Something Wicked This Way Comes
by Ray Bradbury
Next-door neighbors Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are not quite fourteen when a strange, unexpected carnival comes to their small Illinois town in dark fantasy SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. The inseparable teens sneak out after midnight when they hear the haunting melody of a calliope, little realizing that this mystical musical device and its merry-go-round can spin a life forward or backward, making the victim much older or younger while sucking his dreams from him and leaving him helpless. Only by using joy to defeat evil do Will and his father save the yearning-to-be-seventeen Jim from such a fate.
[100 words]