Read Liz Marvin - Betty Crawford 03 - Too Long at the Fair for Free Online

than she remembered, better than she could have imagined.  She took another bite, and another.  Suddenly she was ravenous and eating faster and faster.
     
    The near empty pie plate disappeared from in front of her.  Her first reaction was anger; she hadn’t finished the crust!  But another pie replaced it.  A whole brand new beautiful pie!  Beautiful and delicious and all hers!  Without hesitation she dove in face first.
     
    Somewhere people were laughing and cheering “Betty!  Betty!”  She didn’t listen, didn’t care.  She was eating her aunt’s pie.  She was eating her favorite comfort food with abandon.  She laughed when she finished and started on her third pie.
     
    By the time the forth pie disappeared she was the crowd favorite.  She spared enough time for a glance at Geezie.  He was sitting upright with a glazed look in his eyes, licking his lips and swallowing.  There were four pie tins in front of him and only three in front of Walt who was eating slowly.  Betty didn’t bother checking the other two competitors and dove into her fifth pie. It was nearly gone when the buzzer sounded and the cheering started.
     
    Reluctantly Betty sat up.  Someone thrust a napkin into her hands and she wiped her face and was surprised to find she would need another napkin.  She had just finished cleaning up when someone was raising her right hand over her head!
     
    “The winner by a whole pie is Lofton’s own Roberta Crawford!”
     
    The other four competitors shook her hands.  Walt clapped her on the shoulder “For a slip of a girl you eat good.”
     
    “Just be glad you ain’t buying her dinner!” Yelled someone in the crowd and everyone laughed “Unless it’s an all you can eat buffet!”  Someone answered “She’d close them down!”  The audience roared.
     
    Betty could feel her cheeks burning red.  She stood up, smiled and nodded and waved.  She was suddenly a celebrity.  People were shaking her hand and congratulating her.  People wanted their picture taken with her – she even autographed a Lofton Fair napkin.  She felt exhilarated and ashamed at the same time.  How many calories, how many carbohydrates, how much raw sugar had she just consumed?  There was some disease, some reaction to diabetics eating too much sugar – keto something or other.  It was serious. Would her kidneys fail? Would she go blind?  Would she die?  She pushed her fears down into her now churning stomach.
     
    The headache came as the crowd thinned out.  She excused herself and headed for the cooking contest tent.  She would walk fast, burn off calories, maybe that would help.
     
    But she never made it.  First someone tried to snatch her purse and then she threw up and fainted.
     

6. Chapter 5
    Clarise wandered up and down rows of beautifully prepared and presented foods.  Elegant silver plate pedestal cake stands topped with precision frosted towers of confectionery delights.  Perfect rectangular sheet cakes with names like “Cardamom Butter Walnut Cake with Mango Kiwi Frosting” to the mouthwatering simple fare “Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting”.
     
    The corn breads were just as diverse.  Broccoli corn bread surprised her.  The country cured ham and cheese cornbread and craklin’ cornbread were to be expected.  Her favorites were banana corn bread, cranberry date corn bread and best of all grandma’s plain old cornbread (one word the way God meant it to be spelled).
     
    She looked around again for Betty, wishing her friend was here to share all the jokes she wanted to make about the entries.  Sighing she headed for the pies.
     
    Marlee May Johnson was standing behind her pie smiling and greeting everyone who came near.  Clarise started at the other end of the table – and stopped.
     
    A simple country style golden brown latticework crust pie was presented in the tin pie plate it had been baked in.  It sat on a threadbare red and white checkered napkin and in