Step right up, boys and girls, olds and bolds, mids and kids! No matter what age you are, we got something you're gonna like! Prepare to be astounded, amazed and impressed. Prepare to scrape your wits up off the ground after you see what we have to show you! There's room down front, though please don't put any part of your body past the chalk line here and you'll go home intact! And now, if everyone is ready-
Peanut!
I memorized it exactly like it was written!
No, you need to be louder. Too soft. Too sweet. I didn't fall in love with a mouse. I swore you were a girl last I looked.
I need a microphone.
We have no power. Just project. Like I do when I'm relaying the poems. You can hear me down the street.
That's because you have a big booming Scotch voice.
No, it's because I'm loud. Act like I walked too far ahead of you on the path and you're mad because you can't keep up.
I roar his name and he grins. Yes. Just like that. Start over, okay?
STEP RIGHT UP, BOYS AND GIRLS!
I look back at him and he looks like he owns the world. Maybe today, right now, here on this filthy street corner in the middle of nowhere, he does. There are no boys or girls here. No olds or bolds. No mids or kids. There's just us and the fire and the unrelenting sun and the nub of almost-gone chalk and a dream so big it'll probably crush us before lunchtime.
