The Fairground
[RIDE “THE RING OF DEATH ROLLER COASTER]
The sounds of people screaming surrounded the air, as the rollercoaster took a sharp dive downwards and twisted upside down, and the long hair of the women dangled upside down. The direction of the rollercoaster returned right side up and did a loop and stood up there upside down for a moment. I watched feeling a little nervous, but deep down I knew I could handle it. I walked towards the line, that stretched out past the barricades, about 40 or 50 people waited in front of me.
“Hey Arthur!” I heard a voice yell to me. I looked to my left, then to my right, unsure where the voice was coming from.
“Over here!” he said, and i looked ahead of me and saw Eric waving his hands in the air, trying to get my attention.
“Excuse me, pardon me...sorry.” he apologized as he pushed through some of the people in line behind him as he walked to me.
Some of the people in the line had disgusted facial expressions, turning around, shaking their heads in disapproval, as Eric reached where I was in the line.
“Long time, no see. I thought you said you were going to stay close by the concession stand after I used the bathroom, and wait for me?” I said, knowing that trying to reason with Eric about his tendency to wander off was futile since he has always been this way ever since middle school.
“Well, while i was waiting, a pretty girl talked to me, and I went on a few rides with her. I forgot to ask her what her name was, but she gave me her phone number” he said, taking out a piece of ripped notebook paper, with a phone number written on it. He handed me the paper, and I looked at it. I examined the writing and coincidentally it looked similar to Eric’s writing. “You didn’t get a girl’s number, this is your writing you goddamn liar!” I said, smirking, purposely messing with, because I knew he would argue with me. “What! I swear to God! This young, sexy, little number came up to me, asked me what rides I've been on, told me she liked my haircut, and asked me what rides I’ve been on, and asked if I would go on the pharaoh pyramid dragon ride thing, and I did. She kissed me, and gave me her phone number, and before I knew it, she left!” He said, with his eyes wide, and sneezed into his hands.
“Bless you” I said.
“Thank you, bro...So are you down to go on ‘The Ring of DEATH’ or, are you gonna chicken out like you did at the haunted museum last summer?” he said, laughing, making fun of me. I did get scared at the haunted museum, but only because I didn’t know that the wax museum creatures were real and would “come alive” and start chasing us down the museum where I dropped my disposable wind up camera, and shattered into many pieces.
“I wasn’t scared! I was just a little surprised, and I was more pissed off about breaking my camera, if anything.” I said, unconvincing.
“Yeah, okay, whatever you say, Arthur” He scoffed, already knowing that I was lying. I sighed,
“So when are we going to actually ride this rollercoaster?” I asked, trying to act tough because this was my actual first time going on a rollercoaster.
”I don’t know maybe after the next ride. But you better not chicken out or else you owe me that 'Dead Sinners' video game cartridge, remember? You owe me from last time, bitch.”
I did owe Eric for helping me make an excuse to my mother, a few months ago, when I came home late on a school night. He told her we were studying for an important test at school, His mother was away for the weekend and he knew my mother wouldn’t of been able to call and confirm it with his mom. It was a convincing lie while the truth was that we were actually taking shots of Phil Dennis rum behind the dumpster at night, behind the corner store after we got lost after leaving a house party that got out of hand that ended when the police arrived.
“Eric, we shook on it, word is bond, my friend.” I said, reluctantly, choking on dry spit, as I gazed up again at the rollercoaster.
The sky grew darker, it was now night time, and the rollercoaster sign turned on. The letters “Rollercoaster of DE--H” lit up, while the “A” and “T” letters were burned out. The rollercoaster slowed down as it was coming back. The faces of the riders looked terrified, while one or two of them were smiling so hard, and talked loudly about how they were going to ride with no hands because the ride was so worth the wait.
The line moved forward, and we were up next, the Carnival Operator was a middle aged lady.
She looked at us, and said “tickets?”
“Here you go, my good woman.” Eric said confidently, and handed her his admission.
“Thank you, sir.” she replied, raising an eyebrow, looking at Eric with a peculiar stare.
“Ticket?” She asked me, and I handed her my ticket, and smiled. I followed Eric to the front of the rollercoaster.
“Let’s ride in the front, they are the best seats for a rollercoaster, and only ‘REAL’ men with no fear in their hearts ride in the front!” he declared, grinning, and sat down in the front.
“If you say so, Eric” I said, rolling my eyes, already knowing what he was trying to do. “I’m not scared, man, this is nothing” I said, feeling my heart race.
”Hurry up, and sit down, Arthur.” he said, pointing to the seat next to him. I sat down, and took a deep breath.
The Carnival Operator walked towards our seats and said “Keep your arms on the handles, and your neck straight to avoid neck strain, keep your possessions, and belongings in your pockets, and enjoy the ride.” She said, buckling us in, pulling down the shoulder rests, and seatbelts pressed near our crotch.
