A young man approached Kily’s booth and asked for three tickets! The young man was flanked by several of his friends and they all pushed and shoved each other as they waited in line for their turn to by tickets as well. Kily fumbled with the tickets as she tried to tear three of them off. The young man gave her a twenty dollar bill and Kily counted his change twice to make sure she was giving him the correct change. The friends behind him became impatient and started yelling, come on, what’s taking so long? This made Kily even more nervous and she dropped the change as she tried to push it through the small opening at the bottom of the bars. She had to bend down in the tight booth and practically stand on her head to retrieve the money. When she came back up she saw all three of the young mans friends with their faces up against the bars of the booth, each one demanding to know what was taking so long. Kily stepped back against the back of the booth frozen with fear. One of the boys tried to reach his hand in through the bars and another one pushed him to the side only to try the same thing. A mans loud voice sounded from outside the booth and the boys all stepped back into line. Kily saw the face of the ride guy appear in front of her booth. "You alright in there?" he asked. "Yes," Kily told him, "just dropped the change and needed to pick it up." "Okay," the ride guy told her, " but hurry it up, get them their tickets, take their money, then get them on their way. Don’t let them get all heated up like that, it causes trouble". "Okay," Kily told him, as she stepped up to the opening in the booth once more. "Here’s your change and our tickets," Kily said to the young man. He started to say something smart to Kily, and she looked over his shoulder, totally ignoring his remarks, then loudly said, "NEXT". The boy behind shoved the young man out of the way, put his money down and said, "four tickets". Kily quickly handed him the tickets and his change, looked over his shoulder as well, and said, "NEXT". The line went quickly and smoothly after that, and Kily breathed a sigh of relief. "Hmm," she said to herself, "you just have to be in charge and a bit rude and they go away". Kily chuckled and sold her tickets with a little more authority after that.

When the sun was high in the sky, Bruce came to the front of Kily’s booth and said, "Break Time." He stepped around to the back of the booth and unlocked the small door. Kily hurried to put the money she had taken in, into her bag, but it wouldn’t all fit. She was surprised that she had sold that many tickets. Bruce peered in to see what was taking her so long and laughed, "that’s what the extra bag is for." Kily laughed with him and said, "Oh, so that’s what that is for!" She gathered the bags close to her chest and stepped out of the booth. Kily blinked at the brightness of the sun and squinted a moment until her eyes adjusted. Bruce spoke softly as they walked giving her reminders and encouragement. When they had finally made their way to the money wagon Kily gladly handed over the two heavy bags to the woman inside and said she would be back in half an hour. The woman took the bags without a word and closed the shutters.　

Kily wandered through the park experiencing the excitement of the crowds, listening to the screams as people went up and around on the roller coaster, children crying, children laughing, music playing, and workers calling out to the crowd to come and try their games. Kily wandered in and out of the crowds, looking in each of the booths for Branda. She had been hoping that she and Branda could go across the street to the amazing shopping center again. Kily thought about going to the shopping center herself, but she had spent so much time looking for Branda she was sure she now did not have enough time. She didn’t have a watch and hoped she had guessed the time right when she headed back to the money wagon. As the woman opened the shutters and looked down at Kily she exclaimed, "you’re early." "I know," said Kily, but I didn’t have anything else to do, so I thought I would come back to work. The woman shook her head and handed Kily the clip board to sign her name on, then handed out a new bag of money. Kily clutched the bag tightly and made her way back to her booth.

When the sun went down Kily found herself wondering when her shift would be over. She hadn’t eaten all day and dinner was sounding awfully good. Kily had forgotten that she had money of her own in her pockets and failed to buy one of the corn dogs she had been smelling all day, and now her stomach was growling. The hours went by and still the crowds of people were thicker than ever. Kily continued to sell her tickets and take in money. Very late in the night Kily had finally run out of tickets and sat wondering what she was supposed to do when that happened. Right about then Bruce came to her booth and told her it was time to close up. Gratefully, Kily gathered up her money, stuffed it into the two bags and stepped out of her booth to follow him to the money wagon. Compared to how busy the park had been all day and evening, Kily was surprised at how deserted it seemed now. There were a few pockets of people standing around visiting with each other and Kily saw others walking hand in hand as they left the park. Kily arrived at the money wagon the same time as Branda. They smiled at each other, handed in their bags and began the walk home to Branda’s house. "I’m starved," said Branda. "Me too," said Kily as her stomach growled once more. When they got home they made huge sandwiches and sat at the table filling each other in on what had happened during the day.

copyright 2006