I’ve done more exploring around the lost neighborhood at Old Graveyard Lake and found the stump of the second biggest cottonwood tree I’ve ever seen. How did I not know about that either? When it was alive it must have held a spell over the still empty rolling undeveloped field behind it and down over Old Graveyard Lake. They tucked those ranch houses all around the only-slightly swampy lake and then time forgot. Taking that tree down must have broken the veil.

The fair is off to a great start, though the nights have been so hot. The smell of grease from the concession stand lingers on the midway, people spilling popcorn and soda pop and things getting a bit trashy and sticky but that's just part of the fun. That and the colored lights and generators and big machinery is all part of what makes the veil thin here.

The Debiliteen & I got jumped by sum clowns in the parking lot at the fair. They creep in tween the cracks on account of the veil gettin so thin at fair time. Came out of the shadows all teeth and smeary makeup and the Debiliteen caught a shiner before we could Hex our way outta that one. So we came bak early the nex night and sealed up the cracks with crazy glue. Makin the psychic fair safe is our gud deed.

The Corn God came out for the Nitrous showdown. Corn got a big presence at the fair. Along with horses, and cows, and chicken and pigs. And diesel. Corn God used to rule, but then the Dinosaur God made more power. But now the Corn God is coming back in style, with pure, high-grade extract mixed with nitrous oxide. Which makes rocket fuel. That, tied off with Psychic Driver's glyphs and Corn God wards in the right ratio, and you can reach the kinds of speeds both the Nitrous Funny Man and Psychic Driver Ed are able to reach.

The cars are revving up on the blacktop by the railroad tracks. One, the wet looking black, pro mod Camaro. The other, a pretty boxy old station wagon that looks like it should be in a junkyard.

Corn God's kernels are shiny in the shadows, moving like a fat slow snake.

I can't believe that old man took down the Nitrous Funnyman. I mean, the Funnyman is HEAVY. Serious muscle. That's what turned everybody on, the weight of that engine, like a singularity. Nobody was as bad as the Nitrous Funnyman, bending space out in the country. We thought he was a god.

And maybe he still is. Well, a demigod.

But nobody drives as fast as Psychic Driver Ed. Or as far.

We saw the other side of the galaxy.