Mir, Puja and Garret were heading home. There was far too much to see all at once. The midway was absolutely huge, and the corridors all looped back on themselves, threatening to get Mir and his friends lost in the maze-like hallways. They'd passed what seemed like dozens of rides and roller coasters, a haunted house, a wax museum, a hall of mirrors, a funhouse, a stage with a different musical act every forty minutes... Everything seemed equally compelling, and they'd indulged in a few of the things they found more exciting than the others. When Mir's stomach had recovered, they'd purchased some mini-donuts. They were created geeless, so they were especially fluffy.
The clock was finally beginning to call strongly to them. If they spent any more time in the midway, Mir was going to have to call his father for sure, and tell him where he was. The group turned round a corner that they were certain would lead back to the entrance. Unfortunately it was just another path they hadn’t been down. This was the fourth or fifth time they'd thought they had it figured out.
This time Puja's eyes lit up. He began moving methodically toward the blinking sign across the way. The sign read "Real Live Freaks". Garret groaned. Mir bit his lip. There was no way they had time to go inside, but at the same time, this was Puja's hobby. How could they not let him go?
"We'll have more time to go next time." Mir pointed out.
Puja didn't waver. He was making a b-line straight for the entrance, while his eyes scanned the posters around the entrance and along the walls leading to it. The posters were mostly visages of people who were supposedly holed up inside this joint. The boy with an alligator body, the girl with two heads, the talking housecat, all were on display just inside. Puja paid for his ticket, and Mir and Garret had little choice but to follow his lead.
Inside, the lighting was dark, and there were red curtains lining a hallway that appeared to stretch off and curve back around to the other side of the entrance. As Mir and Garret entered, they noticed several curtains part farther down the walkway. Did this mean they weren't suppose to open the curtains closer to the entrance? Mir didn't want to touch anything, so he followed Puja, who was walking toward the open curtains the way a moth is drawn to flame.
Behind the curtain was a window into a small room that could have been someone's bedroom. There was a short bed, and on it sat the smallest man Mir had ever seen. The man's feet had to be about the size of Mir's thumb. The man waved at the three boys, but Puja had already moved to the next window.
Inside this window there was another bedroom, but this one decorated entirely in black and white. The walls were papered with spider web designs, and the bedspread was a giant black spider symbol. In a rocking chair, reading a book was a little girl. She held the book with two hands, but underneath the book, on her lap, she was knitting what looked to be a sweater with four arm holes. It was then that Mir noticed her four knees. The book she was reading was Charlotte's Web.
Puja seemed hardly to be even looking in the windows, so fast was he on to the next one. Mir looked at Garret and shrugged his shoulders. Garret appeared to be trying to get the spider girl's attention. He was waving his arms frantically, and spinning himself in circles in the air, but she didn't even bat an eyelash. She did turn a page in her book, however. Garret finally gave up and pushed toward the next window, muttering something sulky under his breath. Mir gave the spider girl one last glance, and she looked up at him and winked! He blushed, and pushed too hard toward the next window. He had to catch a hold of Garret to stop himself in time to look inside.
"Watch it, bozo." Garret said distractedly.
Inside this window was a pair of twins who were joined at the shoulder. The next one contained a man with leopard fur all over his face. The one after that was a baby with flippers instead of hands nursing from a mother who had flippers instead of feet. By this time, Puja was pretty far ahead. Mir decided just to catch up, and glance in the windows as they passed each one.
Puja was at the exit, and they had to follow. He looked pretty upset. "What's wrong Puja, nobody you knew?" Garret laughed at his own joke.
"Don't mind him. You hardly looked at anything in there. What's up?"
Puja folded his arms across his chest, and made a frumpy sound before replying. "They're all fake. Every one was something I'd read about someone faking before. It was a freak show in that there were no freaks." He looked seriously upset about this.
Mir tried to hold back his laughter. "Don't you think there might have been one that was real?"
"Nope, I'm sad to say it was all fake. I'd seen them all before."
---
Trixyz and Amile were in their cabin as they, and everyone else on board, had been ordered to be. The ship was approaching Mercury's orbit. They had a little less than two hours before they'd be disembarking and moving their luggage off the ship and onto the station. The luggage was all packed and ready. Their four suitcases were all bound together as they were suppose to be. Most of the deceleration had already been performed, and what was left was all going to happen in the last few minutes before they arrived at the station. But Amile and Trixyz were already sitting in their acceleration chairs just to be safe.
They'd been reading about the succession all morning. So far, there was no reason for either of them to think it would be any more dangerous on Youth's Fountain than it had been on mercurystation. Amile was a little worried there would be some extra taxes or something added to their prepaid hotel accommodations, Trixyz didn't care, she knew it'd get paid for one way or another.
It was the politics that interested her. Trixyz had read their entire Declaration of Independence, and she found it fascinating. She didn't think there was anything in there that was all that different from what the corporation promised its employees, but in this scheme you weren't an actual employee of anybody unless you wanted to be. Also, rights were spelled out explicitly, which she couldn't remember having seen in any corporate documents.
Ideas about ownership and property were changed too. In the Corporation, for example, Trixyz' father didn't own the business that he himself had started. He'd had to apply for permits and permission, and then the Corporation decided whether they'd give the business unit a budget. In her father's case, the budget had been negative dollars. This was just one of the possible forms that taxing the business could take. If the business did well, he could still get rich by running it.
A right to property and ownership was spelled out in the Declaration. Trixyz wondered who owned the station? If it was still the government, how was that different from the Corporation owning the station?
Posted by grid at