They could see the fairgrounds from the highway. The rides were in the middle of being set up. Peter could see the Ferris wheel was already up and in the middle of a practice run. Mike pulled off the highway and drove down the street that led to the fairgrounds. He stopped at the entrance, much to the consternation of another driver and turned to the fellas.
"Learn to drive you longhaired weirdo!" An older man yelled as he drove by. Mike ignored him, though it was hard to tell by the vein bulging in his neck. He quickly calmed down as he addressed the guys.
"Now remember what we talked about at the pad?" He asked them. He got no response. Micky Peter and Davy were staring at the carnival with a child like wonder. They didn't hear him. "Guys?" He said snapping his fingers.
"Heh uh oh what?" Micky asked.
"Do you guys remember what we talked about?" Mike asked. "The advice I gave you?"
"Was that the one about taking your vitamins, and praying every day...?" Davy asked.
"No." Mike said.
"I know." Peter said. "It’s the one about having no fun." He said grumpily.
"We can have fun, rational fun." Mike said.
"In Mike-speak that means no fun." Micky translated.
"How are we gonna make rent if you guys blow what little pay we get here on fair stuff. And big old rubber cowboy hats?" Mike said as he spotted a man carrying a box overflowing with them to a game booth.
"Well, faithful leader, that one was your fault." Micky pointed out.
"I'm sorry. It made me homesick. I had to have it." He said defensively.
"Sure, a rubber hat, a rubber saddle, what's next, a rubber horse?" Davy asked. "And you know what comes from a rubber horse?" He asked Peter. Peter shook his head. "Rubber bands!" He laughed and lightly punched Peter.
"Ha ha." Peter said. He paused for a second. "I didn't get that."
"Now guys, we can’t spend anymore than we earn, all right?" Mike said bringing them back to the subject at hand. "Promise?" He said holding his hand up.
"Promise!" Peter said.
"Promise!" Micky agreed in kind.
"Davy? Now you." Mike said. He looked over at Davy. He seemed to be staring off in space. "Davy?" He didn't seem to be hearing him at all. "Davy!"
"What? All right!" He said turning away from what he was looking at. "What?"
"What were you looking at?" Mike asked. He looked into Davys eyes. "I shouldn't have asked, he's got that look."
"What look?" Davy asked. He looked into a mirror. "I don’t have a look." He paused. "Well I have several looks but I don't have a clue of what you mean, mate."
"I know what he means." Micky said. "That starry eyed look. Theres only one thing that look means.”
"What does it mean?" Davy asked.
"Yeah, I feel so left out." Peter whined.
"Theres a pretty girl within a hundred feet of us!" Mike said jumping out of the car. "Lets go meet her, and get it over with, we have a gig to do and we can't do it with him all goo goo eyed."
Davy put down his mirror. "How come everyone saw that look but me." He asked no one in particular.
"Come on Davy! Pretty girl getting away!" Mike said as he spotted a short blonde chick going into a trailer.
"Davy is seriously losing his touch." Micky said to Peter as they grabbed the diminutive musician. After a few prods Davy decided to give in and go after her.
"That's funny." Peter said. "We never had to encourage him to go after a girl before. Usually he has a phone number before the girl knew what hit her." The trio grouped around the large trailer, it read "Richardson Family Attractions" on the side.
"Knock on the door." Mike said. Davy looked at him. "We gotta find the owners of this carnival anyway so we can talk to them, find where we can set up."
"All right." Davy sighed. He took a deep breath and moved to knock. The door opened before he had a chance to. A girl with blonde hair answered it. She had a short blue and white sparkly dress on, with short-heeled shoes on her feet. She had a pleasant smile on her face, till she saw Davy.
"You?" She said with a slight foreign accent. "I thought I said I never wanted to see you again!" She said with a cross look on her face.
"Darling I..." He started to say.
"Don't say anything to me." Said as she started to close the door. "Get lost." Mike put his foot in the door.
"Excuse me kindly ma'am." He said as he grunted with the effort to keep the door open. "We have a gig here today."
"No gig." She said. "Especially not with him. "Now go away." She stepped hard on his feet with the heel of her shoe. Mike recoiled in pain and pulled his shoe out of the doorway. "And you Mr. David Jones never darken my doorstep again." She closed the door.
Mike hobbled down the stairs outside the trailer.
"Are you all right Mike?" Davy asked. He shook his head and moaned a "nooooo".
