Join for free
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 >
eccles
Senior Member
eccles is offline
South West
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,109
eccles is female  eccles has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
06-12-2018, 05:02 PM
1

Roll Up, Roll Over

It’s the noise of the carousel that’s so intoxicating. Don’t you just love the wheezy grinding of the music, the cheesy, age-old melodies that shout out “enjoy! This is as good as it’s going to get! Hang on tight and pretend you’re a kid again!” Well, that’s what it says to me anyway, even though it’s been so long since I was a kid I’ve forgotten it ever happened.

Fairgrounds – that chipped, garishly painted small cosmos full of desperate people flinging their cash around, sucking on poisonously coloured confections, yelling like maniacs and whooping into the night as if this false, manic half acre of muddy ground was heaven itself. Or perhaps not heaven at all. Perhaps the other place.

So many places to hide, here. Flapping tent openings, tiny wooden booths decorated with signs of the zodiac where, for a price, the gullible learn the secrets of the universe (a pound coin in the slot, a mass produced laminated card with some generic nonsense on request). There are the spaces under all the rides too, of course. Plenty of room there, up close and personal with wet grass, slick mud, snaking cables. Oh, and let’s not overlook behind the scenes of the Ghost Train. There are long, dark tunnels there, damp and claustrophobic, overhung with wobbly witch cutouts and dusty spiders that wouldn’t fool a blind man in a bucket. Still, it’s an interesting journey, bowling along in a mini carriage, clutching your partner, screaming unnecessarily loud and rocking the carriage side to side filled with bravado and testosterone. Not that I ever partook, but I have eyes and ears.

Nobody notices me, naturally. I mean, why would they? This is predominantly a place for young folk, teenagers with money to spend and girls to impress. Kids with parents who keep only half an eye on their charges, lured themselves by slot machines and the siren call of the carousel. I’m just a bloke, quite ordinary, not so shabby that the crowds eye me with suspicion or distaste. I’m spotlessly clean, I am. I thought I’d mention that, as I wouldn’t want you to think me a weirdo or anything. Sometimes I stand quite close to some woman or other, inhale her cheap perfume, and people must think we’re together. I like that, the thought of having someone of my own. I can’t stand there for long though, she always moves off or seeks out whoever she came with. I smile casually before she goes, as if our chance meeting was just that. Chance.

Here’s the thing though. I’m lonely. There, I confess it. Don’t think I’ve never had a relationship, as it’s now called. I have a cruder way of putting it, but you probably don’t want to hear that. I spend all my waking hours at the fairground, and when it moves on after a few weeks, so do I. I move onto wherever it turns up next. It’s the lights and the music, you see. And all the secret places it gives up. The hidey holes, the booths, the other world behind the façade of curtains and jolly cardboard figures, pirates, clowns, ghosts. It’s like a world within a world; there’s the night outside, with the real universe (no pound coin needed here, ha ha) and the jostling, over-the-top hysteria of the punters competing with the coarse cries of the stall holders and the mad, blaring cacophony of dozens of snatches of endlessly upbeat tunes.

Then there’s the much more exciting world, the secret space behind the false lake where the wooden ducks slide past waiting to be shot, the narrow deep alley at the back of the coconut shy, just behind the terrifying scarecrow dummies with chips knocked out of their imbecilic heads. The darkness, the feeling of invisibility was intoxicating back there.

She was about 15, couldn’t have been any older despite the make up slapped on inexpertly and the totally inappropriate high heels. High heels! At a fairground! What was she thinking? She tottered clumsily towards the waltzers, a can of some lager or other in one hand, a tiny glittery bag in the other, grinning at nobody in particular. Her eyes were wide as a baby being shown a balloon for the first time, her ankles thin and white as sapling shoots. I watched her for quite a while, dry mouthed and aching. She was on her own, not pretty enough to attract the feral advances of the stall holders and too unsteady on her feet to perform the flirting dance – in to tease and taunt, back off to show indifference, closer in, move away. I stood at the corner of one of the tents, half hidden by a washing line of grubby cloths and bided my time as she weaved her way towards me, pausing to slurp from her can and examine the heel of her shoe which had caught in something or other.

