Stories From Summer; Stranger Tales From The Summer of '85

22. Stuck on Top of a Ferris Wheel

22. Stuck on Top of a Ferris Wheel

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Mike was so happy that Hopper had allowed El to go the Fourth of July fair - that had started to be set up (thanks to Mayor Kline, who still seems a bit off to Hopper, no matter how long it has been since he was first elected into the mayor's office).

Mike was able to win El a stuffed teddy bear - it wasn't as brightly coloured like the others hanging up, but El wanted the sweet grey one that 'looked lonely' to her. Mike had some idea that El had used her powers to help him win the game, but her nose wasn't bleeding (however, with time, she had gotten stronger, and her nose didn't bleed for the little things anymore).

She held the teddy bear happy in her arms, resting it underneath her chin, and reached a hand out to intertwine it with Mike's. She shuffled a bit closer to her boyfriend as they kept walking through the fairground and rested her head on Mike's upper arm.

"Are you having a good time, El?" He asks, pulling her closer into his side, as they watched past families and other couples enjoying the fair. She nodded happily at him and nuzzled her nose into the teddy bear in her arms.

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Mike handed over two tickets for the Ferris Wheel, as El looked up at the spinning machine thing, wondering what the view from the top would be like.

Mike smiled down at El, and gently took her hand, "Come on, let's get on," he smiled, giving El's hand a soft tug towards the Ferris Wheel and he rubbed her hand when she went up to the steps behind him - and Mike (being the gentleman he was raised to be), allowed her to sit in the carriage first.

Mike made sure she was comfortable before he climbed in as well, and when the Ferris Wheel worker put the metal bar down, El had a short moment of panic - however, she knew that Mike would never make her feel so uncomfortable and scared.

The Ferris Wheel started to move, and it made El look around as more of Hawkins was shown to her the higher they went.

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As Mike and El reached the top of the Ferris Wheel, it stopped in its place, and El looked around in her seat, as she wanted to completely turn around and see what was behind her, but when Mike wrapped his arm around her, she looked up at him and smiled.

"You can see all of Hawkins from up here, you know El," Mike said, making El smile, as she pointed out the few sights that she knew.

Mike was thankful that she couldn't turn around, because they had their backs facing Hawkins Lab - the prison El was kept in for the first 12 years of her life.

"The middle school is over there," Mike pointed in the direction of his former middle school (as he would be attending Hawkins High, like his older sister did, in September). "There's Starcourt Mall," Mike pointed to the fluorescent colours shining from the newly built building.

El smiled, her eyes shining as she looked at the quaint and small town of Hawkins, Indiana.

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The Ferris Wheel started making its way back around, when it stopped yet again, with Mike and El being 3-quarters of the way around, and Mike looked over the handlebar down to where the worker is stood.

"What's going on, Mike?" El asks the grip on her teddy bear tighter looking at her boyfriend, wondering what was going on.

"I think we're stuck..." Mike admitted, not knowing what to do, and when he looked at the time on his watch, it was getting closer to the time he needed to get El home. "Shit! Hopper is going to kill me!"

El reached into Mike's bag at their feet and pulled out the Supercom, that Hopper had gotten for her after she shut the gate. She showed it to him, and Mike smiled widely.

"You're a genius! You know that, right?" Mike said, pressing a kiss to her cheek, as he tuned the Supercom to the walkie talkie on Hopper's truck.

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Hopper was driving to the fairground, expecting to see his daughter and the Wheeler kid stood outside the grounds waiting for him to pick them up and take them home. But when his radio started crackling to life, he heard Mike's voice come through.

"Chief, this is Mike, do you copy?" Mike said, and Hopper reached over to pick up the radio.

"I copy. What do you want Wheeler?" Hopper said into the radio, waiting for a reply from his daughter's boyfriend.

Hopper was left waiting a couple of seconds before Mike answered, "We're stuck on the Ferris Wheel, we're gonna be later meeting up. Over," Mike said, making Hopper sigh heavily and thought for a second.

"I trust the pair of you enough to come straight to the truck when you get let off the Ferris Wheel, and if I found out that you had strayed and did something else, you won't be breathing anymore. Do you understand me, Wheeler?" Hopper said, pulling up into the car park and when he sees the Ferris Wheel, he can see his daughter and Mike Wheeler in one of the carriages, Mike was holding the Supercom thing - with the antenna pulled out.