The Fall of Candy Corn

by Debbie Viguié

  The class laughed, and Candace trudged up the stairs in misery. Soon she was standing next to her teacher in the center of the stage. He was tall, well over six feet, and incredibly skinny. She had the impression that if she pushed on him just hard enough, he would topple over.

  “Candace, you are going to help me demonstrate a little bit of improvisational theater. Just do as I tell you.”

  “Okay.”

  “Cluck like a chicken.”

  Candace hesitated for a moment and then did her best chicken cluck.

  “Not bad. Now, flap your wings like a chicken.”

  Candace tucked her hands under her arms and flapped them up and down as though they were wings.

  “Good. Now act like you’re wiping your feet on a welcome mat. Wipe them hard, get everything off them.”

  She did as he told her, realizing that it was probably the same scratching motion that chickens made.

  “Very good. Now . . . be a chicken!”

  She clucked and flapped and scratched all at the same time.

  “Excellent! Watch out, the butcher’s coming!”

  She turned and ran back toward the stairs.

  “Bravo! Thank you, Candace, you may take your seat. And that, class, is what we call improv.”

  Candace sat down.

  “That was cool!” Tamara whispered.

  “Just wait until you have to go up there,” Candace said.

  “Now that we have the unexpected out of the way,” Mr. Bailey said, “we can move on to the expected.” He jumped onto the ground and retrieved a stack of papers from a chair set off to the side. “This is your syllabus.”

  “You mean I was the only one who had to embarrass myself today?” Candace burst out before she could stop herself.

  “Yes, and you did it beautifully,” Mr. Bailey said with a smile.

  Candace groaned and slid down in her chair.

  They spent the next half hour going over the class rules and expectations. When it was over, Mr. Bailey made a final announcement. “I’ve been asked to remind any seniors in the class that you need to go to the office to sign up for your meetings with the guidance counselor. Good luck with that. And until tomorrow, so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good-bye.”

  “Nice touch, ending with a quote from a musical,” Tamara said.

  “I’m still mad at you,” Candace said.

  “Don’t be. You’ll never have a first time to get up on that stage again. The rest of us are scared about what we’ll have to do first. You can just relax since the worst of it is over.”

  “Okay, I acknowledge the soundness of your logic, and therefore I forgive you.”

  “Knew you would.”

  “Let’s go get signed up for our meetings.”

  “Right behind you.”

  Ten minutes later they left the office and retrieved the stuff they needed from their lockers before heading for the parking lot.

  “I’m betting the meeting with the guidance counselor will be a huge waste of time,” Tamara said.

  “I hope not. I’m hoping he can help me figure a couple of things out.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like where to go to college, first of all.”

  “Somewhere around here. Maybe Cal State.”

  “Maybe, but there are a lot of colleges to choose from. Maybe I’d be better off somewhere else.”

  “Don’t even joke about that. You are not allowed to move away to college,” Tamara said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m staying here, and I’ll be devastated if you go.”

  Candace was distressed. “Well, I mean who knows? Besides, if I moved away, you could come visit and that would be totally awesome.”

  “No, both of us going to Cal State would be awesome,” Tamara said.

  “I’m kinda surprised you don’t want to move away to college,” Candace said.

  “Why?”

  “Well, you’re the adventurous one. It just seems like more your style.”

  Tamara laughed. “I’m only adventurous in some areas of my life. Others I like to be nice, quiet, and stable.”

  Candace thought about that as she climbed into Tamara’s car. It did make a certain amount of sense. Tamara didn’t like surprises, and she usually classified change as a surprise. That was probably part of the reason she had flipped out when Candace got the summer job. It was at least something to think about.

  “Hey, can we swing by The Zone? I want to pick up my new employee ID and stuff.”

  “Only if we can go on a ride.”

  “Your choice.”

  “Cool. I’m loving this season pass I got over the summer.”

  “Season ticket,” Candace corrected before she could stop herself.

  Tamara just laughed.

  It only took Candace a couple of minutes to pick up her things. Then she and Tamara headed into the park to ride Rim-shot, one of the smaller, wilder roller coasters in the Thrill Zone.

  Halfway there, Tamara stopped and pointed toward one of the stores. In the window was a Halloween display of new Scare merchandise. “Let’s check it out.”

  Candace followed Tamara inside the store and looked at the mugs, antenna balls, and key chains on display. Tamara was rifling through the T-shirt racks. Suddenly she started laughing.

  “What is it?” Candace asked.

  “I think you have to have this,” Tamara said, pulling a black T-shirt out and showing it to Candace. On the front in green letters that apparently glowed in the dark, it said, I Survived the Candy Craze! Tamara flipped it around so that Candace could get a look at the back. There was a picture of a girl in a cotton candy vendor outfit, looking up and screaming in horror as a knife descended toward her.

  Candace grabbed the shirt and took a closer look. “Is that me?” she asked, horrified.

  “Same hair, same eyes. I’m thinking yes.”

  “But they can’t do that!”

  “It’s not an actual picture of you. They’ll claim it’s just an artist rendering of a generic girl.”

  “But — ”

  “I’m getting this for you.”

