Was included in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Nov 1987 and The Year's Best Fantasy #1 , 1988 and in [Japanese] in Hayakawa's SF Magazine #1, 1990 and Tesseracts 3 , 1991 Published solely here as Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair, Pulphouse Short Story Paperback #17, and originally included in Dreams Underfoot , 1993 which itself was part of Newford Stories "The [Newford] books have all been written in such a way that you should be able to pick up any one and get a full and complete story. However, characters do reoccur, off center stage as it were, and their stories do follow a sequence." When she was younger, Ellen had seen them all the time, bouncing in the wind like tumbleweeds. She called them the Balloon Men. Now she wonders if they really exist... Reece knows he can see things other people can't, and he's running from a nightmare that menaces people with barracuda teeth... Somewhere between Ellen's doubts and Reece's certainties lies Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair. Laced with parables, this Nebula nominated story has much to say about the nature of Magic. Cover illustration by Donna Gordon.