40) Mr Ringtoss

The Carny folk have many a tall tale to tell. My favourite was of Mr Ringtoss. Maybe not the most glamorous of stories, but it has a charm.

His origins date back to a county fair in Florida around the 1990s. He was only just a man at that stage and had a young lass he wanted to care for. At the ringtoss game was a large stuffed panda with huge blue eyes that the lass desperately wanted. It were three rings to get the panda, so he threw down the last five bucks in his pocket and picked up three rings. The game owner laughed behind his stoic face because like his spine, he knew the game was crooked. Yet the little UFOs spun in odd circles as if moving backwards while moving forward and landed on the posts. All three of them. The game owner jumped over the counter and called him a cheat for winning at a crooked game. Realising his mistake, he tried to cover up his own misdeeds. The game owner ended up in jail and kicked out of the carny troop for good.

Although someone had tried to dupe him, Mr Ringtoss felt a tremendous power had been bestowed upon him. Another fair came the following month and once more he took up the ringtoss challenge for his darling lass. All three landed without fail. This game owner was smarter than his predecessor, and while he knew he had been played he smiled and gave the boy his toy.

It was an undeniable talent. County fairs came, as did the amount of stuffed toys. Mr Ringtoss and his lass had so many that they started selling them and making quite a bit of money. The idea came to Mr Ringtoss that he should go on tour, finding carnivals and winning toys on the ringtoss. His lass went along for the ride.

They rode around five states, playing ringtoss and having a whale of a time. Life was very comfortable for the pair of them over the next year. They built up a nice little nest egg for their future children and moved in to a flat near the Everglades. They didn’t tour anymore, but when a county fair came along Mr Ringtoss was sure to be there.

Without realising he went to the county fair where he had first discovered his talent. Waiting for him was the game owner who had been jailed. He didn’t wait for him at the ringtoss game. No, the back of an alley was better for breaking a man’s arm. Mr Ringtoss cried out in pain, but the game owner got away. His arm never recovered; the rings no longer floated like UFOs but dropped like apples from trees.

He and his lass lived out the rest of their days comfortably. Yet she could tell you that a little spirit escaped from Mr Ringtoss as the years went on. The last flicker of excitement in his eye was lost when people started calling him Mr Robinson.