Hot off the press, a short story by QuickHitCurepon.
It was late summer, and Rickey strode away from his now locked car, aiming his path to the barber shop. Inside, he was lucky, and a man sat rustling around, with the barber doing some finishing touches on him. In a few minutes without much of a wait, Rickey could then climb up on the now vacated chair.
The barber went to work on him, snipping here and then plowing through his hair on the other side of his head. They talked a bunch of noisy horns outside the shop and how everyone appeared to be driving in a rush today and swerving just to barely miss each other on the busy thoroughfare. His hair got shorter and neater, and before he knew, Rickey was staggering to the cash register to pay, sorry that his little rest was finished and feeling kind of groggy now. He grabbed his change and sauntered out into the bright, warm sunshine. "Where could he go to be noticed now that he was more handsome than ever before," he thought to himself.
The day was still young for a Monday anyhow, and Rickey smiled thinking how fortunate he was that business was so slow at work today that they sent him home so early. He just had to let people look at his new stylish locks. It hit him. He could turn left on Welton Avenue, and only a half of a mile down was the old See More Amusement Park! He hopped in his car with a little skip. He wished he had parked in the shade as the seat scorched his back some. Rolling down the window, he smelled what he imagined to be tacos, and he pulled into traffic.
Ricky played with his phone in one hand wanting to call a friend, but he decided to be spontaneous and not waste any time. Besides, people were waiting at the park to peruse his new hair style. He sped up.
Ricky's car sputtered some gliding through the mostly empty parking lot at See More. He got a shady spot, killed the engine, and dove out of his vehicle into a section that had several trees, branches criss-crossing imcomprehensively in areas of little foliage. He glanced at a few chestnut trees that was full of life and bright green leaves everywhere.
Shuffling along, Rickey paid for a ticket for unlimited rides and handed to young girl at the entrance. On the move and his fingers placed over his neck, he passed quite a few food stands and then there were shops with souvineers. He didn't want to add to all the junk at home and walked faster through what looked like a congregation of high school kids, where many of them laughed loudly and shouted at each other.
There were many rides in front of him now. One of them had little cages with benches inside, where riders sat and went up in the air and spiraled around in circles for minutes. Ricky looked to the right and fondly looked at a beautiful merry-go-round with tiny tots invading, as it stood still, grandly inviting people to climb on board.
Ahead past the shooting gallery and dime toss, Ricky knew about several different roller coasters that interested him keenly and were situated side-by-side on the far end of the park. The path over there was very wide and lined with planters of colorful flowers on both sides. The smell of the flowers added generously to the potent and various mixture of fragrances in the air. He edged right to avoid blocking a seeing-eye dog and the blind owner, although Rickey stared ardently awhile at the forlorn-faced German Shepherd serving a needy master. Ricky wondered why the dog looked so sad, but headed straight for the line waiting to ride the Hooting Horizon roller coaster. He wiped some sweat from his forehead as he got behind a small group of girls.
The line moved swiftly enough, and Ricky's legs still felt spry from his walk, as he bounced a little, getting closer now to the embarkment zone. Whoosh. Another happy assembly of park-goers flew off on the sleek coaster.
When the next one came, several people before him loaded into the cars and another one whisked away. The attendant drew a chain in front of Ricky. He had just missed fitting into that last coaster but was now the first person in line, and a broad smile appeared on his face.
After a quiet conversation with an older employee, the pretty attendant slowly approached Rickey and patted him on the upper arm. "You are rider number two hundred and ninety thousand for this year," she exclaimed in a loud but low-tone. "Every ten thousandth rider on this roller coaster and their guest gets to ride alone!" She was almost shouting now, and then her voice dropped, "Since you're by yourself, you'll be the only one on the next ride." She asked with wide eyes, "What do you think?" Rickey almost stood on his toes and said, "You bet. I have been dreaming about this kind of thing forever." He inched forward. The coaster came, and everyone piled off, and Rickey climbed in and was the only one on it. A breeze hit him as it took off in a solitary journey.
