*Scroll to the bottom of the post to listen to this story*
She never really liked carnivals.
They were too juvenile for the sophisticated musician mask she had created for herself to impress the customers that frequented the piano bar she played at on weekends. She liked to think it gave her an air of mystery that kept them from coming up to her platform to request “that song from (insert movie here).”
Her mask must have slipped off that Friday night when he walked up to her just as she finished her set.
“Do you like tea?” he asked with an awkward smile.
“Uhh, yes,” she responded without thinking.
Now, sitting on the cold cement curb with a sprained ankle, she wished she hadn’t responded at all. If she had just brushed him off and gone home to hunker down with a good book in her cozy bed, he never would’ve asked her to join him for a cup of sassafras tea at the carnival down the street, and she wouldn’t have felt obligated to say yes for some reason.
Even so, she could’ve left after his “riveting” conversation about the oxidation of tea leaves and how surprised he was that the vendor even served sassafras tea due to the controversy about it being carcinogenic. “It’s fine in small doses though,” he assured her as she took the last hesitant gulp.
She should have left before he asked her to dance in the street as a ragtag band started playing a jazzy, upbeat tune. It might have been the toxic tea that made her say yes, more likely her inability to say no to anyone who showed the slightest hint of genuine interest in her.
So, they danced, and he twirled her one too many times across the uneven pavement.
And yet, when he came back to the curb with a bag from the goldfish stand filled with shaved ice, offering her a candy apple in apology, she couldn’t help but laugh and ask, “Would you like to go to another carnival with me sometime?”
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Writing Prompt #1 (blog post for context)
C. R. Pigg 