Friday Flash Fiction

I've been sitting outside the subjects house for what feels like hours. In reality it has only been an hour and a half this round. This job has been one of the longest most uneventful of my career as a PI. Mr. Smiths wife called me convinced that he was having an affair, but so far I have seen nothing to substantiate this claim. So here I sit, waiting, waiting, wait-Oh! Mr. Smith is leaving! Finally the big moment I've been waiting for. I wait for him to get into his car and get a head start before I turn my car on and start to follow him. He makes a left onto Eengield Ave. and then a right onto Ridgeway Blvd. He continues driving until he is in an older part of town where there are not as many houses. It's not an area that I am familiar with, but then I recognize it as where the old carnival used to be every year. It has to have been at least 30 years now since the carnival has come. I get out of my car and follow Mr. Smith on foot. There are still a few old buildings behind a bunch of trees. I follow Mr. Smith to one and peek inside the window curious to see who, if anyone, is meeting him here. At first I don't see anything, but then I make out the shapes of several people. What is going in here? I asked myself. I realized that everyone was dressed as an old carnival side show. I waited a couple hours while they appeared to practice carnival tricks and side show acts from days gone by. As Mr. Smith walked back to his car I made my presence known. At first he didn't want to talk to me, but I explained who I was and why I was following him. He was suprised his wife had hired a PI, but at the same time he understood her frustration with his not talking about what he was doing. Apparently Mr. Smith and a group of local people wanted to try creating their own carnival, but until it was ready they didn't want anyone to know. So twice a week they came, put on the costumes they had found and practiced. I told Mr. Smith that I wouldn't give his secret away, but that he should talk to her and that she might be more understanding than he thought. I was glad to be done with this case especially since I was not going to have to tell Mrs. Smith that her husband was having an affair.