Chapter One
The Night the Lights Came to Town
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The trucks rolled in before dawn on the first Saturday of May, 1962, and by suppertime the fairground at the edge of town had grown a Ferris wheel. Mary had awoken that morning and pulled the white curtains with lace fringe aside to see a great dark circle against the pink sky, waiting for its lights.
The truck show had been on the road for a month. The rides and attractions were custom-engineered to be broken down quickly. Everyone said the carnival was the same every summer but they hadn't been there to see the work in winter quarters that shaped the new season. Mary kept a notebook, and she knew that no two summers were ever the same.
The Storyteller
Meet Mary
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Mary wears a top hat with two feathers — one red, one gold — and carries a navy-blue book with a star on the cover. Nobody knows quite what's written in it. Mary does.
She is the same Mary you'll meet under the big top in CircusMary, her companion story. Two tales, one storyteller, and a notebook that goes everywhere.