Friday, September 9, 1910
Sarah arrived early to the park. The Grossman's wagon was already at the drop off point. She was the first teen to arrive for the Friday night trip to River City.
"Good evening, Sarah."
"Good evening, Mr. Grossman, Mrs. Grossman."
"Tommy had to go to the feed 'n grain. He'll be back in a minute." 
Sarah got on board the wagon.
"Hi Sarah," said Shawna Noel and Ginger McPherson in a flawless duet.
"Oh, hello," replied Sarah as she focused on the approaching Pete Jackson.
Shawna and Ginger sat on either side of her.
Sarah didn't know how to respond.
Shawna said, "It is so neat how we're in seventh grade and you're a senior and we're all such good friends."
Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Um, I never looked at that way," she was attempting to signal to either girl that there presence was not necessarily desired with each advancing step of Pete.
Ginger asked, "Is something wrong with your neck?" 
Sarah gave a slight snarl and kept up the forwarding pushes with her chin. Sarah was frustrated that they were not catching on.
Other teens were beginning to arrive.
Boo said discretely, "Sarah is attempting to tell you via non-verbal communication that she would prefer to sit by a boy."
The girls made a "gotcha" sign and switched seats.
It was a smooth transition up until the moment Ginger looked around, briefly pointed at Pete and asked,
"Is that the boy that she doesn't want to be dating?"
Sarah hid her face in her hands. "Ugh."
"Evening Sarah."
"Good evening, Pete."
He sat on her left.
"Evening Sarah."
"Hi Tommy" Sarah snapped to her right. The other greeting was from Patricia Grossman, Tommy's mother. 
Tommy sat on Sarah's right. He cupped her right hand and gave it a pseudo-platonic, continental kiss. It was a stunningly bold romantic gesture on his part.
And, fortunately for her, a passing car drowned out Shawna Noel's confused inquiry to Margaret Costello.
"Didn't she say Tommy was the boy she loved?"
Pete confidently placed his hand in the small of her back.
Sarah whispered to herself, "Oh, come on."
"Sarah?" came a female voice.
She looked up; it was Cheryl Cobblestone.
"Mrs. Clementine said I could go with the Friday night group so I could see where the fairground was in River City. Sarah and I are going there tomorrow to sell fudge at the flea market. I lived there when I was a baby but I left when I was four. The only time I've been," her face fell. "I've only been up to River City once since then and that was," she had an almost vacant expression in her eyes.
Patricia Grossman was nervous. She scratched her neck and whispered warily, "Augustus?" 
"Um," Augustus cleared his throat. "You know this wagon already has several children on board."
Margaret began counting. "Only eleven, Mr. Grossman, you can hold one more passenger."
Patricia Grossman started to whisper to her husband, "We don't have here mother's permiss," she caught herself before she finished the sentence.
Cheryl said meekly, "Mrs. Clementine said I should go and she even gave me a dollar to spend." 
Her lip began to quiver. "I'm seventeen-years-old. I should be able to go. If you want me to get Reverend Litchfield to come over and say it's ok then…."
Augustus was sympathetic. "You're welcomed to join us, Cheryl." He turned to Tommy. "Scoot over so she can sit next to you."
Sarah was slightly relieved. This was not the position for which she'd hoped, however, it would suffice and briefly cover the awkwardness of the moment. Tommy scooted over. Cheryl was thrilled to sit next to him.
Henry Tyler came by with his wheelbarrow. "Night Boo and Am…" he stammered. "Amelia. Have fun."
Cheryl kept her head down.
Henry walked off quickly and disappeared around the corner.
Augustus Grossman turned around. "Ok, we got Pete, Tommy, Sarah, the Chinese girl."
"Boo! Like a ghost."
He cringed. "Sorry."
"Only half as sorry as I am for having such a goofy name."
Augustus shrugged. "Jake, Kimberly, Brian Anderson, Maggie."
"Margaret."
"Sorry. Amelia, is it?"
She smiled. "Yes, sir."
"The young lady whose father owns a motorcycle."
"My name is Shawna Noel. This is Ginger."
Mr. Grossman politely nodded. "And Cheryl. That's twelve children all together. Headin' out."
The normally talkative group was unusually quiet that night as the wagon pulled out of town.
Sarah cleared her throat. "One… two… three. So long Crummy Creek!"
All of the children made raspberries.
That brought a welcomed wave of laughter.
