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Speaker 1: Bailey seemed like the perfect girl, a real angel sent

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from above. I met Bailey at the farmer's market. She

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was selling handmade soaps and dancing around in a dress

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that looked like it might have started life as a

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pair of curtains. I was selling eggs and vegetables, something

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I did pretty regularly on the weekends, and she took

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to me right away. Next week, when I came back,

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she had set up her stall right next to mine,

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and I guess we really hit it off. After that,

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we began dating, sort of. Bailey never used labels, she

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said they were restraining. She preferred to call us partners,

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and I have to say that she really broadened my horizons.

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I was used to my dates being at the local

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steakhouse or at the creek while I fished, but Bailey

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was into nature walks and making stuff. We spent afternoons

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making soap and candles. We'd take edibles and then go

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on long hikes, and sometimes we'd just drive for hours,

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listening to music or talking about old times. Most of

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it was just us enjoying each other's company. Bailey was

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very adventurous, and it was nice to get out and

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see things that I probably wouldn't have saw it out

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on my own. Two months after meeting, Bailey was living

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with me as well. Bailey didn't have a lot, just

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pull along trailer and a lot of materials for making things,

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and it all fit pretty snugly in my garage. We

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spent a lot of our time just tooling around, seeing

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the sights, doing whatever we felt like. It was nice.

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But I learned one thing about Bailey very quickly. Bailey

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was impetuous, prone to flights of fancy. It didn't matter

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where we were going or what we were doing. If

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Bailey saw it and she wanted to have a closer

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look at it, we were stopping. We stopped at too

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many farmers' markets to count multiple yard sales, and she

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stopped me on the way to my cousin's funeral so

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that she could check out what amounted to be a

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tourist trap. I didn't really mind. We were the best

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dressed pair at the state's largest totem pole. It was

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fun going on our little adventures. Sometimes we mixed things

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with substances that led them to be hazy when I

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tried to remember them, But a lot of the time

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we were just out and joining each other's company, and

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that made it all worthwhile. It happened one afternoon while

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I was driving, as so many things usually do. I

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was telling Bailey a story about my childhood, and she

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laughed suddenly, which caused me to ask her, what was

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so funny. It's you, mike me, I asked, not really

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getting in. What about me? I swear, I don't know

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how you live before me? All your stories just seemed

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to be you doing normal things. Haven't you ever done

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anything impetuous before me? Like, didn't you ever go on

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an adventure before I came along? Well, of course we did,

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I said, a little defensive. We went and did things,

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saw stuff, did all sorts of stuff. I don't mean

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like vacations, she said. It almost sounded disdainful. I mean

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like just went did things because you feel like it,

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Like just stop to eat in a roadside diner because

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the exterior looked cool, or went to a state park

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you were passing by just because you wanted to see

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what it looked like inside. I thought about it and

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shook my head after a moment. No, I guess we

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never did, and my parents were kind of generic. I

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suppose we just never really did stuff like that. Oh,

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how about it? Are you ready for a real adventure?

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I laughed, Haven't we gone on enough adventures? Yet? We

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seemed to go on adventures all the time. She smirked,

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and as usual, it was equal parts amusement and disdain.

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I mean, like a real adventure. I'm not talking about

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safe adventures like a farmer's mark or a garage sale.

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I'm talking about somewhere where you're not sure if you'll

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come back at the end of the day. I'm talking

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about a real Tolkien adventure, with elves and orcs and

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strange food, the whole shebang. I had to think about

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it for a minute. I always played it safe. I

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didn't eat at weird restaurants or stop at places where

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I didn't know the crowd, and it always kept me safe.

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Hanging out with Dailey, though, showed me that I might

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have been a little too locked into my habits, and

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maybe it was time to try something a little different. Maybe,

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like Bilbo before me, it was time to go on

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a real adventure. Bailey gave me this odd look, like

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a cat contemplating how best to get a rat, and

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when she pointed at a side road off to the left,

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I realized she had been planning this all along. Take

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that road for a mile and then I'll let you

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know where we're going from there where? But she held

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up a hand to silence me. No questions. We're on

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an adventure. Remember. It was around lunchtime when we started out,

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the two of us, planning to go down the dollies

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for hamburgers and fries. But it was nearly five o'clock

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when she said that we were getting close. We stopped

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for gas about an hour before I saw it, and

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Bailey still wouldn't answer any questions about the destination. I

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didn't know what we were getting close to, but when

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I saw the handmade sign for a roadside carnival, I

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figured that had to be our destination. It was August,

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and roadside carnivals were at a premium right now. It

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seemed most of them put ads in the circular, though,

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and didn't just leave signs on a half abandoned roadway

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in the hopes that people would find them. I started

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to protest, but she was right. We were on an adventure,

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and adventures were rarely scheduled. We pulled up outside this

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little cow pasture, maybe thirty acres in all, and It

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was amazing what they had managed to do with so

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little space. It was like the carnivals I remembered from

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when I was a kid. It was one of those

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haphazard roadside attractions that you sometimes see thrown up out

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of nowhere. There were little tents with curiosities in them,

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a small corral for some malnourished animals, and a few

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rides with that barely hanging on sort of look. The

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whole place looked like it had just appeared at some

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health department officer's fever dream. And as I killed the engine,

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the look on my face must have been far from enthused.

