“Candace, I’ve got a bad feeling about all this.”
“So do I.”
14
The next day at school, Candace thought she was having déjà vu. Everyone was staring and talking about her. She looked around suspiciously, but Tamara didn’t seem to have hung any fresh banners.
She joined up with Tamara in homeroom where everyone continued to stare and whisper. “Do I have something on my face, or what?” Candace asked Tamara.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” her best friend said, sounding just as puzzled as Candace. “But five people stopped me between my locker and here this morning to ask if my friend Candace worked at The Zone.”
“What is this, delayed reaction? You hung that banner a couple of weeks ago.”
“I know, it’s kinda creepy. Either some people are just really slow, or something else is going on that we don’t know about.”
Candace was personally hoping people were slow. The other thought made her nervous.
Finally, a girl leaned forward and asked, “Candace, you worked at The Zone over the summer, right?”
“Yeah.”
A dozen people started murmuring at that.
“What was your job?”
“I was a cotton candy vendor,” Candace said.
This was followed by more murmuring.
“Were you locked in the theme park overnight?” the girl asked, eyes wide.
“Yes.”
“I knew it!” The girl lurched to her feet and shouted, “Hey, everyone, it’s true! Candace is Candy, the girl who got chased through the park by the psycho!”
The entire class erupted at that, and suddenly people were swarming around Candace’s desk.
“What was it like?”
“Were you scared?”
“Do you have any scars?”
“How did you escape?”
“Is The Zone paying you like a billion dollars for your story?”
“None of that happened!” Candace tried to shout above the hubbub, but her voice was drowned out by the crowd.
She turned in desperation to Tamara. Her friend looked stunned but slowly began to laugh. “It’s not funny!” Candace shouted.
“Are you sure?” Tamara shouted back.
Just great. The whole school had known she was playing Candy. Now apparently they realized she was Candy.
A group of guys started up a chorus of “I Want Candy,” and she just groaned and put her head on the desk.
By the time drama class rolled around, the news was all over the school. Somehow, no matter what acting or improv task Mr. Bailey assigned to an individual or a group, cotton candy and psycho killers found their way into it. Fortunately they ran out of time, and she didn’t have to get on stage to perform. She didn’t think she could have handled it.
She’d been home only a few minutes when Pastor Bobby called. Candace was surprised. She had been called about retreats and things by some of the youth counselors before, but never by Pastor Bobby. Once the preliminaries were out of the way, he began.
“Candace, I just wanted to call because I have this concern.”
And now everyone at church knows too. Just great.
“Let me just tell you right now that it never really happened. Yes, I was trapped in The Zone overnight. Yes, I was a cotton candy vendor all summer. No, there was no serial killer, no psycho, nothing like that.”
“That was actually you?” he asked, sounding awed. “I knew you were playing the character in the maze, but I had no idea that story was based on you.”
She groaned. Fabulous. Apparently it hadn’t gotten around church quite yet, but it would now. “Why were you calling?” she asked.
“Oh, yes. I’m concerned that not enough juniors or seniors are going to volunteer to lead the small group Bible studies starting in November.”
Thanks to Scare, she had missed the last couple youth group meetings, so she wasn’t entirely sure what he was talking about. “Bible studies?”
“Yes, it’s this new program we’re trying out, and we need volunteers to lead and facilitate.”
“And so you called me?”
“Yes.”
“To volunteer?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” she said, trying to gather her thoughts. It was probably going to be a big time commitment, and she wasn’t sure she could handle it.
“Great, I knew I could count on you. See you Sunday!”
“Wait! I didn’t mean ‘okay, I’ll do it — ’”
It was too late, he had already hung up.
She thought about calling him right back, but she didn’t. She had been learning firsthand how hard it was to get volunteers. Besides, it would look good on her college application. She sighed and hung up the phone. Hopefully Tamara could at least tell her something about what she had just volunteered for. In the meantime, she had some recruitment of her own to do.
“Come on, won’t you volunteer . . . for me?” Candace asked, batting her eyelashes.
“No,” Kurt said, smiling.
“No?”
“No.”
She was surprised. She had figured the girlfriend card would trump the Halloween night card. Once the surprise faded, the disappointment set in.
“Seriously, you won’t help me out?”
“Not with Sugar Shock,” he said.
“Honestly, I don’t get what the big deal is.”
“That’s because you’ve never worked Halloween night. It’s long, it’s exhausting, and people are lucky to survive — and that’s if they managed to sleep all day in anticipation of it.”
“Would it help if I begged?” she asked, thinking of Martha’s advice.
“Not even a little bit. You’d just embarrass both of us.”
She sighed in frustration before heading off to try and scare up some other volunteers. So far she had only four names on her list. Josh had agreed the night before to volunteer, and since then she had found only three other people willing to help. Of course, the truth was the overtime pay had enticed them and not the chance to entertain the kids.
