Summer Air

The two of us walked into my cottage; Allison headed to the kitchen table, and towards the kitchen for me.

Temporarily distracting her, I asked, “Want anything to eat or drink?”

She asked for an orange juice, so I attended to her request by reaching into the fridge, then the cupboard. I poured the juice, then made my way to the table.

“You’re not having anything?” She asked me, with a hint of something in her voice. Suspicion maybe?
I shook my head, “I’m good.”

She eyed me as she sipped her juice.

There was slight silence before Allison spoke.

“So you and that guy, Patrick is it?”
I nodded, “Yes, Patrick.”

We both leaned back in the old wooden chairs as I explained what I remembered from the previous night, and this morning.

As I finished she stared at me like I had three heads. “That fine guy, had a one night stand with you, and made you breakfast? How’d you get so lucky?”
I rolled me eyes. “And now tell me about your night. I'm sure you got lucky."
She stuck her feet up on the table, and I crinkled up my nose before pushing her feet away. “Nothing exciting. Got a bit trashed, went home with this one guy; he was okay I guess.” She shrugged her shoulders. I nodded, indicating I was listening. “Anyways, you should go get changed. We have plans today.”

I agreed, noticing I was still wearing the clothes from the club last night. I made my way up the stairs.

I stood in front of my open, and messy, closet. Allison didn’t give me a clue about what she had in mind, so that didn’t help me out in choosing an outfit. My finger twirled a piece of my hair around as I inspected the clothing. Deciding on a pink and yellow sundress. I slipped it over my head, let my hair fall into loose curls, and applied makeup. My sunglasses fell over my eyes as I stepped down the stairs.

“All ready.” I announced. Breaking Allison out of her texting coma again.

She stood up from the chair, and pushed it in –her face still glued to the phone.

“Who’ya texting?” I asked, with a hint of humour in my voice.
She quickly slammed her phone shut, “No one.” Caught in the act.

I decided to shrug it off for now.

We pulled on our shoes, exited the cottage, and Allison headed over to her car –I followed. She had a nice silver convertible that I was always jealous of, since she got it for her eighteenth Birthday –just over three years ago. I slid into the passenger seat, as she went into the driver’s.

“So where we off to?” I asked, as she pulled out.
“You’ll see,” Was her simple reply.

We went through the town, and slowly drifted to the outskirts. Just as I thought we were leaving town all together, Allison turned down a small country road, and then another. In moments I found us in a parking lot. I gave her a confused look, and she just nodded over to the side of me.

I looked over and a grin spread across my face. Sitting in front of me was an old-fashioned fair, including balloon popping games, Ferris wheel, and all.

“Sweet, let’s go!” I jumped out of the car, and waited for Allison to reach me, before running our way over to the fair.

We walked over to the ticket booth, and purchased handfuls to cover us for the day. Choosing to go on the Merry-Go-Round first, we walked to the left and passed two of our tickets to the man at the entrance.

I felt like a kid again as I sat on the ride, laughing at jokes being thrown by Allison.

After the Merry-Go-Round, we headed over to the House-Of-Mirrors, and then to the Swings. Then after that, as a joke we decided to enter a darkened booth. Waiting inside was a women, likely in her sixties, dressed in a sparkling shawl, with a matching headpiece. I sat in the first seat in front of her, and Allison sat in the other one. The woman grabbed Allison’s hand first, apparently reading her palm.

“You, young lady,” Her voice was melodramatic, “Will get caught in a lie. It will surprise your peers. Oh, and something else, you are falling deeply in love.” Allison let out a nervous laugh, towards me. The woman then turned to face me, dropped Allison’s hand and grabbing my outstretched one. “Oh, we have an interesting one here.” I raised my brow. “You seem to be in denial. The one for you is right in front of you, you just need to come to realization. You will too. You’ll find your true love this summer.” She dropped my hand, as the two of us got up, throwing a few tickets in her direction.

As we emerged from the darkness into the sunlight, I spoke, “That was well...” I paused, “Interesting.”
“To say the least.” Allison added, nodding.

We wandered around a little bit, before deciding to go on the Ferris Wheel. We stood in line for a round or two, until we got ushered onto the ride. Allison got pushed onto the carriage labeled 12, while I got shown to 13.

Well this sort of sucks.

I slid into the seat, not noting the individual beside me. The person gently rocked the carriage, probably out of habit. Just as the ride was starting, and my grin grew, a voice I recognized spoke.

“Chevy?” It asked.

I looked over to my right. If I would have been in a cartoon, my jaw would have been on the floor, and I’d have to pick it up.

“I thought it was you!” He spoke.

Patrick smiled like a little kid as he rocked the carriage back and forth by his swinging feet.

“Uh yeah...” I said hesitantly, “Hey.”

The Ferris Wheel went around once, and then twice with the two of us –or maybe just me, since Patrick seemed pretty chill- in an awkward situation. Isn’t it always awkward when you get stuck on a Ferris Wheel with an accidental one night stand that you hate. Never mind. With my luck, that’s probably only happened to me.

When we went around for the third time, our carriage stopped at the top. Out of pure reflex I grabbed Patrick’s arm. Sure, I loved the Ferris Wheel, but being stopped at the top was not any fun in my opinion.

A small chuckle escaped Patrick’s lips, “What’s wrong Chevy?”
“Ferris Wheel...top...fucking...freaky.” I choked out.
“So this wouldn’t help?” He started swinging the carriage back and forth again.
“Holy fuck!” I screamed, tightening my grip on his arm.

He let out a laugh, and stopped swinging the carriage.

I waited for a minute, the Ferris Wheel should have started moving by now...

Just as bad thoughts ran through my head, a booming voice confirmed it.

“Attention to those of you on the Ferris Wheel.” A male voice over a mic spoke. “We are presently having technical issues, but we should have you all down within the hour.”

What?!

He couldn’t be serious.

Stuck at the top of a Ferris Wheel with Patrick?

Kill me now.