It was only the middle of March and already nearly eighty degrees. Elizabeth Ann Greene, as her mother called her when she misbehaved, decided to seek a little comfort in the shade of the back porch. Her Daddy didn't believe in air conditioning unless it was over a hundred degrees. He said it made people soft. It was one of many things about her father that she found much too old fashioned, but there was no changing him so she had learned to suffer in silence.
As she applied the second coat of Bohemian Burgundy to her toe nails, she heard the rumble of large trucks passing on the highway. You couldn't see the road through the trees surrounding the pasture but she knew what it meant. The carnival was in town. The signs had been posted all over downtown for weeks.
She quickly capped the nail polish and picked up her cell phone to call her best friend Allyson. They'd been best friends since they were in first grade nearly fifteen years ago now. They knew all of each other's secrets and were in fact more like sisters. She actually trusted Ally more than she trusted her big sister Maggie if the truth was told, but she'd never say that to anyone. She loved her family and always tried to stay on good terms with them.
"Ally, I just heard them. The carnival's headin' to the fairgrounds. We gotta go over there tonight," Beth started yammering excitedly as soon as her friend answered.
"I don't know if I can, Bethy," she whispered. "My mama's already spittin' mad about me getting home late last night after I went out with Nathan. You know how she is. If I go out again, I'll be hearing it for a month."
"Well, just tell her we've got choir practice or somethin' and you're ridin' with me," Beth suggested. "She'll believe that. That's what I was gonna tell my Daddy."
"Umm, okay, that'll work," Ally agreed. I'll be over in about an hour." As Beth ended the call, she was already thinking about what she would wear tonight. She wanted to be eye catching but not like she was trying too hard or being slutty. It was a fine line.
She went straight up to her room and tried on several outfits only to discard them across the bed or chair a minute later. She settled on a coral and white patterned tank top with spaghetti straps and a faded denim mini skirt that fit her slim hips snugly and showed off her legs. Her favorite cowboy boots completed the look.
After the outfit was chosen, she took some time to brush her hair and then braid it into one thick blonde rope that hung down her back. She applied a little coral lip gloss and mascara and decided that was enough. It was exactly the look she was going for. By the time Ally arrived, she was ready but she stopped to write a quick note telling her father that she had choir practice at the university and would be home no later than nine o'clock.
The two girls ran out to the old rust bucket Chevy truck that was Beth's only means of transportation. As they sped off the farm road leaving a cloud of dust behind them, they rolled down the windows and whooped with delight as they headed for the fairgrounds.
While Beth drove, Ally pulled two cherry lollipops from her purse. They were the round kind with bubble gum in the center. She opened hers and began sucking on it and passed the other to Beth.
"I'm not hungry," Beth said.
"It's not for eatin', silly," Ally told her. "It makes your lips all red and pouty and suckin' on it while you talk to a guy is sexy as hell. "
"God, who teaches you this stuff Ally," Beth asked, exasperated with her friend.
"Well, Belinda Carmichael told me about it last year right after she had that fling with the carny guy who had that red convertible. He told her the cherry Blow Pop was what did him in," Ally said.
"And look how well that turned out for her," Beth cautioned. "How old is her baby now, 2 or 3 months and no daddy around to help her tend to it? Belinda is not the type of person you want to be getting romantic advice from."
As they pulled up in the parking lot next to the large fairground, they noticed the whole area was bustling with activity. The trucks Beth heard must have been the last to arrive because they'd clearly been working all day setting this stuff up. Ally quickly checked her hair in a compact mirror and made sure that the red from her lollipop was smeared on her lips.
"Really?" Beth asked sarcastically. "You're still gonna do that?" Ally just smiled and opened the truck door.
Ally was obviously looking for some action with these guys. Beth liked a little attention, maybe a whistle or some flirting. It was good for a girl's ego but anything beyond that she wasn't interested in. While Beth wasn't a virgin, she held a higher standard for herself than Ally seemed to. The only boy who'd ever made it past first base with Beth was her high school boyfriend of two years, Jimmy Nolan. It had only been twice and it hadn't been good. It wasn't why she broke up with him a week after graduation but it certainly didn't help matters.
As the girls walked around the periphery of the fairgrounds and watched the scattered small groups work on various rides, it became pretty clear that this year's carnies were an older bunch than they normally employed. Beth saw a lot of pot bellies and gray beard stubble. Ally finally spotted two young guys working near the ferris wheel. The girls strolled over casually.
