The Midnight Carnival (2 page)

1

Leaping Goldfish

Grace was underwater, battling a hideous sea creature that she couldn’t quite see. The current swirled and spun, but she held fast to the tip of the monster’s tail, twisting and turning as it fought to shake her off. Then suddenly the depth was too much. There was a weight on her chest, not enough air in her lungs, and miles of ocean above her. She let go of the creature and bolted for the surface, but the pressure remained the same. No matter how hard she kicked she got no closer to fresh air. She squirmed and weaved against the tide but it only dragged her further and further into the darkness until…

Grace started awake to a pair of grey eyes staring straight into hers. They were shaded by a bob of black hair, and the little upturned nose beneath them wrinkled.

‘Morning. There’s a carnival.’

‘What? Where… What’s going on? Una? What are you doing in my room?’

‘Your mum let me in. There’s a carnival.’

Una lay across Grace’s bed, her arms resting on her friend’s chest, propping up her chin. Grace wriggled against the weight.

‘Why are you on my bed?’

‘I told you, your mum let me in.’

‘Then why are you cutting off the circulation to my arms?’

‘Oh,’ Una said, springing back onto her feet, ‘whoopsie. Sorry about that.’

‘You could have just knocked on the door.’

‘I was going to, but then I looked in and your face was all twitchy like you were having a dream and I thought it looked interesting, so I was just gonna watch until you woke up. Then you woke up.’

Grace sat up, rubbing her eyes and shaking out the pins and needles in her arms.

‘Great. Well, thank you very much for waking me. It’s the weekend, you know.’

‘Yeah, but your mum said
you should wake her up anyway, or she’ll miss the best part of the day
. There’s a carnival.’

‘You said that.’

‘In the park.’

‘I didn’t hear anything about a carnival coming to town.’

‘Nobody did, but they’re here. There’s a ferris wheel, and a giant tent and lots of stuff. So we’re going. Now.’

‘I’ll get up in a minute.’

Una went to leave, but stuck her head around the door.

‘You’ll miss the best part of the
day
, Grace.’

‘Get out of my room!’

Una disappeared downstairs, where Grace knew her mother would ply her with toast and orange juice. She dropped back onto her pillow and groaned. It was so
early
for a Sunday.

It was a fresh autumn morning. Grace loved this time of year. She didn’t like starting back to school after the summer holidays so much, but she loved the change in the air; when everything was still sunny and bright but there was a chill creeping into the weather. The trees looked beautiful too, especially the ones lining the streets of Dunbridge. They were turning red and golden and making the town look kind of supernatural and gorgeous. She made the mistake of telling Una all of this.

‘You mean the way leaves turn brown and fall off, right before they turn to mulch on the ground? You know we’re going to be slipping on that stuff from now until Christmas.’

‘It’s still pretty.’

‘It’s mulch. Ooh, look! You can see the ferris wheel.’

From the small hill at the top of North Street they had a great view of Dunbridge Park. There was the distant hum of harpsichord music, and the ferris wheel, with a star of lights inside its circular frame, was turning slowly. Right in the middle of the park there was a giant red-and-white striped tent – at least it might once have been red and white, it looked so old and battered now that the white stripes were stained a dirty cream colour, and the red had faded to pinky brown – and there were loads of stalls with more music that clashed, making the whole thing sound brash and loud and full of life. At the entrance hung a curved sign that read ‘LE CARNAVAL DE MINUIT’.

‘The Midnight Carnival,’ Grace whispered to herself, smiling. ‘And look, there’s Rachel.’

Leaning against a post and filing her nails, Rachel’s face was shielded by layers of chestnut-coloured hair, but Grace would know those clothes anywhere. Since her swashbuckling adventures on the magical island of Hy-Breasal, Rachel’s taste in fashion had taken a decided turn towards the piratey. She wore skinny jeans a lot, with black boots over them and a wide leather belt. She sometimes wore a flowy blouse, sometimes a short-sleeved top with braces, but today it was a shirt and leather jacket. Grace had to admit she always looked really good, but she also looked really
grown-up
.

‘Don’t censor her, she’s becoming a woman,’ Una had once said when she voiced her concerns, and that had made
Grace blush like crazy.

Now, to avoid thinking about it and blushing again, she called out, ‘Hey, Rach, where’s Jenny? Una said you were collecting her on the way.’

Rachel tucked the nail file into her back pocket.

‘She told me to get the hell out of her room and, if I ever wake her up on a Sunday again, she’ll shave my head. I’d say she’ll be along later when she’s had a proper lie-in.’

‘Coola boola,’ said Una. ‘I’ve texted Adie as well, and she’s going to call to Delilah’s house on her way here.’

