The Summer of Cotton Candy

by Viguié, Debbie

  Eew! Gross, she thought. He just kept staring at her, and she dropped her eyes. “Pink or green?” she asked.

  “Pink,” he said, his voice still slimy sounding. She blushed until she was sure her cheeks must match her hair.

  “Three dollars,” she told him.

  She flinched as he tried to hold her hand for a moment as he gave her the money. She thanked God silently that the man had given her three ones and that she wouldn’t have to give him change.

  “Here you go,” she said, picking up a paper cone already wrapped in sticky pink goodness. She practically threw it at him and refused to meet his eyes. She heaved a sigh of relief when he walked away.

  Martha made a clucking sound. “You’ll find there’s more where he came from, but you did good. Just remember, there’s an intercom under the counter. Hit the red panic button if someone gives you too much trouble, and security will be here before you know it.”

  “Has anyone ever had to hit the panic button?” Candace asked.

  Martha snorted. “Only about once a month.”

  Candace stared at her in dismay. Martha patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

  Candace opened her mouth to assert the fact that she most certainly would not get used to it. But before she could say anything, Martha glanced at her watch.

  “I’ve got to go open somewhere else. There’s more demand for snack food starting around this time of day. I’m sorry I don’t have more time. Hopefully the trainer will be back in tomorrow, and she can walk you through anything else you need to know. You’re going to be fine. Someone should be by in a few minutes to give you your break.”

  Then Martha took off, leaving Candace all alone. Just breathe, she told herself. Someone will be here soon, and you can take a break. Everything’s going to be okay.

  Except no one came to give her a break. She squirmed, not knowing what to do. She didn’t have keys to lock everything up, and she couldn’t just leave the stand — including the cash box — unattended. So she waited, and the minutes ticked by painfully.

  By the time she was relieved for lunch, she was exhausted. She limped to the nearest exit and made her way to the employee cafeteria.

  There she grabbed a turkey sandwich and a bottle of water and sat down gratefully on a bench. She drank half the water in a matter of seconds and then just sat for a few minutes staring at the sandwich.

  “First day?” a voice beside her asked.

  She turned and looked up. “Zorro?” she asked.

  “Sí, senorita,” he said, bowing with a flourish and putting on a thick accent.

  She looked deep into his eyes, once again framed by a mask, and recognized that it must be the Lone Ranger from the recruiting office.

  “Is it that obvious?”

  He nodded. “Even if I hadn’t seen you the other day at HR. You can always spot new refs — they’re the ones that look half dead.”

  “Refs?” she asked, more interested in staring into his eyes than hearing what he was saying.

  He laughed. “Referee, remember? Employees are called referees and customers are called players?”

  “That’s right,” she said, blushing furiously. He must think I’m a total idiot, she thought.

  “Don’t worry. If you can last the week, you’ll be fine.”

  “I hope so.”

  “You will,” he assured her. He resumed with an accent, “Zorro gives you his word.”

  He drew his sword, saluted her, and then turned and swept away, cape fluttering in the wind.

  She just sat and stared after him.

  Lunch was over before she knew it, and she limped back to her cart. Without a word, the girl who had been minding it left, her pace brisk. Candace got out some empty paper cones and began to roll them, one after another, inside the spinning tub. The cotton candy wound itself onto the cones like webbing wrapping itself around a spider’s helpless victim.

  After half an hour of that, Candace realized that thin strands of cotton candy were stuck to her clothes. She must have caught some accidentally on her arm or sleeve. She shook her clothes, trying to get it off, but it just clung more fiercely.

  “Hey there.”

  She looked up, embarrassed at being caught unaware. A guy that looked like a surfer, right down to the baggy shorts and bleached white hair, was smiling at her. The only thing that gave him away as a ref was a name tag — Josh — worn on a tank top with a subtle blue stripe in it.

  “I work at the Kowabunga ride.”

  “The Splash Zone,” Candace said with a smile.

  “That’s right.”

