THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW Chapter 2

THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW

Copyright 2012 By Teel

This is a rough draft of a novel in progress.

Please do not reprint or repost without permission.

-2-

     When Alan and Fred finished college their plan was to open an office and be rich within a year.

     It was a year and a half later and their office was an old desk in the living room of the cheap rundown apartment they shared.

     Business was good enough to pay the rent but they often did not have any money left over for anything else.

     It was Alan's idea to go to check out the carnival. Fred wanted to watch TV but Alan told him that he needed to get out once in a while. Fred's skin was becoming an unnatural shade of pale white Alan told him.

     Fred was unimpressed with the shoddy little carnival.

             “Look at those junky rides.” He said to Alan. “What parent would place their kid in a death trap like that.”

            “I'm sure it's safe.” Stated Alan. Alan enjoyed going to see tacky places and things. He enjoyed the carnival just like he enjoyed going to the thrift store.

         “I was hoping to find some deep fried junk food to snack on at least.”

         “We'll get some nachos later. Hey look.”

    Alan pointed to the truck behind the game booths.

         “Well I guess the day won't be a complete waste. We can see a space alien.” Said Fred in a tone that suggested that he did not really believe that he was going to see a real space creature.

          “I wonder if it'll be some sort of a freak animal in a big jar of alcohol.”

          “Wow. Just the sort of thing I want to see just before I eat lunch.”

          “Come on Fred let's check it out. This could be some fun.”

          “You said the same thing the time we went to that strip joint on Fat Girl Night.”

          “Well I had fun that night.”

     As the walked up to the truck the bearded man at the door spotted them.

            “Hi guys. You want to see an alien from space? One a dollar a piece.”

            “That sounds like a bargain.” Remarked Fred as they walked up the wooden stairs. “I got this Al. I'll sticking you with the nachos.”

            “Sure thing.” Said Alan who was hoping that the Mexican taco joint would take a credit card.

Fred handed the man two dollars and they walked into the back of the truck.

     It was cold in there and the lights were not too bright.

     In the middle of the truck space was a large white painted crate eight foot long and 4 foot wide. A sheet of clear plastic covered the top of the crate. Thumb tacks were used to hold the plastic cover down.

     They looked down into the crate.

     It was gruesome.

     The thing in the crate was lying on top of a pile both crush and cube ice.

     It looked was if someone had found a giant octopus somewhere and cut up and badly re build it to try and make it look like an ape of some sort.

            “Isn't he something?” Stated the bearded man.

            “You can say that again.” Said Alan. He was looking over the thing closely. He was sure was was some sort of animals sew together but he could not see any stitches or any sort of a gap between the joints.

     would not admit it to anyone but he was spooked by the eyes of the thing in the crate. The large dead eyes stared upwards into empty space.

             “Where do you get this?” Asked Alan. He regretted asking as soon as he asked. He knew sideshow people always had some sort of exotic story about the freak they had on desplay.

     The bearded man seem eager to tell his story.

THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW Chapter 1

THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW.

This is a rough draft of a novel in progress.

Copyright 2012 by Teel.

Please do not reprinted or reposted with put permission.

-1-

     The Casa Vista Strip mall was a rather run down place. It was never a successful place and the shops there were always half empty.

     Right now three dollar stores were operating there and a taco joint that was the most successful business that ever open there.

     The rental company that managed the strip mall leased the parking lot out to a small carnival for a week.

It was a depressing cheap rundown carnival. There was a few old rides that were rusting and a couple of booths of games that no one seem to win at.

     There was also a small refrigerated truck that was parked behind the game booths.

     On the side of the old truck painted in bold colors was a picture of an alien monster.

     In big letters over this picture: SEE THE CREATURE FROM OUTER SPACE!

     The back doors of this truck were open and a plastic red curtain kept people from looking into the truck for free.

An unpainted wood ramp led up to this exhibit.

     At the top of this ramp was a tall thin man with a long beard mixed with both black and gray hair. He was waiting for visitors to see his friend inside the truck.

HOLIDAY FOR A NIGHT- A short Story

HOLIDAY FOR A NIGHT.

     Just after sunrise in an alley behind the supermarket downtown Henry Johnson woke up.

     Most of the time he felt sad to wake up. He often hoped that he would not. But today was a special day.

     Johnson pushed his cart around the city streets looking for cans and plastic bottles. He did this every single day to buy food and a few items to keep him fairly clean.

     Most of the time he would do this till about 5PM and sell his recyclable items to the scrape metal yard. They paid him fairly well and in cash. Today he was there at around 2PM.

     After he sold his cans he talked to Robert who ran the scales.

            “Robert I got something to do tonight. Can I leave my cart here and pick it up tomorrow?”

           “Sure thing. Park it behind the shed.”

    Henry rolled his cart behind the shed and wrapped a chain and a padlock around the wheels. He was glad to have a safe place to leave his cart for the night.

He reached under the cart and pulled out a small suitcase and took it with him.

