The Carousel

They had been together only moments before, but her mom’s face was not one of the many floating around her. She saw huge water slides looming above her and heard the screams of kids practically flying down the red slides, sitting on old rubber mats as the water shot them from the end of the slide like a cannon ball. But she didn’t see her mother. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a blonde woman holding up a towel and was excited, ‘it must be my mom’ she thought until a little boy threw himself into his mothers waiting arms.

Clouds were quickly moving in above and the once magical views from the lazy river turned frightening. A lifeguard in a red bathing suit was yelling for everyone to leave the water because a storm was coming, and as the rain drops started to fall, sticking to the fake plastic palm trees and falling into the murky green water, the little girl climbed to the walkway handing over her yellow floating tube and shivered because she had no towel, only her new purple bathing suit with Ariel on the front.

She wandered through the amusement park but it seemed like she was the only patron. The rides had all closed and in the darkness brought on by the storm, no one was in sight. A flash of lightening revealed a large blue sign with white letters that advertised the opening of a new water slide. A clap of thunder sounded and the small girl ran down another pathway. Here were the games she and her mom had played earlier and the vender carts where they had gotten lunch, however there were no employees inviting her to play games or to taste a candy apple.

The rain was coming down harder and harder as she wandered the park that seemed so big now compared to how small it had seemed when she was holding her mom’s hand. The little girl was franticly pushing and pulling on doors to every building of which only one was open but it was the fun house and she refused to go in there even with her mom. She wasn’t afraid she had told her mom she just didn’t feel like walking. When she finally found another building that was open she ran into the dark of the building and came face to face with a neighing pink horse, her eyes widened in fright until she realized she was in the carousel building, her favorite ride of all.

The little girl could almost hear the music of the carousel in her head and she walked around running her hands over the huge multi colored horses, some with their feet leaping off of the ground and others who lifted one foot to stomp it into the ground, like the little girl had seen in Black Beauty. It sounded like the rain was slowing outside and the little girl knew that meant she would be able to find someone to find her mom soon and then they could go home. She smiled and let herself be taken over by the music in her head. She started to hum and leapt up next to one of the horses and stroked his mane then twirled away jumping and prancing as she waved her arms about. At one point she caught a glimpse of herself dancing in the mirror on one side of the middle of the carousel, and bubbles of laughter erupted from her mouth mixing with the music she was supplying for herself.

Silently, a figure entered the building through a door the girl had left open. They stood in the shadows watching the child prance around the carousel. Watching her hum and laugh along to the beat of a song that sounded familiar. They let the girl dance for a few more minutes and then pulled something out of their backpack and quietly moved into the light.

The girl had heard some one move in the building and froze. She wearily looked around but saw no one. This reminded her of a story her mom had told her once, a ghost story, but she didn’t want to think about that now so she closed her eyes and shook her head to get rid of the frightening memory of the story. She moved behind one of the horses. He was big and pawing the ground. His green mane looked as if it was blowing to the side and his gold pole towered over her touching the ceiling. She felt like he could protect her. His teeth were barred and he looked to be the biggest of all the horses. ‘This must be the head horse… I bet all of the other horses are afraid of him… he looks strong… I’ll be fine” she thought trying to calm her churning stomach as she closed her eyes again.

When she opened them she saw a tall blonde woman standing in front of her holding a big towel out to her. Squealing she ran as fast as she could, right into her mom’s arms. Her mom kissed the top of her head and hugged her close telling her how scared she was.

“I wasn’t scared mommy, I didn’t even cry!” she bragged as she clung to her mother as if she hadn’t seen her in years.