She continued on through the History Zone, asking every referee she came across. Thirty minutes later she still didn’t have a new name for her list. She headed for the Exploration Zone, hoping to find better luck there. No sooner had she stepped foot in the zone, than she saw Gib from the Muffin Mansion approaching her.
He looked grim, and she was reminded of when he had confronted her over the summer and told her about Becca’s allergy to sugar and forbidden her to give Becca any more cotton candy.
He stopped in front of her, feet spread slightly apart, hands on his hips. He was already in costume. Everyone from the Muffin Mansion was a pirate. Candace had seen several of them walking around the park. They all looked good, but not like Gib.
Gib, with his grim look and grizzled face, looked the part. He sounded a little like a pirate even when he wasn’t in character, so it was easy to see him in the clothes and believe it.
“I’ve been looking for you, Candace,” he grumbled.
“Sure, you’ve come to the proper place,” Candace joked.
“I’ve been wanting to talk to you about your Sugar Shock.”
It was hardly her Sugar Shock, but she figured it was best not to point that out. Clearly he had something to say, and she should let him say it.
“I hear you’ve been recruiting.”
“You hear right,” she said. What on earth could he want? Had he come to volunteer? Somehow she didn’t think so.
“I’m here to give you a friendly warning. Don’t recruit Becca.”
She stared deep into his eyes and knew better than to ask if he was kidding. She knew about Becca’s allergy to sugar and had seen firsthand how hyper it could make her. But surely Becca had to have some bit of self-control.
“She would only be passing out candy, not eating it.”
“That’s what you think.”
“She must have a little self-control.”
“None.”
“But at the Muffin Mansion you put sugar in the muffins.”
“And we keep that sugar locked up at all times. There’s only one key,” Gib said, hooking a finger under the chain around his neck and bringing into view the key in question. He lowered it back under his shirt, and Candace shivered.
“But the muffins have sugar in them. Surely she eats them.”
“Only four types of muffins have real sugar in them. We also keep those locked up.”
“That’s insane! Why isn’t she working at one of the rides instead?”
“She’s Muffin Mansion crew, and we take care of our own. We don’t need outside interference,” Gib said, eyes blazing fiercely.
“Okay, fine, I won’t ask her to work Sugar Shock.”
“It’s more than that. You have to swear to do everything in your power to keep her away from Sugar Shock.”
“Okay, now that’s just going too far,” Candace protested. Muffin Mansion people might take care of their own, but she wasn’t one of them, and she was not obligated to watch out for Becca.
Gib stepped closer, his manner subtly threatening. “You know how this event came to be named Sugar Shock?”
“No,” Candace said. Could Gib actually have the answer to that?
“Twelve years ago, The Zone held its first Halloween event for children. They called it the Trick-or-Treat Zone.”
That made a lot more sense to Candace than Sugar Shock.
“An unsuspecting relative brought a sweet, seven-year-old girl to that event, not knowing that the girl was allergic to sugar.”
Gib had to be talking about Becca. The air seemed to grow suddenly colder, and Candace wrapped her arms around herself.
“The little girl trick-or-treated throughout the entire park, collecting an enormous bag of candy. And then she took the first bite,” Gib said, his voice barely a whisper, his eyes fixed as though upon that moment so long ago.
“Three hours later they caught her,” Gib said, his voice suddenly booming. “But by then she had cut a sugary swathe through seven zones, leaving carnage in her wake. She splattered the paints from the Painting Wall throughout the park and finally dumped the jars in the waters of the Splash Zone where they clogged up the machinery that kept the water and rides moving. Hundreds of players were stranded on rides throughout the park. The fire department was called. The police arrived. The park was evacuated. It took three of us from the Muffin Mansion to hold her when we finally caught her. I still bear the scars,” Gib said, rolling up the sleeve of his left arm.
“Are those bite marks?” Candace asked in horror.
“Aye. She left her mark on each of us. And we vowed on that day to never let her step foot inside this park if she could reach sugar again. Little Becca spent two days in the hospital recovering from the shock of the sugar. The park spent two weeks recovering from the shock of the events and repairing the damage. And that’s why we call it Sugar Shock.”
Candace just stared at him in horror. So many questions were racing through her mind. All she knew for certain was that The Zone had to be a magical place for that little girl to ever want to come back and for those brave, tormented referees to welcome her with open arms. If that wasn’t love, she didn’t know what was.
“The Muffin Mansion takes care of its own,” she whispered.
“Aye.”
Candace was starting to get desperate when she headed for the Game Zone. She had managed to get only a couple more volunteers, and she was running out of options.
She walked into the Dug Out and found Roger there.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were just working Scare,” she said, confused.
He indicated to her that he was not wearing a uniform. “I’m here as a player. I’m buying my cousin a birthday present.”
“Oh, cool. Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m helping to run Sugar Shock this year.”
