Maria the Midget Part 2:Too Short

A few days later, Lydia, Eric, and I visited the amusement park. I anticipated going on a rollercoaster, but the line was too long!

Finally, as we inched closer to the ride, I noticed that the carnival operator was measuring everyone by height.

Oh no.

“What’s wrong, Mar?” Lydia asked.

I pointed over to the front where the operator was measuring a young boy who only seemed to be a few inches shorter than me.

“Oh.” Lydia’s face fell, then she looked to me. “Well, don’t worry. I know you’ll get in.”

“I don’t know,” Eric said. “I think this ride is only for people five feet and up and Maria’s only 4'7”.”

Gee. Thanks for reminding me of that, Eric!

“Well, let’s see about that,” Lydia said with her hands on her hips.

I witnessed the kid being rejected as he stomped his foot and stormed away. I gulped silently. Please, please let me be tall enough.

Finally, I was first in line and my heart started to pump when the guy measured me.

“Don’t worry, M,” Lydia said, patting me on the back. “If you can’t get on the ride, we won’t get on, either.”

I noticed Eric’s disappointment rising on his face when he heard that.

“Uh, sorry, kid,” the guy said to me, putting down the measuring tape. Kid. “You’re too short. Next!”

“Then, we’re not getting on either!” I turned to see Lydia grabbing Eric’s arm, who, from what I can see, wanted to protest. I trailed after them.

“Where else do you want to go?” Lydia asked me.

“Let’s just go home.” My shoulders slumped.

“Aww, don’t let that get you down. There’s plenty of other rides you can go on.”

“But I wanted to ride on the rollercoaster.”

“Well, that ride isn’t for everybody. It looks lame anyway.”

“Lame?! Lyd, look! It’s, like, the biggest rollercoaster ever here!”

Lydia frowned. “You’re right. Let’s forget about it and go on another ride, okay? We can ride on the Fear Fall. Yeah! The Fear Fall!” Her eyes lit up.

My hopes started to rise again.

“I ain’t goin’ on that thing,” Eric said, laughing and shaking his head.

“Come on, babe,” I pleaded. “Please?”

“Mar, not the ‘p’ word,” he whined.

“Please, with cherries on top?” I gave my best puppy eyes.

“Ugh! I hate cherries!”

“Sprinkles?”

“Okay, you got me there.”

“Caramel?”

“Okay, Mar, okay!”

“So, you’ll do it?”

He sighed. “I guess.”

“Great! Let’s go!” I grabbed his arm and dragged him to the ride of terror with Lydia tagging behind us.

“This’ll be fun,” I told him. “I promise.”

“I better not throw up,” he muttered. “Because I just had funnel cake.”

“Don’t worry. You won’t.”

We got on, buckled up, and gently levitated off the ground. These rides would be the only time I’d feel tall.

We were at the top, then ZOOM! We went down fast. We screamed at the top of our lungs. the adrenaline kicking in!

“That was awesome!” I shouted. Dizziness wrapped around me as we stumbled out from the ride. I looked up to my boyfriend and clapped on his shoulder. “See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“Oh, man. I hate those things,” he said. He looked like he really was about to throw up.

“Yeah, but you survived. And you didn’t puke.”

“Not yet.”

“You wanna go on another ride?” Lydia asked me.

“Sure, but let’s take a bathroom break first.”

“Cool.”