Once upon a time there were three orphans, all boys who coincidentally shared the same birthday. When the trio turned thirteen, they decided to sneak out of the orphanage and celebrate. After all, nobody at the orphanage had so much as said, “Happy birthday!” let alone present them with cake or gifts. The three boys knew they had to celebrate on their own.

After the nuns put everyone to bed and counted them twice to ensure they were all there, the boys waited. They closed their eyes and pretended to sleep for about an hour. Then they bolted up, wiggled into their day clothes, and opened the window very quietly. They climbed out with nothing more than a couple of pesos each---money the nuns had given them to place in the offering basket at mass.

Once outside, the boys darted toward the town plaza, where a carnival took place. It had been advertised in the local newspapers all week. The carnival boasted scores of clowns milling in and out of game booths. All three boys tried their hand at a couple games and all three lost. The strange yet typical carnival attractions, from bearded ladies to aerobatic dwarves, stood up on platforms to amaze and disgust their audiences. The boys toured a few before getting restless. Then they walked around the carnival some more. 

There was a rickedy wooden rollercoaster and a towering Ferris wheel; there was a pig race and plenty of vendors pushing cotton candy, popcorn, and fat pretzels. But what particularly drew in the three orphans was the carousel. It went around and around, as carousels do, blaring the most sweet and joyful music. The barker’s booming voice beckoned the boys closer.

At first, the boys did not see the barker; they only heard him. But the nearer they came, the more they saw. The barker stood at more than six feet, although the boys argued over how much more. He was a burly man sporting stubble and very sallow skin. The whites of his eyes were not white at all but yellow instead. His torn shirt billowed slightly in the evening breeze and revealed his muscular, hairy chest. The barker intrigued the orphans.

One of the boys had the courage to approach the barker and asked, “Señor, how much is it to ride?”

“One peso,” the barker bellowed and went back to yelling, “Carousel! Come ride the carousel, full of a wondrous jungle of creatures! Elephants, zebras, lions, hippos, and, of course, beautiful horses!”

“For all of us?” The boy asked after the barker finished yelling his pitch.

The barker broke into cruel laughter at the boy’s question. “No! One peso each, stupid child! This isn’t a charity ball!”

The three orphans exchanged glances. They had spent most of their money on darts and the milk bottle pyramid. The three of them together just barely had one peso. But they wouldn’t let that stop them. They had to ride the carousel. It would be the perfect end to their birthday celebration.

When the barker wasn’t looking, the boys jumped onto the carousel. Each one claimed a horse in an instant and mounted it. But the boys rode for only a few seconds before the barker turned around and screamed at them. 

“Get off the carousel!”

The boys froze. Then the barker walked toward them and raised his giant hands. The boys still did not move. The barker picked them up and threw them off of the carousel, onto the dusty ground.

“Stay there!” the barker yelled.

The boys did as they were told and remained huddled on the ground. After the barker closed down the carousel, he came over to the boys and said, “I bet you all think you were pretty clever, sneaking onto the carousel like that. Well, now you’re going to pay!”

“No, Señor!” piped up one of the orphans, “Please don’t hurt us! It’s our birthday!”

“Your birthday?”

“Yes, we all turned thirteen today! And we snuck out of the orphanage after the nuns went to bed just so we could celebrate.”

“Orphans, huh?”

The boys nodded in unison.

“Well,” the barker began, “Look, I could easily go over to your orphanage and snitch on you. Not only did you break the nun’s rules by slipping out after curfew but you also committed a crime, getting onto the carousel without paying. But, seeing as it’s your birthday, I’m going to be kind and give you a second chance.”

The boys grew excited and cheered.

The barker continued, “See, here’s what I’m going to do. If you each agree to do what I tell you, I’ll not only keep your cover tonight---I’ll even let you come back and ride the carousel again for free. A full ride, too!”

“Thank you, Señor!” the boys said.

So the barker explained what each boy must do in order to remain safe and earn that extra ride. He told the first boy to run into the cathedral and raid all of the offerings. The boy shrugged and figured it wasn’t that different from him spending the money the nuns had given him for mass on carnival rides instead. He raced toward the church to carry out his mission. 

The barker told the second boy to steal as many bottles of communion wine from the cathedral as he could carry. He, too, thought it a simple, doable task and went on his way. 

Then the barker told the third boy to steal the cathedral’s most precious bible: leather-bound with gold leaf pages and illustrations hand-drawn by monks living up in the mountains. The third boy was not as quick to the task as the first two had been, however. 

“What are you waiting for?” the barker asked when the boy hesitated.

“It just seems wrong,” the boy muttered, “Stealing the bible seems wrong.”

“Well, your friends are stealing the charity money and the communion wine. What’s the difference?”

“I don’t know,” the boy said and shook his head, “But I don’t like what they’re doing, either.”

“You don’t have a choice! Go do it or I’ll snitch on you for sure! I don’t want to hear any complaints!” He pierced the boy with his yellow eyes. Frightened, the boy sprinted toward the church in search of the bible without another remark.

Once all three boys had returned, the barker took what they had ransacked and grinned. “Excellent!” The barker kept his word and presented each boy with a carousel ticket. “Come back alone, you hear? Not all three of you together. People will get suspicious if they see you all handing over your tickets without standing in line to pay for them first.”