“I did hear. That’s totally cool.”
“You know what would be even cooler?
“What?”
“If you volunteered to work it.”
“Okay.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes.”
“Thank you! That would be awesome!”
“Having a hard time getting people to say yes?”
“How’d you guess?”
“Word gets around.”
“Has word gotten around about anybody who might be willing to volunteer?” she asked hopefully.
“No. I’ll make you a deal, though,” he said.
“What?”
Suddenly he started blushing fiercely. “I’ll get you nine other guys if you find out for me if Becca has a boyfriend.”
“Seriously?” Candace asked.
“Yeah.”
“Deal,” she said, shaking his hand.
She didn’t know which amazed her more, that he would ask her to find out if Becca had a boyfriend, which felt like a very third-grade request to her, or that he would volunteer nine of his friends for the information.
She went immediately to the Muffin Mansion to track down Becca. She found her and the other pirates in high spirits as they were getting ready for the evening to start.
“Hey, Candace!” Becca said, waving furiously.
“Hey, Becca. Can I see you a sec?”
Becca came over. “What’s up?”
“I’m not going to beat around the bush. Someone asked me to find out if you have a boyfriend.”
Becca smiled. “That’s valuable information. What are they offering in exchange for it?”
“Nine of their friends as volunteers for Sugar Shock.”
Becca’s eyes went wide. “Nine?”
“Nine,” Candace confirmed.
“You can tell this person that I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Do you want to know who’s asking?” Candace said.
“No,” Becca said with an impish smile. “It’s more fun this way.”
“If you say so,” Candace said, shaking her head. “Thanks for the information.”
“You’re welcome,” Becca said before disappearing back into the pirate horde.
Eager to seal the deal, Candace hurried back to the Game Zone where she found Roger right before he entered the maze. “Roger!”
“Yes?” he asked, looking nervous.
“No boyfriend.”
He broke out into a huge grin. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. You owe me nine other volunteers.”
“You’ll have them,” he assured her.
Candace headed for the castle. Now, if only she could find a few other people willing to volunteer their friends, she’d be doing well.
Once inside the Comfort Zone, she taped her list of names to one of the walls.
“It’s a start,” Martha said when she perused the list a few minutes later.
“So, what’s supposed to happen at Sugar Shock?” Candace asked.
“Generally only a few rides are open. Referees are stationed throughout the park at tables with big bowls of candy they pass out to the trick-or-treaters.”
“That’s it?”
“Isn’t that enough?” Martha asked. “We have a hard enough time pulling just that off every year.”
“Doesn’t Freddie McFly make an appearance?”
“Yeah, he and Mr. Nine Lives do a walk around, signing autographs. Plus they do a little improv show.”
“Not a big show?”
Martha shook her head. “They do the big show on Scare nights, so they have to save their energy for that.”
“Well, that’s sad.”
Martha shrugged. “Sugar Shock is more of the afterthought of the holiday. Most of the time, money, and personnel gets funneled into Scare.”
“Speaking of money, do we have any so that we could buy props or stuff besides candy?”
“A
little. Why? What are you thinking?”
“I know we don’t have a lot of time, but I think this year Sugar Shock needs to be more of an event than an afterthought.”
“Just tell me what you want to do,” Martha said.
15
Candace was waiting when the train rolled into the station. Pete opened the door of the engine and looked down at her first in surprise and then in resignation. She knew he was taking the train on a test run to check the repaired brakes, and she had waited for just this moment.
“You know why I’m here,” Candace said, locking eyes with him.
“Yeah, I reckon I do,” he said with a heavy sigh.
“You had to know this day was coming,” she continued.
“I’d have been a fool not to,” he said.
“And nobody takes you for a fool, Pete.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Run the train. Pass out candy.”
“Is that it?”
“That’s enough,” she said.
“All right then.”
“All right.” He climbed back aboard the train and pulled slowly out of the station.
“That’s one more happy volunteer,” Candace said to herself. She had already secured quite a few.
She moved on, heading for her next scheduled stop. Dealing with Roger had taught her something. People would volunteer for a price. Know their price and you had them. It was pretty mercenary, but she had the Halloween dreams of little kids to fulfill and very little time to do it.
She checked the schedule printout in her hand and made her way to the Thrill Zone. Once there, it was easy to find the cart she was looking for.
“Megan,” Candace said, as she approached the candy corn vendor.
“Yes?” Megan asked.
“How would you like to work the rest of Scare as a vendor?” Candace asked.
“Do you mean it?” Megan asked excitedly.
“Yes. You can work the remaining nights of Scare.”
“That would be awesome! What’s the catch?”
Candace smiled. “You have to volunteer to work Sugar Shock.”
Megan’s smile faltered for a moment, but was soon back in place. “You have yourself a deal.”
The Fall of Candy Corn Page 12