  “Nice uniform,” she said with a wistful smile, thinking that what he was wearing was probably a lot cooler than hers.

  “It’s one of the best in the park.” He leaned closer conspiratorially. “That’s why there’s a waiting list to work there.”

  “How did you get it?” she asked, curious.

  He smiled. “I applied in March.”

  Duh! She felt like slapping her forehead, but restrained herself.

  “They had me work part-time until last week.”

  “Didn’t it rain like the entire month of March?” she asked.

  “Yeah, storms nearly every day,” he affirmed.

  “You had to have been freezing!”

  “I was, but it was worth it to not sweat away the summer.”

  She laughed. “Good choice.”

  “Yeah, your cotton “candy-striper” look is cute, but it has to be hot.”

  “Thank you, I thought I was the only one who noticed. I feel like I should be working in a hospital.”

  He laughed, a nice, easy sound. “Well, I got to get back to my post.” He glanced at her name tag and his eyes widened. “Candy,” he said and started laughing even harder. “I’m sorry, that’s just really unfortunate.”

  “It’s worse than that. My name is Candace. I hate Candy.”

  He slapped his thigh. “Of course you do. It took me three weeks to get them to put Josh on my name tag instead of Joshua. Not even my parents call me that.”

  “Only three weeks?” she teased. “Then maybe there’s hope for me.”

  “Oh, there’s always hope. Catch you later, Cotton Candace.” He waved and took off.

  The next hour dragged by. The good part was that she was busier than she had been all morning, but it wasn’t enough to completely distract her from the heat and the pain in her feet. I never knew standing could be such hard work.

  She was just coming up on her afternoon break, a much anticipated event, when she looked up and saw Tamara walking toward her, a triumphant smile on her face.

  “Tamara! What are you doing here?”

  “Since you couldn’t hang with me, I thought I’d come hang with you,” Tamara said. “I’ve been to every cotton candy stand in the park looking for you.”

  “Tam, that was sweet, but you don’t have to do this.”

  “I do now.”

  “Why?” Candace asked, confused.

  Tamara whipped a card out of her pocket. “Because, thanks to you, I’m now a season-ticket holder, and I plan on getting my two hundred dollars’ worth.”

  “You’re the best.”

  “I know. So, do they give you breaks or what?”

  Candace waved to a girl headed her way dressed as she was. “I’ve got my afternoon break right now.”

  “Good on me. I couldn’t have better timing.”

  “Your timing rocks,” Candace confirmed as she gratefully relinquished her post.

  “So, where do the fine guys work around here?”

  “I can think of one place,” Candace said with a blush. “Lead the way.”

  They walked across to the History Zone, which would be more accurately named Somebody’s Fantasy of What History Should Be Zone. In it, cowboys mingled with knights. King Tut rubbed shoulders with superheroes. Candace, however, ignored all of them and looked for a particular black-clad swordsman.

  “Howdy, ma’a
m,” a gunfighter said, tipping his hat as he paused in front of them.

  “Check again,” Tamara said. “It’s mademoiselle. I’m too young to be a madam.”

  “My apologies, mademoiselle, it was a slip of the tongue,” he said, giving her a wink.

  He continued walking down the street and Tamara turned to stare after him.

  Just then, Candace spotted her target and grabbed Tamara’s arm before she knew what she was doing.

  “Who?” Tamara asked, swinging her head around. “Zorro?” Candace nodded.

  “He’s built.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Ah, so I take it you know this Zorro?”

  “Not exactly. I’ve seen him a couple times, though.”

  “So, you’re crushing.”

  “Affirmative.”

  Zorro did a slow spin in the street, showing off for some tourists.

  “Definitely crush worthy,” Tamara noted.

  Zorro turned toward them and nodded, flashing a smile at Candace. She felt her heart skip a beat even as she forced herself to wave nonchalantly.

  Tamara was staring at her. “Now I get why you wanted to work here.”

  “No,” Candace said with a smile. “He’s just one of the perks.”

