Elizabeth has her 2nd nightmare in a week about falling from a Ferris wheel. She wakes on the landing and a number of the family comes running to her aid. She chooses to sleep with Erin in her bed when her mother comforts her back to sleep. Her parents worry about her sleep walking. John-Boy believes that her dreams are being fed by her unconscious mind and that it may be possible to cure her fears if they can reach her unconscious memories.
John-Boy watches Elizabeth’s behaviour and tries to figure out where her fears stem from. He watches her at the carnival sets up the rides outside of Godsey’s store. She is obviously distressed about her dreams. Inside the store John-Boy notices that the Baldwin sisters are buying padlocks to lock all of their doors while the Carnival is in town. They had a few pieces of valuable jewelry stolen the last time the carnies were on Walton’s Mountain.
John-Boy asks Elizabeth about her memories of when the carnival came to town on their previous visit. He remembers that she was missing for a while but she becomes too distressed and runs into the house when he gets too close to the cause of her worries.
John-Boy talks to Mr. Dawes the carnival operator. He is pleased about the handbills that John-Boy printed to promote the fair. Mr. Dawes says that the Ferris wheel operator died the last time they were in town. John-Boy sees Elizabeth looking at the Ferris wheel. He asks if she will take a ride with him if he holds her close. She agrees and remembers that she snuck off and paid a dime to ride the Ferris wheel the last time the carnival was in town. The operator however had left her unattended on the ride which scared her.
The family hopes that she will no longer have anymore nightmares but that night she sneaks out the bedroom window and makes her way to the carnival’s Ferris wheel. John-Boy and Ben find her and while still in her sleep walking trance like state she remembers that the ride operator hid something in a small hole in a nearby rocky outcrop after he was spooked by the Sheriff who was asking nag questions nearby. When the operator returned to the ride he was knocked down by one of the chairs on the ride and never came to. This is the memory that has been haunting Elizabeth. The next day she helps the Sheriff locate the missing jewellery for the Baldwins.
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