The Summer Festival
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The apple tree bears fruit only at one time of year. But however many you take, the apples never run out.
Today, as ever, Una set off on the bicycle in high spirits, to gather a year's worth of apples.
And there stood a strange gate that had not been there the day before.
Una looked at it a while, but the entrance was shut, so they went on past.
On the way home, with a great many apples gathered, a small child was crouching and crying. Over the child's face was a rabbit mask.
“What's the matter?” Una asked, but the child only went on crying, so Una decided to put the child on the bicycle and carry them as far as the busier part of town.
As the two of them were passing the strange gate again, it began to rain.
The child tugged at Una's clothes and pointed. The gate had opened — just wide enough for one child to pass. There were voices, and festival drums, ton, ton.
Led by the hand, Una went through the gate, and there was a festival at night. The rain had stopped.
Between the rows of stalls, creatures passed back and forth, talking and laughing.
There were stalls for shooting games, for cotton candy, for cutting shapes out of sugar plate, for food on the griddle.
The child pulled Una along, slipping through the crowd, and then stopped short. They had come to a stall hung with masks.
The child pointed at the masks and shook Una's hand, again and again. Una thought of buying one, but could not quite make out the stallkeeper. Looking closer — the people passing, and the keepers of the other stalls, were all faint and hard to see.
Then the child took a rabbit mask from the stall and tried to set it on Una's head. When Una let go of the child's hand to put it on themselves, the child shook their head hard, and would not have it.
With some trouble Una managed it one-handed. When Una went to pay, the child shook their head again. Here, it seemed, nothing was paid for.
The place grew much livelier. Everyone passing by was wearing a mask too.
Delighted, the child pulled Una along, and they went at the ring toss, the goldfish scooping, the lottery you draw by pulling a string, the scooping of water balloons.
Come to think of it, Una was hungry. They had been playing all this time and had forgotten to eat.
Looking around, Una found a stall of candy apples — their favorite. The child was absorbed in the shooting game, so Una took one for now.
Just as they went to bite into it, the candy apple knocked against the mask, tock. Una had entirely forgotten it was there.
Una lifted the mask to take a bite. And that was when it happened.
“An outsider!”
— a sharp voice rang out. Everything fell silent, and they closed in around Una.
Una put the mask back on in a hurry, but they came on step by step, saying “an outsider,” “an outsider.”
Just as Una thought it was over, something fell with a crash.
As Una turned to look, something pulled hard from below. It was the child.
Led by the hand, Una ducked down and went under the crowd.
“Where.” “Where.” “Where.”
The child slipped through the crowd and through it again, and before Una knew it they were just inside the gate.
The candy apple must have been dropped somewhere along the way; only the stick was left, gripped tight in Una's hand.
“Thank you,” said Una, and the child gestured for them to get outside, quickly. “Where, where,” came the voices, searching.
Una hurried through the gate, and at once it began to close. In the last of the gap, Una could see the child waving.
Outside it was still evening. The rain was coming down hard.
The rabbit mask was hooked over Una's shoulder.
Una got on the bicycle and started for home. Tomorrow there would be more apples to gather.
After a while Una looked back, and the gate was gone.
Una held the mask up to their face.
From far off, they thought they could hear the sound of the festival.