In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

head behind the camera. Penny shook the bunny into the lens then
offered it to Sandro, who eyed her with a measure of fear and wonder.
A little Pakistani girl dressed like a doll saved them as her wide gazelle
eyes followed the bunny into Sandro's arms. He offered her the toy, to
the horror of her father and delight of her mother, all wrapped up in
layers of gold brocade.
Ula's camera turned directly to the yellow Satan that spread his
bat wings over the entrance of Dante's Inferno, spewing smoke.
"Hey, how 'bout it, guys?" Ula asked.
Sandro eyed the devil and the two paper mache Cerberii that
jutted out over the blacktop and shuddered. He put his arm around Ula
and suggested gallantly, "We take a break from this today, eh, carina?"
Ula wriggled away and turned to Penny. "Where did you learn
how to shoot like that?"
"My old boyfriend was a hunter."
"Casey with the barn," Sandro remarked.
"Yup. And that's K. C., for your information, just two letters."
"Was he a good fuck?" Ula asked.
Penny stomped up the stairs to the boardwalk, followed by
Sandro, fumbling through his cargo pockets for a pack of cigarettes.
Under the spaceship gyro stand, she bought a corn cob.
Ula circled the creepy drag puppeteer with her camcorder, the
same guy Penny had told Sandro about. He recognized him instantly
and sighed as he slapped out a cigarette.
Penny leaned on the boardwalk railing and tore off her kernels,
glaring at the sea. The weather was perfect, the sky blue with high
cirrocumulus jet stream clouds, the sea beneath them a deep blue green
dotted with whitecaps. Sandro joined her, leaning in close, too close,
and smoked his cigarette. So here they were, a picture postcard of
lovers at Coney Island.
On the boardwalk Puerto Ricans danced under the single star
flag that flapped in the wind to the beat of the Samba. Ula walked in
their direction with her camera. Sandro turned to her, balancing on the
top rung, to keep watch. At least a head taller than any of them, with
her thousand dollar camera and five hundred dollar cartwheel straw hat
from Barney's, she would have made an easy target for the Puerto
Rican boys that cruised past in slashed tie-died tank shirts, but they had
other ideas, like blowing kisses Penny's way until they spotted Sandro
sneering imperiously from his perch.
"Come in the water with me." He crushed the butt under his
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