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What Bailey asked, you wanted to go to a carnival.

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There's like a half dozen around here we could have

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gone to, and they had gone so far from home.

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Those are safe carnivals, she said, with a wink. These

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carnivals aren't like the ones you find off main street.

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These carnivals are the kind that you find on Internet

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posts and Reddit stories. These carnivals can get a little

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out of your comfort zone, but they're always tons of fun.

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You're coming right or are you going to be an

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old fuddy duddy? I didn't want her to think of me,

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it's some old fossil. So I told her I would go,

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and off we went. I probably should have been a

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little bit suspicious, but there didn't seem to be any

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reason to Bailey had never really struck me as the

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dangerous type, and I didn't think that she would get

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me into any trouble that we couldn't get back out

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of again. The carnival was exactly as run down as

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I had feared it would be. The rides made noises

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like they were just barely working. The animals looked like

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they might have mange, and the curiosities seemed more like

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badly done taxidermy. It all seemed very held together by

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shoe leather and happy thoughts. The carnival workers were just

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as disreputable looking, and there were more orcs than elves.

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It seemed all of them were missing teeth, and more

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than a few of them seemed to be missing fingers.

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They all leered like they couldn't wait to get a

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lot look at our cash, and I found myself clutching

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Bailey a little tighter than I strictly needed to. I

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wasn't opposed to having a little fun, but this was

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a lot outside of my comfort zone. These people could

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be criminals, and we were just getting ready to walk

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right in. And I looked down at Bailey. It was

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like she could read my mind and didn't approve of

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what she saw there. I buried my misgivings and started

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trying my best to have a good time. We wrote

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some rides and had some fair food. But the longer

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we stayed, the more things stood out But made me nervous.

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Was the way the carnival people kept looking at Bailey.

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They didn't leer so much as they looked at her

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the way that you look at people when you know

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them or you recognize them. Their smiles were a little

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too big, and their hellos were loaded with understanding. I

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know how that sounds. It sounds paranoid as hell, but

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I was starting to feel a little paranoid. It felt

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like they had expected us, and I wasn't sure these

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were the kinds of people I wanted to be expected by.

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Bailey just kept telling me to relax, have fun. She

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even offered me an edible to calm me down, which

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I refused. The longer it went on, the more my

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senses started tingling, telling me that something wasn't right here.

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I wanted to go home, but I wasn't going to

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be the one to break first either. Bailey had made

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it pretty clear that she thought I was a stick

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in the mud, and I didn't. I didn't want to

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prove it by getting goosey over some offhanded looks. By

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about eight o'clock, my back hurt and I was ready

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to go home. I told Bailey as much, and she

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begged for just a little while longer. She said she

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hadn't been to one of these carnivals in a long

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time and she just wanted to hang out for a

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little while longer. I told her I was ready to go,

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that I could see it on her face that she

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wanted to call me an old man, and asked me

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if it was past my bedtime. I finally told her

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that I needed to go to the bathroom and that

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I was going to go look for a porta potty,

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eyes clearly having guessed that I was uncomfortable, and went

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searching for a toilet while she went searching for more adventure.

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Thank god I did. I might not have made it out.

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I was sitting in the porta potty, pants around my

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ankles as I tried to figure out what I was

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going to do, and that's when I heard them. I

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didn't know them, but I assumed they were carnies. That

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might be an unfair assumption, but they just.

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Speaker 2: This.

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Speaker 1: They just sort of sounded like carnival folk. They had

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thick accents and seemed to be discussing some event that

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was coming up. I didn't have a lot else to

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listen to, so I craned my neck and tried to

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hear what they were discussing. How much longer until we

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spring it? One of them asked, you know as well

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as I do, how this works. He either said, they

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have a good time, they had the rides, they eat

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some fair food, then we spring it on. By then

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they're too tired and full to do anything. So we

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always get him.

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Speaker 2: So we always get him, and if it ain't broke,

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we ain't likely to fix it. Didn't look like he's

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gonna put up, don't fight anyways big enough, but he

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looks plain and Milk thought he'd struggled more before.

