Rain pattered down on the slick boardwalk as the old man shuffled through puddles of diluted soda and soggy popcorn that stuck to the soles of his shoes. The amusement park lay silent, dreary, thunder echoing like a malicious laugh off of the flaps of the tent. The wind cut through the bars of the grates that divided the lines with a scream like that of the children that could have been seen here on a sunny day, but it wasn't sunny and children hadn't run through between these vibrantly colored machines for years now. The old man walked on some more. Past the peeling cotton candy machine, between the bottle toss and the go-fish game, the old man past under the shadow of a giant, teetering Ferris wheel. He looked up, seeming to reminisce, but his mind was drained of thoughts that had pooled in puddles around his feet. The old man sighed, but his voice was drowned out by a crack of thunder. He set his gaze back down on the boards and shuffled out towards the ocean once more.