Adrienne turned to me, pointing at a sign close to the front of the line for the ferris wheel. “No
single passengers,” she read. “Ha, I guess that means only Rufus can go.”
“Well darn,” said Rufus, the second of the two friends accompanying me. “Guess you’ll just have to wallow in your singleness together.”
I swatted at Rufus’ shoulder. “Too bad George isn’t here. You’re stuck with us.” Adrienne laughed and took a step forward in the line.
I looked up at the ferris wheel in excitement. I loved ferris wheels, and the Cedar Point ferris wheel was one of the biggest I had ever had the opportunity to ride. It was a must-do attraction on my list of things to do on the eighth-grade field trip.
“Are you excited to ride the ferris wheel? I bet the view is amazing up there,” I said to no one in particular.
“Yeah, I freaking love ferris wheels,” said Adrienne. “I wanna take pictures once we’re at the top.”
“Well I’ve never been on a ferris wheel,” said Rufus. “So I guess I’m kind of nervous. I don’t really like heights.”
“Really?” I turned to Rufus in surprise. “You lived in New York, aren't they like the ferris wheel capital or something?”
“I don’t really know,” said Rufus. “I didn’t live in the city. They never had them near the lake I guess.”
“Huh,” Adrienne played with a map of the park. “I wouldn’t have guessed you were afraid of heights. You seemed fine on all the roller coasters and some of those were pretty high up.”
“Yeah, but roller coasters are fast. I’m focused on the roller coaster not the heights. I don’t think ferris wheels move that fast” replied Rufus. I refrained from telling him about the swaying of the cabins. That would probably freak him out.
“You’ll do fine,” said Adrienne reassuringly. “I’m sure you’ll find it fun once we’re up there.
As we reached the front of the line, Rufus craned his neck to look up at the wheel. “That is really tall.”
“It looks less tall once you’re on it,” I said, walking up to our cabin. We sat on the benches, Adrienne and I sitting on one side and Rufus on the other. The ride operator gave the brief safety instructions, yelling at Adrienne for having her phone out, then the cabin started moving.
“Oh God,” said Rufus, clutching the edge of the bench. “Should it be moving this much?”
“Yeah,” said Adrienne, taking her phone out as soon as we were above the ride operator. It’s normal, you get used to it.”
“MMHH,” Rufus put his head down, refusing to look outside the cabin. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Not getting used to it.”
“Hey man, you’re going to be fine. It’ll be better once we stop to let other passengers on,” I said.
“Hopefully we’ll stop at the top,” said Adrienne. “That’s the best view. You gotta at least take a peak of the view.”
“Hhmm, okay, okay,” said Rufus, trying to calm himself down. “This was a mistake.”
The wheel stopped, and Adrienne and I started taking pictures. “Do you want to take a selfie? Or?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I think I’m good,” said Rufus. He rubbed at his eyes, not daring to look outside.
“We’re not at the very top if that helps,” said Adrienne, turning her attention to Rufus.
Rufus took his head out of his hands to look above him. The cabin above us was about four meters away, and almost directly above us. “That. Does not look safe.”
“Don’t worry it’s fine,” said Adrienne, placing a hand on Rufus' shoulder.
“What if they fall on us. What if we fall!”
“Hey, it’s okay, we’ll be fine!” I said.
Rufus glanced out the cabin briefly. “Nope, nope, nope.”
“Well I guess we’re not taking the Sky Tram,” said Adrienne. I felt bad for Rufus. I couldn’t really do anything to help him until after we got off the ferris wheel. Sometimes there’s a price for stepping outside your comfort zone I guess.
The ferris wheel started again, and we started to dip towards the bottom of the wheel. “Oh thank God,” said Rufus, reaching to undo his seatbelt.
“Wait Rufus─,” We were at the bottom of the wheel.
“Why isn’t it stopping?” We were starting to rise back up.
“It goes around multiple times,” said Adrienne.
“OH GOD WHY?”
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