The penguin parade

Mary Josepha led her charges along the dusty road through the village towards the festival meadow. It was a clear, sunny day in the south of Portugal and she would have preferred to stay in the coolness of the monastery walls rather than be exposed to the heat in the open air. But her position of authority as novice mistress meant that she had to execute the mother superior's order without any grumbling in order to set an example for the younger nuns.

They had barely crossed the stone bridge when they were spotted by a short man in a colorful three-piece suit and a tall top hat on his head, standing on a raised platform next to the entrance gate to the fairground. He was jumping up and down excitedly and shouting towards them.

"Oh, what an honor and what a pleasure to welcome the venerable sisters of the Convent of the Magnanimous Mary here at our humble carnival. Come, come closer!"

He frantically beckoned them to come closer, even though a queue of people had already formed in front of the ticket booth. Mary Josepha stood up with dignity and walked past the people. As a preemptive measure, she fumbled under her habit for the purse from which she intended to pay the expected expenses of the excursion.

The fairground owner climbed nimbly from his elevated stand and opened a wide gate. With a deep bow, he invited the newcomers to enter.

"Your visit is a special honor for us. Of course you may use all the attractions free of charge, anything else would not be appropriate."

He gave them a broad smile from below that would have done any crocodile credit.

"Very well, thank you for your generosity, we accept the invitation and will donate the saved money to the collection for the needy instead," she informed him.

She marched ahead with her back straight, followed in single file by her fellow sisters, who looked like a flock of penguins in their black and white robes. Not all the bystanders viewed the procession with benevolence at the privileged treatment of the nuns, while they themselves had to wait and pay admission.

As soon as they entered the alleyways between the tents and stalls, they seemed to find themselves in a different world. Everything was colorful and loud, unfamiliar seductive smells wafted around them. At least the crowds on the sawdust-strewn paths were not too tight. So they trudged on in single file towards the supposed center of the fairground. From the bustle, everything looked bigger and more spacious than it would have appeared from the outside. The amount of structures, amusement parks and even entire multi-storey buildings erected overnight out of wood was overwhelming. They passed fairground rides, shooting galleries, food stalls, theater tents and exhibition booths. Much more than the small meadow should have been able to accommodate. Was such a thing even possible?

In a central square, where numerous paths converged in a star shape, Mary Josepha stopped and called to the rear: " Now sisters, which attraction do we want to visit first?"

She turned around and froze like a salt pillar. All she saw was a little girl munching on a huge cloud of candy floss, looking up at her in curiosity. There was no sign of her eleven wards.

"Arg."

She ran a hand over her face in annoyance. She had feared that this day of visits would not go as smoothly and orderly as she would have liked. Where had the others gotten to?