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Speaker 1: Then they moved off and I lost the rest of

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the conversation. My blood ran cold. Sounded like these guys

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were getting ready to rob us or worse. Who knew

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what they had planned, and I realized I had left

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Bailey unattended, that might have heard her while I was gone,

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and that thought, that thought had me hiking up my

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pants and heading back into the carnival. It wasn't until

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then that I realized how few people were at this thing,

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and how most of them looked like the same carnival

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folk that I had just heard discussing our fate. If

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there were any other passers by then, I didn't see them.

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It didn't bode well. That was more than ever that

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we needed to leave. I started looking for Bailey amongst

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the crowd, but I couldn't seem to find her. All

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the people were smiling a little too big as they

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watched me past, And it was weird to be the

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focus of that much attention. You know, you know how

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you can just feel it when someone's eyes are on you.

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That's how I felt, and I didn't much care for it.

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It was very unsettling. It made me think that more

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than a couple of them might be in on the scheme.

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I was coming through the midway when I saw the

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group of them, the lead man pointing at me as

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they made a bee line for me. Two of them,

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big old bruisers and the kind of thing teamsters usually

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wear on mob shows. They were making their approach, trying

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to look casual, but it was all to a parent

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who they were coming for. Maybe they had already gotten Bailey,

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but I wasn't going to do any good if they

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got me too. I duck between the two stalls, keeping

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my head low as I tried to get somewhere a

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little more public. That was made all the harder by

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the fact that no one else seemed to be here.

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It was like trying to blend in in an empty field.

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And I finally ducked down behind one of the abandoned

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midway booths and tried my best not to be seen.

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I must have been doing a pretty good job of it,

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because the group went by with a lot of dark

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mumbling and more than a few glances to see how

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I eluded them. I just thought about standing up, and

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I heard an all too familiar voice, and I was

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glad that I hadn't. We lost him, said a deep,

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raspy voice. I told you guys not to lose him,

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Bailey said, And hearing her talk about me like that

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made my neck hair prickle. I've spent the better part

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of three months getting him on the hook, and all

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you guys had to do was grab him when he

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got out of the bathroom. I can't have gone far.

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We'll find him, said the gravelly voice. You'd better the

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rituals in three hours, and they'll be held to pay

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if we don't have him. They moved away, and I

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was left standing there wondering just who I had been

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dating for the last few months. What ritual were they

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talking about? What sort of people were they? I thought

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they all seemed a little too friendly with Bailey, and

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now it made sense. If this had all been some

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elaborate ruse, then I'd fallen for it, hook line and sinker.

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I had to get out of here. I had to

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get away before they were able to do whatever it

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was they were planning to do. A quick peek over

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the stall showed me that there were only a few

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carnies at the end of the midway, and they weren't

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looking in my direction. I stayed low and started making

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my way around the sides of the booth so that

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I wouldn't be noticed. Most of them seemed too intent

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on looking for where I was to see me, and

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I made it a pretty good distance before I was

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finally spotted, I'd come out near the concession stand, smelling

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the fried oreos and the funnel cake, and that was

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when somebody yelled and said they'd found me. There is

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a volum that seemed to fill me with adrenaline, and

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suddenly I was running for my life. I had to

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make it to the parking lot. I had to make

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it to my truck. I had to get out of

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here while it was still an out here to get to.

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Some of the bigger carnival guys tried to block my way,

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but I jooped around him and kept running. The sounds

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and the smells of the carnival were jarringly not gating.

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At this point. They all with passed me like a

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frantic merry go round, and I wasn't sure I was

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ever going to make it out. It all seemed like

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a little kid's nightmare more than anything, and every time

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I thought that I had made it away, another came

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looming out out of nowhere to block my path. For

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such a small carnival, they seemed to be nearly endless

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supplies of carnies, and I rejoiced when I saw the

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exit looming up as I passed a scrambler that was

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on the edge of the campground. The gate was made

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of flimsy looking wood, but the ticket taker, a man

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that we had paid to get into this place, was

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wide enough to block it with just his body. I

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didn't think I was gonna make it through. I didn't

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think there was any way, But when I hit him

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squarely with my shoulder, something I haven't done since high school,

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I bowled right over the top of him and just

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kept going. I made it to my car and was

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thankful that I hadn't locked it. I got in the

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driver's seat and crammed the key into the ignition, expecting

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them to start hammering on my truck at any minute.

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I expected them to just pick the truck up and

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move it. Some of them were big enough to do that,

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but they didn't. They didn't even I touched the truck

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as I looked up at the carnival before screeching out

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of their little makeshift parking lot, and I saw why

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they were all rayed around the rim of the carnival,

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just watching me from a distance maybe of about fifty feet.

