After an enjoyable night together, the next morning, Sean and I left the motel and headed back to the fairgrounds. Sean had asked around, and found someone I could work for, but she didn't need me at that stop. Her name was Val, and she ran a fried dough booth. She told me that she didn't think she needed me in Dover, and gave me the dates of other stops where I'd be able to work. Sean suggested that I ask around to see if anyone else needed a hand at this spot, and gave me the name of someone to talk to. I found that person and he was the biggest jerk I'd ever met. He was sarcastic in his reply to my inquiry as to whether he had a job that I could do. As I was heading back to the Ferris wheel, where Sean was now working, someone called me over.

"You're Scooby's girlfriend, aren't you?" he asked. I replied that I was. He said,

"He was asking around about a job for you to do while you were up here, and I told him I didn't have anything. If you haven't found something by the end of the day, I might have something for you tomorrow."

"That would be great," I said. The guy's name was Tony, and he had several food trailers on the midway. I told him I'd let him know what I was able to find. He then said,

"You might want to check with Val at the fried dough joint. I think she was looking for someone."

I laughed and told him, "I've talked to her. She doesn't need anyone here, but at the next couple of places, she'll need my help."

"That's good. At least you won't be stuck up here all weekend waiting for Scooby to take a break."

Tony had some customers, so I took my leave and headed back down the midway towards the Ferris wheel.

Sean asked me how I did, and I told him about Tony's offer if I haven't found anyone to work for. Sean had just told me to keep looking when Val called me over.

"Can you work right now?" she asked me. I said I could. Val found that she could use me that day, and possibly the rest of the weekend. She asked if I could count change, and I told her I could, then showed her I could.

"You're hired," Val said. "We need to get you a show shirt, unless Scooby can lend you one of his."

I told her that Sean's shirts would be too big, and that I would definitely need a smaller size. Sean, overhearing the conversation, agreed. Val and I went to get me a show shirt, and Val would deduct the cost from whatever she ended up paying me. Within the hour, I had a job.

It was a job that I would have for the next two and a half months.

Val introduced me to Shell, an older woman who had been working for the carnival for several years. Shell showed me the ropes around the "joint", how much things like the fried dough and sodas were, where the powdered sugar and other condiments were located. Val was going to have me work about 4 hours, so I could get used to things, then work a full day the next day, Saturday.

I caught on pretty quickly, and I asked a lot of questions. Val and Shell seemed to be impressed with my people skills. Shell asked what I did for work before I met Sean and I told her about my former job at Lucent. She asked why I would want to work for the carnival with a work history like mine, and I replied,

"Being in love makes you do strange things." Shell laughed and had to agree.

After my four hours were up, Val paid me, but forgot to deduct the price of the show shirt, and frankly, I forgot about asking her. So I had a little pocket money for dinner that night, and a hotel.

Sean had taken a break before I was done, so he couldn't join me while I wandered the midway until it closed later that evening. He gave me the key to his room at the bunkhouse so I could take a nap and rest. So, I got dinner from one of the food booths, walked around the midway, then headed off to the bunkhouse to rest.

When I got there and put the key in the lock, a gal tapped me on the shoulder and asked who I was. I turned around and looked at her, and I was surprised how young she was.

"I'm Sara," I told her.

"Oh," she said, "you're Scooby's girlfriend. He said you would be coming up. Nice to meet ya, I'm Diane."

"Good to meet you, too, Diane," I said.

"Are you working with us now? Scooby was asking around for a job for you."

"Yes. I'm working with Val and Shell at the fried dough."

Diane nodded; "They're great ladies and you'll have fun working for them. I work in the Duck Pond."

I knew the Duck Pond was a kid oriented game on the midway. I didn't recall seeing her there. Instead, I had seen a petite girl with short red hair who reminded me of a sprite or a pixie. I asked Diane about her.

"That's Jenny. Her brother and his dad work here too."

"I see." (Her brother and his dad?)

I went inside our room and propped the door open. Then I went to open the small window behind our bunk, and found that the window was broken, so I had to prop that open as well. I lay down on the bunk and within minutes I was fast asleep.

In what seemed like a second later, someone was banging on the door. I woke up and saw that it was dark. I then heard my name. It took me a sec to realize it was Sean.

I looked at my watch. It was about ten-thirty. I got up and opened the main door, which had shut and locked while I was asleep. Since I had the key, Sean couldn't get inside.

Sean came inside and sat next to me on the bunk. "Have a nice sleep, honey?" he asked.

"Yeah, I was totally knocked out."

"You don't want to stay here tonight, do you? We'd both have to sleep on the bunk if we did."

I looked around. I had no clue how the two of us would even fit on the bunk together.

"Could we stay in a motel room tonight, Sean?"

"That's what I was thinking. Between the two of us, we have plenty of cash," he said. "We can't stay in the same place as last night though. Remember they were booked?"

I shook my head.

I gathered up my bag and we headed out to the car.

