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The air hung heavy over the flat Kansas prairie, dense and feverishly heated as a sick person’s breath. As the afternoon progressed, ominous black clouds encroached on the Western skyline, and violent gusts of wind – like the wracking coughs of an invalid – stirred but failed to cool the crowd below.
“Smith! SMITH! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? YOUR ACT’S SUPPOSED TO BEGIN NOW!” a darkly handsome man in his late twenties emerged from the shack that served as an equipment shed on this makeshift motorcycle stunt circus track, shouting to make himself heard over the roar of the large crowd. Spotting his star stunt rider standing beside the concession stand with a buxom peroxide blonde clinging to his muscular arm, the irritated show manager strode in that direction.
“Winter’s coming at last …” the slender blonde girl murmured to herself, shivering and drawing her lightweight red cardigan tightly around her scantily clad body as a chill breeze rustled through the meadow. With a dispirited sigh, she turned away from the bubbling creek and started trudging back toward the subdivision houses silhouetted against the evening skyline.
Indian Summer had stretched on for so long that Sandi Smith had almost dared to hope that the cold and snow would never really arrive. This would be the first time the Florida born and raised young wife had ever spent in the north, and although she’d not let her husband know how she felt, she’d been dreading the winter ever since he’d told her they were settling permanently in the Midwest.
I know Verne says that northern Indiana’s the only place in the country where his darned old Cycle Circus can really get off the ground, she thought rebelliously, but what does he expect me to do all winter long while he’s away on his stupid tours? I just wish he’d let me come with him like I used to or get a normal job where he wouldn’t have to leave me by myself all the time …
Fictional reading for entertainment purposes only.