Barb Zaneson's Miscellany

Round 1.1 - Under the Roller Coaster

I'm not a superstitious guy. Still, I think it's funny that I was singing along to 'Love Song' that rainy evening, because it's a song by Korn about death and broken hearts and being alone. I thought I was alone, picking up soggy garbage in a fenced-in area under the looping roller coaster track at an amusement park. So I was singing pretty loud.

"Hey," yelled a shrill voice behind me.

I turned and looked through the chainlink fence. Floodlights showed a lady in a pink dress, waving a black umbrella, on the sidewalk by the carousel. Her long black hair was swaying, and she fit into her dress like a dancer in a hair metal video.

I wondered what she could possibly want from me, a scruffy, soaked, tattooed guy in a janitor's uniform.

"The park is closed," I yelled, and dropped a wet napkin into my garbage bag.

She shouted, "Security sent me."

Odd. I turned down the plastic-draped radio on my cleaning cart, and walked to the fence. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, really. Have you found a bracelet? My sister lost it today, and security told me to look around and ask you."

I shook my head. The night guard was not supposed to let customers wander around alone. Not even pretty ones. "No, miss. No bracelets." I'd found a baseball cap and some coins, but nothing else.

"Well, can you let me in there? So I can look for it?"

I glanced at her spotless white sandals and her unscratched bare knees, then looked meaningfully at the mud and weeds and bushes under the roller coaster track. "Is this bracelet really valuable?"

"No, it's just some wooden beads on a piece of string."

She had to be crazy. "You came out here in the rain to look for some beads on a piece of string?"

She straightened up and took a deep breath. "My little sister loves that bracelet. Her best friend in kindergarten gave it to her, and she's afraid her friend won't speak to her again if she stops wearing it."

Maybe her whole family was crazy. But she seemed determined, and I didn't want her telling security that I wasn't helpful. I pointed to the gate at the corner of the fence. "You can come in through there. The padlock isn't locked. And don't tell anybody I let you in, 'cause I could get fired for this. Good luck."

"Thanks. I'm Angie, by the way."

"Mike." I went back to my cart and turned the radio up.

Angie let herself through the gate and headed for the area under the platform where the ride started. I kept gathering trash, but I couldn't keep myself from watching her as she strolled around, looking everywhere. She was as graceful as a cat, even in the mud. I didn't focus on my garbage until she disappeared behind the bushes under the loop-de-loop.

A few minutes later she yelled, "Hey! Mike, I need help!"

I dropped the garbage bag and ran. If she had sprained her ankle, I was gonna be fired, and evicted, and homeless, and die on the streets alone.

I burst through the bushes and saw her.

She stood calmly under her umbrella, looking at the tracks overhead. She smiled. "I found it."