4. "He yelled yeehaw and I'm not quite sure why." I feel like this fits Benny SO well. COWBOY BENNY! 🤠😂
You blow out your cheeks with a big puff of air, one hand coming up to rub the back of your neck that starts to collect some sweat. A group of children runs past you, nearly bumping into your hip but taking the turn at the last second. Your eyes follow them, traveling further over the crowd of people visiting the fair they vanish into.
You see a lot of faces, parents with children, older couples, younger couples. Oh God, now you’ve spotted the obnoxious teenagers from half an hour ago. Yet, no Benny.
By now you’ve been back and forth the fair three times, passed the shooting ranges and the food trucks so often you saw people waiting in line the first round and collecting their food just as you passed them a last time a few minutes ago. Still, no Benny. What started out as worry has now turned into frustration.
“Wait here, I got a surprise for you.” You repeat his words under your breath, your own version failing to imitate the depth of his voice and just sounding like a stuffy version of yourself.
You kick a tuff of brown trampled grass at your feet, rummaging in your bag to fish out your phone, ready to give up this manhunt and text Benny you’ll be waiting at the car as you hear the voice next to you.
“Are you looking for something, sweetheart?” You turn around to a man with a kind face and an even kinder smile, bright eyes laughing at you from under the brim of his white cowboy hat. Stepping out from behind a ticket booth he reveals a whole outfit for the fair, clearly marking him as one of the show people and not someone visiting. Somehow, amidst all the trouble and your nerves being ripped from Benny’s sudden absence, he reminds you of Doug Dimmadome. Well, a much more charming and much older Doug Dimmadome.
“Uh, yes.” You shake the mental comparison from your thoughts. “I’m looking for my boyfriend. Quite tall, backwards snap. Wears some jeans and a dark shirt.”
“Roughed up face?” You nod. “Yeah, that boy’s been around here. Took off a couple a minutes ago tho.”
“Oh,” You lower your phone, surprised to get a clue at last.” Can you point me in the direction he went?”
“I’m afraid I can’t, sweetheart.” His accent grows stronger and at first you have trouble making out the words at all. Once you do, however, confusion settles over your face once again.
“What do you - Where did he go?”
“That’s the thing.” Not-Doug Dimmadome scratches his hair under his hat. “He paid for a round for one of the cows we have for the little kids to ride and he just … took off.”
“Took off?” Your voice gains a shrill edge. Not-Doug Dimmadome nods with sympathetic eyes. “Took off where?”
“Just,” He vaguely gestures towards the field behind you that’s surrounding the fair and grows into a forrest. “Off. Made a big show how good he’s with the Betsy and I gotta hand it to him, the kid knew what he was doing. At first, at least. But then he patted her behind and you see, Betsy doesn’t like being pat on her behind.”
“Betsy.” You repeat dumbstruck.
“The cow.” He explains calmly. “And he pat her real good, gave her a solid slap which might be okay for a horse but not a kind, gentle soul of a cow. Next thing I knew he was speeding past me, over the fence and into the fields, waving his hat and yelling around like a mad man.”
That was a first. “He yelled?”
Not-Dimmadome gives you a long nod. “He yelled yeehaw and, if I’m honest, I’m not quite sure why. After all, kid was riding a cow, not a horse. Maybe he got them confused, didn’t look that bright to me.” He shoots you an apologetic look. “Looks like he had a good time though. The kids loved it.”
Your face has settled in a defeated emotionless expression. “I bet he did.”
Your eyes move over the end of the fair once more, trying to make out if Benny and Betsy maybe left some clues as to where they went, a trampled passage in the field you’d be able to follow, anything, but it’s impossible to tell with cars being parked behind booths and vehicles blocking your view from seeing the whole area. Everything looks busy, nothing looks like a cow and your crazy idiot bursted through it.
“Sorry, sweetheart.” Doug Dimmadome gives you a strong pat on the back. “But do tell that kid to bring back my cow if you find him, will you?”
You turn around with a sigh, opening your mouth to apologize to the man as a piercing scream echoes over the fair. Both your heads snap into the direction and between a stand with sweets and a prize booth for teddy bears your boyfriend breaks through the field, hat in hand waving your way as he speeds past you on a pristine, yet panicked, white cow. There’s a moment your’s and Benny’s eyes meet and while you feel like they might pop out of your sockets, he beams back at you with a wide grin and the energy of life itself. On a cow. You can’t believe it.
There’s no time to shout anything. Betsy’s already speeding past you, so fast that Dimmadome has to secure his hat with one hand, lowly whistling at the sight in front of him while your own mouth hangs open ajar.
“That’s a wild wicked one you got there, whew.”
You can’t believe it. You can’t believe it. “ .... Thanks.”