"There goes those tap lessons." Micky chuckled. "I think what Mike wants to say is, that you got some explaining to do, Lucy."
"That's not Lucy, that's Davy." Peter said. Micky looked at him. "Isn't he?"
"The girl is Zelda Richardson, the first girl I dated after I came over from England." Davy said. "She caught me talking to a cute looking bird at a birthday party of a mutual friend. She didn't take it all that well
"You think?" Mike asked irritated. "I hope she didn't draw blood, the last thing I need is a tetanus shot." He moaned. "We'll sit out here and try again in a few minutes. And maybe we might send Davy back to the car..." He pondered.
A few minutes after Mike recovered, the blonde from the trailer emerged with an older man. The man walked over to Mike and shook his hand.
"I'm Waldo Richardson." He said taking his hand back. "I'm sorry, I must apologize. My daughter tends to over-react." He said looking at her.
"That's quite all right. I have another foot I can use." Mike said. "Sir, we're the Monkees, we're here for a gig."
"That's what I came to tell you. We can't have you anymore. The carnival is closing." He said sadly. "Today is the first and last day in this town. We're sorry."
The guys sat next to their car with a bagged lunch. In case they didn't have enough money for lunch, Mike had the smart idea of making some sandwiches and sharing a small bag of chips. While Micky devoured his tuna sandwich, everyone else ate theirs pretty slowly as if it would make it last longer. When Micky finished he let out a loud fishy smelling burp. The others looked at him.
"Sorry." Micky said. He looked forlornly at the others sandwiches.
"Forget it, Dolenz, I'm eating mine." Mike said. Peter nodded in agreement.
"What about you Davy? You haven't eaten at all." Micky said to Davy who was looking far beyond the rides to where Zelda was standing. She had a different outfit on now. A blue and gold dance outfit.
"'ere you go." Davy said handing over his sandwich. Micky happily grabbed it and started eating it.
"What's wrong sport?" Mike asked Davy.
"Nothing." He said.
"It has to be." Mike said. "You never turn down your specially made tuna-horseradish sandwich for any reason." Micky stopped eating the sandwich.
"Horseradish?" He sputtered and spat it out.
"I only do that to keep him from eating it." Davy said. "I forgot about that for a second." Davy continued as Micky gave Peter the sandwich who ate it with no problem.
"I feel bad about Zelda and her family." Davy said. "Mostly about Zelda. I barely remembered that whole thing because it happened so long ago." He sighed. "And I really liked her too." Davy stood up. "I just wish there was something I can help her with." He walked over to where Zelda was standing. She wad dancing around to a tune that played from a nearby radio. "Zelda?"
She turned to him with a smile, which quickly turned into a frown. "Oh its just you." She said turning away. "I thought you left."
"I'm sorry about your family." Davy said.
"It’s not your fault. The only thing that isn't your fault." She sighed.
"I'm sorry." He said. Zelda looked at him.
"I think I actually forgave you a long time ago, but when I see you again, it all came back to me." Zelda said. "It’s fine."
"It isn't. I want to make it up to you." Davy said.
Zelda thought for a minute. "You know what you can do for me?"
"What?" Davy asked. "I will do anything to make it all right with you again."
"I can't tell you how glad I am to hear you say that." She said with a devilish smile on her face. Davy laughed and then recoiled a bit. What did I get myself into? "I will need your friends help as well." She said as she walked away. "Okay?"
"Okay." Davy said. He turned and waved to the guys. They waved back. He waved them over with an uneasy smile on his face.
"What does he want?" Mike asked as they slowly walked over.
"I think we're gonna find out." Peter sighed.
Main street
Davy was feeling slightly unsettled. He looked around and he saw Mike, Micky and Peter glaring at them. He tugged at the neck of his outfit.
"I'm sorry guys!" He said. "If I knew Zelda was gonna dress us up like clowns I would have said something."
"You must be really crazy about this chick if this is what you are willing to do to make it up to her." Mike said. "What are we doing again?"
Davy straightened the wig. "We are supposed to start playing the song, and Zelda is gonna try and lure people to the fairgrounds. No one knows they are here, and this is a perfect change to get some attention." Davy said. "That's what her idea is."
"I think we are attracting some attention," Micky said. "without the music."
Davy turned to see Zelda with a wide smile on her face. "I think we are even now, Mr. David Jones." She said softly. "How do you feel?"