Mr. Grossman asked, "Have all of you children been on a Friday night trip before?"
"Yes, sir- no."
A few of the kids looked to Cheryl. "I, um, I've never been on one of these trips."
Mr. Grossman sighed. "I need to explain a few things. This is the same speech that everyone hears on their first Friday night trip. Ok, this is nothing directed towards you."
Margaret and Kimberly giggled. They began whispering to Jake and Brian.
Cheryl could hear but not understand what they were saying. Her heart rate increased.
Mr. Grossman spoke cautiously, "There is all manner of vice in River City."
"Dad? Cheryl is going to be with Sarah and Pete and I all night."
Mr. Grossman nodded and whispered, "Fine."
Cheryl heard Ginger ask, "How come she doesn't get the lecture?"
Patricia Grossman turned around and admonished them. "Girls? Please?"
Tommy asked, "So, you're going to start working at the bakery?"
Cheryl's initial excitement of sitting next to Tommy Grossman, a boy for whom she pined, was waning with each passing whisper.
Sarah nudged her. "Cheryl?" She didn't reply.
Sarah softly said, "Yes. Mrs. Clementine's been showing her how to make fudge."
Cheryl heard Boo say, "I don't want to hear your little secret Kimberly so knock it off."
Amelia said, "Boo?"
Patricia Grossman said, "Quiet! Now go back to talking," she wondered how they could do that. "You know what I mean."
Cheryl was trying to choke back some tears.
Pete said, "The last time we were at the fairgrounds was for the River City Carnival."
Sarah subtly glared at him.
Pete shrugged. "What?"
Sarah spoke through her teeth. "That was when you got together with Emily."
Pete said, "Crud." He whispered, "I am so sorry about that."
Sarah cupped her lips to blow him a kiss. She whispered, "Forget about it. We all do dumb stuff."
Suddenly, Cheryl bolted from the wagon. She flopped on to the ground.
"Dad!" Tommy yelled.
Cheryl took off running into the darkness.
The horses reared to a hard stop.
Tommy and Sarah both got down and ran after her. Pete and Mr. Grossman joined the pursuit.
Mrs. Grossman stood up. "Children, remain where you are."
Margaret joked, "If they can't find her can we still go?"
Mrs. Grossman glared at her.
Margret hung her head in shame when she realized that no one else was laughing.
With the full moon, setting sun and ambient city light the pursuers could just barely make out Cheryl sprinting across an empty field.
Sarah yelled, "Cheryl?"
When she turned around she tripped and tumbled on the ground.
Tommy caught her as she tried to keep running. "Hey!"
Cheryl growled, "Get your hands off of me!"
Tommy let go as Sarah was coming around to her front.
"Cheryl! You are not running away. You are going with your friends to River City."
Tommy turned around. "Dad? Pete? Can you give us a minute?"
Mr. Grossman tapped Pete on his shoulder. "Let's go back to the wagon."
"I don't have any friends!" she screamed. "Everyone hates me! They gossip about me and it's all true, and it's all true!" She almost lost her balance from the hysterics of the moment.
Sarah reached out to balance her. She pushed at Sarah. "Even you! I thought you were my friend but you were gossiping about me with Pete Jackson!"
Sarah shook her head, no. "No, no, no. Pete and I were telling about a fun time we had when we went to the River City Carnival and I didn’t want Tommy to hear us."
"Why?" Tommy asked.
Cheryl gave her a dubious expression.
Sarah wiped her mouth. "Because, because" she sighed. "I didn't want Tommy to think about how he kissed Lynn Watson. I wanted him to pay attention to you, instead."
Tommy didn't know what to make of that.
Cheryl was stunned. "Really?"
Sarah nodded.
Cheryl shook her head. "But, those other girls were talking about me!"
Sarah flailed her arms. "Probably so, but, Cheryl, haven't you brought some of that on yourself?"
Cheryl was sad.
Tommy whispered, "Sarah? Why on earth did you…?"
Sarah continued, "I am sorry to be so blunt, but Cheryl, you've got to understand that most gossips are going to spread tales about you."
"Sarah, leave her alone!"
"And Cheryl as some one once told me you can hide from your circumstances but no matter how far you go you can never run away from yourself!"
Tommy stood in front of Cheryl. "Sarah, stop it!"
"She's right," replied Cheryl. She took a moment to catch her breath.
