the five people you meet in heaven genre

A barker would ballyhoo the oddity, and it was a barker's voice that Eddie heard now. They were forced to sit in booths or on stages, sometimes behind bars, as patrons walked past them, leering and pointing. There were men who swallowed swords, women with beards, and a pair of Indian brothers whose skin went rubbery from being stretched and soaked in oils, so it hung in bunches from their limbs.Įddie felt sorry for the sideshow cast. There were conjoined twin sisters, who shared a spine and played musical instruments. There was Jolly Jane, who weighed over 500 pounds and needed two men to push her up the stairs. 'Look well upon this savage, born into a most peculiar handicap'Įddie peered into the entrance. Eddie recalled them shutting this down at least 50 years ago, about the time television became popular and people didn't need sideshows to tickle their imagination. 'How about him, ladies and gentlemen? Have you ever seen such a horrible sight?.'Įddie was standing by an empty ticket kiosk in front of large theater. A voice, tinny, as if coming through a megaphone. But the running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.Īnd then Eddie stopped running. It might have seemed ridiculous to anyone watching, this stout old man in a brown maintenance jersey, all alone, making like an airplane.

He lowered his chin and held his arms out like a glider and every few steps he would jump, the way children do, hoping running will turn to flying. He ran down the heart of the old midway, where the weight guessers, fortune tellers and dancing gypsies had once worked. He explored his body like an infant, fascinated by the new mechanics, a rubber man doing a rubber man stretch. So limber, in fact, he could touch behind his ankles, and raise a leg to his belly. On the outside, he looked the same as it had that morning: a squat, barrel-chested old man in a cap and shorts and a brown maintenance jersey. In the last ten years, he had forgotten what it was like to walk without wincing, or to sit without struggling to find comfort for his lower back.

He walked in a circle, then a backwards circle. Aside from his lack of voice, he felt incredible, as pain-free as a first grader. He mouthed a 'Hey!' but nothing came from his throat. Over there, jutting into the sky, was the original Ferris wheel - in its pristine white paint - and beyond that the streets of his old neighborhood and the rooftops of the crowded brick tenements, with laundry lines hanging from the windows.Įddie tried to yell, but his voice was raspy air. Over there was the Loop The Loop ride - which had been torn down decades ago - and over there the bathhouses and the saltwater swimming pools which had been razed in the 1950's.

This was the Ruby Pier of his childhood, some 75 years ago, only everything was new, freshly scrubbed. Ride The Whipper - The Sensation of the Age!Įddie blinked hard.

The five people you meet in heaven genre