"This underwear is starting to bunch in weird places." Davy said. "Why are we doing this again?"
"The town is convinced that the fair is not fun. That it is somehow dangerous, sometimes cause people spread rumors that there are thieves, or bad people, right? We want to convince them the fair is fun, yes? Like it was when you were a child. There were bad people doing that in this town." Zelda said. "But we will prove them wrong."
"It’s worth a try." Mike said to Davy in a soft whisper. "We might get a gig out of this yet." He looked at Davy. "What are we singing anyway?"
"I let her borrow a song." Davy said. Micky counted off the beats and started to play. Mike sighed, he told everyone the song but him!
(The Fairground Romp)
As the guys to play Zelda started to dance and swing her hips to the beat. She leaps into the middle of a sidewalk as a people started to pass bye. She did a few artful twirls and started to sing.
"Ev'ry face that I see is all wrapped up in frowns, And unfortunately, it kind of gets me down." She said with a with a fake "frown". "Laugh, 'Cause the music is funny" She whirled around and accidentally ran into Mike. "Yeah, the bass sounds off-beat." She laid a hand on him.
"Ain't that neat." She laughed. "Laugh, when you lose all your money." She said making the "money" motion with her hand.
"Or you can't find your shoes to cover your feet." She sang doing a split in the middle of the sidewalk. People stared at her. Some walked away. One smartass threw a dollar. Davy picks it up.
She gets up. "It's not so hard to see exactly what I'm after. Sometimes a tear should fall, but I require giggles and chuckles." She said dancing with a nice older man.
"Laugh, when you're keepin' a secret." She made a "sshhh" motion with her finger. "And it seems to be known by the rest of the world." She went to the back with the guys. She placed a hand on Mickys head. "Laugh, when you go to a party, and you can't tell the boys..." She points at Micky. "...from the girls." She placed her hands on her chest. Micky almost stopped playing. "Hey!" He whispered. Mike glared at him. It was almost over.
"Every face that I see is all wrapped up in frowns And unfortunately, it kind of gets me down. Laugh, at the things that are wrong. If you think it's this song, then laugh." She said as people started to walk away. "Then laugh." She said as more left. She walked after them. "Then laugh." She kept saying "Then laugh" when the people didn't turn around. She breathed a heavy sigh.
The others were taking their clown make-up off. Davy was drying his face off when he sat down next to Zelda.
"I'm sorry that didn't work." Davy apologized.
"It's not your fault. I just don't know why it didn't work." Zelda sighed. "I wanted it to work. I thought my dancing would bring their attention to the fair. I always wanted to be a dancer. I love it so much. But now the fair is closing, I will never be able to get lessons."
"I wish I could do more, maybe it wasn't a total loss." Davy said. "At least you got to embarrass me in public."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I guess today was worth while." Zelda smiled at him and laughed. She heard her name being called. "My father needs me. We might start shutting down." She stood and held out her hand. "Well it was nice to see you again, Davy."
"Hey you used only one name this time." Davy said shaking her hand.
"I'm not so mad, at least not at you anymore." Zelda said. "As they say, I will see you around." She said as she ran off to help her father.
Davy stood up and walked over to the bathroom where Micky was showing the others how to take the clown white off.
"Boy you sure know a lot about makeup." Mike said to Micky.
"I know, it’s freaky. I might have been in the circus in another life." He replied.
"How's Zelda?" Peter asked.
"Not good, not happy." Davy said. "And for once she didn't blame me." He noted. "But I can't help but think we can do more for the fair."
"I don't know. We would have to convince them to stay another day." Mike said.
"If we can do that, then maybe we can convince people to come to the fair. " Micky said. "Then maybe they can stay two more days and so on."
"Are we making a plan?" Peter asked. They looked at him. "I'm sorry I had some of this stuff in my ears."
"You have a lot of it in your ears." Micky joked.
"I'm gonna need more q-tips then." Peter said starting to walk in the other direction. Mike stopped him.
"If you can convince Zelda and her father not to shut down till tomorrow then we can go and try to get people to come." Mike said. "Wanna do it?"
"Sure! Anything for Zelda." Davy said.
"Hey, I think he likes her. That old sparkle is back." Micky said gesturing at Davys eyes. They were all aglitter.
"Well I do." Davy said. "And I'm not about to do something dumb now!"
