A fair without cotton candy? Whoever heard of such a thing? Two friends try to save the fair from someone who appears to want all of the cotton candy for themselves at this year's county fair.

The Cotton Candy Caper


“What a great day for the fair!” Timmy O’Doodle said to his best friend, Robby as he looked out his bedroom window.
“I’m so glad your parents invited me to go with you!” Robby said, as he put on his shoes and socks. He had stayed the night at Timmy’s house and although they had had a great time last night playing video games, watching scary movies, and eating junk food, they had simply been passing time until it was time to wake up and go to the fair.
Timmy’s family went to the fair every year on the day when you could buy a bracelet that would let you ride any ride as many times as you wanted, for free! Robby’s dad had had to go on another business trip this weekend so when Timmy’s parents called to ask if Robby could stay the night and go to the fair with Timmy, Robby’s dad happily said, “Yes! Of course!” Now, it was morning and the two boys were in Timmy’s room putting on T-shirts, jeans, tennis shoes, and baseball caps and talking about what ride they wanted to ride first.
“I want to ride the Scrambler!” Robby said, as he turned his baseball cap around backwards. Girls seemed to like boys who wore their baseball caps backwards, although Robby wasn’t sure why.
“I want to ride the Screaming Demon!” Timmy told Robby. “Now, that’s a ride!” Timmy had been waiting for four years, ever since he was eight years old, but the sign said that you had to be twelve years old or older to ride. Now, he was twelve and the fair would be better than it had ever been. Not only would he finally get to ride the Screaming Demon, but his parents had given him and Robby permission to walk around the fair by themselves so long as they met the rest of Timmy’s family at a certain spot for lunch and met them again at precisely seven o’clock by the Ferris Wheel so that they could all ride the big, brightly lit, wheel together before they went home. Timmy was very excited to be able to explore the fair without the crying of his two little four-year-old, twin sisters, Julie and Jordan, and without his parents deciding which rides everybody would ride. Yeah, he knew it was going to be a completely different fair this year!
Timmy rushed everyone through their breakfast as quickly as he could. He wanted to get to the fair as quickly as possible because, as he saw it, the quicker they got there, the more time he and Robby would have to hang out and have fun. Finally, everyone was in the O’doodle’s big, blue, minivan headed down the highway, out of town, to the huge, county fairgrounds. Julie and Jordan were sitting in the very back seat singing, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and clapping their hands. Timmy and Robby sat in the seat in front of the two girls, listening to their walkmans. Suddenly, the colorful signs directing drivers to the fairgrounds’ parking lot came into view and Timmy and Robby both shut off and put away their walkmans excitedly.
“We’re here! We’re here! I can already taste the cotton candy!” Timmy said, looking out his window and almost jumping out of his seat.
“:I want a snow cone!” Robby exclaimed.
“We wanna see the clowns!” Jordan wailed from the back seat.
“No, I wanna jump in the big jumpy thing!” Julie argued.
Mr. O’doddle said, “Everybody calm down. We’ll all get to do everything we want to do.”
“Just sit back and wait until we’ve parked and then we’ll be on our way, kids!” Mrs. O’doodle said happily.
Finally the minivan was parked and everyone got out and discussed where they would meet for lunch and at what time. Robby and Timmy agreed that they would meet Timmy’s family at the sausage sandwich booth called, “Sausage and Stuff,” at 1:00 o’clock that afternoon. They all walked to the gate at the opening of the fair grounds and, after taking the money that Timmy’s parents offered to them, said good-bye to each other. Timmy and Robby waved to Timmy’s family as they ran towards the rides.
The day was warm and the sun was shining brightly. There were a lot of people walking around the fair. Some were eating onion rings and elephant ears. Others were carrying big stuffed animals that they had won from the many games the fair had to offer. Timmy and Robby bought their ride bracelets and then made their way through the crowd over to the Screaming Demon. Timmy was so excited because the man running the Screaming Demon didn’t even ask him to step over to the measuring stick. He just asked to see his and Robby’s bracelets and then told them to hurry into one of the black and red cars. They sat in the very front car and waited for the ride to begin.
“Wow! That was fantastic!” Timmy said to Robby as they were leaving the exit gate of the Screaming Demon. “It was better than I even imagined!”
“That last big hill with the drop and then the sharp turn was so cool! That was my favorite part!” Robby said, and then continued. “Let’s ride it again!”
The two friends rode the Screaming Demon three more times and each time they loved every bit of it. After their fourth time of riding they decided to ride a few other rides. They rode the Scrambler, the Tilt-A-Whirl, and the Spider. The lines were very long for each one and by the time they were done riding the Spider, they were hungry and ready to go to the area of the fair that held all of the many different food booths. The smells of frying sausage, onion rings, french fries, and corndogs filled their noses, but they would have lunch later with Timmy’s family. They wanted one of the many sweet treats that the fair had to offer.