Rickey glided along quite a distance towards where the track bends sharply upwards like a tall hill and is where the coasters pause for a second to grab onto hooks that pulls it slowly up the "hill" to an apex that precedes the furious descent of Hooting Horizon punctuated by many twists, sharp bends, and some loops. Suddenly, just before the steep rise, a very strong cross wind blew violently sideways past Rickey. He hadn't left the ground yet and could barely keep his eyes open. Actually, he wasn't sure if they were open or not, when the light shining past a nearby tree seemed to disappear, and it mysteriously grew dark around the roller coaster, as it began to pause. Rickey heard clanging, and a glimmer of illumination appeared that helped him to see the track manifest itself eerily and split into a different one that veered off to the right sharply. Rickey rubbed his eyes and gazed at the rise where the coaster always lifts slowly up a steep incline and thereafter intermittenly plunges down and weaves around it's full course. However, he also saw what was on his right just as the coaster wildly swung to the right on this new phantom track. It led to a still darker region inside of a tunnel. Rickey entered the tunnel, and abruptly fell banking to the left and downwards into a large cavern that had some spots of light and shadows, as he rode the coaster still deeper into it all. Rickey wondered if he was really dreaming in bed, and he shook his head hoping he might wake up that way.
The surroundings overwhelmed Rickey, and he moved his head in multiple directions to try to possibly recognize something on the walls or gaping openings in them. Being so distracted with everything, he often forgot to identify whether or not there was still a track ahead of him that the coaster was running on. At times, he had to go back in his mind to recap parts of his day: the haircut, the automobile ride, the parking, the tickets and so on. That way he could resist the notion that he was flying through the air down below in large open spaces of the earth, even though it was almost true. From all the furthest reaches of the cave came a potent glow that provided sufficient light to make it possible to view this incredible underworld.
Completely frazzled now, Rickey strained against his harness in the second car from the front. He tried to get erect as possible and lean forward to poignantly gawk at what was coming at him ahead of the whizzing roller coaster. Clearly, the track did stretch out into the distance. That was what frightened Rickey the most. What lied far ahead? As the coaster continued to steadily descend pivoting right and left though continuing straight for a few minutes through a narrow passageway, the walls were receding to make a continually larger tunnel, and there were large bats flying in circles. They each had a powerful red light emanating from their bodies, and the bigger the space grew, the more bats came flying through.
Another large cavern arrived, and the coaster slowed in a very gradual decline that meandered its way along the craggy floor, sometimes bowing way right close to a bulwark that preceded the internal limits. There were medium-sized holes in the floor and many more of them near it or in the bulwark. Rickey shuddered uncontrollably traveling through this section. Because from about half of the holes, dirt and debris came flying profusely out of them and choked him somewhat. He choked harder after losing his breath from the sight of what he saw poking from the dirt-spewing holes. Occasionally, the discharge halted in certain ones and Rickey saw a humongous arm thrust outward, a short distance, in random order from several of these perforations in the floor! Once in a while, a hole would be very close to the coaster, and Rickey was petrified how it looked as though the next protruding arm could simply reach out, grab him, and strip him out of the car.
It wasn't too early at all, when Rickey found himself completely passing through this awful cave or cavern to enter another tunnel-like chasm. The drop became steeper and slightly curved. The wheels sounded a long loud screech that became muffled at times, and the air was fresh again, almost sweet but only momentarily, then he was thrown firmly against the left side of the car, and the cars went down quickly in tight circles for a minute. Faster now and still revolving the same, it caused somewhat of a whirlwind around Rickey's head, and he also felt like he had gone maybe a mile beneath the earth, and he wondered how deep he could possibly go. The route ahead began to level out and begin to rise uphill a little, and his progress slowed to a crawl.
The coaster came out of the tube just as Rickey began to get quite dizzy, and after a short distance where he had a chance to look all about in the open spaces, the coaster rolled onto a bridge. He leaned over to look down beyond the bridge, and far below he could only see smoke and glimmers of light. Traveling very slowly about two hundred feet, Rickey thought he might get stuck and become motionless up high on this bridge. Without a doubt, the wheels stopped moving.
Nonetheless, Rickey could still feel a strong vibration, and he puzzled briefly of what that was, if he was at a standstill. Looking over the side again, he then realized from tapping sounds he heard that the movement was from coming from the frame of the bridge just out of his sight. His throat tightened hearing what he thought was a deep growling. Could he run now, if it were possible to wriggle out of his harness but where would he run to?!