  “But — ”

  “Trust me, you’ll thank me later. Just think. When Halloween is over, who better to say they survived the Candy Craze than you?”

  The rest of the week seemed to fly by. It was uneventful except for an emergency run back home to get some more clothes. She also got her sleeping bag to take to the girls’ all-night party at church. When she got the clothes back to Tamara’s, she threw them in the wash to get rid of the stench of wet carpet, which seemed to have permeated nearly everything at the house.

  Friday evening, Tamara and Candace loaded their stuff in the car and headed for church. “I love all-night parties,” Tamara said.

  “Remember last year?” Candace asked.

  “When the guys tried to raid it and the neighbors saw them and called the police? That was so funny.”

  “And remember Tyler yelling that he wanted to make his one phone call?”

  “I forgot about that! I thought that police officer was going to slap him,” Tamara said.

  “I wonder what’s going to happen this year?”

  “I hear Pastor Bobby ordered the guys not to raid the party this year,” Tamara said.

  “Yeah, but how many of them are going to listen?” Candace asked.

  “To Pastor Bobby? A lot, I’ll bet. He’s cool, but I’ve seen him mad. Scary.”

  “I have a hard time picturing that.”

  “Trust me, girl, you don’t want to see it.”

  They arrived at the church and parked next to the youth building. They hurried inside where two counselors and two dozen girls were trying to organize their stuff.

  Candace recognized several senior girls as well as a couple of juniors. The rest were sophomores and freshmen, including the girl, Jen, who had asked what Scare was going to cost.

  The pizzas were delivered shortly after they arrived, and everyone gra
bbed a slice and a soda and spread out on the floor. Jen approached Candace and Tamara and sat down by them, carefully balancing her pizza.

  “I wanted to thank you for letting us all go to Scare,” she said, looking at Candace.

  Candace blushed. “I really had nothing to do with it. I’m just working there. You should thank Tamara. She’s paying for everyone.”

  “Thank you,” Jen told Tamara, her eyes wide and her face earnest. “I’m really excited. I’ve never been to anything like that before.”

  “That makes three of us,” Tamara said. “It should be fun.”

  Other people overheard them and joined in the conversation. They all wanted to know what Candace was doing for Scare and how she had gotten the job.

  “You seriously got it because you can scream really loudly?” Kim, a junior, asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Let’s hear,” Joy urged.

  “You’ll hear at Scare,” Candace said.

  “Come on, do it now,” another begged.

  Suddenly everyone was asking her to demonstrate the scream that had gotten her hired. Candace hesitated, but Tamara poked her in the ribs. “Go on, let them have it.”

  Candace stood up. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She threw back her head and gave the loudest, most piercing scream she possibly could. When she stopped, she looked around the room. Everyone was staring in amazement. Somewhere in the distance she could hear dogs barking and howling.

  “I bet they heard that a mile away,” Jen said in awe.

  Shannon, Pastor Bobby’s fiancée, sighed heavily. “And I was so hoping the police weren’t going to show up this year.”

  5

  Candace kept telling herself that dress rehearsal was just that and nothing that she should be worried about. Still, that didn’t help the school day go by any faster or make her feel any more confident.

  Even once school was out, she felt like she was going to go crazy waiting for six-thirty when she could show up and get into costume. She completed her homework but wasn’t very confident in the finished product. A math problem that should have taken her one minute ended up taking ten. She tried to lie down on the bed, but she couldn’t get comfortable. Her parents had let her know that they’d be able to move back home in two days. That meant she would at least get a good night’s sleep before Scare started.

  Tamara drifted in and out, trying half a dozen times to engage Candace in conversation, but Candace was too nervous to talk much. Finally at about five thirty, Tamara came back in the room.

  “Okay, your pacing is driving me crazy.”

  “Sorry,” Candace apologized.

  “Let’s just head over there. So what if you’re early? Besides, we can get some burgers on the way.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so. Anything is better than listening to you wear a hole in the carpet.”

  “Thanks, Tam.”

  “No problem.”

  Half an hour and a double cheeseburger and large fries later, Tamara parked in The Zone’s employee lot.

  “Call me when you need to be picked up.”

  “Thanks, you’re the best,” Candace said.

  “Just remember, you’re going to be great. Just relax and have fun.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Who’s going to be here anyway?”

  “From what I understand, management types walk through all the mazes and check it all out. I think the Game Masters who created them are supposed to be here too.”

  “If I say ‘just be yourself’ will you smack me?” Tamara asked with a smirk.

  “No, but I’ll scream,” Candace threatened.

  “Then never mind. I’ve heard you scream, and I don’t think my eardrums could take it inside a closed car.”

  Candace got out of the car and hurried to the employee entrance. She showed the guards there her gate pass and stepped into the off-field world of The Zone. From there it only took her five minutes to reach the costuming department.

  Looking at the number of people swarming around outside, Candace was grateful that Tamara had suggested she come early. She squeezed through the door of the building and crossed to the costume racks labeled CANDY CRAZE.

