There are many things underground. The cannibal moundbuilders’ village in Nosehill Park, Decae’s Bookshop, the Black Room, and the Circus. The Circus is the kind you`ve only seem in movies or television shows. Animals, clowns, jugglers, trapeze, and a freak show. While these entertainments are benign, broadly speaking, the midway is fraught with hazard and the potential for great gain. To get to the circus, wait until dusk and close your bedroom door. Say “Life just seems so gray” at the exact moment the sun crosses the horizon, open the door, and walk through.
You will find that your wallet has been replaced with a small bag of washers in different sizes. These are the tokens for the midway, and broadly speaking you’ll have the same value in tokens as you had in dollars. You will also have a ticket that admits you to the circus itself. Enjoy it at your leisure, the big top and the freak show are corny but that hardly diminishes the spectacle of seeing them up close.
The games on the midway are strange, not at all as familiar as the circus. Some of them are quite cruel, like a booth where you take aim and throw razors at the deadened eyes of other patrons for tokens or the booth with the pneumatic cattle stunner. But at the end of the night you may trade your tokens for prizes. Eternal beauty. Genius. Musical talent. But if you run out of tokens, you’ll find the door back home has closed and you have nothing to do but join the circus.Previous Page: 075 - The Cupboard
Next Page: 080 - The Arcade Game