  4

  It was Friday, her second day of work, and although Candace had woken up with her alarm, run a few errands for her mom, and gotten to work on time, she still wandered around for twenty minutes unable to find her cart. She had started in the Kids Zone where the cart had been the day before. The spot where it stood was empty. A referee who worked at the Painting Wall told her it had rolled on toward the Thrill Zone earlier that morning.

  In the Thrill Zone, a referee at the Rimshot Coaster pointed her toward the Extreme Zone. When she hadn’t seen the cotton candy cart in the Extreme Zone she’d continued on into the Splash Zone, where she now stood, looking around.

  “Cotton Candy, what’s up?”

  She turned around and saw Josh. Her frustration and anxiety eased somewhat upon seeing him. “I’m trying to find my cart. I was supposed to start work almost half an hour ago, and the cart wasn’t where I thought it would be.”

  He nodded. “Depending on the time of day and how much activity is happening in different parts of the park they move the carts around. There’s a big event today with some astronauts over in the Exploration Zone, so I bet it’s over there.”

  “Real astronauts?” she asked.

  “Yeah. They’re here to kick off the first day of Space Camp.”

  “Seriously? We have a space camp here?”

  He laughed. “Wow, Candy, you sure have got a lot to learn about what happens here at The Zone.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Give me a minute, and I’ll find out for sure where your cart is,” he said.

  “Thank you,” she said, relieved.

  She followed him to the entrance of Kowabunga, where he reached under the podium for a walkie-talkie.

  “What number is your cart?” he asked.

  “Five.”

  He spoke into the walkie-talkie, “This is Josh over in the Splash Zone, and I’m looking for the whereabouts of cart number five. I’ve got a cotton candy operator here who needs to know where to go.”

  She could hear the answer come back, “Exploration Zone, in front of The Atomic Coaster.”

  “Thanks,” he said before putting down the handset. “You know how to get there?” he asked.

  She nodded. “If I’d gone one Zone farther I would have found it on my own, sorry.”

  He shrugged. “No big. Just watch out for Becca,” he said, turning to deal with some players.

  “Who?” she asked.

  “You’ll see,” he said.

  Shaking her head, she resumed her walk. Three minutes later she found the cart in front of one of the most popular attractions in the park.

  It was called The Atomic Coaster. Huge and imposing, it dominated the landscape in the Exploration Zone. It looked like a giant atom. Three oval tracks, one vertical and two diagonal, circled around a small ball in the center. Around the entire thing was a horizontal oval track which served as part of the loading mechanism. It was beautiful, and the glistening metal soared several stories high. Tourists called it by name, speaking of it in hushed, reverent whispers as though all the mysteries of science and the universe could be discovered by riding it. Season-ticket holders brazenly called it the Atom Bomb, pretending that, after a hundred trips spinning around like a whizzing electron, it didn’t scare them. The referees called it the Twirl and Hurl.

  Candace walked up to the girl who was handing a cotton candy stick to a little boy. He turned and ran off, and the girl straightened to look at Candace. She was blonde and petite and, despite working with the cotton candy, had perfectly manicured nails. She glared at Candy.

  “Hi, Lisa,” Candace said, reading the other girl’s name tag. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t find the cart. I thought it would be in the Kids Zone where I was yesterday.”

  “They go where they’re needed. If you had checked in with the manager before coming into the park, you would have known that it was here.”

  Candace opened her mouth to tell her that she had checked in with the manager who had said nothing about the cart’s location. She changed her mind, though, and snapped her mouth shut, gritting her teeth. The other girl had the right to be miffed about getting relieved late. “I’m sorry,” she said finally.

  “You should be,” Lisa said. She turned and left.

  “That could have gone better,” Candace mumbled.

  “What could have gone better?” a voice asked just over her shoulder.

  Candace jumped, startled, and turned to see a girl standing there wearing khaki pants and a striped khaki shirt, the outfit for Exploration Zone referees.