"Let's go. We don't have much time." Mike said. He ran into the town with Peter and Micky in tow. Davy headed for Waldo Richardson's trailer. Zelda opened it. "Oh its Davy."
"Can I speak to you and your father?" Davy said. "Mike has a plan that might save the fair and your dancing career."
"How?" Waldo said appearing at the door.
"Don't pick up the fair until tomorrow morning." Davy said.
"Why?" Zelda asked.
"Don't ask, just wait." Davy said with a smile. He bounded down the stairs with a new energy. "You'll see." He ran out the gate. He tried to catch up with the guys. Meanwhile Waldo and his daughter looked after him.
"Can you imagine what he's gonna do?" Waldo asked her.
"I don't know." Zelda said.
"He's going a long way to make it up to you." Waldo said.
"I know." Zelda said. "I guess I can like him again. I'm just not going to any parties with him." She laughed.
("No time" Romp)
The guys have made signs pointing to the fair. A lot of them handed out fliers. Davy arrives just as the crowd starts to gather. He talks to them all as he helps Peter with the fliers. Micky runs around shoving a "Come to the fair!" sign in everyones faces. Mike walks over and tries to calm him down but only gets accidentally whacked with the sign. Davy talks with some people and dances around a little bit, even though there will be no dancing at the fair. Peter shows an tambourine to a couple of pretty girls and he tries to play it but smacks himself in the knee too hard. He limps away. A few minutes later the gang meet in front of the gate, do a little celebration dance, then they went into the fairgrounds.
The next day, 8:00 a.m.
Zelda and Waldo met Davy outside the trailer office.
"Its morning." Waldo said. "What's going on?"
"This is going on." Davy said. "Come with me." He said to Zelda. He took her hand and led her tot he main gate. When they got there was a sight that knocked them out of their socks.
There was a crowd of people, paying customers, just clamoring to get in.
"I don't believe it!" Zelda cried.
"Believe it, luv." Davy said. Peter, Micky and Mike appeared at the gate. "So let 'em in already. We didn't get them all here to have you turn them away."
"Right!" Waldo said. He walked over to the gate and opened the door. Zelda manned a ticket booth. The guys helped, taking in tickets and money.
"Don't shove!" Micky said. "There is enough fun here for all."
Later, around 3 P.M.
Waldo was counting up the money for the day. It wasn't even time to close up yet, but there was so much coming in, everyone had to see how much was.
"There is much money coming in." Waldo said. "I want to thank you guys so much."
"I do too." Zelda said. "Even though we had our moments." She looked at Davy. "We really appreciate this."'
"What else can we do for you?" Mike asked.
"Play, for us." Zelda said. "Play for the crowd. After all, we can pay for a gig now!"
(The girl I knew somewhere romp)
"You tell me that you've never been this way before. You tell me things I know that
I've heard somewhere. You're standing in the places and you're staring down
through faces, that bring to mind traces of a girl, a girl that I knew somewhere."
While Micky sings the song, Davy puts down the tambourine and joins Zelda in the audience. He takes her hand and runs off to one of the fairground rides, a tilt a whirl. Mike sees this and rolls his eyes. Peter gives him a "Oh let him go" look. Davy and Zelda get there in time to get one of the last seats. The ride started and they started to spin around the ride. The mechanics of the ride drowned out part of the song but Davy knew where he would be in it.
"Well, goodbye dear, I just can't take this chance again." Micky sang. Davy and Zelda screamed as the ride went from very slow to very fast. "My fingers are still
burning from the last time. And if your love was not a game, I only have myself to
blame. That's as may be, I can't explain. Just ask the girl the I knew somewhere." The ride stops. Davy and Zelda hop off and run toward the exit. Zelda is slightly dizzy and Davy stops her from falling over the side.
"Thanks." She said. "Mr. David Jones."
"Aww you're mad at me again?" Davy whined.
"Well..." She started. Davy made a sad face. "No." She smiled. They walked down the rest of the gangplank. "Thank you for saving my family fair." She said. "Now maybe I can afford those lessons."
“You’re welcome.” Davy said. "I wish you luck." The guys came over.
"Davy we kinda need you." Mike said. "Or did you forget you were in the band?"
"Just a second..." Davy muttered. Mike sighed. He and Micky pulled him away. "I guess I gotta go now! I'll see you later! Call me!" He yelled out. Zelda smiled, shook her head and waved to him.
