At the Local County Fair

Writer's Cramp: NEW PROMPT
Thirty years ago today, June 9, 1973, Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes AND the Triple Crown of horse racing. In honor of that momentous event, today's prompt will involve a horse race.

Write a STORY (comedy or drama) that includes the following:

A young female jockey, a horse race at a local county fair, a hot air balloon, a clown, a watermelon eating contest, and a Ferris Wheel that stalls with people stuck on it.


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At the Local County Fair

         The alien landed just outside the race track of a local county fair. The horses neighed and licked his face. He giggled and patted their necks. Then he turned about and saw a young female jockey. She was almost the same size as he. He tipped his hat and googled his eyes. He bowed from the mid-section where his slimmering slikes were growing. The woman screamed, and Bisnablockno ran off. He didn't stay to see the horse races.

         He stopped to watch a clown juggling red and orange balls to amuse the contestants of a watermelon eating contest. The clown’s face was painted strangely and his feet were extremely large. The children eating their watermelon stopped when they saw the alien boy.

         “Oh, look, Mom! See that funny clown!” said one small boy on the bottom rung of some risers.

         His mother turned and saw the alien. She fainted over the side. The crowd ran to care for her. Bisnablockno was glad she hadn’t tumbled far.

         A hot air balloon was perched up ahead, inflating as he watched. Its red and purple patterns gave the alien a headache. Bisnablockno shook his head to clear it out and breathed some chlorine gas through one of the slike’s heads. Then he continued, staring at cotton candy and popcorn machines puffing out miniature balls of white.

         It was then that Bisnablockno saw it -- the sight he had traveled across fifteen systems to see. Yes, it was the Ferris Wheel, just as spectacular as he had dreamed! The lights on each small caged-in basket were sparkling in their movement. It was like looking at stars as they twinkled through an atmosphere!

         Bisnablockno walked forward to stand directly underneath the enchanting ride. He stared up into its dancing lights and looked enviously at the laughing humans who were riding it. Oh, how I wish I could go up, just once, Bisnablockno stood thinking.

         A small girl came over to him and tugged at his space suit. “Mither Cwown, Mither Cwown,” she said with a most adorable lisp.

         Bisnablockno kneeled down so he could look her into her eyes. “Yes, human?” he said gently with as perfect an accent as anyone who has practiced for the last three hours and had nothing else to do but learn a new language.

         “Will you take me on the Fewis Whool, please?” the girl asked.

         “I would be pleased to render such a service, human,” Bisnablockno said, and he waved his hand, the one with the mature slike foot at the end.

         The Ferris Wheel halted with a bump. Immediately the passengers began calling out in rude-sounding tones and words that were not in the Intellectual Human Dictionary. Bisnablockno waved his footed slike again, and the people were all silenced.

         Then Bisnablockno lifted himself and the girl up into the air and over into one of the Ferris Wheel cages. The little girl laughed and said, “Oh, goody. Fwun, fwun!”

         Once they were both well-buckled in, with a wave of Bisnablockno's slike, the Ferris Wheel continued its circular journey. The music of the ride was painfully distracting. Bisnablockno waved it silent, and the girl and he continued to ride into the night. Around and around they circled. She was giggling at the sight of so many ant-like people. Bisnablockno approved of her sense of humor.

         When the ride was over, the carnie looked strangely at Bisnablockno and the little girl. It was obvious he did not remember putting either one of them into the cage, but he shrugged his shoulders and turned to take the tickets of the people in line.

         Bisnablockno said “goodbye” to the little girl and returned to his ship. The horses neighed a friendly farewell. The young female jockey who had seen him before, screamed hysterically all over again.

         But it didn’t matter. Bisnablockno ignored her, climbed into his ship, and blasted off.

         Somewhere up there right now in a spaceship headed home, sits the alien boy, Bisnablockno. Do not bother him, for he is busy writing his essay for school tomorrow. The topic is: “What I did over the weekend.”

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Featured in the Short Story Newsletter 7/8/03