Featured Story Number #26 – Disaster at the Fair

We are sharing the next story in our series, Featured Short Stories, written by students in the Creative Writing Club.

Every week, the students in the club work on writing short stories, sometimes from their own ideas, and sometimes from story prompts. This assignment was to practice writing a story blending narration, description and dialogue together.

This week’s story was written by Zikora, aged 13. Enjoy!

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Disaster at the Fair

My friends and I were about to join the line for the ride.

“Hold it right there. Wait until the next round.’’ The teenager in the booth rolled her eyes impatiently.

She sat back and crossed her legs, chewing away at the piece of bubble-gum in her mouth. I looked over at my friends from the corner of my eye as the ride whirled to life. I could feel the heavy hum of electricity.

‘’No need to be so rude,’’ I muttered under my breath.

‘’Josephine,’’ Sophia warned.

‘’I didn’t do anything! I was just saying,’’ I exclaimed.

She shook her head with a smile. I could barely hear her over the music and collective chatter of all the hundreds of people gathered at the fair. The sun sat just above the horizon as its rays shone on us. We had been at the fair all afternoon, but even now as the sun began to sink, the fair was still full of life. Children ran around, playing games and eating sweets. Families sat at the benches, eating as they gazed at the beautiful scenery. The sweet, almost sickening, smell of candy was everywhere.

‘’WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, TO THE RIDE OF DOOM!’’ The automatic voice boomed through the surrounding speakers.

The speaker next to us was particularly loud. Matteo flinched as the speakers blasted loud music.

‘’Just about jumped out of your boots there Matteo,’’ Sophia laughed.

He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a loud cracking sound from the machine controlling the ride. Smoke began to rise from every joint as the ride started going faster and faster. People screamed as it spun the seats around, the machine creaking and moving with them. The unbothered teenager at the booth suddenly looked very bothered. She stared with open eyes as the machine picked up speed. Her phone fell with a crash to the floor. The music, now distorted as it was, played even louder, discouraging any form of conversation.

‘’What’s going on?’’ I yelled over the noise.

‘’The ride system is malfunctioning. From the looks of it, I think the wet rust was repeatedly rubbing against each other where the metal fuses.’’ Matteo explained, pointing out the now obvious rusty metal.

A crowd had gathered round the machine now as people realised what was going on. Some whipped out their phones to record, others watched in shock as the contraption threatened to collapse.

‘’Someone, help! My children are on there!’’ A lady clawed her way to the front of the crowd.

She dropped to her knees as she spotted who I guessed to be her children.

‘’Please…’’ she choked on her words as grief choked her.

She didn’t need to speak the rest of that sentence. Me and all the other people there understood what she was trying to say. Many parents in the crowd were also distraught as they watched helplessly.

‘’We have to do something, I can’t- no I won’t- just stand here and watch all these people die! They’ve been rendered completely and utterly powerless.’’ I yelled, whether at the crowd or my friends, I wasn’t sure.

Without waiting for a response, I slammed into the locked door of the booth. The poor ride conductor was still in shock; jaw dropped as the scene played out before her. Sophia joined me to kick down the door standing between us and these people’s lives. The door however, refused to budge, the only marks of resistance the marks on the thick wood.

‘’ This isn’t working! We need to find another way to get in,’’ Matteo said from behind me.

I looked around, looking for the tool that would be the key to my success in getting in. I spotted a large, heavy bin sitting next to the nearest food stall. The idea was reckless and stupid, and exactly what we needed.

‘’Sophia, go get that trash bin next to the hotdog stall’’ Matteo must have come to the same conclusions as I.

She brought it back quickly, handing it over to me. I signalled the conductor inside to move away from the large glass window. She nodded quickly, almost tripping over her feet in her haste to get away.

I raised the bin over my head before bringing it down into the glass. I did this repeatedly until spider web cracks raced outwards to the edge of the glass.

‘’This better be it’’, Matteo whispered, ‘’It’s our last hope of getting in.’’