“Hey, watch where you put your hands!” Eric told her, jokingly, and smiling.
“Oh, my apologies, sir. They put these seatbelts in interesting places.” she said, winking at him and walked to the next passengers behind us.
“You are so lame, Eric.” I said, shaking my head.
“Hey, you see that? She winked at me! That means she likes me. Dude, why didn’t she wink at you?” he said, laughing. I kept shaking my head, “You goofy motherfucker…” I said, and he laughed louder.
A few minutes passed while we waited for the Carnival lady to finish buckling all the riders into their seats. I looked out into the distance and I saw the strangest thing. There were four clowns standing next to the barricades of the rollercoaster. One was holding a dangling chain, another with a rubber rainbow colored bat, the third clown was wearing giant red boxing gloves, and the last clown had his arms folded across his chest. They were staring at me, and I felt a strange paranoia come over me. These clowns didn’t look like part of a show at the John F. Kennedy Common grounds fair. I started to sweat, and felt confined. Claustrophobia consumed me as i squirmed in the seat.
“What’s wrong?” Eric asked. “You’re not wimping out already, are you?” he said giggling.
“Nah... it’s just there’s these creepy looking clowns standing right over--” I stopped myself mid-sentence, as I pointed over to where the clowns were standing to see they were gone.
“Dude, did someone slip something in your Slurpee?” Eric said, looking at me like I was crazy.
“No, but they were just standing there!” I exclaimed, but Eric then said, “Arthur, you need to lay off the nachos & foot long chili dogs, bro.” putting his hand on my shoulder.
I shrugged, and said, “Shut up, Eric.” and he laughed while the rollercoaster began to shift and rock back and forth, letting us all know the ride was about to begin.
The Carnival Operator turned up the volume on the radio playing on the speakers. “Baby, you’re a shooting star! Baby. I’ll always know where you are! Where you are!” the voice sang, pop lyrics spreading throughout the ride. The rollercoaster suddenly moved forward, and the ride began. Eric drummed his hands on the handle in front of him, “Here we go!” he yelled, and the rollercoaster rode up a steep slanted path to the highest peak of the fairgrounds. My anticipation grew, as i looked down at all the people walking around at the fair, wondering if i really did see those weird looking clowns.
We reached the top of the rollercoaster. And I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then WHOOOOSH! The rollercoaster went straight down the trail, and some of the passengers screamed, and I gritted my teeth as we went through our first upside down loop, and followed by a 2nd loop, and then we turned sideways, and lowered downwards, and then back up into the air, and went through a third loop. The Carnival Operator stopped the ride while we were upside down on the loop. Screams of excitement filled the air, and I felt the blood rush to my head. I closed my eyes again, and before I could think; the rollercoaster continued moving, and started from the beginning again for the 2nd lap through. Eric was laughing the entire time, having a blast, whooping and wooing after each flip and loop.
“Isn’t this fun!?” he yelled to me while my body clenched into my seat. My heart was speeding like a jackrabbit, and adrenaline was so high. I was too afraid to speak, but mustered up enough courage to say, “...yeah.” But i don’t think Eric could hear me at that point.
We reached the last loop, and the ride stopped upside down again. I looked down at the Carnival Operator, but this time there was something wrong. I saw one of the clowns that was staring at me earlier, still folding his arms, looking up at the rollercoaster. Behind him, the Carnival Operator was being strangled with a chain by the other clown with the dangling chain. The chain was wrapped around her neck, and she kicked her legs, and struggled for her life.
“What the hell!” I screamed.
“What’s wrong?” Eric asked.
“THEY’RE KILLING HER!!” I screamed, and pointed to the operator.
“Oh my God!” Eric yelled, as he stared down at the violence happening below us.
The clown who was staring up at us, unfolded his arms, slightly smiled, and pulled a lever. The buckles vibrated, and the metal arm rest loosened from my waist. My heart sank, and the shoulder rest raised up, and Eric screamed, “ARTHUR!!!” as his body slipped out of the roller coaster seat and his body slipped through the seatbelt that was holding him in. Reaching my hand out, I yelled out, “ERIC!!!!!” as I watched him fall from the sky along with the other passengers, screaming to their deaths as they plummeted to the ground.
My seatbelt started to rip, pulling back the fabric. I reached my hands out and, grabbed the arm rest, and dangled from it. I screamed, my fingers were slowly slipping off the armrest. I looked down, and I saw a building underneath near the roller coaster loop. I hesitated for a moment, but believed that if I swung hard enough i could land on top of it. Or with enough strength I could pull myself up I could try climbing on top of the railing.
I glanced at the bodies spread across the fairgrounds, and heard the faint screams of people who saw the whole thing. I felt tears run down my cheeks as I thought about my entire life up to this point,
and that’s when I decided what I was going to do next before it was too late.