Tommy turned around to Cheryl. "She's right?"
"Sarah's right. I can't hide any longer. Nor can I stop people from spreading rumors which are mostly true."
Tommy didn't know what to think. When he turned back around to Sarah, Cheryl made the 'he's too hot' motion. Sarah almost snickered.
"I am on this trip tonight because Mr. and Mrs. Clementine have faith in my abilities and they are willing, by the amazing grace of God, to give me another chance. So," she pulled on her hair. "I'm going to endure this morbid humiliation because I couldn't live with myself if I let them down."
Cheryl tagged Tommy. "You're it." She took off running towards the wagon.
Sarah and Tommy followed.
All three jumped on the wagon.
Cheryl asked, "Mr. Grossman can you hold here a minute?"
"Sure."
Cheryl stood up.
"My name is Cheryl Cobblestone. My mother was a prostitute. I never knew who my father was. So while you tell you little secrets think how much you people have enjoyed growing up with a daddy."
Mrs. Grossman said, "Cheryl, I don't appreciate you being vulgar."
She snapped, "Then hold on to your fancy hat ma'am because I'm about to get more so!"
Augustus advised his wife, "Let her talk."
"Thank you, sir."
She addressed the wagon. "I grew up in a house with no heat, no running water, usually no food and the worst neighbors in the world.
My mother lived with me until I was thirteen. After that I saw her once every few weeks.
To compensate for my loneliness I would often allow a man and his son, my age, to visit me and… engage in inappropriate affections. Oh, that's a big juicy secret isn't it, but wait, there's more.
I went along with it because they brought me food.
I wore the same dress to school for three years! I made lousy grades but I went anyway because Mrs. Grayson or Ms. Evans would share their lunches with me. I dropped out after the first month of ninth grade.
The bits of charity I got from the local churches were often stolen by the same evil men that enjoyed the use of my young body.
My mother…." She yelled, "My mother enjoyed alcohol more than being around me!"
She caught her breath.
"Last year, while scrounging for food, I met a man in his mid-thirties who was nice to me and gave me a good meal.
Guess what he wanted in return?"
Most of the kids were now very embarrassed.
"And then he came over one day and saw that I was in no shape for… visiting… because I was nearly frozen to death. I moved in with him.
Get it?
I moved in with him even though he was not my husband. His bed was warm. He gave me a new dress. I had food. I figured that if God had really meant what he said about those Ten Commandments then people would love each other and I would never have to be in this position to begin with.
One day, I noticed my… boyfriend's… full name, Collier Grayson. He was," she wiped away some tears.
"He was the husband of my favorite teacher!" She stomped on the floor of the wagon.
"I wanted to get away, however, it was winter. Collier had food, a heated house, and I had the vaguest symbols of the one thing which would forever be out of my grasp, love.
Collier never said the words, but, I used to pretend he did and that justified the situation in my mind."
She took a moment to breathe.
"After a few months, I found out," she put her hand on her belly. "I was going to be a mother."
She shook her head. "I didn't want to tell Collier. I knew what he'd do.
One day Mrs. Grayson came over and… and discovered my secret. She was greatly disappointed in me, but, even still, she found enough mercy in her heart to advise me, as a student instead of despise me as an adulterer.
She said that Collier would kick me out when I told him I was pregnant but she would go ahead and tell Reverend Litchfield over at the Methodist Church.
He and his wife would be willing to help me out.
Sure enough, Collier kicked me out.
Mr. and Mrs. Litchfield helped me out a lot with food, clothes, she even tutored me.
I went to church a few times, but, I could always hear the women gossiping about me.
Reverend Litchfield did a sermon about gossip being a sin, but, I was a sinner myself, so, I guess that made things even. I don’t much think God would agree.
I wished that my momma would've come home and seen that I was pregnant. She'd give up drinking and everything would be fine. Instead, somebody stabbed her to death one night in an alleyway in River City.
The only time I've been out of Eagle Creek since I was four-years-old was to be escorted by the police and taken up to the morgue to identify my mother's body.
I signed a few papers and said that I wanted her ashes scattered in the river.
A month later, I gave birth over at the clinic.
Nurse Westbrook said the baby should stay with them a couple of days. I thought that maybe it was a trick to steal the baby and put it in an orphanage. That little boy was the only thing I ever had.
I went home to an empty, unheated house.
A big blizzard hit.
