For Sale or Swap - Alyssa Brugman [59]
They spun around and around – up in the air and down again. Shelby felt dizzy and excited at the same time. The crowd on the outside and the lights from the nearby rides were just a blur, but she could quite clearly see Erin's laughing face, and before long Shelby was giggling too. It was exhilarating, but over all too soon.
At the end they clambered out, one after the other. Kim staggered across the grass to the fenced area, trying to keep her balance, and the other girls laughed at her. Shelby's head was still spinning and she walked carefully, knowing that the sensation would pass before long.
'Let's go on the Cha-Cha!' said Erin, grinning.
'Yeah!' cheered Kim.
Erin and Kim skipped along the centre of the aisle, arm in arm. Monica and Shelby ran to catch up with them.
The four girls rode the Cha-Cha, and then the Rock-and-Roll, and afterwards Erin bought a big bag of fairy floss to share. Hayley met up with them after her class and they all scrambled into one of the Ferris wheel carriages. It didn't have any belts or safety bars, but instead a barred roof over the top like a cage. It shifted slowly upwards as the attendant let each group climb into the separate carriages. The girls each reached into the bag and tore off tufts of pink spun sugar. Shelby put a piece on her tongue and waited for it to dissolve.
'Did you win?' asked Monica.
Hayley nodded. 'We're going to have to go back after this. The Champion classes will be on soon.' The two girls' eyes met for a moment and then they both looked out at the showground below them. It occurred to Shelby that Monica and Hayley would be competing for Champion.
'So what did that girl say?' asked Monica, changing the subject.
'What girl?' asked Shelby.
'The one on the horse that looked like Blue.'
'I didn't talk to any girl,' said Shelby, confused.
'Then how do you know it wasn't him? Didn't you ask her where she got him or something?' asked Kim.
'I didn't see a girl. It was a man – Pete, I suppose,' she said.
'You must mean the father. How did you know his name was Pete if you didn't talk to him?' asked Monica.
'It was written on the side of the truck.' Shelby tilted her head towards the metal cage of the Ferris wheel carriage and pointed. 'There – Pete's Pony Rides.'
Kim and Monica looked down where she was pointing and then they looked at each other.
'That's not where we thought we saw Blue. We saw him over the back, tied to a float. There was a little girl brushing him.' Kim pointed. 'See that big blue gooseneck float? He was behind that.'
They saw a different horse.
Kim stared at Shelby. 'I only saw you with him a few times, but I'd swear it was him, Shel. He had the same blue eyes and everything.'
It was him. It was Blue and he was here.
Shelby stood up suddenly and the carriage swung. Hayley screamed. 'Sit down! Are you crazy?'
'I've got to get off!' said Shelby. She grabbed hold of the bars on the gate and shook them. The gate clanged and rattled against its lock. 'Hey! Let me off!' she shouted.
Hayley screamed again and shimmied around as far from the gate as she could.
Shelby pushed against the gate with all her weight and the carriage tilted to the side. The other four girls scrambled back, but gravity pushed them down towards the gate and they pressed against it in a tangle of limbs. They shrieked. All of a sudden Shelby could see through the bars to the ground below. It was a long, long way down.
Hayley pushed back, bracing her foot against the bars, and the gate shifted slightly to the side, with a metallic scrape. Shelby's hand slipped through the bars and she fell onto the gate hard with her shoulder, her arm dangling out in the air. She looked down through the maze of metal to the grass beneath her. She could see the small round faces of the crowd staring up at them. Further along the aisle, groups of people stopped and looked up, pointing.
It's going to give, she thought. The gate is going to give and we're all going to fall.
The gate made another terrifying creak and the girls screamed.