The sounds of people screaming surrounded the air, as the rollercoaster took a sharp dive downwards and twisted upside down, and the long hair of the women dangled upside down. The direction of the rollercoaster returned right side up and did a loop and stood up there upside down for a moment. I watched feeling a little nervous, but deep down I knew I could handle it. I walked towards the line, that stretched out past the barricades, about 40 or 50 people waited in front of me.
“Hey Arthur!” I heard a voice yell to me. I looked to my left, then to my right, unsure where the voice was coming from.
“Over here!” he said, and i looked ahead of me and saw Eric waving his hands in the air, trying to get my attention.
“Excuse me, pardon me...sorry.” he apologized as he pushed through some of the people in line behind him as he walked to me.
Some of the people in the line had disgusted facial expressions, turning around, shaking their heads in disapproval, as Eric reached where I was in the line.
“Long time, no see. I thought you said you were going to stay close by the concession stand after I used the bathroom, and wait for me?” I said, knowing that trying to reason with Eric about his tendency to wander off was futile since he has always been this way ever since middle school.
“Well, while i was waiting, a pretty girl talked to me, and I went on a few rides with her. I forgot to ask her what her name was, but she gave me her phone number” he said, taking out a piece of ripped notebook paper, with a phone number written on it. He handed me the paper, and I looked at it. I examined the writing and coincidentally it looked similar to Eric’s writing. “You didn’t get a girl’s number, this is your writing you goddamn liar!” I said, smirking, purposely messing with, because I knew he would argue with me. “What! I swear to God! This young, sexy, little number came up to me, asked me what rides I've been on, told me she liked my haircut, and asked me what rides I’ve been on, and asked if I would go on the pharaoh pyramid dragon ride thing, and I did. She kissed me, and gave me her phone number, and before I knew it, she left!” He said, with his eyes wide, and sneezed into his hands.
“Bless you” I said.
“Thank you, bro...So are you down to go on ‘The Ring of DEATH’ or, are you gonna chicken out like you did at the haunted museum last summer?” he said, laughing, making fun of me. I did get scared at the haunted museum, but only because I didn’t know that the wax museum creatures were real and would “come alive” and start chasing us down the museum where I dropped my disposable wind up camera, and shattered into many pieces.
“I wasn’t scared! I was just a little surprised, and I was more pissed off about breaking my camera, if anything.” I said, unconvincing.
“Yeah, okay, whatever you say, Arthur” He scoffed, already knowing that I was lying. I sighed,
“So when are we going to actually ride this rollercoaster?” I asked, trying to act tough because this was my actual first time going on a rollercoaster.
”I don’t know maybe after the next ride. But you better not chicken out or else you owe me that 'Dead Sinners' video game cartridge, remember? You owe me from last time, bitch.”
I did owe Eric for helping me make an excuse to my mother, a few months ago, when I came home late on a school night. He told her we were studying for an important test at school, His mother was away for the weekend and he knew my mother wouldn’t of been able to call and confirm it with his mom. It was a convincing lie while the truth was that we were actually taking shots of Phil Dennis rum behind the dumpster at night, behind the corner store after we got lost after leaving a house party that got out of hand that ended when the police arrived.
“Eric, we shook on it, word is bond, my friend.” I said, reluctantly, choking on dry spit, as I gazed up again at the rollercoaster.
The sky grew darker, it was now night time, and the rollercoaster sign turned on. The letters “Rollercoaster of DE--H” lit up, while the “A” and “T” letters were burned out. The rollercoaster slowed down as it was coming back. The faces of the riders looked terrified, while one or two of them were smiling so hard, and talked loudly about how they were going to ride with no hands because the ride was so worth the wait.
The line moved forward, and we were up next, the Carnival Operator was a middle aged lady.
She looked at us, and said “tickets?”
“Here you go, my good woman.” Eric said confidently, and handed her his admission.
“Thank you, sir.” she replied, raising an eyebrow, looking at Eric with a peculiar stare.
“Ticket?” She asked me, and I handed her my ticket, and smiled. I followed Eric to the front of the rollercoaster.
“Let’s ride in the front, they are the best seats for a rollercoaster, and only ‘REAL’ men with no fear in their hearts ride in the front!” he declared, grinning, and sat down in the front.
“If you say so, Eric” I said, rolling my eyes, already knowing what he was trying to do. “I’m not scared, man, this is nothing” I said, feeling my heart race.
”Hurry up, and sit down, Arthur.” he said, pointing to the seat next to him. I sat down, and took a deep breath.
The Carnival Operator walked towards our seats and said “Keep your arms on the handles, and your neck straight to avoid neck strain, keep your possessions, and belongings in your pockets, and enjoy the ride.” She said, buckling us in, pulling down the shoulder rests, and seatbelts pressed near our crotch.
