20/06/2024
Low Lights
“Christ on a bike,” I muttered to myself as the alarm on my watch reminded me I was late for the fifth time. I pressed the off button and fumbled with my key in the lock, careful not to snap it. I’d already done that once and the locksmith advised me to get a new one but, like everything else, it went out of my head. Diana and Irene would still be waiting for me by the Waltzers. They know I run on Cassie time and that they’ll never change me, so they put up with it.
I set off towards the fairground, half walking half jogging, the thump of the music and the lights lit up the night. Pulling me towards a fun time with friends.
Somewhere in the background, a lorry reversing got ever louder. The steady beeps, like a metronome, finagled its way into my brain. Interrupting Gloria Gaynor’s rendition of ‘ I will survive’ that was bursting out of the big wheel. I jogged faster, until the beeps sounded as if they were covered in cotton wool, the cacophony of the fairground taking over.
Diana, waving like a mad woman, poked Irene in the shoulder. “There she is! Only half an hour late. That has got to be a record. Well done Cass, it’s better than last week.” I gurned at her and she laughed as she got me in a bear hug. Irene hugged me too and I smiled at Diana’s boyfriend Fred.
“She’s here now. What are we waiting for?” said Fred, pulling at Diana’s arm. “Come on, the Waltzers are slowing”.
We piled into one car that looked like a big sofa, arms and legs akimbo. Irene clutched my hand for grim death, her face white. “Why do you do this to yourself?” I shouted to her as we revved up to warp speed. “I like it, it’s just that my stomach doesn’t” she answered weakly as I held her tight, knowing that we were about to be spun around by the ride operator. All of a sudden, I felt tired to my bones. Work had been manic and I’d been flat out, but it was beginning to tail off, now that the jingle for a new cereal had been signed off. I guess it’s only when I stopped running myself ragged, I realised just how hard I had pushed it. The music seemed to fall away then, and the constant rhythm of the lights in the darkening sky were hypnotizing. Red, yellow, green, red, yellow …. “Oi, wake up you Nutter!” yelled Irene. “We have to get off this ride, unless you want to go again and quite frankly, I don’t think I could handle it.”
I looked around for Diana and found her on the kiddies roundabout, atop a giant ladybird. “Come on Cass. There’s a praying mantis there with your name on it” she squealed. I laughed and shook my head as I watched Irene run round after her trying to take a photo. My friends are all nuts as you’ve probably gathered by now. I moved away from the ride because some little kid was clanging the bell on the fire engine fit to bust, and stood next to Fred, who was shaking his head at the girls. “Look at the two of them” he laughed. “ How old are they?”
“I think they arrested at the toddler stage” I replied through a smile. Irene skipped up to us breathing heavily. “Bloody Hell” she wheezed. “I’m going to have to go back to the gym at this rate. Get her off there Fred, or she’ll be on it all night. I think the fairground guy fancies her. She hasn’t paid a penny and she’s been round four times.”
“He’ll have no luck there” said Fred. “We’ve been together since secondary school and I can’t see that changing anytime soon. Come on Diana, it’s the arcade next!”
“You might want to squander your hard earned money but I’m not an idiot” Irene said sagely, tossing her long blonde ponytail. “And you can quit with the puppy dog eyes Diana Slocombe! I’m not staying in there long. I’ve got my credit card bill coming out soon. Come on Cass, let’s watch her lose all her money.”
The noise was deafening. A brick wall of sound, as Diana, hard at work on the two penny shove machine, tried to win a flimsy plastic keyring, just because it had a picture of a humpbacked whale on it. “I want it Cass. Help me. A two pronged attack is better than one any day” The determination on her face as she let coin after coin drop, each one causing the machine to emit a shrill beep, made me smile. “OK” I said. “Shift over and give me some money.”
When the keyring plopped into the cup a couple of minutes later, she jumped up and down and did a shimmy for Fred who rolled his eyes at her lovingly. “I got it Cass! Another whale for the collection.”
“That’s wonderful” I said, “but you must have spent twenty quid getting it!”
“Did we have fun, or not?” she asked. “Irene’s in the queue for the ghost train. Lets be Devils and push in.”
How could I not love this woman? My best friend. The one who reminds me not to take life too seriously and let go once in a while. “The ghost train it is, but this will have to be the last one. I’m knackered. I need an early night.”
The queue went quickly. Irene and I jumped into the car behind Diana and Fred and buckled in.
“Keep your arms inside the car as we go through the ride ladies and gentlemen, as things may jump out at you. Have a great ride” said the man on the microphone. “HERE WE GO!”
As we went through a curtain that looked like torn bedsheets, Irene grabbed my hand. “Stay with me Cass! I’m frightened!”
“Don’t be daft. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere” I told her, as the car was enveloped in a soft blackness, and the Ghosts and Zombies surrounded us.
Irene was white when we came out the other end, and was in need of a sit down. We found a bench at the edge of the fair. Diana and Fred came soon after and I made my excuses.
“Don’t go Cass. Just ten more minutes. You have to watch me go in there” she said pointing to a gawdy looking tent with a wonky sign that said ‘Mystic Marge’. “Right. Here I go!”
“Don’t be daft,” said Fred. “It’s a load of bunkum.”
“It’ll be fun. Don’t be a spoilsport. I’ll be out soon.”
Ten minutes later Diana emerged from the tent, a huge grin on her face. “I’m going to marry someone tall and dark,” she said, winking at Fred, who fitted that description to a tee. “And we’re going to have lots of babies.” At that announcement Fred went a little pale.
“Steady on!” He laughed. “We’ve only been together ten years”
“Your turn now” said Diana, looking straight at me.
“Ok,” I said wearily, “but after this, I’m calling it a night. I have to get up early tomorrow.”
As I entered the tent, the low pink lights made me even more drowsy. Soft bells tinkled as I moved through the curtain that looked a lot like the bedsheets on the ghost train. Sitting down gratefully on a padded chair, I watched a middle aged woman, a cross between a hippie and a belly dancer, sit down opposite me.
“Cross my palm with a pound” said Mystic Marge. I handed her the last pound in my pocket and she held out her hand again. I hesitated. Did she want more money? “Don’t worry dearie, I’m not going to kill you , Just give me your hand.”
As my palm touched hers, she held it tight and looking deep into my eyes, said “You’re stronger than you think”
As she strengthened her grip, everything went black. The cacophony of the fair fell away, and there was nothing but the constant beep of that damned reversing lorry.
Where was I? Where were my friends? In my confusion, the sound got louder and louder in my ears. I try to remember, to make sense of what was happening. I left the fair, didn’t I? I swear I hugged Diana and Irene tight, telling them I would see them tomorrow at the pub for Karaoke. I’d crossed the road, but then bright lights came towards me, the glare making me squish my eyes shut. I didn’t feel the lorry hit me. The only thing I was conscious of, was the shrill beep of it’s reversing alarm, until I couldn’t hear anything anymore.
Later, I remember the sirens, and the reds and blues of the emergency vehicles keeping the darkness at bay. I could hear talking, muffled, distant, something about a delivery driver having a heart attack whilst reversing down the road, but he was going to be alright. Then, my world turned black once more. The only constant was the blip blip blip of the life support machine. Somewhere in the syrupy gloom, I hear something. “Stay with me Cass. Stay with me.”
…
I stayed.
