“The Little Red Riding Hood ride,” Candace said, stifling a yawn. “Grandma has a comfy bed.”

“If you say so.”

When Candace returned to work on Wednesday, she discovered that the tale of her and Kurt being trapped in the park had grown to epic proportions, complete with a crazed murderer who stalked them all over the park with a butcher knife.

“What?” Candace asked in disbelief as Josh related the tale.

He nodded. “It’s pretty heroic. Everyone thinks you came close to being toasted.”

“That’s ridiculous. Nothing even remotely like that happened.”

“Good luck explaining that. People will just think you’re being modest.”

She was totally amazed. “Was I at least cool and not some helpless wimpy girl?”

“You kicked butt. If it weren’t for you, the police wouldn’t have caught the guy.”

“What police?”

“The ones who made a daring rescue attempt just before dawn, storming the front gates of the park.”

“That’s just crazy.”

Josh shrugged. “Every urban legend begins somewhere. Just wait, you’ll see. There’s already buzz that they’re going to find some way to incorporate it into one of the Halloween mazes.”

“But none of that happened!”

“Doesn’t matter. By next summer, it will be a fact as far as anyone knows.”

“This is too weird,” Candace said, feeling a headache starting.

He laughed. “Just think, someday when you bring your kids here and they find out that it was you, you’ll be a total hero to them.”

“I’d hope I could be a hero to my kids for something I actually did rather than something people said I did.”

When Lisa came to give her a break, Candace noticed that the other girl looked smug.
She probably heard that Kurt and I broke up
, Candace thought.

Sure enough, Lisa said, “Candace, so sorry to hear about you and Kurt. You really hurt his feelings. I’m just glad I could be there to give him a… shoulder… to cry on.”

Candace wanted to punch her. Worse, since Lisa knew what had actually happened, that meant she had to have gotten it from the horse’s mouth. After all, the stories of adventure and murderers didn’t say anything about a messy breakup. “Get out of here, Lisa.”

“But I’m here to give you your break.”

“I don’t need one right now, thank you. Now leave.”

Lisa strutted away.

“Sorry,” Josh said. “I hadn’t heard.”

“It’s okay,” Candace said.

“What happened?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” Candace sighed.

“Cool enough.”

“Tell me again how I stopped the murderer and saved the day?”

He laughed and went over the whole story again in detail, this time adding his own little flourishes. The story became so much more outrageous than even the first telling that Candace finally had to laugh. Fixating on the outrageous tale helped her to stop thinking quite so much about Kurt and about the look of triumph she had seen in Lisa’s eyes.

A week before the great Scavenger Hunt, the entire mood at the park seemed to change. The players, especially the younger ones, stayed later and played harder, as though they could sense summer drawing to an end. Among the referees there was a spirit of restlessness, as of a great change coming that they all were preparing for. In California, the seasons of the year were not nearly as pronounced as they were in most of the rest of the country. At The Zone, though, the seasons were clearly regulated, and soon it would be fall.

Candace’s time at the park was coming to an end. She wasn’t nearly as excited as she had expected to be. She found herself watching some of the year-round referees wistfully. Each of them seemed to be vibrating with a new energy. What would it like to be there for all the events of the coming months?

Candace finally asked Martha about it. The older woman smiled at the question. “Summer is everyone’s least favorite season to work. It’s too crowded, too hot, and too monotonous. What you’re sensing is the anticipation all us old-timers feel when summer draws to a close and we can start to prepare for autumn.”

It made sense. She, herself, was starting to feel anticipation for returning to school. It was her senior year, and she intended to make the most of it.

In addition to the end of summer chaos, there was a steadily building frenzy revolving around the Scavenger Hunt. More teams could be seen every day in the park doing practice runs and team-building exercises. Josh’s team members had taken to holding up signs that said We Want Pizza! as they passed by her cart.

“What is that about?” Sue asked one day, seeing one of the signs go by while she was using her break to chat with Candace.

“I bet Josh that the loser would buy the other’s team pizza.”

Sue looked serious for a moment. “You didn’t involve all of us in that, did you?”

“No, just me. If we lose, I buy them all pizza.”

Sue looked relieved. “And if we win?”

“Josh buys all of us pizza.”

“Well, then, let’s plan to trash them.”

“I just don’t know how. They’ve got it all together, and our team will be lucky not to fall down on the railroad tracks and get run over.”

“You’ve heard of David and Goliath. Where there’s a will, God has a way.”

“I like that,” Candace said, laughing.

“Feel free to use it,” Sue said. “See you later.”

