OK. One down, nine more to go. The first one went quite quickly. Less than two hours. What shall this one be about? Hmmmm. Let's see, now. Alison and I were discussing the horrendous Burgi on horseback incident from Brother's Keeper. Sorry. As someone who rides, it's only obvious when bad editing and special effects occur on horseback scenes. So, we decided that Jim should never ride anything other than a Carousel Horse, in future. :) The usual disclaimers apply. I don't own them, I won't make any money from this. Please don't sue me.

"Come on, Jim. Please?" Giving his best impersonation of a wounded puppy, Blair turned his pleading eyes on his partner.

"Aw, no, Chief. I really don't want to go to the fair. The noise, the lights, the smells. No way. Not this time." Not any time, if I can help it. He thought to himself.

"Aw, come on, Jim. Think of it as a test of the dials. How far can you turn them down and still function. Please?" Seeing his friend's jaw clenching in stubborn refusal, he threw out his ace.

"Simon's taking Daryl."

Jim stiffened, then sagged in surrender. "OK. You win. Why don't you just go with them?"

"What, and put Simon through all that torture alone? Are you nuts?" Beginning to bounce in anticipation. Jim sighed.

"I really appreciate this, Jim." Simon whispered in order to keep the two younger members from hearing. "I really didn't want to come; but with you here, well, thanks, Jim."

Jim gave him a pained smile. He really was not looking forward to this particular outing. The arcade had been bad, but the thousands of people at the fair would be infinitely worse. Not to mention the smells. He was already feeling a little nauseous in anticipation. He gave a slight shudder.

"This is so cool!" Daryl exclaimed. "Thanks Dad. Thank you Mr. Ellison. For taking us." The teen was bouncing in annoying counterpoint to Blair. The two older men didn't react, pacing themselves, perhaps. More likely, practicing patience.

"Yeah, guys. Thanks a lot. This is going to be fun" Blair added.

The two older men exchanged martyred looks and sighs.

"Aw, c'mon, Dad. Please?" Daryl pleaded. "It'll be fun, you'll see." His father wondered when his son had started practicing the patented Sandburg puppy-dog look'. He glanced over and saw Jim smirking.

"Fine. Come on Jim. You have to do it, too."

"No thanks, not my style." Jim replied.

"Come on, Jim. It'll be fun." Blair encouraged.

"Huh uh. I don't trust those giant rubber bands." Jim said "Chicken?" Blair whispered, grinning when his partner glared at him.

"OK, Junior. Let's go."

"ME?!" Blair squeaked.

"Yeah, you. It was your idea. And don't tell me about your fear of heights. It won't wash."

"Oh, man. I guess I blew it." Blair muttered.

Jim looked at the instructions for the ride. Then began to smile. "Sorry, kids. That little line right there lets me out." He pointed to the cautionary statement about people with bad backs should not try this.

Simon grinned. "Thank you for pointing that out. No way, Daryl. You may not have a bad back, but I'm making a parental decision here. Not this one." He grinned in relief.

Daryl couldn't hide his disappointment at not being allowed to try the Bungie Sling Shot. Jim suddenly grinned and pointed. Just down the way was another daredevil attraction. It supposedly simulated a parachute jump. It was a hundred foot tall crane, you were strapped into these sleeve type harnesses, two to four people at a time, and lifted up to about sixty feet above the ground, tethered to the crane. Then you were released to swing violently forward and back while you were slowly lowered back to the ground. Blair turned green.

"Oh, wow. Cool!" Daryl exclaimed. "How about it, Dad?" Simon glared at the smirking Jim.

"All four of us, at once?" He suggested. Noticing how green Blair was getting.

"Uh...." He saw the anxious look on his teenaged friend's face and gave in. "Oh, all right."

Blair thought it was awful, the height, the swinging back and forth, the height. The feeling of falling and not being in control. The height. He was hyperventilating by the time they were once again safely on the ground. Jim put his arm around his friend, reminding him to take slow, deep breaths. It took a few minutes, but he did recover.

"Oh, man. No more. That was definitely enough." Blair was still a little green.

"Hey, at least you didn't toss your cookies." Simon reminded him.

"Or lose control of bodily functions." Jim added, with a gentle grin and a slap on the back.

