Carnival by pamela francis
Once upon a time there was a woman with 2 sons. She loved them and delighted in them. They were fun… AND funny. They were talented…AND intelligent. They were eager to learn and understand the ways of the world, and their mother found enjoyment in their company. At some point, and in many ways, their mother derived almost ALL of her joy and purpose from being their mom.
One day they went to a carnival, as she was fond of taking them places and having fun with them. There was a clear, see-through booth at the carnival, and people were invited to enter it and be closed in with lots and lots of money.
Thousands of dollar bills swirled around in the booth, which was like a wind tunnel inside. Anyone with arms to grab at the bills, and tuck them into their pockets, sleeves, collar, and waist, could have as much of it as they could grasp. The mother looked at the booth with wonder and awe. “Imagine having a shot at all that cash,” she exclaimed to her sons. “We could go on every ride, buy every ticket in this place, and eat from every stand and table in here!”
“Hell, we could LEAVE from here and go ANYwhere with all that cash!”
“Go, Mommy!” Her boys encouraged.
So she grabbed them up, and entered the booth. Holding them in her arms, she watched as the bills began to swirl around her. Ones, fives, tens, twenties, hundreds… Even fifties, which she thought “they” had stopped making.
When the buzzer went off, the woman emerged from the booth with only a few bills.
“Wow! That was something else, boys!” The mother said, a little winded and out of breath.
“How much did you get, Mommy?” Asked her oldest.
“I got a little. You know, I got a few.”
The younger son asked, “Why couldn’t you get more, Mommy? How come you couldn’t hold onto the money…?”
The woman looked down at her hands, still clutching a few singles, and the occasional five.
“I was holding YOU.”
The boys didn’t quite know how to feel about that. Was their mother trying to say that she had missed out because of them…? Why, all she would have needed to do was leave them alone outside the booth… or perhaps she could have allowed them to be in the hands of strangers while she attempted to catch the cash. Maybe she could have told them and taught them to help catch the cash along WITH her.
Whatever had “gone wrong”, all she knew was she had these 2 beautiful, brilliant, handsome sons…, and a few dollars clutched tightly in her 2 hands. Just enough to go on another ride or two, and maybe buy a funnel cake to share between them.
And she was grateful.
