11/12/14

Joey always liked fun fairs. He didn't remember much of his childhood, especially not many nice things, but he remembered going to a funfair once, together with his dad. He could still smell the sweet roasted almond and cotton candy in the air. The lights of the roller coasters indicating adventure excited him and the music, the shouting and laughing voices coming from everywhere made him feel alive. Other than that he felt safe that day, because his father used to hold his hand so he won't get lost in the crowd. He even patted Joey's head when he succeeded in one of those games where you have to knock down pyramids of cans. That was probably the only time Joey felt as if his father was proud of him. It wasn't long after their visit of the funfair that Joey's dad lost his job and turned his attention more to the alcohol than to his son. Joey never blamed him for that, he understood his anger and knew what he's been through before. His dad was not a weak man. But sometimes even the strongest people fall apart. It's like a crack in the windscreen of the car, the screen is not completely intact any more, but you can still drive around with it. But someday there comes one little chuckhole in the road and the entire glass breaks in too many pieces to fix it again. Nobody could fix Joey's dad. Joey tried for it years before he ran away from home. You have to stop trying putting things back together when they start to tear you apart. Now this funfair is Joey's new home. It's located a few miles west from his home town. Apparently, the last time it opened its doors for people was before the war and as time passed by, everyone started to forget about that place. Even though many of the buildings and attractions are crooked Joey feels safe here. It reminds him of the few happy memories of his childhood. Joey adapted to this new life isolated from the city. Everything was fine, until now. He was sitting in one of the seats of the Ferris wheel. From up here he has a view over the whole park. In front of the funfair cars are parked and there a people discussing and looking around.
Joey silently climbed back to the ground and started to collect wood for a fire after the sunset. He was scared to death when suddenly he heard a voice behind him: "What are you doing here?" He turned around and saw a girl staring at him. Her big green eyes looked curious and insecure at the same time. "I live here. The question is what are you doing here." Joey responded. "You do what? I am here with my dad; he is the mayor of this town. Some people want to knock this place down and they are now here to plan how they will do it. You do not really live here, do you?" It took Joey a few seconds to react to the words he just heard. First he wanted to scream at the girl but he knew it wasn't her fault. Did she know what she was saying? Joey had no idea what this would mean for him. He had nowhere else to go. "When do they want to wreck the funfair?" he asked, but a voice interrupted him. "Nora, where are you? Common, we're leaving!" The girl, Nora turned her head towards the funfair entrance. "I gotta go now, but I can come back on my own tomorrow. Meet me at the Ferris wheel around noon if you want. Bye." And as surprisedly as she came, she disappeared again.
Joey was hanging around the Ferris wheel all morning. He wondered if it was right to let a stranger into his life. How could he even know if Nora didn't already tell her dad about him?
The sun was at its highest point and Joey was lying on a bench in front of the Ferris wheel when Nora arrived. She wore a green summer dress that matched her eye color and her messy brown hair was falling down her shoulders. She was walking towards the bench and her robust boots looked kind of inappropriate for her skinny legs. "Hi, it’s nice to see you again. So here is the deal. You tell me why the hell you are living on a non working funfair and then I’m going to tell you everything I know about the demolition.” Joey didn’t answer for a moment, maybe he was not used to conversations with anyone other than himself anymore. He sat up so Nora could sit down next to him. “All right, deal.” And Joey told the strange girl everything. He told her about his dad who lost his job and how he used to shout at Joey when he drank too much, because he blamed him for his mom’s death during child-birth. Joey explained to Nora the night he got beaten up from his drunken dad, so bad that he couldn’t go to school and how he decided that day to run away and never come back to school or his home because neither of them would care. The whole time he was talking Nora never took her eyes off of him but she didn’t say a word. Later on she told him about the discussions at the city council about what to do with the remains of the funfair. Next week the people are going to come back to plan the details for the demolition. “I want to help you,” Nora said, “I know I can’t convince you to come back into the city with me but I don’t want you to lose your home again.” Joey was grateful for her offer, but he was doubtful though: “What do you think we can do to prevent them from tearing this place down?” – “We just have to keep them from coming back.” – “And how would you do that?” Joey asked. “Scare them away!” said Nora with sparkling eyes.
The next days they spent working on their plan and preparing everything it will need to scare the people from the city council just enough to leave the funfair in piece for the rest of their career.
The main scene should be the funfair’s ghost house which is full of scary puppies even after all those years. Joey found some fake skulls which he placed outside of the ghost house and Nora painted the walls with red wall-paint that looked like dried blood. Preparing the location was so much fun that Joey almost forgot about the seriousness of all of this. He didn’t notice how much he missed having a friend to joke around with by his side.
The day the people from the city council came was rainy and fog was hanging over the funfair the whole day, which was in Joey’s and Nora’s favor.
When they entered the park, Joey threw some boards of wood on the ground inside of the ghost house to get their attention. The men outside turned their heads towards the ghost house. One of them spotted the skulls and suggested that he would rather wait outside. The others entered the ghost house but soon found there way out again, since Nora did a good job in there.
The both of them were hiding under the Ferris wheel when they saw the nervous men coming out of the ghost house. “Are you ready?” Nora asked and Joey nod with his head. “Okay. One, two, three!” With all of their strength they pulled on the huge wheel and made it move. A loud squeaking sounded all over the funfair. “This place is fucking cursed!” called one of the men. “Let’s get out of here!”
After the men left, Nora and Joey burst into laughter. “That was a great horror show, did you see their faces?” Joey said between laughing. “Amazing, I might have to consider going into film production some day!” Nora answered.
The next day, Joey woke up to someone shaking him. When he opened his eyes Nora was standing in front of him and grinned down to his face. “What time is it?” Joey mumbled. “It’s time for good news. I listened to a dialog between my dad and one of his colleagues; they will put the area around here under nature protection. No one is allowed to tear your funfair down.” Joey looked up into Nora’s proud facial expression. Those were really good news. The funfair was his haven for some time now. It was the only place he felt safe. But as he looked up he knew that it was no longer the only one. He felt safe when he had those big green eyes looking at him and in that moment Joey realized that an old funfair is not a real home. Because there is nothing alive in it and maybe he liked it because that was what he felt like from the inside as well. But not anymore. The Ferris wheel in his chest was rotating, and he knew that just like the day before Nora would help him keeping it in movement.