In front of the Unit­ed Cig­ar Store on a rainy Sun­day morn­ing, the Chero­kee wood­en Indi­an stood, adorned with water and obliv­i­ous to the sounds of the church bells chim­ing a cacoph­o­ny of faiths. The car­ni­val was approach­ing, alive with vibrant drums and the strange sounds of a cal­liope, draw­ing curi­ous chil­dren and spec­ta­tors who flowed out of the church­es, eager for the fes­tiv­i­ties. The wood­en Indi­an remained unaf­fect­ed, its tom­a­hawk’s shad­ow cast­ing on an iron grille embed­ded in the side­walk, where count­less passers­by had dropped gum wrap­pers, cig­a­rette butts, and lost pen­nies over the years.

Amidst the parade’s vibrant dis­play, beneath the cig­ar store’s side­walk grille, two boys, Jim and Will, crouched close togeth­er, hid­den from the world above. Their excite­ment build­ing, Jim urged Will to join the spec­ta­cle out­side, but Will held firm, insist­ing on stay­ing hid­den, believ­ing it was the safest choice. They heard the rhyth­mic sounds of the parade above, feel­ing the vibra­tions through the grille as feet pound­ed the side­walk in cel­e­bra­tion.

Sud­den­ly, a man’s shoe struck the grille. Will’s heart raced as he rec­og­nized his dad above, search­ing near them. He was torn between reach­ing out and the fear of being dis­cov­ered. A child above dropped a piece of bub­ble gum, and as he knelt to peer into the grille, Will felt an urge to return the gum to the boy, long­ing for a sim­ple con­nec­tion amid the chaos. Ner­vous­ly, Jim and Will exchanged glances, sens­ing the parade had unex­pect­ed­ly halt­ed.

The atmos­phere shift­ed, Mr. Dark—the Illus­trat­ed Man—glanced back at the chaos of the parade, his col­lec­tion of freaks and per­form­ers dis­pers­ing among the crowd, hand­ing out fliers with a preda­to­ry glint in their eyes. As Will felt the shad­ow of the small boy behind him, he real­ized the parade had end­ed, and a new search began. The inno­cent moment of the boy point­ing down through the grille shat­tered their hid­den world, sig­nal­ing a shift from play­ful rev­el­ry to the immi­nent ten­sion of being dis­cov­ered.

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai