Andrew's Ride

Andy Wall took his little sister to the Fair. There were shooting arcades and ring-tosses and clowns, and a petting zoo. There were a thousand rides including a Ferris Wheel. They had cotton candy when they first arrived, and Vera said, “Let's just walk around for a little while and get used to the place.”

So that's what they did.

Vera was a very cool little kid. Andy walked along beside her watching her. He had always known she was a cool little kid, but he hadn't seen her for nearly a year. He watched her now as she looked around at the many sights to behold on this Friday night at the County Fair. She wore black leggings and tennis shoes and had a woolly red sweater on. She was digging into her cotton candy with enjoyment bursting out of her like fireworks.

She felt him looking and she looked back and stuck out a blue tongue.

Andy said, “I don't think you're supposed to eat the cardboard.”

She shoved her pointy elbow into his ribcage.

“That kind of hurt!” he said sincerely.

“Good,” she said. “Oh my God! Look at that!”

There was a red and white clown on stilts ten feet high. He had a white face and orange hair.

“Looks just like you, Andy!” she said.

They laughed, both together. The tall clown with his orange hair did look a bit like Andy, and they both knew it. They laughed again, looking at each other.

“Oh my God! Your whole mouth is blue!” Vera said. “I am so not kidding! You should go look in a mirror!”

“You really shouldn't make fun of other people's misfortune, Vera.”

“I would be so embarrassed to be you,” she said.

They walked along in the direction of the Ferris Wheel. The sky was getting darker and the lights on the rides were gaining color.

“Are you back to stay?” she asked.

“What? No. Here? No.”

“Do you like it at collage?”

“Yeah, it's okay.”

“Mom said you were flunking out,”

“Well, I turned my life around. I put my nose to the grind-stone. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps.”

Vera looked over and he made a point to look back at her.

“I'm knuckling down,” he said.

“Mom said you were about to get kicked out,” Vera said softly, not looking at him or anything else. Her cotton candy was down to the gooey cone and he took it from her and dropped both cones into a trash can.

“So, you're not getting kicked out?”

Andy dug into the back pocket of his jeans and came out with a long strip of tickets which he held up in the air. He knew he should probably tell her now that he already was kicked out. He just wasn't ready yet. The part about telling his ten year old sister about him getting busted for selling marijuana was the tricky part.

He said, “Are we going to use these things, or what?”

“The Rocket Ship!” she said, pointing at the one ride Andrew least wanted to go on. It was right there in front of them.

“That's the one you want?” Andy asked. He watched the little cylinders whirling in small concentric circles. A man with long greasy hair looked at him.

“Two tickets,” the man said.

Andy ripped two tickets from his roll. “Isn't she too young for this ride?” he asked the man.

“Not at all!” the man said. “Step this way!”

“She isn't too short? You're sure?”

They found themselves on the other side of the rope. There was a small line to get on the ride and they were now officially in it. They looked up at the spinning purple and gold painted cylinders going around and around and they could hear the screams coming from the people within the capsules.

They stood there watching and Andy's mind went to the scene when he would have to tell his mother about getting kicked out. He could see her face now, the way she would stare at him with her mouth open. The way she'll close her eyes and keep them closed.

The ride stopped and people who looked drunk were getting out of their spaceships.

Vera took his hand and began swinging it. Her father, the Admiral, was going to have plenty to say too. “You did what, Swab? You got yourself kicked out? Marijuana! You were selling drugs?”

“This is going to be so fun!” Vera said.

It was now their turn. Vera went in first and Andy followed. They pulled a steel bar down from the roof and sat there waiting.

“My friend Naomi said this is the scariest ride ever!” Vera said. “She says sometimes people barf. I hope I don't barf!”

“Me too.”

“Are you scared?”

“You have no idea!”

“Really, really scared?”

“Really, really, really scared,” Andy assured her.


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