The two young men immediately noticed Beth and Ally and acknowledged them with winks and smiles. It wasn't long before they took a break and headed over to introduce themselves. Within a few minutes, Beth completely lost interest.
Justin and Bobby were the guys' names and they were both thick necked country boys with crew cuts and camo trucker hats. They wore dirty t-shirts and Wrangler jeans with the unmistakable round imprint of a Skoal can in the back pocket. These were the same kind of guys that both girls had grown up with. The biggest concerns they'd ever have were when hunting season started and who was pitching for the Braves this year.
Beth made an excuse and left Ally to keep up her lively discussion with the boys about the best bar in town and walked further around the fenced enclosure. Her eyes traveled up the side of the giant wheel as the lights on its struts flickered on. That's the first time she noticed the guy near the top of the thing.
It was hard to make out much except that he was lean with wide muscled shoulders. He was shirtless and wearing cutoff jeans and tan work boots. The sweat glistened on his skin in the rainbow light being cast by the carnival ride. His dark hair was long, well past his ears, and hung in choppy wet strands against the back of his neck. Something about his silhouette up there made her catch her breath sharply. She stood and watched as his back and arm muscles flexed while he worked.
As he finished his chore and began to descend, Beth could make out his features more clearly. His chest, arms and hands were black with oil and dirt and he was casually wiping them on a red rag that hung from his front pocket. His face was angular with almost catlike eyes. The beginnings of a small goatee on his chin added to the rugged character of his appearance.
Beth smiled as she watched him joke with his departing coworkers before playfully flipping them off. He tilted his chin up in a sort of farewell salute as they walked away. Then, his gaze turned to her.
Beth suddenly wished she'd taken that lollipop from Ally. It might make her look more sexy or whatever but it would definitely give her something to do with her hands. She finally decided on putting them in her back pockets and leaning casually against the fence.
"Hey," he said gruffly as he walked up next to her.
"Hey yourself," she replied, trying to act flippant.
"You were watchin' me work," he told her. His direct style made Beth even more nervous. She didn't know how to respond.
"No, I, um, I mean I was," she stammered, "I mean, um, aren't you scared up there. It's so high." Good save she thought to herself.
"Nah, I like it. Best view in town," he told her looking back up at the perch he'd just descended from and then directly at her.
"Cool," she replied as her gaze quickly shifted downward. Holding eye contact made her feel shaky and sweaty all at once. Cool? She thought to herself. That's what you're going to say. Just cool?
"I'm Beth, by the way, Beth Greene," she finally managed to get out as she extended her hand.
He didn't smile or give any indication he'd heard other than to pull off his work glove and extend his own hand. "Daryl Dixon," he said as they shook hands. She was surprised by how rough his hand was. Even her father, a farmer for most of his life, didn't have hands this tough and calloused. She was so into thinking about how his hand felt that she didn't realize that she hadn't yet let go of it. She quickly released him and dropped her head in embarrassment. Still he made no comment.
"You must feel like you're flyin' when you're at the top of that wheel," Beth said after they stood awkwardly for a moment.
"Sometimes," he mumbled as he chewed on his lower lip a bit. Beth noticed that his eyes were a greenish blue color, different than anyone she'd ever seen before.
"So you been working for the carnival for long?" she asked in an effort to continue the conversation.
"I guess it's been 'bout a year and a half. Me and my brother bought it off the last owners fore they retired," he told her.
"You bought it? The whole carnival? You're the owner?" Beth asked, a bit incredulous. He was the least like an owner of anyone she could imagine.
He looked a bit insulted. "What? I don't look like someone who can run this joint?" he huffed back at her.
"No, it's not that. I just….well I didn't think the owner would be climbing the ferris wheel doing manual labor is all. I didn't mean anything by it," she quickly tried to explain.
"Yeah, I know. We ain't exactly flush with experienced crew members. I didn't trust nobody else to do this," he said as he glanced over to where the two rednecks were still acting besotted with Ally. "Is that your friend over there with those two pricks?"
"Yeah," Beth gulped as she answered.
"Well, tell her Justin's 'bout as deep as a puddin' cup and Bobby, hell, he ain't got enough sense to blow his own nose. I wouldn't say they're what you'd call great catches," he told her.
