50 Word Thursdays – A Carnival Surprise.

“Fooling, fooling, too much fooling.” (Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking)

This story was written for the 50 Word Thursday challenge, this week hosted by Teresa, The Haunted Wordsmith:

https://thehauntedwordsmith.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/50-word-thursday-8/

I have also included the Three Things Challenge:

https://lightmotifs.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/three-things-challenge-pl7/

Today’s prompt: keyboard, bananas, rattle

and the following prompts:

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/21/seldomly/

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/21/rdp-thursday-wan/

FOWC with Fandango — Undermine

A Carnival Surprise

The carnival parade was well under way, the bands marched playing their trumpets, drums and keyboard instruments. They could be heard several streets away. They weren’t playing them very well though, providing meaning to the old adage, you pay bananas. You get monkeys.

A man stepped out from an alleyway and joined one of the passing floats.

His garish costume and blue eyeshadow looked festive but his white makeup made him look wan in the light of the afternoon sun. He was just another clown, in the crowd, among many clowns juggling, riding on unicycles, shaking a rattle, eating fire.

Underneath his makeup, he wasn’t smiling. He was sick of it all. Fooling, fooling, too much fooling. While people starved and suffered, their hedonism threatened to undermine civilisation.

He will give them a carnival the like of which was seen seldomly and one no one present will live to repeat.

[150 Words]