We drove quite a ways to find a motel as late as it was. Finally, we found a place that had a restaurant attached. The restaurant was closed, and we'd already eaten anyway.

We settled into our room, and Sean went in to take a shower. I was still a little tired from my "nap", and I laid down on the bed and soon nodded off. Somewhere I heard Sean's voice, but was too tired to respond. Next thing I know, he's sitting next to me, saying something along the lines of, "you tired, my baby?"

I think I looked up at him at that point and said, "yes..."

He started to tickle me. "Wake up, there, girl..." he said. Well, one thing led to another, and, well, you know...

The next morning, we checked out and headed back to the fairgrounds. There was a 10 a.m. work call for the ride jocks, and Val wanted me at the Dough at 11 a.m. I was going to be putting in a full (12 hour) day, and my only concern was if I was going to be able to make it a full twelve hours. I decided that I had to make it.

Once the fair opened for the day, it was non stop chaos! I have never been so busy in my whole life! Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I got a break. I sat outside the trailer to rest my feet. I was sure I had blisters the size of half dollars on the bottoms of my feet. The big toe on both feet were numb (and would stay that way the entire time I was with the carnival and for about three months afterwards. I had temporarily paralyzed the nerves from the constant standing on my feet and wearing the wrong shoes).

By eight in the evening, I was praying for the midway to close at the scheduled time of ten pm. I had been told that if there were people on the midway when it closed, that we had to stay open until we got the all clear from the midway manager (a really obnoxious man named Brian, who I had met the day before and took an instant dislike to).

Things had slowed down considerably and at 9:55 pm, we got the all clear to start closing up for the night. There was so much cleaning up to be done (and this was a nightly process). Finally, at about 10:30 pm, Val cut me loose. I headed back to the bunkhouse, where Sean was waiting. This was to be the first of many nights we were going to sleep on the one bunk together.

Intimacy would be a thing of the past for the rest of this spot. The bunk was just too small, the walls were paper thin, and I am not a quiet person when aroused.

I slept mostly because I was exhausted. I've never worked so hard for so long in my entire life! For the first time since Sean and I met, I didn't hear him snore.

I wondered if I'd ever get used to this life.

Sunday was the last day of the Dover fair. We were pretty busy for most of the day, and the fair would close early. After closing, which was at about six p.m., we would clean and pack up the Dough joint, which was a self contained trailer that would be hitched to Val's Chevy Suburban and towed to the next spot in Springfield, Maine.

Since there was still daylight after the fair closed, we had a decent amount of light in which to get started cleaning, packing supplies securely, and dismantling the signs that adorned the outside of the joint and stored them away.

The rides were also being taken apart and loaded onto semi trucks to be hauled away. Sean was working on the Ferris wheel when Val, Shell and I were done packing up the Dough. I headed back to the bunkhouse, where I slept fitfully the night before.

Sean had squished me up against the wall during the night. When he falls asleep, he spreads out. I was trying to figure out some creative ways to get and stay comfortable, but it wasn't working. And forget about having to go to the bathroom! That was a major production every time I had to make a bathroom run. I had to wake Sean up enough to get him to move his legs so I could get off the bunk, then do the same thing when I returned and got back on the bunk.

I had to move my car out of the way because a semi would be coming to hook up the bunkhouse and cart it off to the next spot. It seemed like I spent an eternity in the car waiting for Sean to get finished with the teardown of the rides. The later it got, the colder I felt, but I did manage to fall asleep for a couple of hours. Sometime while I was sleeping, Sean came by and put his stuff in the back seat.

When I awoke, I got out of the car to stretch, and decided to try and find Sean. It was after midnight, and I wondered when in the hell he was going to get done.

I walked onto the lot, which was now nearly empty of rides and concession joints. I found Sean over by where the Flying Bobs stood, partially dismantled. He saw me and walked over, put his arms around me, and kissed me on the forehead.

"You were sleeping when I put my shit in the back seat of the car," he said. "I know you've been waiting a while."

"Yeah," I said. "They came and got the bunkhouse, so I had to move the car out of the way."

"You picked a good spot to park." The place I was parked was under a very large tree.

"By the way, would you mind taking a couple of passengers to the next spot? I'm gonna charge 'em five bucks a head. It'll take care of gas money."

"Well," I said, "I'm taking you, I may as well put someone in the back seat."

"Babe," said Sean, "you are so cool!" He walked over to where the crew of the Flying Bobs stood resting. He soon returned with our two passengers: a tall, thin blonde guy about 20, and his girlfriend, who was about the same age; she had dark hair, eyes, and olive skin.

Sean collected the five spots from each of them, we put their stuff in the already overstuffed trunk, and we all got in the car. Sean decided he was going to drive, and I didn't object. It would be nice to share the driving chores with him.

We had to wait even longer, until we got the word we could leave. About an hour later, we got the okay, and we "jumped".

We were on our way to Springfield. Wherever in Maine that was.