19 May 2018

The magical roundabout - Story 1


Diana was getting increasingly frustrated, and she swore she was about to snap. She had already enough things she had to take care of that day even without her son Tim constantly pestering her and slowing her down in her errands. First the toy shop, then the ice scream, constantly whining and never shutting up. It was so irritating. The babysitter sure played a dirty one on her when she called to say she could not come to take care of Tim, and without enough time to call for a replacement Diana had no choice but to bring him with her.

<<Mom! Mom! I want to ride the roundabout! Take me to the roundabout!>>
Oh great! What now?! Diana was pretty surprised when she saw that roundabout in the corner of the town square. It wasn’t there yesterday, and it was the first time she saw anything like that in that part of the town. Well, even though at first she thought letting Tim ride it would have just slowed her day down even more, she realized that at least for a couple of minutes she would have been free to make her calls without that pest annoying her.
<<All right get on the one you prefer.>>

After having bought a ticket and left Tim on the roundabout, Diana could finally enjoy a moment of calm, and started checking all the messages she could not respond to earlier. She was such a busy woman, and her job had been driving her insane lately, and even though she really loved her son and wished she could have more free time to spend with him, at times she could not help but think that her life would have been easier if he was old enough to not need all that constant attention.

She was looking at her phone when suddenly a noise caught her attention. In front of her she saw the roundabout starting to spin faster and faster, and the people on it started to cry terrified as it reached a frightening speed and everything started to look like a blurry mess. Scared and worried she rushed to the operating cabin, only to find it empty and locked with no chance to access the dials to try to slow it down. She was getting increasingly worried, and tried to get on the roundabout as it kept spinning, but it was just going too fast, showing no sign of slowing down. She had her heart in her throat as she kept hearing the frightened cries coming from the people stuck on that contraption, but all she could do was stand back and keep looking at that dreadful spectacle, praying the her son was all right.

Finally the carousel seemed to start to slow down, and after infinite seconds it stopped to spin, and Diana could go see if Tim was ok. Thankfully he did not seem to be hurt in any way, even though he looked very dazed and confused. <<Oh thank god! Are you ok Tim? Please say something for the love of god!>> The kid looked at his tiny hands, and the confused look on his face turned into one of fear. Diana was getting increasingly worried, and took her child in her arms, got off the carousel, and kept questioning him, trying to calm him down. <<Tim are you all right? Please talk to me!>> A shriek of terror was the only answer she got from the kid. <<What’s happening?! Why am I a little boy?!>> he wept. Diana had no idea of what was going on, and she was getting more and more scared, when suddenly a chirping, cheerful female voice coming from the roundabout got her attention.
<<Hey mom!>>

Diana turned around and saw a pretty, blonde, young woman smiling at her, with a happy look on her face. She had never seen that girl before, and yet there was something strangely and unsettlingly familiar in her smile. For some reason she had the feeling she knew her.
<<Look mom! Look at how big I am! This is so cool!>>
Diana’s heart skipped a beat.
<<…Tim?!>>

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