Previous installment: The Wheel: Part 1, Jack Colby
Where we left off: Jack took his family to the midway as promised, and after some rides and carnival games, the heat got the best of them. They headed into town to eat and cool off with the intention to head back for one final ride together on the Ferris Wheel.
Voiceover narration: Andrew Thomas
Art: Jenelle Thomas https://alovelygiraffe.com
Content Warning: This section of the story contains graphic content that could be upsetting to some. If more details would be beneficial for you and you aren’t concerned with spoilers, click this footnote1
The Wheel
Bellies full and sweat subsiding, the Colbys walked casually back to the Midway. It was still quite hot, and the haze of humidity hung like a fog. However, the sun was a little lower and the shadows that much longer, offering enough respite to make things tolerable. They stopped at the Union Street bridge on the way to look over the side for fish and instead found trash discarded by irresponsible festival-goers. Just past this was a row of porta-johns that stank to high heaven. As they walked by, the kids plugged their noses, and the adults tried not to. A fresh lemonade stand followed, along with trailers selling Polish sausage, foot longs, cotton candy, deep-fried Oreos, and more. On the other side of these indulgences stood the Ferris wheel, looming over the festival, with a line that seemed to be longer than the circumference of the wheel itself.
“Do you guys really want to wait that long?” Jack asked.
Justin said, “No,” and Megan said, “Yes” in unison.
Sheila looked at him with disappointment. “You know this is my favorite.”
“Our tickets are still valid tomorrow, aren’t they? We could come back?” he offered.
“How many days did it take us to get down here, Jack? Let’s just do it.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed.
So they stood in line for what felt like an eternity, inching forward each time more people were ushered onto the ride. The young couple in front of them tried to strike up a conversation, but it was short-lived—Jack wasn’t in the mood to court the attention of strangers. Justin began to complain, and Megan followed not long after. Even Sheila was getting fed up, but they were so close.
When they finally reached the top of the ramp, they were met with a cruel surprise.
“Three?” Jack asked incredulously.
“Yes, three is the limit,” the carny said, robotic.
“But they’re just kids!”
“It’s gotta be three,” the carny reiterated.
“You just do this to break up families, it’s ridiculous,” Jack fumed.
“Honey, don’t.” Sheila touched his arm to calm him, but he shook it off.
“No, this is stupid! They will let three overweight adults into one of these things, but somehow two little kids are too much?”
“Sir, do you want to ride?”
Jack was ready to bail and show these fuckers what he thought about their rules but turned to meet his wife’s gaze instead. Looking down at her and his kids on either side, he realized he had no choice. “Ok, who’s riding with me?”
“Me!” Justin yelled. Megan didn’t comment.
“You rode with me on the Tilt-A-Whirl and the bumper cars. Megan?”
“I want to ride with Mom,” she said and grabbed Sheila’s hand.
Jack sighed in defeat. “Ok, maybe next year,” he said and smiled weakly as Sheila and Megan walked through the tiny gate and boarded the Ferris Wheel. To his disappointment, he noticed that they were climbing into the front gondola on the left and that the couple in front of them had already gotten into the one on the right, effectively separating the two halves of the Colby family for the entirety of the ride—there would always be another gondola between them. Exasperated, he waited for the wheel to notch forward so he and Justin could get on. When they finally did, he did so with even less enthusiasm than when they began waiting in the mile-long line.
The wheel ratcheted forward little by little as it filled up with new riders. Each time they swung higher, Justin pointed out new things that he could see on the ground around them. Jack nodded dismissively at these “discoveries” and craned his neck as far outward as he dared to try and spy Sheila and Megan two seats ahead of them.
Eventually, Jack and Justin reached the top and sat there for what began to feel like an inordinately long amount of time. Jack peered down over the edge to see if he could figure out what was going on. He couldn’t, of course.
“Huh, I wonder what’s up. Maybe it’s another family pissed off that they can’t ride together,” Jack said, his voice dripping with derision.
They sat a moment longer, and then Justin asked, “Dad, why did you get mad?”
“About us not being able to ride all together?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it’s just that the Ferris Wheel is a special ride, especially for your mom, and it would be nice if we could be together. Now we can’t even see them.” Jack gestured at the gondola separating them from Sheila and Megan.
“Oh.”
Surprised by this indifference, Jack asked, “You don’t think that would be more fun?”
“No.”
Jack shook his head and chuckled softly to himself. Just then, the wheel jerked forward, and this time it didn’t stop. As they began to speed forward, a smile grew on Justin’s face. Despite his still simmering frustration, Jack couldn’t help but smile in response. When they reached the top again, Jack noticed that a rather large boat, basically a yacht, was making its way out of the nearby marina. He pointed it out to Justin, who watched with fascination as it passed the end of the break wall and got up to speed, leaving a host of smaller boats bobbing in its enormous wake.
The wheel made another rotation, and Jack pulled Justin in to get a picture together. He waited until they were at the top so the city would be spread out behind them, but when he took it, the sun was too bright, and Justin’s “smile” made it look like he was dealing with serious abdominal cramps.
“Here, let’s slide to the other side so the sun is behind us more,” Jack said and began to move, careful not to jostle the gondola too much.
Justin climbed over at the same time, unaware of his dad’s caution, and the whole thing lurched with a metallic squeak.
“Whoa, careful, bud,” Jack breathed; his heart rate suddenly shooting up.
When they got to the top of the rotation again, Jack had all but forgotten about retaking the picture. His eyes were scanning the bolts and joints, and moving parts around them, looking for any sign that something might be loose or moving in the wrong way. The wheel creaked and groaned and rattled in all the usual ways, and Jack tried to tell himself that he had nothing to be worried about, but, funny enough, his self didn’t really listen.
