An American Intervention: Part I

Chapter Three

I don't think I have ever had as much fun at a carnival as I did that one. The games we played were ones I hadn't seen since I was a child. Flour-filled sacks painted like clowns that you had to knock down with a baseball; the ring toss, a practically impossible game where you thrown your rings at the wide-necked bottles and still pray for a win. And even though I had not won a thing and the Doctor was able to win every time (except on the ring-toss, but I think he was just being nice) I think it was still the most fun I've had in a very long time.

The Doctor bought me cotton candy after we finished off the caramel corn, and stuffed his oversized stuffed panda bear under his arm.

"How do you know about this place?" I asked, my fingers already sticky with the cloudy pink sweets.

He lifted a shoulder and nodded to an older man who passed by. "I just so happened to have saved Whitechapel from a very irritable Ararook." We turned towards the Ferris wheel and there, in the middle of the boardwalk, was a statue of the Doctor holding his sonic screwdriver in the air while his foot rested on the belly of a scaly, gilled creature.

I laughed. "That seems a bit over the top." Not that the Doctor was anything short of a hero, but the statue's comedic grin and heroic stance looked a little out of place. Plus, his chin looked a bit uneven.

"It's a good thing you haven't seen they one they have in town." His laugh made me look to him, and he smiled kindly, his green eyes twinkling. Then he offered his arm to me, and I looped the hand not holding the cotton candy through it and he led me to the Ferris wheel. I threw away the candy before we got to the line, and in a moment we were seated in a slightly uncomfortable, unstable metal oval. The bright bulbs around us began to twinkle, and the Ferris wheel began to climb up and up as loud circus music blared through the speakers. As we rocked a bit, I quickly grabbed the handle that held us in. My knuckles went white and I felt my pulse quicken as the boardwalk below us drifted farther away. I swallowed hard and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Grace?"

"There's something I forgot to tell you Doctor," I said, keeping my eyes closed and trying to steady my pulse. "I'm awfully afraid of heights and we seem to be very, very high."

"How would you know? You've got your eyes closed."

I swallowed hard, steadying my breathing. "I can feel it."

"Nonsense," the Doctor scoffed, and I felt the carriage seat rock as he shifted his position. Suddenly we came to a stop, and a gust of salty wind flicked my hair over my face.

"Grace," I felt his breath on my ear. "Grace, you really ought to look at this. It's absolutely beautiful."

I shook my head and gripped the handle harder. The Doctor's hands settled over mine, enveloping them in warmth.

"Listen, now, I've got you. You won't fall out of this carriage if I have anything to say about it. Understand?"

Slowly, I nodded, but kept my eyes closed. He pried my hands from the handle bar and held them in his.

"Now, look." He whispered in my ear, and, one at a time, I opened my eyes.

The sky behind us was a deep blue, so blue it was almost black, and half-way across the sky, stars blinked to life. Before us, the rest of the carnival stretched to the end of the boardwalk, strung with lights and laughter and dozens of tiny people smiling and enjoying themselves. Music mixed with the shouts of joy drifted up to us. And it was all basked in the sherbet light of the setting sun, which was now only a yellow sliver on the horizon surrounded by swirls of red clouds and the inky stretch of dark blue trying to claim the rest of the sky. I could see the town of Whitechapel, just over the bay, where children were turning out their lights and small white-washed houses glowed in the last rays of the sun. I was breathless for a moment, and then I laughed.