Like Satan appearing out of the depths, a hairy behemoth slowly arose and began to tower over the rollercoaster. As the monster leaned over towards Rickey, a clanking sound started on both sides of the bridge. Rickey wasn't sure which one to be more afraid of. He quickly decided the hairy creature before him was a true threat. He bolted partially out of his seat, the crossbar still clamping his knees to the seat, although being almost free of the coaster, with only his knees to pull free, gave Rickey a sense of humor he found urgently needed to keep him sane at that moment.
As it began to look to be too late though since the monster had an outstretched gigantic hand poised to grab him, Rickey sighed the relief that his ordeal would now be over, but he did a double-sigh as she realized each end of the bridge was lifting up from the middle. He wiped the sweat from his brow, and whispered to himself in a giggle, "It's a draw bridge." And he felt a cool breeze on his face and in his soul as the coaster began a welcomed descent, although Rickey was sure now that he was truly headed to hell.
But no! After a brief rush downwards, the coaster slowed on a level part of the track and groaned to a standstill again. He was now at the bottom of a very long and straight tunnel that far in the distance and upwards came a bright light. Rickey screamed, "That's the exit!" However, his heart sank as he sank back fully down into his seat with the crossbar back in its original position. He thought that he might as well be on the bottom of the ocean in the Mariana Trench and that coasters just never travel that far up in a single stretch for whatever reason.
Before long, he smiled though thinking to himself all he has to do is get out of his harness and walk out to a bright new day. He almost chuckled. He stopped though and became deadly silent. A door on the side of the tunnel seemed to open out of nowhere directly in front of him on his right.
He died and didn't even bother to try and squirm his way out of his seat this time. Another large montster emerged from the darkness uncovered by the open door. It was only a little bit smaller than the last one but had grease oozing out of its pores along the sides of the scaly body. Rickey just said one last prayer as the monster had now grabbed on to the back of the coaster. He bowed his head just as the coaster began to move forward inching upwards towards the light of day. He still didn't want to look, because he knew there was no mechanical way this would happen. The motion upwards became faster, and he sprang to life and alertness, in an automatic reflex. He had to pry his head around with his arms to gaze upon the devilish creature behind, but he had to know what was going on! He cried with joy! The monster was pushing him up the hill. Thirty minutes later, now he emerged from the darkness and the coaster slowly clanked along a maintenance side-track. He was free!!
-To be continued...
It was late summer, and Rickey strode away from his now locked car, aiming his path to the barber shop. Inside, he was lucky, and a man sat rustling around, with the barber doing some finishing touches on him. In a few minutes without much of a wait, Rickey could then climb up on the now vacated chair.
The barber went to work on him, snipping here and then plowing through his hair on the other side of his head. They talked a bunch of noisy horns outside the shop and how everyone appeared to be driving in a rush today and swerving just to barely miss each other on the busy thoroughfare. His hair got shorter and neater, and before he knew, Rickey was staggering to the cash register to pay, sorry that his little rest was finished and feeling kind of groggy now. He grabbed his change and sauntered out into the bright, warm sunshine. "Where could he go to be noticed now that he was more handsome than ever before," he thought to himself.
The day was still young for a Monday anyhow, and Rickey smiled thinking how fortunate he was that business was so slow at work today that they sent him home so early. He just had to let people look at his new stylish locks. It hit him. He could turn left on Welton Avenue, and only a half of a mile down was the old See More Amusement Park! He hopped in his car with a little skip. He wished he had parked in the shade as the seat scorched his back some. Rolling down the window, he smelled what he imagined to be tacos, and he pulled into traffic.
Ricky played with his phone in one hand wanting to call a friend, but he decided to be spontaneous and not waste any time. Besides, people were waiting at the park to peruse his new hair style. He sped up.
Ricky's car sputtered some gliding through the mostly empty parking lot at See More. He got a shady spot, killed the engine, and dove out of his vehicle into a section that had several trees, branches criss-crossing imcomprehensively in areas of little foliage. He glanced at a few chestnut trees that was full of life and bright green leaves everywhere.
Shuffling along, Rickey paid for a ticket for unlimited rides and handed to young girl at the entrance. On the move and his fingers placed over his neck, he passed quite a few food stands and then there were shops with souvineers. He didn't want to add to all the junk at home and walked faster through what looked like a congregation of high school kids, where many of them laughed loudly and shouted at each other.
There were many rides in front of him now. One of them had little cages with benches inside, where riders sat and went up in the air and spiraled around in circles for minutes. Ricky looked to the right and fondly looked at a beautiful merry-go-round with tiny tots invading, as it stood still, grandly inviting people to climb on board.
