We were at the county fair
I was stepping onto the roller coaster
I sat down and realized I was sitting beside Klaus Larkfield
He was trying to set the world record
For riding the coaster for the most consecutive days
He had one more day to go
58 days so far…58 long days
I buckled myself in and turned to Klaus
He turned and looked at me
His eyes were bloodshot
His hair was matted and full of bits of food, paper and dirt
His lips were chapped
His face puffy and sun burnt
He was having trouble focusing
‘One more day..’ he mumbled to me
And then he curled up into his blanket
The blanket smelt of old leaves and wet towels
I think I saw some blood in his ears
The ride started
I was excited
Up the long slope…slowly slowly
Klaus started to whimper a little
We seemed to stop just for a second at the top
It was almost as if we weren’t going to make it
But then we started to drop
Klaus let out a moan like a lion dying
We dropped at a tremendous speed
I raised my hands, exhilarated
Klaus’s head lolled back and forth
His mouth foaming at the edges
We whipped into a sharp right turn
I leaned into Klaus
He felt frail and broken under the blanket
And the smell of stale urine was suddenly very strong
58 days without leaving the seat
Klaus was a dedicated rider
His head snapped about wildly
I looked at him as I grasped the bar in front of me
Blood was pouring from his mouth
I think he must have bitten his tongue
Around the loop d’ loop
His face cracked on the safety bar
I heard his nose break
Around a severe a left turn and then violently up and down
We pushed on
His head fell on my shoulder
I pushed it away
Before we plummeted into an upside down twist
His left arm came out from under the blanket and flailed about wildly
It hit one of the support beams as we whipped into the tunnel
Suddenly back out into the light
I saw that his hand had been cut clean off
I looked back at the riders behind
They were oblivious to the shower of blood that had covered them
They were all screaming with delight
Up again..up…up…up
I looked over at Klaus
He was in a completely lost state
‘One ma ay’ he said trying to speak without his half his tongue
Then we started down again
He looked at his severed arm, trying to focus
He started to cry
‘Mu and mu and’ he yelled
I knew it was over
We had the double drop and twist to go
We hit it a full throttle
Klaus was not going to make it
His head slammed twice into the side of the metal seat
He was a bobble head doll gone crazy
I was just trying to hold on yet I was sickly fascinated with Klaus
We came to a jerky slow down
And the ride finally ended
Klaus was dead
There was no doubt
I covered him with the blanket
And got out when the operator lifted the safety bar
‘How’s the Klausman doing?’ he asked
‘He’s tired’ I said
And I walked away from the roller coaster
And gorged myself on candyfloss
Until I passed out behind the ferris wheel