     Two blocks from the lower end of downtown was the Jackpot Motel. It was a rather rundown place that never was a very good place to stay. It would do good business during the holidays when all the good places were booked up. The rest of the time it was nearly empty.

     Before walking into the office of the motel Henry open the suitcase and found an old well worn wallet. He pulled out a hundred dollar bill from the wallet and put it in his pocket.

            “Hello Henry.” Said the man at the front counter of the motel office. “Nice to see you again.”

            “Thank you. I would like a room for the night once again.”

            “Are you sure you won't stay a couple of nights this time?”

           “No just the one night.”

    Henry paid the 30 dollar rental using the one hundred dollar bill. The counter man handed him the change and the room key.

           “Check out is at noon. But I won't rush you.”

           “Thank you.”

     The room Henry rented was one of the better rooms in this rundown place. Henry liked the room. It was much better than sleeping in the alley behind the supermarket.

     He hoped that no one would try to claim his spot while he was gone that night.

     Henry filled the bathroom sink with hot water and stripped off his clothes. He rinse his clothes out in the hot water and hung them up over the curtain bar in front of the shower/bathtub.

     Henry got into the shower and washed himself for a long time. The hot water felt good to him. He scrubbed his hair with the little bar of soap that came with the room.

     When Henry left the shower he walked to the bed where he had left the suitcase. He open it up.

     Inside the case was a nice pair of black pants and a white dress shirt. Also a belt and a pair of shoes.

Henry put the clothes on and left the room.

     Not far from the motel was a barber college. A student gave him a haircut and a shave for 15 dollars.

Henry's head and face felt odd after the visit to the barber. The cool air felt good on his now bare face. Henry liked that feeling. It had been a year since he had that feeling.

     He walked over to the nice end of Broadway. He rarely went there to look for cans. The police would often suggest to the homeless that there was better places to be for them downtown.

     Henry decided to have dinner in a retro style diner. He had a meatloaf with mash potatoes and a large piece of carrot cake.

     It was a slow night and after he ate Henry was allow to sit at the table with no one urging him to move along so that they could use the table for someone else.

     He watched the families that came in to eat together at the tables.

     Sometimes he wished that he had a family. His ex wife did not want children. Just as well he thought. She would have made an awful mother he was sure. She would have wanted to keep the kids too along with everything else she took from him with the help of that lawyer and judge.

     On his way back to the motel he stopped at a store and bought a six pack of cola and a bunch of candy and snacks.

     Back in the room Henry undressed and carefully folded his good clothes and put them aside.

He placed his bag of snacks and the colas on the nightstand next to the bed and then turned on the TV set.

     He laid there and ate his snacks as he watched TV. He would doze off around 3 in the morning.

     Henry woke up the next day around 10:30AM. He laid there on the bed for a little while but finally forced himself to get up.

     He put on the old clothes he rinse out the day before. He packed away the good clothes back into the suitcase. He would take those to the dry cleaners later on in the day.

     He watched TV and finished off the cola and snacks he got the night before.

     At ten minutes to 12 noon he left the room and went to the motel office.

     The front counter was being tended by the son of the man who checked Henry in the night before.

            “Hello Mr. Johnson. Happy Birthday to you.”

            “Thank you young man. Tell your father I had a plesant stay once again.”

     Henry placed the room key down on the counter.

            “We'll see you next year sir.”

            “I hope so. Good bye.”

     As Henry walked away from the motel he wondered if he would be back next year. He was passed sixty he had only four one hundred dollar bills left in his suitcase.

     He decided not to worry about it. He had cans to go collect if he was going to eat that night.

The End.

Copyright 2012 By TEEL- Please do not re post or reprint without permission.

THE ONE WAY TICKET TO MARS- A short story.

THE ONE WAY TICKET TO MARS.

     For many years robot ships from Earth circled the planet Mars and dumped into the atmosphere all the chemicals and minerals needed to support human life.

     Once the atmosphere was transform it was decided to send people to Mars to build roads, start farms and to build cities for the future travelers to the red planet.

     It was decided that it would be cheaper to send spaceships to Mars if they were only going one way. There would be no need for larger ships to hold fuel and supplies for the journey back.

     The people who would build the great cities of Mars would most likely never see the Earth again. It could be years before they would be able to build their own rockets and process their own fuel for a journey to Earth.

     The first ship was lead by a pair of scientist and a crew of about half a dozen convicts that were given pardons to make this trip and start to work of making Mars a new home for the people of the Earth.

     Within a year a farm was started and a path was cleared to be a road for the next farm.

It was time to send more people to Mars to do the work.

     Just over a million people entered the Mars Lottery. There was room for 12 people on this voyage. Four were scientist that had already been picked.

     Many of the people who entered the lottery were poor people who were willing to work hard and in return get a large plot of land of their own.

Some were people who thought life on Earth had become impossible and that it was best to start over somewhere else.

     And then there was Miles Johnson. He wanted to leave the Earth to forget.

     Johnson's wife of ten years had run away with a friend of his to Mexico. Last he heard they were working together on the Atomic Power Plant that was being built to supply free power to all of South America.

