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He went into the tent and then emerged with his hair

brushed neatly. He had such rich, soft ebony hair. I

felt like running my hand over it.

"Ready, mlady?" he asked, offering me his arm. "Yes, I am." I put my arm through his and we walked to the show tent. We could hear the barker calling the crowd to the next show and Luke's eyes lit up. As we joined the line moving through the front entrance, I felt the excitement building. There was the sense that we were about to see the greatest show on earth. Children were laughing excitedly, but even their

parents looked flushed and happy with expectation. The ticket taker just nodded at Luke and we

entered free. He hurried me around to what he said

would be the best seats in the house. Once we were

seated, he bought us bags of peanuts, a soda for me

and a beer for himself.

"How can you drink so much beer, Luke?" I

asked him. "Doesn't it make you woozy?"

"Woozy?" He laughed. "Naw. This stuff ain't

nothin' compared to the moonshine I grew up on," he

replied, but I saw Low it was beginning to make his

face red. He saw the concern in mine.

"But you're probably right about this, too," he

said raising the cup of beer. "I won't drink any more

today."

That made me feel better and I turned to the

show. The music started and the clowns came rushing

in, slapping and falling over each other, squirting each

other with water guns and dropping water-filled

balloons on each other's heads.

While the clown show went on, a young girl,

surely no more than my age, dressed in a gold

costume that glittered with multicolored sequins,

performed acrobatics on a palomino horse,

somersaulting, standing on her hands and on her head,

and flipping this way and that, taking the audience's

breath away. The announcer pointed out one act after