‘Mrs Quinlan still won’t buy Delilah a mobile phone?’

‘Nah, Old Cat Lady fears technology. She prefers the pongy smells of potions and magical stuff.’ Una slipped and pointed angrily at the grass. ‘See, Grace? Mulch.’

‘Step right up, step right up, ladies, don’t be shy.’ The man wore tattered cord trousers, with black braces over a dusty shirt. His hair looked unwashed, and the shirt was patched in several places with poor stitching. But his charming smile and bright eyes were impossible to ignore. ‘Throw a hoop and win a fish. And what spectacular fish!’

He bounced between several stalls, but directed the girls towards one with rows and rows of goldfish bowls. The fish swimming around inside were not your average goldfish – they were varying shades of violet, with tall
tails that undulated beautifully in the water.

‘Wow,’ gasped Una, ‘look at those. One of them would look deadly in my room.’

‘I’m not playing this one,’ Grace said. ‘It’s cruel. Those fish have horrible lives and they never live long after you get them home.’

‘Aw, come on. They’re really happy. Look at them, swimming around like they haven’t a care in the world.’

‘The bowls are too narrow. Look, there’s hardly any surface area on the top. That means they’re getting very little oxygen from the air.’

Una looked at her like she was an idiot.

‘Fish don’t breathe air, they breathe water.’

‘They breathe oxygen in the water that
comes
from the air. It’s cruel, Una.’

‘They don’t look unhappy to me,’ said Rachel, picking up a couple of hoops.

‘Fine,’ said Grace, ‘then go ahead and play.’

She stood back with her arms crossed, and blushed when she saw the game operator watching her with a smile. Grace urged herself to make her case about animal cruelty but, though she was a girl of strong convictions, she was also a girl that embarrassed easily. She gave the operator what she hoped was a disapproving look and stayed quiet.

‘What? No way!’ Rachel pointed at a bowl in the centre of the stall. ‘That fish jumped.’

Her red hoop sat perfectly around an empty bowl.

‘Sorry,’ the operator said, ‘you hooped an empty vessel.’

‘But it wasn’t empty. There was a fish in it, and he jumped! Look, there’s two in the bowl next to it.’

‘Ah, the rare double win. Hoop
that
bowl and a magnificent pair of Indigo Daega is yours.’

Rachel wasted her last go trying to hoop the pair of fish, then sulkily made way for Una. Una’s first hoop clattered to the back of the stall, her second skipped off to one side with the ringing clink of wood hitting glass, but her third landed neatly around one violet fish. That jumped. Grace saw it, it definitely jumped. The hoop landed, there was a flash of purple in the air, a plop of water, and the fish was in the adjoining bowl.

‘Hey!’ cried Una. ‘No fair.’

‘Nice try, nice try, ladies, you very nearly won, how lucky. Another go? The Coconut Shy, perchance?’

‘Yeah, right,’ Rachel muttered, ‘the coconuts are probably glued on.’

Grace, who meant to add some parting comment about surface area and oxygen levels in water, was too distracted by the idea of jumping goldfish to say anything. As they walked away, Una shrieked and grabbed hold of the others. Something lumbered through the grass at their feet, about three metres long with squat legs and nobbled brownish skin that looked like armour.

‘That’s Legba,’ the game operator called after them over the noise of the stalls. ‘We picked him up in Louisiana. Ain’t he a beauty?’

The alligator pushed through the crowd with its broad snout and seemed unperturbed by the occasional scream it elicited from those caught unawares. Excited whispers spread through the mass and people sprang out of the reptile’s way, leaving a clear path. It meandered on, like a king in procession.

‘A freaking alligator,’ Una said, clutching Grace’s top. ‘This place is deadly!’

‘Adie! Delilah! Run. There’s two seats left.’

Grace frowned at Una, who leaned against the bar of the ferris wheel car, yelling at the girls on the ground far below. Una had convinced the operator to let herself, Grace and Rachel squeeze into one car, even though it was only really meant for two people at a time. They were at the very top of the wheel, held stationary while their friends got on at the bottom. Grace waved down at the girls – Adie was already looking queasy, and the wheel hadn’t even moved yet.

Grace couldn’t blame her. From afar the wheel looked pretty and elegant; up close it was covered in flaking rust, the joints looked battered, and some of the lightbulbs that made up its star of lights had blown and turned black. The
cars were wooden and very basic in shape. There was a safety bar that sat across their laps, but it rattled and felt loose, and there was ample room to slide out underneath it if you felt the sudden urge to jump.

‘Adie looks like she’s going to barf,’ said Rachel.