Ahead past the shooting gallery and dime toss, Ricky knew about several different roller coasters that interested him keenly and were situated side-by-side on the far end of the park. The path over there was very wide and lined with planters of colorful flowers on both sides. The smell of the flowers added generously to the potent and various mixture of fragrances in the air. He edged right to avoid blocking a seeing-eye dog and the blind owner, although Rickey stared ardently awhile at the forlorn-faced German Shepherd serving a needy master. Ricky wondered why the dog looked so sad, but headed straight for the line waiting to ride the Hooting Horizon roller coaster. He wiped some sweat from his forehead as he got behind a small group of girls.
The line moved swiftly enough, and Ricky's legs still felt spry from his walk, as he bounced a little, getting closer now to the embarkment zone. Whoosh. Another happy assembly of park-goers flew off on the sleek coaster.
When the next one came, several people before him loaded into the cars and another one whisked away. The attendant drew a chain in front of Ricky. He had just missed fitting into that last coaster but was now the first person in line, and a broad smile appeared on his face.
After a quiet conversation with an older employee, the pretty attendant slowly approached Rickey and patted him on the upper arm. "You are rider number two hundred and ninety thousand for this year," she exclaimed in a loud but low-tone. "Every ten thousandth rider on this roller coaster and their guest gets to ride alone!" She was almost shouting now, and then her voice dropped, "Since you're by yourself, you'll be the only one on the next ride." She asked with wide eyes, "What do you think?" Rickey almost stood on his toes and said, "You bet. I have been dreaming about this kind of thing forever." He inched forward. The coaster came, and everyone piled off, and Rickey climbed in and was the only one on it. A breeze hit him as it took off in a solitary journey.
Rickey glided along quite a distance towards where the track bends sharply upwards like a tall hill and is where the coasters pause for a second to grab onto hooks that pulls it slowly up the "hill" to an apex that precedes the furious descent of Hooting Horizon punctuated by many twists, sharp bends, and some loops. Suddenly, just before the steep rise, a very strong cross wind blew violently sideways past Rickey. He hadn't left the ground yet and could barely keep his eyes open. Actually, he wasn't sure if they were open or not, when the light shining past a nearby tree seemed to disappear, and it mysteriously grew dark around the roller coaster, as it began to pause. Rickey heard clanging, and a glimmer of illumination appeared that helped him to see the track manifest itself eerily and split into a different one that veered off to the right sharply. Rickey rubbed his eyes and gazed at the rise where the coaster always lifts slowly up a steep incline and thereafter intermittenly plunges down and weaves around it's full course. However, he also saw what was on his right just as the coaster wildly swung to the right on this new phantom track. It led to a still darker region inside of a tunnel. Rickey entered the tunnel, and abruptly fell banking to the left and downwards into a large cavern that had some spots of light and shadows, as he rode the coaster still deeper into it all. Rickey wondered if he was really dreaming in bed, and he shook his head hoping he might wake up that way.
The surroundings overwhelmed Rickey, and he moved his head in multiple directions to try to possibly recognize something on the walls or gaping openings in them. Being so distracted with everything, he often forgot to identify whether or not there was still a track ahead of him that the coaster was running on. At times, he had to go back in his mind to recap parts of his day: the haircut, the automobile ride, the parking, the tickets and so on. That way he could resist the notion that he was flying through the air down below in large open spaces of the earth, even though it was almost true. From all the furthest reaches of the cave came a potent glow that provided sufficient light to make it possible to view this incredible underworld.
Completely frazzled now, Rickey strained against his harness in the second car from the front. He tried to get erect as possible and lean forward to poignantly gawk at what was coming at him ahead of the whizzing roller coaster. Clearly, the track did stretch out into the distance. That was what frightened Rickey the most. What lied far ahead? As the coaster continued to steadily descend pivoting right and left though continuing straight for a few minutes through a narrow passageway, the walls were receding to make a continually larger tunnel, and there were large bats flying in circles. They each had a powerful red light emanating from their bodies, and the bigger the space grew, the more bats came flying through.