“Later.”

Candace was once again in the Splash Zone, but she hadn’t seen Josh all day. She knew he was scheduled to work, so she wondered if he was okay. When her shift was finally done for the day, he appeared, as if by magic.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

“Special project. Come with me. I want to show you something,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him.

“Where are we going?” she asked, jogging to keep up.

“Somewhere.”

“What’s going on?” Candace asked.

“It’s a surprise,” Josh said.

She let him lead her all the way across the park. Finally they arrived at the picnic area where Tamara had had her birthday party. It looked like there was some party going on. People were milling all around. There were several guys in suits and a lot of refs.

On the platform reserved for entertainment stood several people, and she suddenly recognized one of them.

“Wait, is that —”

“The owner of the park, former quarterback John Hanson? Yup.”

“What is going on?” she asked.

“See for yourself.”

Josh cleared his throat and then spoke loudly, “She’s here.”

Suddenly all faces were turned toward Candace, and people were cheering and clapping. “There’s got to be some mistake,” she said to Josh.

“Nope, no mistake.”

John Hanson spoke loudly into the microphone, “Come on up here, Candace!”

Trembling, she made her way toward the stage. When she reached the edge, he leaned down and offered her his hand to help her up. He then showed her to a seat.

“Ladies and gentlemen. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for coming out today. It’s truly a great occasion.”

There was applause, and Candace sat on her chair, staring at John Hanson’s back. In front of him a sea of people were gathered, listening to his every word with rapt attention.
What was she doing here?

“It isn’t every day that you get to take something you’ve built and make it better. For quite a while there’s been a team of people brainstorming how to attract more corporate and private events to The Zone. And now, thanks, to the little lady behind me, we have the solution!”

There was more applause as Candace sat there, desperately trying to figure out what was going on.

“And so, I give you the new and improved Party Zone!”

The crowd roared as huge bags of confetti exploded and rained down on everyone. Candace reached out her hand and caught several pieces — pink and green and blue.

“And now, let’s hear from Candace, the referee who gave this place its new name.”

Candace shook her head wildly, but John hauled her to her feet and dragged her toward the microphone. “Speech!” people in the crowd began shouting.

It was like a scene straight out of one of her nightmares, with the exception that she wasn’t standing in her underwear. She glanced down quickly just to make sure.

“I don’t know what to say,” she spoke into the microphone. “I mean, I don’t know, somehow the name seemed like a nobrainer to me.”

A roar of laughter greeted that.

“What can I say, really? This is the strangest day yet in the weirdest, coolest summer of my life,” she said.

The crowd laughed. “I mean, half the time I can’t even seem to get my cotton candy cart to do what I want.” More laughter followed.

“So, I guess I’d just like to thank all of you for helping me out and being so nice. Thank you.”

She tried to retreat back to her seat, but John caught her hand. “Hold on, there’s one more thing left to do,” he said.

Candace just stared, barely believing what was happening. Suddenly he handed her a pair of giant scissors. She grasped them awkwardly.

“And now, my dear, if you would be so kind as to cut the ribbon and declare this Party Zone open for business,” he said, maneuvering her over to the side of the stage where a big red ribbon was strung.

She swung the scissors around and brought them to bear on the ribbon, and with a snip the ribbon dropped to the ground.

The crowd cheered its approval, and Candace seriously considered fainting. John took the scissors from her and whispered, “You can leave now if you like.”

She nodded and hopped off the stage with the help of Josh.

“That was awesome!” he told her.

She punched him in the shoulder. “Is this your doing?”

“Nope, you’ve got your supervisor to thank for that.”

“Great. Can you just get me out of here?” she asked.

He nodded and led the way through the press of the crowd. From the looks of things, half the players were in attendance along with every ref not actively working.

They made it through finally, and Josh walked her toward the Locker Room. Out in the clear she began to breathe easier.

“Trust me,” he said, “this falls under the category of days you’ll look back on and cherish.”

“Right now it’s just falling under the category of bizarre. Thanks for helping me get out of there.”

“Hey, that’s what friends do, right? They keep each other’s secrets and help each other out.”

“I guess so.”

“And speaking of secrets, I think you owe me a new one. The old one’s kinda outdated,” he said.

“It’s a deal.”

“Candace!” Candace spun around to see Tamara rushing after her. “You were awesome!” her friend said, cheeks flushed and out of breath.

“Thanks. I felt like an idiot. I didn’t even know all that was going to happen,” Candace said, hugging Tamara. “Wait a minute, how come you’re here?”