Beth couldn't help herself. She started to giggled and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. She looked up to see that Daryl was smiling back at her.
"You said you own this with your brother. Does he travel with you?" Beth asked.
"Merle? Yeah, he's, ah, he's with us. At least he is, when he ain't on some little 'vacation'," he told her with a sort of smirk.
"Why does he take so many trips?" she asked naively.
"Good question," was all Daryl had to say in response.
Right at that moment the two of them heard someone yelling from across the large field. A man in jeans and a black vest was standing near the campers and waving his arms above his head.
"Darlina, hey, where the hell are we? I need to make a run to the liquor store," the guy was yelling in a slurred tone as he sort of weaved back and forth where he was standing.
"Shit, speak of the devil," he said as he turned toward the campers.
"Who's that? Is he yelling for Darlene?" she asked, expecting he'd go off about some drunken employee.
"That is my dumbass brother," he said flatly, "and I gotta go before he gets his self in any more trouble." He leaped over the fence between them and turned to give her one last glance before jogging away. "It was nice to meet you, Beth Greene," he told her quickly.
Beth felt a little unsteady watching him run across the field. It was like he was pulling the gravity with him as he moved away from her and she was almost convinced she was coming untethered from the ground. She grabbed the top rail of the fence to steady herself. She was 21 years old and never in her life had she experienced the kind of emotional response she was having to the greasy guy who'd just ran off to tend to a drunken brother.
She looked back down the fence line and found that Ally had paired off with one of the redneck 'pricks' as Daryl had called them. Beth wasn't sure whether it was Justin or Bobby and it honestly didn't matter. As far as she was concerned, they were interchangeable. She walked back over to where her friend stood with the Justin/Bobby creature leaned in whispering in her ear.
"Hey, Ally. It's almost eight o'clock. We need to be headin' out," Beth told her friend.
"But I thought we had until nine," Ally protested.
"No, I told my folks eight," she lied giving Ally the 'don't argue with me look' that only a best friend of fifteen years would understand.
"Fine," Ally huffed. "Bobby, I'll see you later and you've got my number."
The redneck grinned and tapped his cell phone. "Sure do, sweet thang and I'll be using it, you can bet on that," he said before spitting a dark brown stream of tobacco juice into the dirt. Beth turned her head to hide the grimace of distaste. Ally turned and waved to her new friend as they walked back to the parking lot.
When they got back in the truck, Ally was quick to turn and ask, "Why you in such an all fired hurry to get out of here?"
"I'm not in that much of a hurry. That guy you were talkin' to just didn't seem like much of a prize to me. I figured it'd be better to put a stop to that nonsense before it got started," Beth told her.
"Oh, really? And you, Miss High and Mighty, I guess the guy you were talkin' to was just a prince in comparison? Is that right?" Ally asked sarcastically.
"No, it's not like that. It's just you know you can do better than that, Ally," Beth said rather apologetically.
"Well, Bobby told me all about that old guy you were talkin' to. He may be the carnival owner but he's a total loser. His brother's a drunk and a junkie. The two of them spent some kind of insurance settlement to buy the carnival and they've done nothin' but lost money on it. Bobby says the drunk brother goes around makin' fun of your new friend all the time. That's why he was callin' him Darlina when he was yellin' across the field," Ally said, acting rather proud of the inside scoop she'd obtained.
Beth was puzzled. "Darlina? He calls his brother by a girl's name?" she asked.
"Yep and that ain't the worst of it," Ally continued. "Seems the old guy just out of jail for some drug charge and he's been spongin' off your guy ever since. Your friend just sits back and takes whatever it is his brother shovels at him. He's a wuss, Bobby says."
"He's not a wuss. I don't know what the story is but Daryl is tough. I promise you he could take Bobby on without even breaking a sweat," Beth said a bit more angrily than she intended.
Ally just clamped her mouth shut and turned to look out the window.
Beth quickly cooled off and realized how foolish they were being. "Hey, would you look at us? Fightin' about two guys we barely even talked to? This is silly," she said as she playfully slapped her friend on the arm.
Ally turned back toward her with the beginnings of a smile on her face. They both grinned and then in unison said, "Chicks before dicks," which they'd come up with back in high school in response to the jock trend of saying "Bros before ho's". Then they turned the radio up and sang along with Taylor Swift as they drove back to the farm.