“Let’s get some cotton candy!” Robby suggested enthusiastically and the two boys walked up to one of the stands that had big, colorful signs screaming, “Cotton candy,” “Snow Cones,” and “Ice Cream.” Timmy and Robby waited in the line and when it was their turn, Robby spoke for both of them
“We’d like two cotton candies, please. I’d like blue and my friend wants…” Before he could finish, the man in the yellow straw hat who was taking orders, stopped him.
“I’m sorry, son, we don’t have any cotton candy,” the man said as he looked down at Robby from inside the big booth.
“Whadda ya mean, Mister? The sign says, ‘Cotton candy’ right here,” and he pointed to the sign.
“I know it does, boy, I put it there myself,” he said, smiling. “And we had Cotton candy when we first set up this morning, but I left the booth for a few minutes to scout out somethin’ to eat and when I came back, all of the cotton candy had been stolen!”
“Can’t you make some more?” Timmy asked.
“I could if I had sugar, but whoever took the cotton candy must have known that because they took all of my sugar too!”
“Well, do you know who took your Cotton candy?” Robby asked the man.
“Weeellll…no, but if I had to guess I would say it was probably Mr. Hanks down there at the lighted booth right next to the Billy’s Burgers. He’s always doing something to try to make sure I lose business at every one of these fairs. If you want Cotton candy, boys, I guess you’ll have to go there or to one of these other booths that sells Cotton candy. I’m sorry.”
“Well, that’s ok,” Timmy replied.
“Yeah, it’s not your fault.” Robby said.
And with that the two friends walked down the row of yummy smells to Mr. Hanks booth where he also had signs saying, “Cotton candy.” They had to wait in another long line, but they didn’t mind because the freshly made, warm, Cotton candy was going to be so yummy that it was worth a little wait in a line. Finally it was their turn.
“Hi,” Timmy said. “Can we have two cotton candies please? We’d like….” Mr. Hanks interrupted before Timmy could tell him which colors he and Robby wanted.
“Ain’t got no Cotton candy, boys, sorry. When I got here to open the booth, the cotton candy was just gone! I’d make more, but whoever did it took all of my sugar too!”
“What is going on?” Robby asked. “We were just down there,” he pointed to the booth where they had just been, “and he doesn’t have any cotton candy either.”
“And he probably thinks I’m the one who took it,” said Mr. Hanks, “but I’m not.”
“Okay, well thanks anyway. We’ll try somewhere else,” Timmy said sadly.
There were at least eight other booths in the row whose signs said that they had cotton candy, but at each booth Timmy and Robby waited in line for, they were told that someone had taken the cotton candy. They were very confused.
“Who would steal all of the cotton candy from every cotton candy booth at the fair?” Timmy asked.
“It makes no sense to me,” Robby answered. “But we’re gonna find who it is and we’re gonna get the cotton candy back! I know we can’t be the only kids at this fair who are wanting cotton candy.”
“What do you mean? We don’t know who took it.” Timmy answered.
“Exactly, but we know we want cotton candy and I don’t see anyone else doing anything about it so let’s be like detectives and gather clues until we uncover the whereabouts of the cotton candy!”
“Whereabouts?” Timmy asked, with a funny look on his face.
“You have to say things like ‘whereabouts’ when you’re a detective. Now, come on. Let’s go find all of the cotton candy!” Robby said excitedly.
Timmy and Robby walked back down the long row of food booths, both sniffing the air trying to sniff out where the cotton candy might be. The food aisle smelled differently without its yummy aroma. Robby and Timmy wanted to find the cotton candy so they could make the fair smell like it was supposed to and, of course, so that they could each have their own white, paper cone of that delicious, fluffy, treat. They turned left at the end of the food row and headed back towards the rides. They asked every person who was running a ride if they had seen all of the cotton candy, but none of the ride operators had seen any cotton candy at all. However, several of them asked the two boys to please let them know when they found it. It seemed everyone liked cotton candy and someone liked it so much that they had decided to steal it and make sure that no one else at today’s fair would have any.
Timmy and Robby were about to leave the rides area when they realized that they had forgotten a ride. The made their way over to the fun house and spoke with the girl who was checking to make sure that everyone who entered the fun house was wearing their ride bracelet.
“Excuse me,” Timmy asked the girl as she stood behind her red, blue, and yellow stand popping her chewing gum and looking through a magazine, “have you seen anyone with cotton candy come through here today?”
“No, I haven’t. And come to think of it, I haven’t seen anyone with any cotton candy anywhere at all today,” the girl replied and went back to looking through the magazine. Then she looked up suddenly, “Wait! I did something a little strange though.”
