A Bargain at any Price

A barker at a carnival talking out of the side of his big mouth over a set of Ginsu knives that the knife thrower will throw into the hollows under the arms of the long-legged, red-headed, roped-to -the- wall siren.
"A bahgin at any price! Lad, step up to the table. See these knives? See the blood stain on the stainless steel of the dagger? Ahhhhh, yesssssss. You're right. This knife was used in the Perfect Tommy's Massacre on 84th and Amsterdam in good Ole NYC back in 1989. Hmmmm, REAL Amercican killing steel...that's right. 4 dead with the same 4 inch dagger. But it was the last victim, John Amici, 24 years old. Lived around the corner. It was Amici who was stabbed in the heart - right in the center of the aorta. Aortic blood, the deepest, darkest of its kind. Stains stainless steel....see it right here? For you....$100....that's it. Right now. Tomorrow, I'll sell that thing in Chicago for a grand. That's right kid, one of its kind"

The kid walks away; not really a kid is he, about 24 himself. Deep hollows of yellowed purple under his eyes. A Kool in his hand dangling. A Kool? Who the fuck smokes Kools anymore? He's bored. He's walking, dragging his PF Flyers in the clotted dirt, clotted from cola and candy and maybe some of that aortic blood. He looks up at the top of the ferris wheel. It rocks back and forth stuck for the moment. 2 people at the apex banging on their
cage. He's thinking that they should just relax and look out over the water. The water looks endless from up there, stretching out into the night, calm, dependable, calling, but not too loud like his girlfriend. Well, was his girlfriend until last night. He heads over to the gambling tent where he won $50 playing blackjack with the firemen and Knights of Columbus. He spits and rubs the wad into the dirt with the rest of the effluvia. His head is down. He's sick of the jouncy carnival music cast out over the speakers hung on the tops of telephone poles. He smells the water...low tide.