“I’d have sworn,” said one interne. “When we first got there… that old man was dead.”
The ambulance and the police car had pulled up at the same moment at the crossroads, going back into town. One of the internes had called over. Now one of the policemen called back:
“You’re joking!”
The internes sat in their ambulance. They shrugged.
“Yeah. Sure. Joking.”
They drove on ahead, their faces as quiet and white as their uniforms.
The police followed, with Jim and Will huddled in back, trying to say more, but the police started talking and laughing, retelling everything that happened to one another, so Will and Jim wound up lying, giving wrong names again, saying they lived around the corner from the police station.
They let the police drop them …show more content…
“He’d wake just long enough to send for the butterfly net. Hell, William, hell, even I don’t believe what’s happened the last twenty-four hours.”
“But we got to find someone higher up, keep trying, now we know what the score is.”
“Okay, what’s the score? What’s the carnival done is so bad? Scared a woman with a mirror maze? So, she scared herself, the police’d say. Burgled a house? Okay, where’s the burglar? Hiding inside an old man’s skin? Who’d ever believe that? Who’d believe an old old man was ever a boy twelve? What else is the score? Did a lightning-rod salesman disappear? Sure, and left his bag. But he could’ve left town—”
“That dwarf in the side show—”
“I saw him, you saw him, looks kinda like the lightning-rod man, sure, but again, can you prove he was ever big? No, just like you can’t prove Cooger was ever small, so that leaves us right here, Will, on the sidewalk, no proof except what we saw, and us just kids, the carnival’s word against ours, and the police had a fine time anyway there. Oh gosh, it’s a mess. If only, if only there was still some way to apologize to Mr. Cooger—”
“ It’s too late now, all we can do now is sit around and wait.” said Will “ With everything happening right now you just want to sit around and wait
The ambulance and the police car had pulled up at the same moment at the crossroads, going back into town. One of the internes had called over. Now one of the policemen called back:
“You’re joking!”
The internes sat in their ambulance. They shrugged.
“Yeah. Sure. Joking.”
They drove on ahead, their faces as quiet and white as their uniforms.
The police followed, with Jim and Will huddled in back, trying to say more, but the police started talking and laughing, retelling everything that happened to one another, so Will and Jim wound up lying, giving wrong names again, saying they lived around the corner from the police station.
They let the police drop them …show more content…
“He’d wake just long enough to send for the butterfly net. Hell, William, hell, even I don’t believe what’s happened the last twenty-four hours.”
“But we got to find someone higher up, keep trying, now we know what the score is.”
“Okay, what’s the score? What’s the carnival done is so bad? Scared a woman with a mirror maze? So, she scared herself, the police’d say. Burgled a house? Okay, where’s the burglar? Hiding inside an old man’s skin? Who’d ever believe that? Who’d believe an old old man was ever a boy twelve? What else is the score? Did a lightning-rod salesman disappear? Sure, and left his bag. But he could’ve left town—”
“That dwarf in the side show—”
“I saw him, you saw him, looks kinda like the lightning-rod man, sure, but again, can you prove he was ever big? No, just like you can’t prove Cooger was ever small, so that leaves us right here, Will, on the sidewalk, no proof except what we saw, and us just kids, the carnival’s word against ours, and the police had a fine time anyway there. Oh gosh, it’s a mess. If only, if only there was still some way to apologize to Mr. Cooger—”
“ It’s too late now, all we can do now is sit around and wait.” said Will “ With everything happening right now you just want to sit around and wait