  There were several seemingly identical costumes hanging there that must represent the psycho killer. It would make sense to have more than one in the maze in order to keep the action moving. Among the dark grays of those costumes, the pink and white of her cotton candy vendor uniform stood out all the more. She pulled it off the rack and got in line for one of the changing rooms.

  All around her were lots of other people who were wearing bicycle shorts and T-shirts and were pulling their costumes on over them. I should have thought to get a pair of black bicycle shorts to wear under this, she thought, looking at her costume. It certainly would make her feel a little more comfortable, especially considering the slits in the skirt. She promised herself that she would get some the next day so she’d have them for opening night.

  There was a great sense of energy in the building. The air practically pulsed with it. It reminded her a little bit of everyone waiting at the starting line for the end-of-summer scavenger hunt.

  She looked around in fascination, trying to take it all in. There were mad scientists, vampires, aliens, ghosts, and freakish fairy tale creatures that were the more disturbing for their twists on familiar characters. A guy walked past her in a black leotard painted all over with fluorescent polka dots. Two dead gunfighters faced off against each other mockingly, while Lizzie Borden sat in a corner, admiring her axe. The headless horseman was tossing his pumpkin up and down, catching it one-handed.

  Others were taking care of a fascinating variety of Scare props. Characters weren’t allowed to touch players, but it was obvious they intended to work around this rule with props. One mummy dangled loose bandages over the heads of others nearby. Characters dressed as wax figures taunted and tormented each other with long feathers.

  Suddenly a guy in a hockey mask slammed a tin can with a couple of coins in it against the wall near Candace’s head, causing her to jump. Fortunately she managed not to scream. She watched in fascination as he went around the room, startling as many as he could with the noisemaker. She couldn’t help but wonder who it was under the mask. She’d heard somewhere that almost sixty percent of the Scare people were full-time and seasonal employees. The other forty were made up of people like Will and Brandon who only worked Scare.

  Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to see Roger, face pale and eyes sunken looking. He was holding a hanger with his baseball costume. She blinked a couple of times, amazed at just how ghostlike he looked.

  “Wow!”

  “Cool, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I just got out of the makeup chair. It took the woman half an hour. Now I have an overwhelming urge to scratch my nose and I can’t.”

  “Bummer,” she said.

  “Tell me about it.”

  Candace had reached the front of the line, and a changing room had freed up. “Catch you later,” she told Roger.

  Five minutes later she was done, and she left the changing room with her street clothes in a bundle under her arm. She found herself in yet another line, this time to be checked over by Janet, the head of costuming.

  When Candace finally reached the front of that line, she was directed to put her things on the floor and step up in front of a full-length mirror. Candace stared at herself while Janet walked around doing a final inspection.

  “You look great, kid. Break a leg,” Janet said at last.

  Candace took one last look at herself in the mirror before turning away. The costume area was getting more crammed by the minute. Candace scooped up her clothes and headed for the Locker Room, which was the name for the employee storage area.

  She had no sooner locked up her stuff than Kurt walked in, took one look at her, and let out a whistle. “That one’s better than your summer uniform,” he said admiringly.
“Except for the fake blood.”

  “Too gross?” Candace asked.

  He shook his head. “No, actually it’s kinda hot . . . in a disturbing sort of way.”

  “Great, because that’s what I need,” she sighed.

  Kurt was wearing black jeans, a black turtleneck, and black shoes. Umpires had to fade completely into the background. “Aren’t you going to get hot wearing that?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Although it’s not as bad as you might think. Umpires don’t have to move around much, so it ends up being better than most of the costumes.”

  “Too bad we’re not working in the same maze,” she pouted.

  He pulled her into his arms for a quick kiss and then let her go.

  “Like I said, too bad we’re not working in the same maze,” she said.

  He winked at her. “You’ll be okay. Just don’t let any of the other umpires kiss you.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “Yeah, but they certainly would,” he said, looking her over again.

  She blushed. “Stop. You’re embarrassing me.”

  He laughed. “Come on, I have just enough time to walk you to your maze before I have to report at mine.”

  They walked out into the park as the last light was leaving the sky. It was weird seeing the park practically deserted at that time of day, and Candace shivered as she recalled for a moment how it had felt the night she and Kurt got trapped in the park.

  “You cold?” he asked.

  “No, just nervous.”

  “You’re going to be great. After all, it is your maze. You are Candy.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” she muttered.

  The Candy Craze maze had been erected in the middle of the Holiday Zone. Some of the mazes in the park were created in existing buildings. The Mummy’s Curse wound through the Tomb of the Pharaohs in the Egypt area, and the House of Wax took over the House of Cards in the Game Zone. Some mazes took over a cluster of buildings, like the Haunted Village, which took over the Seaside Village shops and buildings in the Splash Zone. Others, like the Last Draft, were constructed with sturdy plywood in the middle of open spaces.

  The Candy Craze was one of the latter types — with a twist. It had been created in the open spaces in and around the Holiday Zone. Some of the normal rides had been incorporated into the maze to make it really feel like an abandoned amusement park. A huge sign over the entrance blazed the words Candy Craze in four-foot-tall neon letters. The sign was the only thing that didn’t look decayed and dilapidated.