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They stood like worshipers in a church, waiting for their

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preacher to come back. Bailey was among them, looking disappointed

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but not angry. Her eyes seemed to tell me that

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i'd be back, and that was the last I saw

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of her. As I went blaring out of the parking

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lot and back towards home. I was glad that I

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had paid attention on the way in otherwise I might

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not have made it. It took me a little while

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to get back, but I've never been so happy to

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see my home as I was when I finally came

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back to the front yard. I went inside, took about

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twenty minutes to stop my hands from shaking before I

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called the police and told the sheriff what happened. I

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don't know if he believed me, but he agreed to

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go back and look into it. The sheriff and I

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had known each other for quite a while, and I

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think he knew enough to trust my judgment and that

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I wouldn't make up tall tales for no reason. He

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said he'd go back and have a look, and if

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he found anything, he'd let me know, and I had

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to be content with that for a moment. He came

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back to me that night, and it seemed that maybe

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he believed me, at least a little bit. It also

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00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,599
seemed like maybe he'd seen something out there that made

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him a little bit glad that he hadn't been the

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subject of my story. We found something that was no carnival,

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but it was something. Seems like they left it all

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out there. There were rides and lights still going, and

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you could smell the stuff ry, And even after they

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put out all the fires of some night, there was

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nobody there, not a soul, but all of us felt

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like somebody was watching that. Wherever they went to went

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in a hurry. I also found some other things that

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led us to believe you might not have been too

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far off about the sacrifice angle. They were closed in

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one of the tents, closed wallets, stripped of cash, no identification.

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Some of those ideas or people in the database, some

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of them have been missing for a good long time.

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If your Bailey ever calls back again, let us know

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we'd like to have a word with her about some

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of the company she's been keeping. I told him I would,

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but who knows if I'll still be alive to call

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in the morning. Bailey has a key to my house,

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he knows where I live. Quite a few of her

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things are still here. Who's to say, she might not

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decide to come back anyway, see how her sacrifice is

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still here. I don't know, maybe it was all just

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an act or goof, but if you find yourself being

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courted by a strange woman who tries to lead you

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into adventure, be very wary. I don't know what or

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who they were trying to sacrifice me to, but it

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sounded like they might have needed another one very shortly.

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Hey there, kids, it's me mister Peppasta, and before we

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00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:36,440
say goodnight, I just wanted to say thank you so

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00:19:36,559 --> 00:19:39,880
much for watching tonight's video, or for listening to tonight's

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00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:42,359
episode or the podcast if you were listening it to

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00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,279
the podcast on Spotify or wherever you get podcasts, or

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00:19:45,279 --> 00:19:47,319
if you're watching the video on YouTube, which is the

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00:19:47,319 --> 00:19:49,839
only place where I post videos. I really appreciated you, guys,

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00:19:49,839 --> 00:19:51,640
and i'd appreciate if you hit that thumbs up you

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00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,400
hit the subscribe button. Have you hit the bell thank

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next to the subscribe button? As always, I want to

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00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:58,799
give a very big thank you to everybody who supports

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00:19:58,799 --> 00:20:01,519
me on Patreon, patri on dot com, slash Mystery Pasta.

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00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,519
That is the main place you guys are able to

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00:20:04,519 --> 00:20:06,160
support me if you guys want to be able to

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00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:08,359
support me, which you absolutely don't have to do, but hey,

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00:20:08,799 --> 00:20:12,839
thank you, and especially if you guys like you can

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00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:15,880
become one of these wonderful people whose names I mispronounced,

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00:20:16,319 --> 00:20:19,400
people such as Diana Krauss, Asset System Benjamin two thousand

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00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:22,000
and three, Lake Bratler, Bottle Cooler, Brandon Mendoza, Caltuna, Corey

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x Kenchrip, the Cooda Best, Daniel Polson, Don taking Kay

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00:20:24,079 --> 00:20:26,319
and Chanted Buns. Eric Anthony Carussa s to being fifteen

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Squirrels on a trench coat, Dalaxy Gremlin, his nephew, Himo,

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Jerry Hour Minute, Second Time, Jay Kearns, Jedis pet Lu Cipher,

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Nick mc flant, piss Red, Shadow Cat, Remember the Sun,

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Salty's Prize, so Marilyn Scary Stories, Fuel Me thirty two

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Seclude Simbs, Bloody, Mojo Sky, Harper Smiley, the Psychotic Sully Man,

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Holly Sue, Team Leo seventy six, The Chabas Brothers, The

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Ginger Brus, Tommy Walters, Vice Royce Born, William Wellington, x

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Reepert sixty nine, x ex Lucky Cat, xx Zibol, Shadow Gardens,

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00:20:46,599 --> 00:20:48,759
Peaceful Buddha, thank you all so much for being here,

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00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:51,480
and as always, sweet ter names