The Litchfield's trudged through the snow to get to me. They tried talking to me, but, one of my… my neighbors said that they'd better leave. I belonged to him not them.
He tried to convince me to sell the baby or just leave it at the church, but, I didn't want to.
The baby got a cough. It went on for days. He wouldn't nurse.
I wrapped him up in a blanket and walked to the clinic.
Nurse Westbrook met me downstairs but after she saw the dead, frozen baby, she just… she just broke down.
I never would have imagined that a nurse would be so… so human like that.
Dr. Westbrook helped me out.
Nurse Westbrook just went upstairs, still crying.
Officer Walsdorf talked to me a long time, but, he determined that I didn't do anything illegal, just very stupid.
Since that day, I've lived with the Litchfields.
When one of my neighbors got mad because I didn't want to see him any more, he tore up the church.
Mrs. Clementine lets me help out at the bakery every once in awhile.
I've tried to get a job in town, but, with no education and my reputation, no one wants me around.
Everyone thinks of me as an embarrassment to the town.
This is Eagle Creek. People here follow the Golden Rule and they take care of each other. Somehow, I slipped through the cracks in this otherwise perfect little town."
She wore a slight smile. "When Mrs. Clementine came by to see me the other day and ask if I wanted to sell fudge at the flea market in River City, I was overjoyed.
However, I then remembered my last trip and seeing my mother there on the slab.
I was remembering that terrible day even on the ride tonight. 
Instead of thinking about how nice Mrs. Clementine is or," she shrugged. "Or, how cute Tommy is…."
The girls giggled. Sarah winked at him.
"Instead of all that good stuff, all I could think about was the bad. And then, when I heard the girls whispering about me, well, it just became too much for me to bear.
I wanted to run away, far away, maybe, maybe go jump in the creek or, I dunno. I couldn't bear it.
But then I remembered what Reverend Litchfield says, 'Tell it to Jesus.'
I never understood what that meant. I couldn't tell anything to Jesus until," she shook her head in joy. "Until I saw Jesus running after me across the darkened field."
The children were confused.
"You see, Jesus, not only came running after me but," she pointed at Tommy, Sarah, Pete and Mr. Grossman. "He sent four of his angels to come along too."
She wiped her eyes. "And when I realized what… or whom I was looking at and who was talking to me I realized that it was ok for me to go back to the wagon and go on with the trip."
She smiled. "I'm going to spend time with my friends Pete and Sarah and, I am going to awkwardly try to talk to the very handsome Tommy Grossman."
She said with confidence. "And, and, and I'm going to eat ice cream and I'm going to go to the arcade and maybe see a mutoscopes film and my friends are going to show me the fairgrounds because that is what Jesus wants me to do."
She looked up and focused on a star. "So, God, thank you for my friends."
Tommy, Pete and Augustus removed their hats.
"Thank you for my momma. I miss her, Lord.
Take care of my little baby, Lord.
Forgive," she shook her head. "Forgive the awful man who stabbed her to death. Forgive the vile men who took advantage of me.
Forgive me, Lord for ever doubting your grace and mercy."
She looked up again.
"And thank you, Lord, for the Grossmans.
Thank you for the girls who listened to my story. I pray they never think they can compromise themselves and get away with it.
Thank you for the boys, too. I hope they'll remember me.
Thank you Lord for gossip, cause, now, people can have a better update on my otherwise miserable life."
She sighed and looked down.
"Amen."
"Amen," replied the children and the two adults.
The men put their hats back on.
When Cheryl sat down, everyone leaned in for a simultaneous hug of epic proportions.
That night, Cheryl Cobblestone ate a corn dog and an ice cream Sundae at Tate's Soda Shop. At the arcade, she saw a mutoscopes film about Sandow the Strong Man.
Sarah even taught her how to do the hair flip. Even though Tommy had absolutely no attraction to Cheryl, he played along any way to help her build up her confidence.
Tommy, Pete and Sarah showed her where the fairgrounds were located. There just so happened to be a policeman there on night patrol and a representative of Sheridan Commercial Productions setting up lights and a tent for the next morning.
They showed Cheryl the best spot to be in and the policeman gave her a parking pass so she could get closer to the spot where she could unload all of her equipment in the morning.
All in all, it was the holiest, most divine, most heavenly trip to a darkened fairground that anyone could ever imagine. And for Cheryl Cobblestone it was the greatest night of her life.