“Hey, watch where you put your hands!” Eric told her, jokingly, and smiling.
“Oh, my apologies, sir. They put these seatbelts in interesting places.” she said, winking at him and walked to the next passengers behind us.
“You are so lame, Eric.” I said, shaking my head.
“Hey, you see that? She winked at me! That means she likes me. Dude, why didn’t she wink at you?” he said, laughing. I kept shaking my head, “You goofy motherfucker…” I said, and he laughed louder.
A few minutes passed while we waited for the Carnival lady to finish buckling all the riders into their seats. I looked out into the distance and I saw the strangest thing. There were four clowns standing next to the barricades of the rollercoaster. One was holding a dangling chain, another with a rubber rainbow colored bat, the third clown was wearing giant red boxing gloves, and the last clown had his arms folded across his chest. They were staring at me, and I felt a strange paranoia come over me. These clowns didn’t look like part of a show at the John F. Kennedy Common grounds fair. I started to sweat, and felt confined. Claustrophobia consumed me as i squirmed in the seat.
“What’s wrong?” Eric asked. “You’re not wimping out already, are you?” he said giggling.
“Nah... it’s just there’s these creepy looking clowns standing right over--” I stopped myself mid-sentence, as I pointed over to where the clowns were standing to see they were gone.
“Dude, did someone slip something in your Slurpee?” Eric said, looking at me like I was crazy.
“No, but they were just standing there!” I exclaimed, but Eric then said, “Arthur, you need to lay off the nachos & foot long chili dogs, bro.” putting his hand on my shoulder.
I shrugged, and said, “Shut up, Eric.” and he laughed while the rollercoaster began to shift and rock back and forth, letting us all know the ride was about to begin.
The Carnival Operator turned up the volume on the radio playing on the speakers. “Baby, you’re a shooting star! Baby. I’ll always know where you are! Where you are!” the voice sang, pop lyrics spreading throughout the ride. The rollercoaster suddenly moved forward, and the ride began. Eric drummed his hands on the handle in front of him, “Here we go!” he yelled, and the rollercoaster rode up a steep slanted path to the highest peak of the fairgrounds. My anticipation grew, as i looked down at all the people walking around at the fair, wondering if i really did see those weird looking clowns.
We reached the top of the rollercoaster. And I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then WHOOOOSH! The rollercoaster went straight down the trail, and some of the passengers screamed, and I gritted my teeth as we went through our first upside down loop, and followed by a 2nd loop, and then we turned sideways, and lowered downwards, and then back up into the air, and went through a third loop. The Carnival Operator stopped the ride while we were upside down on the loop. Screams of excitement filled the air, and I felt the blood rush to my head. I closed my eyes again, and before I could think; the rollercoaster continued moving, and started from the beginning again for the 2nd lap through. Eric was laughing the entire time, having a blast, whooping and wooing after each flip and loop.
“Isn’t this fun!?” he yelled to me while my body clenched into my seat. My heart was speeding like a jackrabbit, and adrenaline was so high. I was too afraid to speak, but mustered up enough courage to say, “...yeah.” But i don’t think Eric could hear me at that point.
We reached the last loop, and the ride stopped upside down again. I looked down at the Carnival Operator, but this time there was something wrong. I saw one of the clowns that was staring at me earlier, still folding his arms, looking up at the rollercoaster. Behind him, the Carnival Operator was being strangled with a chain by the other clown with the dangling chain. The chain was wrapped around her neck, and she kicked her legs, and struggled for her life.
“What the hell!” I screamed.
“What’s wrong?” Eric asked.
“THEY’RE KILLING HER!!” I screamed, and pointed to the operator.
“Oh my God!” Eric yelled, as he stared down at the violence happening below us.
The clown who was staring up at us, unfolded his arms, slightly smiled, and pulled a lever. The buckles vibrated, and the metal arm rest loosened from my waist. My heart sank, and the shoulder rest raised up, and Eric screamed, “ARTHUR!!!” as his body slipped out of the roller coaster seat and his body slipped through the seatbelt that was holding him in. Reaching my hand out, I yelled out, “ERIC!!!!!” as I watched him fall from the sky along with the other passengers, screaming to their deaths as they plummeted to the ground.
My seatbelt started to rip, pulling back the fabric. I reached my hands out and, grabbed the arm rest, and dangled from it. I screamed, my fingers were slowly slipping off the armrest. I looked down, and I saw a building underneath near the roller coaster loop. I hesitated for a moment, but believed that if I swung hard enough i could land on top of it. Or with enough strength I could pull myself up I could try climbing on top of the railing.
I glanced at the bodies spread across the fairgrounds, and heard the faint screams of people who saw the whole thing. I felt tears run down my cheeks as I thought about my entire life up to this point,
and that’s when I decided what I was going to do next before it was too late.