Chapter 4 arrival

Eddie wakes up in a teacup. It's an old amusement park ride, a large teacup in glossy dark wood with an upholstered seat and a stainless steel chain on the door.Eddie's arms and legs dangled over the rim of the mug. The color of the sky was constantly changing, from the brown of leather shoes to a deep scarlet. Instinctively, he wanted to find his cane.In the last few years, he always kept his cane beside the bed, because sometimes he was so weak that he couldn't get up without the support of the cane.This made Eddie feel very embarrassed, because in the past when he greeted people on the street, he would punch them hard in the shoulder.

And now the cane is not at hand.Eddie let out a breath and managed to pull himself up. He was amazed that his back didn't hurt and his lame leg stopped throbbing.With a hard pull, he lifted himself off the edge of the teacup with ease, and landed heavily on the ground. Three thoughts flashed through his mind. One, he felt great. Second, he is now alone. Third, he is still at Ruby Pier. However, the Ruby Pier in front of me is different.As far as the eye can see, there are canvas tents and empty lawns, and you can even see the moss-covered breakwater on the sea in the distance.The colors of the rides are either bright red or creamy white, no turquoise or purple, and each ride has its own wooden ticket booth.The teacup he was in when he woke up was one of the earliest amusement facilities in the history here, called Spinning Cup.Its kanban is made of plywood. Like other low-hanging kanbans, it is hung on the storefronts on both sides of the walkway with chains, such as:

Century Cigars!This is called being happy like a fairy! Seafood chowder, a dime! Come and take the Flying Express to make a sensation in the contemporary martial arts world! Eddie blinked hard and saw the Ruby Pier of his childhood, which was seventy-five years ago, but now everything he saw was new and shiny.He saw airplane somersaults, a facility that had been dismantled decades ago; he saw bathrooms and saltwater swimming pools that had been leveled in the fifties.On the other side, stretching skyward is the original Ferris wheel, painted pristine white: just beyond the wheel, the streets with old neighbors, the roofs of crowded red-brick tenements, the clotheslines Hang from the window.

Eddie tried to scream, but his voice was like rough air.He made Hey!mouth shape, but no sound came out of the throat. Except that he couldn't make a sound, he felt that everything was fine. He scratched his hands and feet, he walked around, he jumped.No pain anywhere.For the past ten years, he had long forgotten what it was like to walk without fear, or sit without struggling to find a comfortable position for his back.Outwardly, he looked exactly the same as that morning: a stocky, thick-chested old man in a cap, shorts and a brown maintenance uniform. But in terms of movement, he was so mobile now that he could touch his heels. , You can also raise one leg to the position of the stomach.He explores his body like a baby, fascinated by his newfound motor mechanics, a bouncy person doing bouncy stretches.

Then he took off and ran. Ha ha!run!Eddie hadn't really run in sixty years, not since the war.But at this moment, he first ran a few steps cautiously, then took a big step, accelerated, accelerated again, and ran as fast as a young boy.He ran along the boardwalk past bait and tackle stands for anglers (five cents) and swimsuit rental stands for swimmers (three cents).He runs, passing a waterway ride and breaking the ocean.He ran along the Ruby Pier promenade, looking up at the spiral towers, pinnacles and onion cupolas of ornate Moorish buildings.As he ran, he passed the Parisian carousel, where the carved wooden horses, the glass mirrors, and the concert organ were all so shiny and new, as if he had cleaned them of rust in his workshop only an hour earlier.

He ran all the way to the Atrium Square, where there used to be weight-guessers, fortune-tellers, and dancing gypsies.He retracted his chin and stretched his hands out, like the wings of a glider. He jumped every few steps, just like a child who thought he could fly by running.The scene of a white-haired old worker, alone, imitating the flight of an airplane seems ridiculous to anyone. However, no matter how old a man is, there is a little boy running in his heart. Then Eddie stopped.He heard a voice.A high-pitched voice seemed to come from a loudspeaker: Ladies and gentlemen, how are you doing? Have you ever seen such a creepy scene?

Eddie was standing in a ticket booth in front of a large theater. The booth was empty.Kanban reads □□□ The strangest person in the world. Ruby's Pier Sideshow! God!Some are fat!Some skinny! Come see Savage! Sideshow.The House of Oddities.Loud hall.Eddie remembered that the park had shut it down fifty years ago, because television had become a popular form of entertainment, and people no longer had to rely on vaudeville to stimulate their imaginations. Take a closer look at this savage, born with a handicap you've never seen before Eddie stared at the entrance.He stayed here and met some peculiar people.There is a woman, Happy Jane, who weighs more than two hundred and fifty kilograms. She has to be pushed by two big men to go up the stairs.There is a pair of conjoined twin sisters who share a spine and play musical instruments together.Some men swallow swords, some women grow beards.There was also a pair of Indian brothers whose skin, stretched and soaked in oil, had become elastic like rubber, and the last bunches were hanging down from their limbs.

As a child, Eddie felt sorry for these jugglers.They have to sit in a booth or on a stage, or sometimes in a cage, with tourists walking outside and pointing at them.The propagandists bragged about ghost calls and exaggerated the weirdness of these people.What Eddie heard now was the voice of the propagandist: If it wasn't for the distortion of fate, how could a person end up in such a pitiful end!We've brought this man from the ends of the earth to you so you can take a closer look Eddie walked into the dark hall. The voice grew louder: this wretched man, who suffered from the abnormal treatment that nature had inflicted on him

The sound came from the other side of the stage. Only here, on the stage of the strangest people in the world, can you get so close Eddie pulled the curtain aside. Enjoy this most unusual The voices of the propagandists fell away. Eddie took a step back, unable to believe what he saw. On the stage, sitting in a chair was a middle-aged man with narrow shoulders, a hunchback, and a naked upper body.His belly hangs over the waist of his trousers.His hair is carefully trimmed.His lips were thin and his face was long and distorted.If he hadn't had an obvious feature, Eddie might not have remembered who this person was.

His skin is blue. Hello, Edward, he said: I've been waiting for you.