Some of the set-up hadn't been finished by the late evening of Wednesday after we arrived at the site, so some folks stayed on site on Thursday morning to finish it, the rest of us would find some way to relax while we wandered around Greenville to see what we could discover.

We were up by about 7 AM, even without using an alarm. I guess we're used to being on the go early, even when we aren't doing anything.

One of the lots not too far from our spot on the site had a big home style grill set up beside a huge RV, and there were two older guys standing over that grill, cooking a variety of items from your basic sausages and ham slices to what looked like hash brown patties?

Let me just say that the smell coming from that grill had me over there pretty fast, even though I was still supposed to be taking it easy.

I had to wait in a line behind a bunch of other people hungry for a breakfast they didn't have to cook themselves. When I finally reached the grill, I asked for two big sausages, a slice of ham and two hash brown patties. There was a woman about my mom's age or so, I think, standing over a large eight slice toaster plugged into a cord that was running to a generator near the back of that monster RV.

I received two slices of multi-grain toast, then wandered over to a long table, found some butter and fresh strawberry jam, prepped my two slices of toast, and looked around for somewhere to sit. Another woman pointed to a bunch of lawn chairs scattered across the grass.

I found a seat there, next to a woman who looked to be in her 70s, perhaps even older, and smiled and said hello as I sat down to eat.

She replied, thanking me for being polite, and we talked as we ate our meals on that nice late April spring morning.

Once I had finished my meal, I took her paper plate and my own and deposited them in a nearby garbage can.

I hadn't been watching mom or dad, but they joined me just after I dumped the plates, and we headed back to our area of the site.

After finding out who all wanted to go into town, we spread ourselves out through three of our RVs and were off to see Greenville.

We stopped in at the Town South shopping center and looked around for a while. We found the Hallmark store and I picked up a few postcards, I intended to fill them out later and send them back to friends I had at our winter home, folks who lived there year round.

Once we were finished in there, we crossed the lot and headed over to the store called Factory Connection. Someone had looked it up online and had discovered it was a discount store for brand name fashions. That was when my mom stuck her nose in and said that I was going to need a whole lot of new clothes, including bras and comfortable underwear. I think I turned red enough to rival Rudolph's nose!

We wandered around the Factory Connection store, Mom giggled while grabbing half a dozen training bras plus a few in AAA and AA sizes for when I started growing a bit more. The underwear sure was different, a lot softer than the boys styles I was used to wearing.

Of course, Mom grabbed four or five packs of basic but nice cotton briefs and added them to the bras in the cart. That darned blush again!

After that, we looked at a variety of jeans, picking out some that would be fairly comfortable and stretchy. That led to us looking over the leggings they had available. Again, mom had her bit of fun by holding up various pairs and deciding if they would suit me or not.

We'd been in there for over an hour by that point and made our way over to look at the t-shirts and sweaters that were available.

I pawed through a bin of t-shirts that were on sale, finding lots that I wanted, including half a dozen or so that were classic band t-shirts. You know, bands like the Eagles showing their early tours, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles just to name a few. I love classic bands!

Haha, I can just see you giving me that look, wondering why I like the old bands better than the new stuff that you hear today. Well, the simple answer is that I grew up listening to those bands. Mom and dad said they also grew up listening to them when they were still kids.

So, it's something that's been in the family, I guess, at least since my grandparents' time. A lot of what they call music nowadays is just ick!

We found a bunch of sweaters, some girly, some just basic sweatshirts and added them to the pile in the cart.

I suspect dad had been texting with other folks that brought their families, as we all ended up by the cashiers at about the same time.

The whole lot of us went through the lines, I'd bet this store got a good chunk of business from us was we made our way out.

We decided to stop somewhere for lunch, then go over to Splash Kingdom just off the I30 Frontage Road to while away the afternoon.

We didn't return to the fair site until just after 7 PM. We had had quite a bit of fun relaxing at the water park.

We had munched on snack foods here and there just to tide us over. We had originally been thinking about getting something to eat there at the water park, but the sheer cost to get us all into the place pretty much took that idea out of circulation rather fast.

Anyway, once we were back at the fair site, we found the folks from early that morning manning their big grill again.

That had us parking our vehicles as quickly as we could, then we all scurried over to see what was being grilled.