  “I… uh… that is… it was nothing.”

  “Oh, good. I thought Lisa was being mean to you. She can be a bit cranky.”

  “So I noticed,” Candace said, smiling.

  “Careful, she can play some dirty tricks too.”

  “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “You’re new, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I’m Candace,” she said holding out her hand.

  “Becca,” the other girl said, shaking hands.

  Just watch out for Becca, Josh had said. Candace wondered what he had meant. After two seconds she already knew that she liked Becca a whole lot better than Lisa.

  “What attraction do you work here?” Candace asked.

  Becca inclined her head toward one of the smaller buildings. “I work at the Muffin Mansion.”

  At the mention of muffins, Candace’s stomach growled angrily, reminding her that she had missed breakfast. She blushed. “I love muffins.”

  Becca shrugged. “They’re good, but I prefer cotton candy.”

  “I’d rather have the muffins,” Candace laughed.

  “Hey, I’ve got an idea. You know if you sell food you get one free helping for yourself each day, right?”

  “I remember vaguely someone saying something about that,” Candace said.

  “Well, it’s true. Since you’d rather have a muffin, why don’t I trade you my free muffin for your free cotton candy?”

  Candace stood for a moment, trying to figure out what the downside could possibly be. It seemed like a fair trade, and Martha had told her she could have one cotton candy a day. “Deal,” she said, shaking Becca’s hand again.

  “Great! I’ll run over and get you a muffin. What kind would you like?”

  “What kind do you have?”

  “You name it, we probably have it. We have seventeen different types of muffins.”

  “Chocolate with chocolate chips,” Candace said instantly.

  “Excellent choice. I’ll be right back.”

  Candace busied herself with the cart and had two customers before Becca returned with the muffin in a bag. Candace made her up a cone of the sticky pink sugar and handed it t
o her.

  “Cool. Well, I gotta run. I’ll see you tomorrow, Candace,” Becca said, skipping off.

  As she watched her go, Candace made a mental note to ask Josh why he had warned her about Becca. It made no sense. Maybe there were two Beccas. Or maybe he had confused her with someone else, like Lisa. Candace shivered.

  It only took her a couple of minutes to realize that she had a perfect view of the ceremonies that were just beginning. A rudimentary stage had been set up, and she could see four astronauts sitting on it along with a couple of men in suits. In chairs on the ground were about a hundred Space Camp kids who were all wearing matching baseball caps with the NASA logo on them. From what she could tell, the camp officially started on Monday, but this event was for campers, parents, and fans of the space program.

  After her lunch break, things were winding down in the Exploration Zone. Kids and parents scattered, and the guests of honor were hurried off field by referees. Twenty minutes later the zone seemed empty. The silence was eerie, and she half expected to see a tumbleweed blow through.

  “Well, I guess it’s just you and me, cart,” she said.

  As if in response, the cart gave a series of loud, high-pitched chirps. Candace jumped, startled. A low sound like a car motor began, and Candace took a step backward, suspicious and not sure that it wasn’t about to explode.

  Suddenly the cart lurched sideways and began to move. She yelped and dove after it, grabbing the edge of the counter and pulling. It was no use; the cart kept moving forward, and since it was bigger and heavier than she was, it began to drag her along with it.

  “This is so not happening!” she shrieked. She began to flail about with her left hand, trying to find the red panic button under the counter that Martha said would summon security. All she got for her effort was two broken nails and a third that bent backward painfully.

  She glanced up just as the cart reached the railroad tracks. Candace let go of the counter and stepped back. The cart lumbered slowly over the tracks as Candace heard the whistle of the train.

  “Not good, not good, not good!”

  Even before she had started working at The Zone, she had heard the stories about Crazy Train Guy. Rumor had it he tried to run down referees and had succeeded on more than one occasion. She glanced toward the train. Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe someone else was driving the train. She couldn’t tell. Even if she had been able to clearly see the figure in the engine, she wouldn’t have known because she wasn’t sure what he looked like.