The boys agreed and headed back to the orphanage, where they hoped nobody noticed their absence.

The next night, the orphan who stole the church offerings came to ride the carousel. He proudly waved his ticket at the barker and dashed to the horse of his choice. Once all of the children had mounted a horse, the barker flipped a switch and the carousel went around and around. The usual upbeat music played and the orphan boy was very happy, happier than he could ever remember being. 

Toward the end of the ride, the music became eerie. The carousel slowed down and the horses rocked around. No one wondered about the change until the orphan boy fell off his horse and cracked his head. Then everyone in the area cried or screamed or fled in horror. No one went up to inspect the boy or call an ambulance. He was left there for dead. At the end of the evening, the barker bent down, picked him up, and carried him to the orphanage. He set the boy down on the front steps of the building and left. The nuns discovered the boy’s body the next morning.

When the other two boys learned that their friend had died, they were sad. But one boy recovered from his sadness much faster than the other, while the latter became scared for their lives.

“Maybe you shouldn’t go. Something might happen to you, too,” the third boy, the one who stole the bible, suggested to the other, the communion wine thief.

“It seems for the better. Maybe if I were wise, I would follow your advice but I really want to go. So I will!”

Again, the third boy tried to discourage the second but the second refused to listen. He snuck out and hurried into the night, toward the illuminated carousel. As the first boy had, the second boy waved his ticket at the barker and hopped onto a horse---or tried to hop onto one, at least. But his jacket snagged onto the horse’s saddle and he couldn’t get loose. The boy screamed for help. Yet the barker---or anyone else for that matter---didn’t notice and flipped the switch. 

The carousel started and dragged the boy along until he bled to death, his screams drowned out by the cheery carousel music and surrounding carnival noise. When the ride ended, all the other boys and girls got off and ran to their next venture. The barker didn’t see the boy’s body until he closed the carousel that night and began cleaning. He carried the boy to the front steps of the orphanage, as he had done with the first, and the nuns found him the next morning.

The third boy shuddered when he learned of his second friend’s death. He felt that the barker was somehow responsible but since he hadn’t witnessed the death of either friend, he had no evidence against the barker. The boy vowed to go down to the carnival that night, not to ride the carousel but to confront the barker. He must know something about this, the boy reasoned.

The boy snuck out and rushed to the carousel where the barker was calling in customers, like usual. When the barker spotted the boy, his yellow eyes glowed. 

“What are you doing here?” the barker sniffed when the boy came closer.

“I just wanted to say that I know you killed my friends.”

“I didn’t kill anybody. They got onto the carousel and killed themselves. Their deaths were accidents, boy.”

“I don’t believe you! And I’m going to tell the orphanage what you’ve done!”

“I’ll tell them that you came here after curfew!”

“They won’t care so much about that when they realize there’s a murderer in town!”

“Listen, boy, I didn’t touch your friends! I’m telling you their deaths were accidents!” The barker pulled the boy in and whispered, “I’m telling you the truth, I swear.”

“Even if you are,” the boy said, “what’s to stop me from saying otherwise?”

“Simple. I’ll let you ride the carousel every night that the carnival’s still in town. And when we visit again next year, I’ll remember your face---I will---and let you come back.”

The boy was silent. It was a hard offer to refuse. He spent most of his days cooped up in the orphanage or church, with little exposure to the townspeople, let alone their festivities, which the nuns more often than not deemed sinful. He smiled at the thought of being just like all the children with families who took them to the carnival. It would almost be like having a very kind and very rich mother or father willing to treat him to the carousel every night. The temptation was too great for the boy to decline. He agreed and pounced onto his favorite horse. 

For the next six nights, the boy returned to the carnival. He winked at the barker, who winked back, and then leapt onto his horse. But more than the carousel attracted the boy to the carnival. After his first night at the carousel, he met a pretty girl who seemed equally interested in him as he was in her. She soon revealed that she was the barker’s daughter and was not allowed to date. So the boy and girl would take long walks at the edge of the carnival, where the barker could not sight them. 

On the sixth night, however, they were not quite so careful. The boy escorted the girl to the cotton candy cart, where he bought her a piece, only a matter of meters from the carousel. When the boy handed the cotton candy to the girl, the barker perked up. He realized that the boy was with his daughter and marched toward the couple. 

Still unaware that they were being watched, the boy and girl kissed each other for the first time. But the barker interrupted it. He pushed the boy to the ground and began tearing at him. In a matter of minutes, the barker had killed the boy. The barker’s daughter stood by, watching the entire affair, and wept when she realized her new friend was dead. Everyone else in the area knew better than to linger; the barker was too large of a man for anyone to defeat. They immediately walked in the opposite direction, even though the barker was killing the boy.

The barker delivered one final kick to the boy, despite his daughter’s tears, and then took his body into his arms. He madly staggered toward the orphanage and dropped the boy’s body onto the cold, stone steps. 

But unlike with the other boys’ bodies, the nuns never discovered the third boy. After the barker left the steps for the carnival, stray dogs descended upon the body and ripped it even more brutally than the barker had. Not a single eyelash remained the next morning, when the carnival packed up and journeyed to the next town.