Another large cavern arrived, and the coaster slowed in a very gradual decline that meandered its way along the craggy floor, sometimes bowing way right close to a bulwark that preceded the internal limits. There were medium-sized holes in the floor and many more of them near it or in the bulwark. Rickey shuddered uncontrollably traveling through this section. Because from about half of the holes, dirt and debris came flying profusely out of them and choked him somewhat. He choked harder after losing his breath from the sight of what he saw poking from the dirt-spewing holes. Occasionally, the discharge halted in certain ones and Rickey saw a humongous arm thrust outward, a short distance, in random order from several of these perforations in the floor! Once in a while, a hole would be very close to the coaster, and Rickey was petrified how it looked as though the next protruding arm could simply reach out, grab him, and strip him out of the car.
It wasn't too early at all, when Rickey found himself completely passing through this awful cave or cavern to enter another tunnel-like chasm. The drop became steeper and slightly curved. The wheels sounded a long loud screech that became muffled at times, and the air was fresh again, almost sweet but only momentarily, then he was thrown firmly against the left side of the car, and the cars went down quickly in tight circles for a minute. Faster now and still revolving the same, it caused somewhat of a whirlwind around Rickey's head, and he also felt like he had gone maybe a mile beneath the earth, and he wondered how deep he could possibly go. The route ahead began to level out and begin to rise uphill a little, and his progress slowed to a crawl.
The coaster came out of the tube just as Rickey began to get quite dizzy, and after a short distance where he had a chance to look all about in the open spaces, the coaster rolled onto a bridge. He leaned over to look down beyond the bridge, and far below he could only see smoke and glimmers of light. Traveling very slowly about two hundred feet, Rickey thought he might get stuck and become motionless up high on this bridge. Without a doubt, the wheels stopped moving.
Nonetheless, Rickey could still feel a strong vibration, and he puzzled briefly of what that was, if he was at a standstill. Looking over the side again, he then realized from tapping sounds he heard that the movement was from coming from the frame of the bridge just out of his sight. His throat tightened hearing what he thought was a deep growling. Could he run now, if it were possible to wriggle out of his harness but where would he run to?!
Like Satan appearing out of the depths, a hairy behemoth slowly arose and began to tower over the rollercoaster. As the monster leaned over towards Rickey, a clanking sound started on both sides of the bridge. Rickey wasn't sure which one to be more afraid of. He quickly decided the hairy creature before him was a true threat. He bolted partially out of his seat, the crossbar still clamping his knees to the seat, although being almost free of the coaster, with only his knees to pull free, gave Rickey a sense of humor he found urgently needed to keep him sane at that moment.
As it began to look to be too late though since the monster had an outstretched gigantic hand poised to grab him, Rickey sighed the relief that his ordeal would now be over, but he did a double-sigh as she realized each end of the bridge was lifting up from the middle. He wiped the sweat from his brow, and whispered to himself in a giggle, "It's a draw bridge." And he felt a cool breeze on his face and in his soul as the coaster began a welcomed descent, although Rickey was sure now that he was truly headed to hell.
But no! After a brief rush downwards, the coaster slowed on a level part of the track and groaned to a standstill again. He was now at the bottom of a very long and straight tunnel that far in the distance and upwards came a bright light. Rickey screamed, "That's the exit!" However, his heart sank as he sank back fully down into his seat with the crossbar back in its original position. He thought that he might as well be on the bottom of the ocean in the Mariana Trench and that coasters just never travel that far up in a single stretch for whatever reason.
Before long, he smiled though thinking to himself all he has to do is get out of his harness and walk out to a bright new day. He almost chuckled. He stopped though and became deadly silent. A door on the side of the tunnel seemed to open out of nowhere directly in front of him on his right.
He died and didn't even bother to try and squirm his way out of his seat this time. Another large montster emerged from the darkness uncovered by the open door. It was only a little bit smaller than the last one but had grease oozing out of its pores along the sides of the scaly body. Rickey just said one last prayer as the monster had now grabbed on to the back of the coaster. He bowed his head just as the coaster began to move forward inching upwards towards the light of day. He still didn't want to look, because he knew there was no mechanical way this would happen. The motion upwards became faster, and he sprang to life and alertness, in an automatic reflex. He had to pry his head around with his arms to gaze upon the devilish creature behind, but he had to know what was going on! He cried with joy! The monster was pushing him up the hill. Thirty minutes later, now he emerged from the darkness and the coaster slowly clanked along a maintenance side-track. He was free!!
-To be continued...