I hadn't realized it, but I found out Dad had wandered off in the late afternoon. We learned that he had gone to a supermarket in Greenville and had picked up a bunch of items that would be perfect for grilling, hamburgers, sausages, hot dogs, buns of both types, condiments.

Dad grabbed two bags of the stuff he'd bought, mom picked up a third and we followed several others to the grill to give them the food stuff. That got a nod and a handshake from the two guys running the big grill and a hug from the woman nearby, one of the guys' wives, I guess?

Even with the various snacks that I had eaten through the afternoon, I was still rather hungry and worked my way through two hamburgers and a sausage on a hot dog bun, then a rather large baked potato slathered with butter and sour cream and a 25 oz. bottle of Dr. Pepper.

I headed back to the RV at about 10:30 PM, having informed my parents that I would likely be in my bed fairly soon, I was quite tired.

Yeah, I have to a admit I hadn't done anything more than walk around all day, but whatever I have going on, it's using lots of energy. That might also explain why I was eating so much, my body was telling me to give it food in amounts that would let it do what was needed.

I was up early again on Friday. Once I was dressed, I wandered out, spotting the two guys standing over that big grill already.

I waved at them, I'm not sure if they saw it or not, then walked over to them and said hello.

There was almost no one there at that point, I suppose because it was just past 7 AM and most folks likely weren't awake yet.

That meant that I didn't have to wait very long to get my food, I ended up having pretty much the same as I had had the previous morning.

I settled down in one of the lawn chairs and demolished my breakfast at the speed of growing teenager, then sat there for a little while.

I think I had been relaxing, having finished my food, for about twenty minutes when I spotted that older woman heading toward the chairs. I hadn't really noticed the day before, but she was using one of those walkers to get around, and I smiled and helped her to settle into a chair.

I then asked her what she wanted for her own breakfast before heading to the grill and informing the guys, then moved over to the woman running the toaster and had her make one slice of white toast. Once that was ready, I collected the food and brought it to the old woman.

She smiled, showing teeth that were in remarkable condition for her age, took the plate and thanked me for getting the food for her.

I shrugged, quietly told her that it was only polite to help someone her age, then said I needed to run and headed back to our RV.

I'm not happy that I can't do my tightrope work for a while, I love being up on that rope doing the various moves. It's a lot of fun for me.

You can say it's a lot of work, too, and it is, but when one enjoys something enough, it becomes more fun than work, you know?

Anyway, here I was, sitting at the little kitchen area in our RV, grumbling to myself, when mom came in and grinned at me.

I had no idea why she was grinning, so it came as a surprise to me that several folks had asked if I could help with doing the calling.

It only took me a moment to think it over, the callers rarely did any strenuous activity, so it would give me something to do.

A quick nod from me, then me breaking into a grin, was the only sign mom needed to know that I would be okay now.

Being a caller turned out to be fairly fun. Sure, it meant spending a lot of time yelling to get people to notice you, but it was enjoyable. See, I got to learn a bit more about the various activities we do as a carnie act, and the various calls used for each of our individual acts.

That was how I spent a large part of my days over the next week and a bit, sometimes calling for one act, sometimes for a different one.

It was Wednesday afternoon, I think, when I noticed a young teen looking at one of the small billboards we have on display in our area. It took me a moment to realize that billboard was the one showing me on my tightrope. The teen was pretty much staring at the board in awe.

At the moment, I was working with Tina and Dave, doing the calling for the lion act. I told them I needed to do something for a bit. They, and the other callers, all knew that I needed breaks now and then during the day, so there was no problem with my taking a quick time out.

I wandered over to the teen, which was when I realized it was a young female, perhaps my own age, maybe even slightly younger.

I quietly said hello to her, then introduced myself and politely asked her why she was staring at my billboard.

I guess she wasn't expecting to have anyone notice her, so my approaching her and speaking to her had her turning rather red for a moment.

I apologized and led her to one of the food areas, where we sat down at a small table. I wandered off and returned shortly with soft drinks.

She recovered soon afterward and quietly explained that she was on her own, her parents having recently died in a multiple vehicle accident a few days earlier. What made it worse was that she said they were just moving here, they didn't even have a house to call home yet.

They had been staying in a motel for a few days while her parents looked for work they could do, they had come down here from somewhere up past Abilene in the northwest corner of the state. Her parents hadn't had any luck with finding work before the fatal car crash last Tuesday.

