The Funhouse

pocket and signed his two names with a flourish that Joey admired. Then he handed over the free passes.
        “Thanks a lot,” Joey said, beaming. “This is terrific!”
        “Enjoy yourself,” the stranger said, grinning. He had very white teeth. “Maybe someday you will be a carny, and you'll hand out free passes to people who are obviously with it and for it.”
        “Uh… how old do you have to be?” Joey asked.
        “To be a carny?”
        “Yeah.”
        “Any age, just about.”
        “Could a kid join up if he was just ten?”
        “He could easy enough, if he was an orphan,” Conrad said. “Or if his parents just didn't care about him at all. But if he had a family who gave a hoot, they'd come looking for him, and they'd take him home.”
        “Wouldn't you… you carnival people… wouldn't you hide the kid?” Joey asked. “If the worst thing in the world for him was to be taken home, wouldn't you hide him when his folks came looking?”
        “Oh, couldn't do that,” the man said. “Against the law. But if nobody cared about him, if nobody wanted him, the carnival would take him in. It always has, and it always will. What about you? I'll bet your folks care about you a lot.”
        “Not a lot,” Joey said.
        “Sure. I'll bet they care a whole bunch. What about your mother?”
        “No,” Joey said.
        “Oh, I'll bet she cares a lot. I'll bet she's really proud of a handsome, intelligent boy like you.”
        Joey blushed.
        “Do you get your good looks from your mother?” Conrad asked.
        “Well… yeah… I look more like her than like my dad.”
        “Those dark eyes, that dark hair?”
        “Yeah,” Joey said. “Like Mama's.”
        “You know,” Conrad said, “I knew someone once who looked quite a bit like you.”
        “Who?” Joey asked.
        “A very nice lady.”
        “I don't look like a lady!” Joey said.
        “No, no,” Conrad said quickly. “Of course you don't. But you have her dark eyes and hair. And there's something in the lines of your face… You know, it's just possible she could have a boy your age now. Yes. Yes, it's quite possible. Wouldn't that be something-if you were the son of my long-lost friend?” He leaned closer to Joey. The whites of his eyes were yellowish. There was dandruff on his shoulders. A single breadcrumb was stuck in his mustache. His voice became even heartier than before when he said, “What is your mother's name?”
        Suddenly Joey saw something in the stranger's eyes that he liked even less than what he had seen in the albino's eyes. He stared into those two crystalline blue dots, and it seemed to him that the man's friendliness was an act. Like on that TV show, “The Rockford Files,” the way Jim Rockford, the private detective, could be so charming and so friendly, but he was just putting it on in order to get some vital information out of a stranger without the stranger knowing that he was being pumped. All of a sudden Joey felt that this guy was putting on the charm just like Jim Rockford did. Joey felt as if he were being pumped for information. Except that under his phony friendliness, Jim Rockford really was a nice guy. But underneath Conrad's smile, there wasn't a nice guy at all. Deep down in his blue eyes there wasn't anything warm or friendly, there was just… darkness.
        “Joey?”
        “Huh?”
        “I asked you what your mother's name is.”
        “Leona",” Joey lied, without really understanding why he must not tell the truth. He sensed that telling the truth right now would be the worst thing he could ever do in his whole life. Leon ” was Tommy Culp's mother.
        Conrad stared hard at him.
        Joey wanted to look away but couldn't.
        “Leona"?” Conrad asked.
        “Yeah.”
        “Well… maybe my friend changed her name. She never did like the one she was born with. Your mother might still be her. About how old would you say your mother is?”
        Twenty-nine,” Joey said quickly, remembering that Tommy Culp's mother had recently had a twenty-ninth birthday party at which, according to Tommy, all the guests had gotten pissed.
        “Twenty-nine?” Conrad asked. “You're sure?”
        “I know exactly,” Joey said, “because Mama's birthday is one day before my sister's, so we always get two parties close together every year. This last time my sister was eight, and my mother was