As I raised the bin over my head for the last time, I sent a prayer up to everyone and anyone. Sophia and Matteo gripped the bin from both sides to add more force. Together, we slammed the bin into the cracked glass. Scream on scream piled on top of each other until my ears felt like they were just about bleeding out. Glass rained everywhere as it caved in, effectively pulling me into the room.

‘’Come on, the ride isn’t getting any slower’’ Matteo said, already up after our painful tumble.

‘’You!’’ Sophia pointed at the shaking conductor.

She trembled violently, hair bouncing as her knees knocked together. She stared silently at my friends as they began to press buttons and flick switches none of us had a clue could do.

‘’Stop cowering and help us!’’ Matteo spat out, hitting buttons even harder.

I turned around and also began pressing buttons. Sparks were beginning to fly as the machine metal groaned under the pressure and speed. All the buttons we clicked only seemed to be making things worse. The ride picked up even more speed, the heavy black smoke polluting the air, tainting the sweet aroma.

‘’Powerless.’’ I realised

‘’What? Help us Jospehine!’’ Sophia frantically hit anything in her sight.

‘’That’s what we are. Completely powerless. All the people on the Ride of Doom were rendered powerless and now so are we.’’

Both my friends and the teen girl advanced on me.

‘’Are you insane-‘’

‘’We can’t give up yet-‘’

‘’Don’t give me that-‘’

I raised my hand, indicating complete silence.

‘’We won’t leave these people to die without doing our absolute best to save them. You’ve already brought us this far Josephine, and you’re doing great. If we don’t finish this off quickly…that rides going to detach from the base, sending both people and machine parts flying.’’ Matteo shook my shoulders, trying to snap me out of it.

I shook my head to clear all those thoughts. Matteo was right. They all were. Unless we’ve done the most we can to help then we can’t give up.

‘’You’re right. Let me see what we’re dealing with here,’’ I gently wedge myself between them.

One button in particular seemed brighter than the others, blinking rapidly as if it knew of our current predicament.

‘’This one,’’ I breathed.

‘’That one.’’ Matteo repeated.

If this wasn’t the button then we were screwed. There was a crowd out there waiting for us, and hoping we could figure things out. Slamming the button down, I pushed it in as far as it would go. The ride released an ear-splitting screech as grinding metal came to a stop.

‘’You did it!’’ Sophia grinned

‘’No, we did it.’’ I corrected.

I brought my friends into a hug as we jumped up and down in celebration. The ride conductor stood awkwardly, waiting for further instructions.

‘’Get in ‘ere,’’ Matteo waved her over.

She smiled, rushing over to join our grouping. We stood like that until the authorities arrived. When they realized we couldn’t explain what happened, they let us leave. As we made our way to the gates, I recognised the lady from the crowd earlier making her way towards us.

‘’You saved my children! Thank you! I know it’s not much, but consider this a token of my gratitude,’’ She held out a large clear bag full to the brim with cotton candy. My jaw dropped as Sophia chocked on her spit.

‘’No need to thank me, it’s been my honour, really. I couldn’t have done it without my friends’ help either,’’ I gestured towards them as they waved awkwardly.

‘’I’m so grateful for your efforts!’’ She thanked them too.

After she turned around and reunited with her kids. We continued our journey back to Matteo’s house.

‘’This was an interesting day, to say the least’’ Matteo remarked.

‘’I’m never going to another fair again,’’ Sophia shook her head.

‘’I second that Sophia. Maybe we should just stick to seeing a movie when we meet up.’’ I agreed.

‘’Where’s the fun in that? We make reckless decisions. And that’s what makes life enjoyable.’’

We interlocked hands as we strolled through the exit of the fair. The sun was now sinking below the river, casting a golden glow on the river. How time flies when you’re having fun. Or saving strangers lives. Until our next adventure.

The End

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If you have a child who loves writing stories and essays, and you want to encourage them to explore their creativity and their imagination, then we would love to have them join our writing club! Just click on the link to register, and we will be in touch. Creative Writing Club – Registration Form.