There were no relatives to take her, her grandparents on both sides were all deceased, the most recent about three years ago. Both of her parents had been single children, her dad because his mom had a bad bout of cancer that eventually required the removal of all of her reproductive organs, her mother's mother had been due to a really bad miscarriage that caused her doctor to tie off her tubes.

It may have been possible that this girl's grandmother could have had more children, but she never took the chance, so that was that.

Social services in the area had no idea that Allison even existed, so it was rather doubtful that they would be looking for her at all.

She had been telling me all of this while we each sipped at our drinks. Then she whispered that she wished she could be a tightrope walker.

Yeah, I remembered that she had been staring at my billboard earlier, but it was still a surprise when she said that as we sat there.

I asked her to get up for a moment, then had her turn around before I asked her to step away from the table and do some simple flexibility exercises such as touching her toes, doing a bridge, seeing how far she could twist to each side, cartwheels, flips, you get the idea.

As far as I could see, she seemed to be pretty flexible. With some training, she could get up on the tightrope, but it would be a while.

We still had some of our drinks, so I asked her to come with me and headed back to our part of the grounds.

Once there, I led her over to Tina and Dave, then quickly informed those two that I wouldn't be available, as I would be training Allison. Let's just say their eyes almost bugged out. I had to spend a few minutes explaining that Allison had no one to take care of her at all.

They caught on fast, Dave gave me a rough slap on the shoulder, so I shot him a punch just under the collar bone.

I may not be big, but I'm very wiry and very strong for my size. Dave actually stood there, rubbing his shoulder, saying it hurt.

That had me laughing, telling him that he shouldn't be running around slapping girls on the shoulder. He blanched, I guess he forgot?

Anyway, after talking with them, I led Allison over to the booth my dad runs, waved at him while mouthing "We need to talk".

He nodded, finished the game that was currently running, then had his junior guy, Robby Wimble, take over the booth.

I sat on a bench behind the booth as Dad, also sitting there, listened to Allison who was standing in front of us as she repeated her story.

Dad asked her very carefully about the no living relatives bit, at which point Allison pulled several faded pictures from an old wallet.

She passed them over to dad, telling him "That picture shows my gramps and grams Johnson. Gramps came down with a bad flu about six years ago, it messed him up pretty badly, badly enough that a cold he caught that winter killed him. Grams Johnson took to the bottle when he died, she just couldn't handle being on her own and mom and dad didn't have the time to be up there and help her a lot.

"Well, Grams got rather drunk one night, we think she got ahold of some moonshine somehow, and walked out in front of a speeding car. That damn car was doing close to eighty miles an hour in a twenty-five mile an hour zone, the bastards didn't even stop after they hit her."

Allison was crying a bit now as she handed another picture to my dad. "That picture is of my Grampa and Granma Jones, they were nice folks, my daddy's parents, but they preferred to live rough, using things like electricity and modern technologies as rarely as possible.

"About three years ago, on a cold night in February, they as usual set a candle on the night table on Grampa's side of the bed. At about three or so in the morning, Grampa had a seizure of some sort, perhaps the result of a stroke and knocked the candle onto the floor, still lit.

"There was an old rug on the floor in front of that night table, it caught on fire, then spread to the quilt hanging off the side of the bed.

"Within fifteen minutes, the entire bedroom was ablaze. No one knows why Granma Jones never woke up that night.

"The house burned to the ground by the time dawn broke through the grey skies that day. Even with three volunteer fire companies having been on the scene since shortly after four AM, they could only keep the fire contained, they were unable to stop it from consuming the house.

"That was when mom and dad started becoming unhappy with where we had been living. Not quite two weeks ago, we came here.

"There was no way to know that they would be in a major accident on a highway not far from here a few days later. Now, I'm alone."

The one thing that Allison refused to tell us was how she had survived for just over a week after the death of her parents without any help.

Allison wasn't the only one crying at that point. Tears were rolling down my own cheeks, a quick look showed dad was crying, too.

After a few minutes of explanation and my saying that she seemed to be in good shape, dad nodded and said he'd inform Jack Birchland.

Well, it looks like I have someone to train now. Once she is able to get up on the rope, and I am cleared to return to it, we may be partners.

For the rest of the duration of the fair, except for breaks to watch one of the acts occasionally, I was rather busy with training Allison.