Really, it was no challenge at all. Piece of cake, if I’m honest. I can be surprisingly charming if pushed, and the uneven light and the late hour hides my face effectively enough. She seemed rather flattered but unsurprised when I offered to help her to somewhere quiet, to fix her shoe. She was wearing some sweet scent that reminded me for a minute of my mum, God rest her soul. Jasmine, was it? Perhaps violet? I ended up with it on my sleeve anyway.

I took her to one of my favourite places. I can’t tell you about it, but it’s the most secret place of all in the fairground. She’s there still, what’s left of her. I cherish the scent on my arm.
Robert Junior's Avatar
Robert Junior
Chatterbox
Robert Junior is offline
UK
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 5,965
Robert Junior is male  Robert Junior has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
14-12-2018, 10:24 PM
2

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

Eccles,
congratulations on this latest prose, you seem to be at a peak in your work.
I enjoyed reading it.
spitfire
Chatterbox
spitfire is offline
Warwickshire
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 29,878
spitfire is male  spitfire has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
14-12-2018, 11:09 PM
3

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

Robert Junior's Avatar
Robert Junior
Chatterbox
Robert Junior is offline
UK
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 5,965
Robert Junior is male  Robert Junior has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
15-12-2018, 10:22 PM
4

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

Originally Posted by spitfire ->
Spitfire, are you inferring or maybe implying that plagiarism is involved?
eccles
Senior Member
eccles is offline
South West
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,109
eccles is female  eccles has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
17-12-2018, 08:14 AM
5

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

Never heard of this song in my life, and I have no need of other people to inspire my stories. I'm officially offended.
Robert Junior's Avatar
Robert Junior
Chatterbox
Robert Junior is offline
UK
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 5,965
Robert Junior is male  Robert Junior has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
17-12-2018, 11:27 AM
6

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

So am I Eccles, I don't normally comment on other posters creative work, but I thought your piece was exceptional. It was Spitfire who muscled in, for reasons which escape me.
spitfire
Chatterbox
spitfire is offline
Warwickshire
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 29,878
spitfire is male  spitfire has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
17-12-2018, 12:01 PM
7

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

Originally Posted by Robert Junior ->
So am I Eccles, I don't normally comment on other posters creative work, but I thought your piece was exceptional. It was Spitfire who muscled in, for reasons which escape me.

It is my mission to breakdown the barriers of genres, and illustrate the poetry within.

And girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids
Oh girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids
She took off a silver locket she said remember me by this
She put her hand in my pocket I got a keepsake and a kiss
And in the roar of dust and diesel I stood and watched her walk away
I could have caught up with her easy enough but something must have made me stay
And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
And I'm just high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl
On the tunnel of love

Comprendre?
Robert Junior's Avatar
Robert Junior
Chatterbox
Robert Junior is offline
UK
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 5,965
Robert Junior is male  Robert Junior has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
17-12-2018, 01:48 PM
8

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

I regret commenting on this thread.
gumbud
Chatterbox
gumbud is offline
australia
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 12,372
gumbud is male  gumbud has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
17-12-2018, 02:00 PM
9

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

I see no clauses or sub-clauses or doctrines or whatever that stipulate who can post and who cannot - is this a 'private' thread perhaps that requires membership entries or passports.

Eccles I too enjoyed your tale it reminded me of many many happy hrs as a teenager at local rose fetes with their attending 'fairgrounds'

but I also enjoyed spitties comments via youtube for which he is well re-known and I thought the choice most opportune - well done to all - even Robert - sigh!
spitfire
Chatterbox
spitfire is offline
Warwickshire
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 29,878
spitfire is male  spitfire has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
17-12-2018, 10:17 PM
10

Re: Roll Up, Roll Over

Gummy, thank you for your endorsement, I feel as if I have been unnecessarily defiled.
 
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 >

Thread Tools


© Copyright 2009, Over50sForum   Contact Us | Over 50s Forum! | Archive | Privacy Statement | Terms of Use | Top

Powered by vBulletin Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.