On the next full rotation, Jack began to feel queasy. The view of the bay and the lowering sun was breathtaking, but something felt wrong. Uncomfortable warmth rippled through him, but this time it wasn’t from the heat or Fred Colby’s humidity—it was a dry, hot feeling coming from his gut and spine, as if some horror was trying to escape his body but was being held there against its will. Worst of all, he had begun to envision terrible scenes of morbid destruction. In one, the wheel simply fell off sideways into the concession booths, mixing blood and ketchup, entrails and sausages. In another, it broke free of its shackles and rolled off down the road with all the unrelenting intent of a steamroller, crushing its passengers and hopping over cars as it went. Jack shifted uncomfortably in his seat, making the bolt on his left, the one that held them to the skeleton of the wheel, squeak and vibrate. This brought a new vision where their gondola simply broke loose and fell to the ground like an over-ripe cherry.
“Dad, are you going to take a picture?”
Jack started and turned to Justin, who was looking up at him with confusion on his face.
“Yeah, I just…hold on. I think I ate something that didn’t agree with me.” Jack trailed off and heard a girl scream somewhere below. He thought of Sheila and Megan, whose gondola was on the way down underneath them. He was pretty sure the scream came from further away, probably the ground, but he leaned over the edge just the same, straining to see his wife and daughter. Suddenly, it was their gondola, not his, that he was worried about. His next vision was of them tumbling out as it broke loose and swung sideways…
The wheel went around again, and Jack began to sweat. Moisture coated his body, and his shirt began to cling to him. His heart raced as he continued to search obsessively for any fleeting glimpse he could steal of Sheila or Megan. Justin knew something was wrong, but his repeated attempts to ask what that might be went unheard. The motion of the Ferris Wheel seemed to slow and become staccato, like an old, cobweb-ridden clock. He was at three on this clock, and he knew something terrible awaited at midnight.
Tick. Now four.
Tock. Now five, and another gondola passed midnight.
Tick. Six.
“Dad—”
“Shhhh…quiet,” Jack warned and craned his neck to try and see Sheila or Megan on the upswing.
Seven.
Eight.
“Dad!”
Jack’s voice quivered, “Shut it!”
Tick. Nine. Three more to go.
Tock.
But the “tock” wasn’t really a tock. It was a gunshot-like report followed by a metallic screech. People screamed, and suddenly he knew. Sheila and Megan were at midnight; their gondola was still mostly obscured by the one full of strangers between them.
He had been following the wrong gondola to the top.
He looked up and suddenly saw the bottom of their seat swing impossibly down and to the left. The screams of his wife and daughter ripped through the air and clawed at his eardrums. Instinctively, he grabbed Justin and pulled him close to cover his face.
“Justin don’t!”
“Dad? What’s wrong?!”
“Don’t look!”
Jack watched as the bottom of the gondola he should not be seeing swung even further to the left, and he began to scream, too. He lurched forward to the opposite edge, all but forgetting about Justin, who covered his eyes and threw himself backward in the seat to offset the sudden weight shift.
Megan came first, which made ludicrously logical sense in his mind. She was not as strong, she couldn’t hold. What Jack wasn’t prepared for was that her head would come first. She had fallen out over the side, and he saw her face, the one thing he had been waiting to see, but not like this.
Never like this.
He leaned over the edge of the gondola, screaming, watching her fall. Justin shrieked behind him and began to sob. “Megan!!!!”
At that moment, her terrified face jolted as the side of her head smashed into a crossbeam. Her body pivoted around like a rag doll and struck several more struts before hitting the pavement far below. He braced himself for an awful, sickening, explosive smack, but whatever sound her body made as it hit the ground, it wasn’t enough to rise above the screams now swirling around the wheel and rippling through the crowd below.
Jack was afforded this one small consolation.
He continued to stare and cry in disbelief until the Ferris Wheel came to a jarring halt, swinging the gondolas like cherries in a windstorm. This renewed Sheila’s screams and snapped him back to reality. He looked up and lost all composure as he saw his wife’s legs kicking and swinging for some impossible purchase. She was now hanging on for dear life and yelling his name as if he could do anything to save her. He leaned forward, almost believing he could, but was pulled backward by the wildest, most formless screams he had ever heard coming from his son behind him. He turned around to see Justin pushing himself against the far wall of the gondola, hands pressed into his eyes, legs flailing, and scream-crying in the way only small boys can. Jack leaned back towards him, suddenly realizing that Justin’s sanity was the one thing he could realistically try and save. He pulled Justin tight, covered his ears, and pressed his small face against his chest, unable to do anything more than sit and watch his wife scream and struggle above the gaping maw that was death’s open door.
Sheila let go.
This time, he closed his eyes and winced with every reverberation that thrummed through the metalwork as her body participated in a grotesque version of Plinko, settling, finally, upon the pavement; no prize.
He cried through closed lids as his son’s body quivered against him.
Moments passed.
Screams ripped the air around him.
When Jack finally had the strength to pull himself away from Justin, he peered over the edge. Through the crossbars and gondolas, he could see a screaming, scattering crowd, a pair of a child’s legs, his wife’s limbs splayed upon the pavement.
He could not see his daughter’s face.
Content Warning: This scene depicts accidental death/harm to children.
Man! The dread! I felt like I was actually on the wheel with Jack--like I *was* Jack.
Oh my god. I knew something was going to happen, obviously. Things happen in stories.
But. Oh my god.