"Oh, yeah. That is like so encouraging. You know?"

Daryl was contrite. "I'm sorry, man. I..." Blair immediately came out of his funk.

"No, it's OK, Daryl. Honest. Just, no more high things like that, OK? The falling part is what scared me so bad." Reassuring the young man.

"OK. Well, what do you want to do now?" Daryl asked the others.

"Well, why don't we just wander around and see what develops?" Simon asked.

Sauntering down the midway, Blair spoke softly to Jim. "Thanks, man. If you hadn't been right there next to me, I would have lost it. You know that, don't you?"

"Yeah. Next time, take a good look before you agree to something, OK?"

Blair smiled up at his Blessed Protector. "And listen to you?" Smiling.

"Yeah. That, too." He patted the smaller man on the shoulder and lengthened his stride to catch up to the others, Blair nearly having to break into a jog to keep up.

"Oh, come on, Simon. It'll be fun." Blair dared. "I mean, it's not like any of us are wearing shorts, or anything, you know." He was standing beside an elephant, which was waiting to take people for a ride.

"Just as long as it doesn't go nuts, Sandburg." Simon warned.

They enjoyed the elephant ride. The huge beast was slow and gentle, and took a real liking to Blair. It kept reaching out with its trunk and touching his hair, it fact, it almost looked like the animal was petting him.

"Looks like she wants to keep you, Chief." Jim said with a chuckle.

"Well, you know in India..."

"No lectures, Darwin." Jim interrupted him before he could get started.

"Come on, Chief. Give it a try."

"Jim, you know these things are rigged."

"Not if you're accurate enough. Come on, your a good pitcher. Give it a try."

"Yeah, Blair. Please?" Daryl added his plea.

Sighing, Blair handed over his two dollars, picked up the three softballs, and stood for a minute, gently tossing one up a few inches and catching it, with his eyes closed. Then, opening his eyes, and shifting the ball in his hand until he had the seams where he wanted them, he took careful aim and threw the first ball. The milk bottles flew apart. The attendant set them back up, and Blair repeated his routine, again scattering the bottles. And a third time. With a grin, Blair picked out a large hot pink, purple and orange stuffed animal, and handed it to Daryl.

"Here. I'm not into stuffed animals, much."

Daryl laughed with delight. "Hey, can you teach me to pitch?" He asked.

"Well..." He glanced at Simon to judge his reaction to the request. Seeing no sign of jealousy or annoyance, he continued. "We can try. I don't know if I can really help much, but I can watch you and maybe give you a few pointers." He promised.

"Cool. Thanks."

"All you have to do, Jim is completely obliterate the star. If there's any red left, you lose." Blair explained the shooting gallery game. Jim nodded, took careful aim and simply punched the star out by shooting a circle around it, causing it to fall; and Daryl had a Harley-Davidson mirror to go with his giant stuffed animal. Simon managed to duplicate Jim's feat and Daryl had a picture of his favourite rap group, as well.

They stopped to eat. Blair opted for a gyro from a Greek food stand, Jim deciding to join him, while Simon and Daryl opted for an enormous order of curly fries and corn dogs.

"Do either of you have any idea how much grease and cholesterol is in that?" Blair grimaced.

"Yes." Simon replied, glaring. "This is a fair. This is fair food. How can you not eat junk food at a fair?" Daryl giggled.

"This is pretty healthy." Blair pointed out. Jim paused in mid-bite."

"How so?" Chewing and swallowing.

"The meat is a combination of beef and lamb, roasted so the grease drips off. The sauce is made from cucumbers and yogurt, with onions and tomatoes, on whole wheat pita bread."

"Oh." Taking another bite and enjoying it, "That's OK. It tastes good."

"Which is all that matters." Daryl declared, dipping a greasy corn dog in mustard and taking a bite.

Blair shook his head and smiled.

They had gone through the barns and looked at all the animals. They had visited the midway and ridden some rides and played some games. They had gone through the exhibits and commercial buildings. Simon had bought some patterns for his scroll saw, and Jim had bought some new fishing lures and flies. As darkness fell, they wended their way back to the midway.

"How about the Ferris Wheel?" Jim suggested.

"Uh, kind of high, man." Blair noted.

