The Funhouse

wielded the whittling knife. Now Amy thought she finally could see a hint of the evil that Mama and Liz saw in her, it was a peculiar shadow, a writhing darkness deep in her eyes.
         No! she thought desperately, frightened by the speed with which her resolution was dissolving. I'm not that kind of person. I have plans, ambitions, dreams. I want to paint beautiful pictures and bring happiness to people.
        But she could vividly recall the thrill that had snapped through her like an electric current when Liz's tongue had licked her lips.
        She thought of being in bed with Richie and Buzz, both of them using her at the same time, and suddenly it wasn't impossible for her to picture herself in that situation.
        Standing there in the harshly lighted comfort station, acutely uncomfortable in the stink of mildew and urine and rotting hope, Amy felt as if she were waiting in the anteroom of Hell.
        At last she walked to the door and opened it.
        Liz was waiting outside, in the night. She smiled at Amy and held out her hand.
        
        * * *
        
        Conrad sent Ghost off to work at the grab joint, which was busier than the funhouse tonight. As soon as the albino was gone, Conrad shut the ticket booth and sent Elton to assist at the pitch-and-dunk, which formed the third corner of Straker's three-cornered carnival empire.
        Elton gave him an odd look. The funhouse was much too busy to justify closing it down for the night. But unlike Ghost, Elton never asked questions, he simply did as he was told.
        When those marks who were already in the funhouse came out through the big, swinging exit doors and disembarked from their gondolas, Conrad shut down the power to the track. He didn't switch off the lights or the music, in fact he turned up the volume on the music and on the voice of the laughing clown as well.
        Gunther watched Conrad with puzzlement. But when the situation was explained to him, he understood at once, and he went into the funhouse to wait.
        Conrad took up a position by the shuttered ticket booth. He turned away the marks when they asked if they could buy tickets. For the rest of the night, the funhouse would be open for only four very special people.
        
        * * *
        
        After they ate ice-cream bars covered with chocolate and nuts, Liz and Amy and Richie and Buzz went to the funhouse.
        The barker, the man with the brilliantly blue eyes who had been on the elevated platform earlier, was no longer haranguing the people who passed by. He was standing at the ticket booth, which appeared to be closed.
        “Oh, no,” Liz said disappointedly. “Mister, you aren't going to shut down for the night already?”
        “No,” the barker said. “We just had a minor mechanical problem.”
        “When will it be fixed?” Liz asked.
        “It's fixed already,” the barker said. “But I've got to wait for the boss to get back before I start up.”
        “How long will that be?” Richie asked.
        The barker shrugged. “Hard to tell. The boss likes, shall we say, to tipple. If he's tippled too much while we were fixing the motors, he might not be back at all.”
        Ah, shit!” Liz said. “We saved this for last because it's my favorite.”
        The barker looked at Amy, and she didn't like what she saw in his eyes. His gaze was so intent and somehow menacing, hungry .
        I should have worn a bra, Amy thought. I shouldn't have tried to be like Liz. I shouldn't have gone out in short shorts, a flimsy T-shirt, and no bra. I'm just advertising myself. No wonder he's staring at me like that.
        “Well,” the barker said, sweeping them all with his gas-flame eyes, “I'll tell you what. You don't look like an ordinary group of marks to me. You look like you're with it and for it.”
        “You bet your ass we are,” Liz said.
        “Whatever that means-with it and for it,” Buzz said.
        “It's a carny expression,” the barker told them. “It means what it says and says what it means.”
        Liz laughed. “Which makes everything perfectly clear.”
        The barker grinned and winked at her.
        “You're a pretty sharp dude,” Liz said.
        “Thank you,” the barker said. “And you're a very sharp lady. But I'll take your money just the same.”
        Richie and Buzz dug in their pockets for money.
        The barker glanced at Amy again. That