The Fun of the Fair

I met up with Burty one evening to go to the fair on The Lines. Since I’d not experienced the fun of the fair since I was child going round in circles on a gee-gee, the freedom to wander around and soak up the atmosphere was almost as enjoyable as the attractions. Just as well too as I was skint, as usual. I stood stand back and watched as my friend lost at darts and then redeemed himself on the rifle range, but Burty couldn’t help being generous and I was in indebted to him, yet again, when he treated me to a toffee apple and a ride on the bumper cars. A repeat ride was too good to turn down but after that, I was ready to draw the line.

‘C’mon, let's go on this!’ said Burty, when we came to The Big Wheel.

From ground level the sight of that wheel disappearing up into the gloom looked daunting. If ever there was a good time to start acting honourably, this was it. I declined my friend’s invitation, but Burty was insistent.

Clink! Clang! The carriage jolted as the wheel turned and sent us skywards. Then the wheel stopped and the carriage jolted again. Suspended fifteen feet from the ground, we were going nowhere until others joined the ride.

Clink! Clang! We went a little higher when someone else took a carriage, but then we stopped again. As it was still early evening and there weren’t that many people around, we were left to wait once more.

In due course we reached the top of the wheel, where we stopped yet again, at a perilous height. Outwardly, I was calm but inside, I was feeling nervous and willing the ride to get going when Burty, in an act of bravado, thought it’d be fun to start rocking the carriage. The little short-arse did it all the more when I got panicky, not appreciating that while his weight was firmly supported by a back rest that came up to his neck, my head and shoulders were unsupported and with the carriage being at a backward tilt, gravity was drawing me from under the safety bar. In short, I was clinging on for dear life, even before his buffoonery. The ride, when it finally got going, was an anticlimactic relief.