"That's OK, Chief. We'll put you in the middle. You'll be safe." Jim whispered his promise.

They were standing in line for the Ferris Wheel, when Jim suddenly cocked his head the way he did when he heard something beyond normal hearing. Blair saw and placed his hand on Jim's back to anchor him.

"What is it, Jim?"

"There's a funny noise..." He piggy-backed his vision to his hearing and his eyes widened in horror. "Simon, get the kids away from here." He spoke urgently.

Simon started to ask a question, but the look on Jim's face forestalled any questions. He grabbed Daryl and Blair and dragged them away, herding the other people in line away, as well. Jim rushed to the Ferris Wheel's operator and yelled for him to stop the machine. The man ignored him. Nearly in a panic, hearing the subsonic groan of overstressed metal and knowing that he had to get the machine stopped to prevent a tragedy, he got right in the operator's face and screamed at him, pulling his ID and gun. Then he got a good look at the guy running the ride and realized that he was drunk. Grabbing him and throwing him aside, he looked quickly at the controls and pulled the brake lever, stopping the machine. In the sudden silence, everyone heard the groan of the stressed metal of the ride and people started screaming in terror.

By some miracle, Jim had stopped the machine with the weakened section at the bottom of its rotation. He helped the people out of the gondola and told them to move away. He very slowly advanced the lever and got the next group off. Simon reappeared to help, having left Daryl in Blair's care. The drunken operator had gone for help, and a group of Carneys had advanced, first in anger and then in horror as they realized what had almost happened.

It took twenty minutes to get everyone off safely. They, the Carneys, swarmed over the machine, finding a number of bolts sheared, weakening the machine. The operator had been a local hire, and was fired on the spot for drunkenness. The owner of the rides thanked them profusely for their help and quick thinking. The Ferris Wheel was badly damaged and would not be available for the rest of the fair. The fair organizers offered them free passes to all the rest of the rides, for the duration of the fair. With a look of horror, they declined.

"I think that from now on, the only ride I'm going to go on at any fair or carnival in the future is the carousel." Jim muttered in an aside to his companions. His declaration was met with nervous laughs from his three companions.

"OK. So, let's go on the Carousel." Daryl grinned, then ducked the mock blows of the other three.

"A tragedy was averted this evening at the county fair. Two off-duty police officers attending the fair with their families noticed that the Ferris Wheel was damaged and in danger of collapsing. The quick actions taken by Captain Simon Banks and Detective James Ellison of Cascade PD's Major Crime Division, were paramount in the avoidance of the near tragedy. A number of bolts in the support frame had sheared from stress, nearly resulting in the collapse of the ride with more than a hundred passengers on board. The operator of the ride was cited for being drunk while on duty and charged with negligence, as he was also the person responsible for the safety inspection prior to opening...."

The End

A few years ago at the State Fair, a four year old boy was killed falling out of the Ferris Wheel. The operator, a local hire, was drunk or on drugs, I can't remember which. The child's mother was on the ground, the child did not meet the minimum height requirements. Yes, I feel the operator deserved the sentence he was given after the trial. However, I think that the mother was just as much if not more to blame. Every year, there are dozens of deaths at fairs and carnivals due to improperly maintained or operated rides. We no longer ride anything but the carousel at the fair. There have been too many accidents on all the other rides for us to trust traveling equipment. But then again, I don't do roller coasters at any time. Last year, there was a special on TV about the dangers of mobile carnival rides. It scared us pretty bad, especially when we were on the gravitron and my niece mentioned about someone being killed on one when a panel broke free and ejected them. She waited until we were off the ride, having noticed how rough the machinery worked.

I was given my middle name for my great-aunt, who was killed on a roller coaster. It was waaay back in 1918, she was 18 years old. She stood up on the roller coaster, as was popular before they got safety conscious and made the restraints better. The way my family told the story was the bar hit her at about the clavicles and she was thrown from the roller coaster and broke her neck and was killed. Now, as an adult, thinking back on that story, Yeah she broke her neck, but only part of her hit the ground. Every time we went to an amusement park or the fair, I was forcefully reminded of her foolishness by my three older siblings. No wonder I don't do Roller Coasters.

Sorry for the rant, but it just came out this way. R.I.Eaton

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