CHAPTER TWO

The first thing I feel is a tingling throughout my body. It starts at the tips of my extremities then creeps up my arms, legs, spreads in my torso and lathers the insides of my cheeks. This place reminds me of the setting for the cheap, pseudo horror 80’s movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I’m almost expecting a padded stunt with bad body paint in a clump of cookie dough like head mask to spring at us from behind a withered canvas flap.

“This is f*****g creepy…” I squeeze Jillian’s hand in reassurance. Daniel is off to the side kicking at clumps of debris provoking the lines of his iPod’s volume limits.

Jillian is clearly nervous, her palms are sweating and her breathing is uneasy. I can tell Daniel is nervous because he’s being an exceptional jackass, considering his usual demeanor (which isn't that much better). Weirdly enough, I feel fine, if not at home. As we walk deeper into the interiors of the park I can almost feel the traces of a faded pulse, desperately clinging to life.

“What are we looking for again?”

“Not much to look for…” I point ahead to the dominating Ferris wheel towering over the tent rib cages.

“Now I need to ask something of you Mary. Its going to seem bizarre, but trust me, there is a very important purpose…” she reaches for something underneah a pile of junk, digging deep underneath the couch cushions. What she brings out startles me.

I feel the weight of the blowtorch drag me down as I labor forward. At this point I’m still trying to find the reason why I agreed to this. What exactly am I going to get out of this?

“Um, what exactly are you gonna get out of this?” I swear, despite his insensitivity, arrogance and imperceptiveness, he still has the ability to read my mind. Daniel has the ability to be throbbing ball of contradictions.

“Shut up.” I can’t have two people questioning my conscience.

“No. I think I should f*****g know what the f**k you’re doing so I have the chance to use my head so I can back the f**k out.”

“What head?”

“I’m not the one walking in a f*****g fifty year old empty theme park with a motherfucking blowtorch in my hand.”

“Use what little imagination you have or wait two minutes to find out.”

“Who says I’m staying here for two minutes?”

“Fine. Then leave.” An angry silence suspends above our heads. Of course Daniel doesn’t leave. He doesn’t have the guts to deal with me later.
Lo an behold two minutes later we’ve reached our destination…or rather…my aunt’s.

“You’re going to burn the Ferris wheel?” Jillian inquires timidly as I test my grip on trigger.

    “I’m not burning the Ferris wheel. I’m spraying carbonic acid on the motor.”

    “What the hell is carbonic acid?” I wish Daniel had as much faith in me as my sweet, vulenerable Jillian.

    “Something that can destroy metal.”

    “This is fucked up. You’re taking orders to destroy a motor that hasn’t f*****g worked for over fifty years from your f*****g deranged aunt?”

If he hadn’t saved my life three years ago and given me an open door to his home I probably would have drowned him with the acid and watched him melt out of my life.

    Passive-aggressively, I take four instructed steps backwards, position my blowtorch and with a dark cloud cast over my face prepare to fire.

    But something makes me stop, a retort to the comotion. A come back. To prove Daniel wrong and before I have a chance to disintergrate the motor a screech emitts from the enormous wheel before us. A painful drawn out grating of long neglected gears pierces the eerie silence. The Ferris wheel has risen from the dead in the Frankenstein bolts-sticking-out-of-head manner. As soon as the Ferris wheel labors in its cycle every other neighboring mechanism seems to be knocked to its senses. The park has returned from a fifty year slumber.