“What’s that?” asked Robby, getting excited.
“This morning I saw Kiki and Kick, the two clowns who perform in the mini-circus, coming over to the fun house. They were both carrying big bags of sugar. They went in through here,” and she pointed to the doors, “but they never came out! I didn’t think about it until just now. Those two are always doing the craziest things.”
“Can we go inside?” Robby asked.
“Sure, go on in, but I’m not responsible if the two of you don’t make it back out,” the girl warned them.
Timmy and Robby ran up the long ramp that led up to the swinging doors of the fun house. They walked quickly inside and realized that the fun house was very different from the rest of the fair. It was dark inside with dim, flashing red and blue lights everywhere. It was hard for the boys to see where they were going because the floors were all made of mirrors. They felt their way along the wall until they came to an open doorway. The turned left and went into the room. It was foggy with purple smoke and smelled faintly sweet. There were clowns painted on the walls and each time either boy took a step further into the room, a musical note sounded. The floor was made entirely of musical keypads that let you make up a song as you walked around looking at the different clown paintings.
The two friends thought this was the coolest room they had ever seen! They jumped up and down and spun around in circles to make up carefree songs of their own. All of a sudden, they heard a weird noise coming from somewhere. They both looked around, but weren’t able to see where the noise had come from. Wait, there it was again! It sounded like people laughing, softly, but happily. It sounded like it was coming from inside the walls!
“Feel around the walls and see if there is a trap door or something,” Robby said.
“A trap door? I don’t think there will be a trap door, but I will….” Timmy started to say as he felt along the wall on the left side of the room. He stopped talking because the wall moved a tiny bit when he pushed on one of the big, happy clowns’ mouths! He called out to Robby.
“Come here! Look! What’s this?” Robby came over and both boys pushed on the wall, right on the laughing clown’s tongue, and the wall opened up entirely! Behind the wall was another room. This one, however was a normal looking room. The only thing not normal about it was that it was surrounded by heaps and piles of pink, blue, purple, green, and yellow cotton candy! At the back of the room, two brightly, multi-colored clowns stood behind several big, silver barrels, making more cotton candy!
Timmy and Robby had definitely found the cotton candy caper or, capers, rather and they were happy, but they didn’t understand why the clowns would steal all of the cotton candy and not let anyone else have any. So, they decided to ask them. They walked back to Kiki and Kick and stood in front of the barrels of twirling sugar.
“Excuse me, but we were just wondering why the two of you stole the cotton candy?’ Timmy asked. The two clowns looked up from their barrels and stopped spinning for a moment. Then Kick, with his blue and yellow hair and his orange and blue shoes, answered.
“We didn’t mean to steal the cotton candy. We were just making a little for ourselves and the other clowns. No one ever buys us any cotton candy and we really wanted some.”
“Yeah, and we always see everyone eating it while they watch our show in the mini-circus and it looked really good,” Kiki said. “But we are not permitted to eat until the day is done and by then, all of the cotton candy is gone,” she continued.
“So, this morning, we decided that we would make some for ourselves, but we didn’t realize that we would make so much,” Kick said.
“Well, you kind of took all of it and now no one has any cotton candy to sell and everyone is really sad that they don’t have cotton candy,” Robby explained.
Both clowns’ mouths dropped open in surprise! “We made the people sad?” Kiki asked. Timmy and Robby nodded.
“Oh, no!” Kick said. “We have to get this cotton candy back out there so the people at the fair will be happy again!”
“We’re clowns and we’re supposed to make people happy, not sad!” Kiki said as she started to put all of that cotton candy into bags.
Timmy and Robby offered to go tell the workers at the food booths that they cotton candy would be back. They all agreed that Timmy and Robby would not tell anyone about Kiki and Kick. They would just tell everyone that they found the cotton candy in a back room, which wasn’t really a fib. When the food booth owners found out that the cotton candy was being returned, they were excited and very thankful every time they saw Robby and Timmy coming back down the food aisle with more bags of cotton candy.
Finally all of the cotton candy was back where it belonged; in the hands of the smiling, happy people at the fair. Everyone was really happy with Timmy and Robby and Timmy and Robby were happy because they hadn’t even missed lunch! They had eaten enough cotton candy to last them until next year’s fair and now they wanted some real food. They were having lunch with Timmy’s mom, dad, and twin sisters when Robby said to Timmy, “Hey, when we’re finished here, let’s go see the min-circus!”
And when they sat in the highest bleachers at the min-circus, waiting for the clowns to come out, they were happy as they looked around and saw that almost everyone was enjoying a big, fat, puffy, blob of cotton candy!
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