     Johnson was all alone in the world after his wife left. His family had stop talking to him years ago after he married Marge. They were all against it because she was his first cousin and twenty years younger than him.

     When Marge ran off Johnson fell into a deep depression. He could not stand living in the home they once shared. He sold it and moved into a small room near his job.

     His life became a rut of working and returning to the small room to sit and watch old movies on his computer monitor.

     When Johnson heard about the Mars Lottery he signed up. He wanted to leave the Earth. He wanted to start his life over with a new way of life. He thought working hard to build a new world would keep him too busy to be depressed over his missing wife.

    In his state of mind he planned to leave the world one way or the other.

     Johnson was surprised to learn his name was drawn in the Mars Lottery. His mood improved a great deal after hearing the news.

     The drawing was a month before the flight was to leave for Mars. Johnson gave away everything he had that could not fit into a small suitcase.

     He reported to The Department of Space Travel and he checked out by various doctors and took many test. Even though Johnson was 51 he was in good shape and passed all the test.

     On the day of the flight to Mars everyone was asked if they still wanted to take the journey. They were reminded that they would most likely never return to Earth. No one had changed their minds about leaving the Earth. They all had reasons personal to them for wanting to leave the Earth forever.

     Johnson was given a shot to make him fall into a deep sleep. He was told that he would be froze and placed into a sub zero freezing compartment to sleep for the next two years as the robot spacecraft flew them to New World of Mars.

     Five years later Johnson was working on the new road with the other settlers of Mars.

     Two farms were now operating and this new road would lead to a new third farm. Would be built by the next group of settlers coming on the next robot craft. There would be

16 people on this latest craft and they would include people trained to form buildings from the local rocks and mud. They will start building the towns of Mars to house the large groups of settlers coming in another 15 years of all goes according to plans.

     When the new settlers came everyone on Mars went to greet them. All twenty of them.

     Also on the robot craft was mail for the settlers.

     Johnson was surprised to find he had three letters. One was from his brother who had had not talked to since his mother died. Another one was from a cousin and the last was from his long lost wife.

     He stared at the letter for awhile. He was not sure that he was going to open it. He had not thought about her for a long time.

     He opened the letter and found an one page note. It was hand written in her nice style of writing.

     She told him that she was sorry for running off. Things did not work out well with the man she ran off with and she had wanted to return to him but felt too a shame running off to seek an life of excitement with someone else.

     She said she long to see Johnson again but knew it was impossible now. She asked that he would forgive her.

     The letter gave Johnson a bitter sweet feeling. He knew he would never be able to see her again.

     He came to Mars to forget her but now he would never to able to forget the woman he long to see once again.

END.

Copyright 2012 By Teel. Please do not reprint or re post without permission.

TURKISH YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

     I saw the Turkish copy/ripoff of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) A couple of nights ago on You Tube. the movie is called SEVIMLI FRANKENSTAYN (1975) AKA: MY FRIEND FRANKENSTEIN and TURKISH YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.
    The movie is pretty much a scene by scene remake of Mel Brooks hit movie YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN only it is shot in color and is not as good. The print I saw had no subtitles but since it was copying YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN very closely I had no trouble fallowing the plot.
     The monster in this film was disappointing. It was a tall actor in shabby clothes. Not a monster at all.
     The movie reminded me of the TV movies of Larry Buchanan. For those who are unaware of the works of Buchanan his TV movies of the 60's were scene by scene remakes of Black and White B movies released by AIP that were remade in 16mm color by Buchanan on really cheap budgets.

TOR JOHNSON MEETS GROUCHO

    

     It's hard to think of actor / wrestler Tor Johnson as a real human being and not some sort of a movie monster. Here is a clip of him appearing on the TV game show YOU BET YOUR LIFE hosted by the great Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers.

     Tor plays himself and just like  in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE Tor shows that he had a bit of trouble making himself understood  in English.

HORROR AND SCI FI ON LOCAL TV

     I became a horror film fan in the early 70's. That was the perfect time to be a fan of psychotronic style films.      In those days the local TV stations (I had no cable in those days) would run movies. I got to see many great  ( and not so great) horror and sci fi films that today are conceded cult movies.
     I got to see just about all the horror movies put out by Universal Studio including their B films with Paula the Ape Women, I got to see many of Roger Corman's sci fi films and his Edgar Allen Poe movies with Vincent Price and many films from AIP and Monogram. The Gothic films of Hammer Studio would also play often on the local channels.
    In those days many of the dubbed in English movies of K. Gorgon Murray would play and also the films of English horror actor Tod Slaughter.
    I even got to see many of the films of movie hack producers Jerry Warren and Larry Buchanan.
    On the down side they did often censer the movies and would cut many of them down to fit into a time slot.
    Just before home video recorders became cheap and common many of these films disappeared from the local TV broadcast. The local channels are now filled with informerials.
    You can still see many of those movies on DVD and online.
    It was easlier to found and see those movies in the old days.
    The local stations would show you movies you did not know you wanted to see.