'The Man at the Fair' by Daniel David Webber

She walks home from the park holding a purple balloon, the last of the sun’s rays golden in the sky. She skips slightly, a happy walk for a happy hearted girl. To be admired would have made her day complete, but to be admired and be given a balloon by her admirer was the stuff of fiction. An event she yearned for and read about in her short romantic novels. Michael was his name. Purple wasn’t even her favourite colour and the rational part of her brain wondered what a thirty two year old woman must look like walking home with a balloon but for now she didn’t care. A smile, a stare a balloon from the man at the fair. The ride was starting again.