A Thrill Taken Too Far

 

Points of View

1- The Little Boy who Dies

2- Little boy’s mother

3- Girl witnessing it from another ride

4- Man operating the roller coaster

5- Man watching it on the news

6- Little girl sitting next to the boy on the coaster

7- Maintenance worker sweeping the floor who witnessed the death

1. As I’m going up the hill
Experiencing such a thrill
It all comes to a stop
My heart then drops
My feelings start to melt
I never should have unlatched my seatbelt
As I look down from up in the air
Alls I can really do is wonder why I’m up here and not down there

2. Dear diary,
why out of all people does this have to happen to me and my family. I brought my son to the park to have fun and for us two to bond together because I’m always working and we never have alone time together. I figured we would have a blast. I was just sitting there, watching him roll up the coaster smiling and looking down at me. The only reason I didn’t go on with him was because he said he wanted to face his fears alone and make me think he was a big boy, so I let him ride by himself. As I looked up at him, I knew he was going to have a blast and want to go on over and over again, just because I knew my son always took risks and never backed down on anything. The risk he took on this ride was a little extreme. As I took my eyes off the ride for three seconds to look at my cell phone, alls I see is paramedics, and the ride is stopped. I look over and start to panic, and all of the sudden, I see my son, his face all bloody, and his arm cut off, I run over, and start crying as I look over and see his helpless little body laying on the ground with no oxygen left for him to live. This was the worst day of my life, and ill never forget anything that happened that whole entire day, it’s a nightmare to think of it, but it never leaves my brain. I think of my son every day and miss his puppy eyes and short brown hair, I love him so much and he will always be in the back of my mind.
-Linda

3.
(Texting right after the event happened)
-I’m coming home right now, I feel like passing out
-Why? It’s not even that hot out to be passing out…
-You’ll never believe what I just saw, it was horrible
-what? What happened? Tell me!
-A little boy, well, omg, I need to come home, I can’t drive, you need to come get me
-Tell me what happened!
-okay, I was on the Ferris wheel; I was all the way at the top…
-okay? Sounds fun to me
-No. there’s more; I was looking around, and all of the sudden…. I looked over at the new roller coaster they just put up this year, because I was planning on going to that ride next, and all of the sudden, I see a little boy fall off. It all happened in the blink of an eye, I never saw it coming.
-OMG, and what happened to him!?
-he died! His arm got cut off on the way down, alls I saw was blood on the floor and him laying face down and lots of people surrounding him so I couldn’t really see what happened then.
-was it a far fall? Like are you positive he’s dead?
-YES! It was from the peek of the hill, and he has to be dead, his blood was pouring out = [ I feel like throwing up, please come get me, I need to stop talking about this, its getting my weezy
-okay I'm leaving now. Ill be there in 10 minutes.
-okay, I’m really scarred for life, I can’t do this
-Just hang in there, ill be there soon
-Okay

4.
Dude, you’ll never believe what I saw yesterday. You’re going to s**t your pants….so you know how I work at the park as a ride operator. Well they switched me to the new roller coaster to buckle seats and make sure everyone is latched in correctly. So I started and did like five different take offs, so I started on my next one, making sure everyone was buckled in and safe in their seats, and everyone was, I'm positive everyone was because I always double check the people every time. So I told the other operator they were clear, and that they could start the ride, and so the car went off. I always watch the car as it goes up the first hill because there’s nothing better to do, so I was watching it and all of the sudden as it reached the peak of the hill, I see a little boy standing on his seat, which means he wasn’t belted in, which meant he unbuckled himself, I knew this was bad, I yelled across to the ride starters and it was too late, I looked over and saw the ride stopped, but I didn’t see the little kid in his seat, instead, I saw him laying on the ground with the paramedics around him, I didn’t know if he was dead or alive till the end of the day when my manager and I were talking about it…. he died =[. I felt so horrible for the little boy; he was so young and innocent. But here’s the best part, they tried blaming it on me for not checking his seatbelt, so my manager and I checked the park cameras to see if we could tell weather or not he unbuckled it himself, and what did I tell them, we saw him do it right as the car left for take off. But dude seriously, it was one of the worst experiences of my life, the ride is closed down now for autopsy, but we all know what happened, I’m just glad it wasn’t my fault… I’m sure everyone knows about it, but just keep it on the down low about me and buckling the seats, cuz I don’t want anyone thinking it was my fault, even though it wasn’t, ill see you next period my dude.

-George

5. It was any other typical day for me. I washed my car because it was gross looking, I took the dogs for a walk, and I made dinner for myself since I didn’t feel like going out. So while I was sitting in my living room eating dinner, I turned the TV on to see what was going on in today’s world on the news. As I turned on the TV and flicked to the news channel, I saw a roller coaster at an amusement park, and it was a live view of it.... I figured it was a new ride and they were just showing how good of a ride everyone thought it was. So since there was nothing on TV, I kept watching, then all of the sudden a news caster man popped up on the screen and started talking about the ride. But then all of the sudden he started talking about a little boy who was on the ride, and they showed his school picture, a cute little boy, young, I thought maybe they interviewed him about the ride and what he thought of it, boy was I wrong. Just as I kept watching, the man was talking about the boy dieing on this ride. My jaw dropped. I listened more and more, the man explained it to be a very unbearable sight. He explained the little boy falling off of the coaster at the peek of the hill; he then said that the autopsy that just got done proving that the little boy unbuckled his seatbelt right as he fell, I guess to really get the feeling of the wind.... who knows. As I kept watching they then said his arm fell off on the way down, and he was then pronounced dead on the scene, and that this coaster will be shut down and taken down for good. I felt so horrible for this little innocent boy. I thought about it all week. I wondered why he would unbuckle his seatbelt... I guess its something kids do to get a thrill. But one thing I know, this one little tragedy is something that will be in my mind all the time. I will never go on a roller coaster again.

 

 

 

6.

(Little girl goes to an interrogation room to be asked a few questions)

 

Cop

Girl

Hello Shannon, were just sitting you in here so I can ask you a few questions about the little boy who was sitting on you by the roller coaster

(little hesitant) okay I’m a little nervous, my mommy told me that I was coming here, I thought I was going to get put in jail or something.

Oh no no no! We just want to ask you a few questions on what you saw happening.

Ooh ok.

Yes, so this roller coaster you were on, the man who buckled your seats, he double checked that the belts were fastened correct?

Yes, because I remember he tightened my belt because it was a bit loose, and he also did the same thing to the boy sitting next to me.

Okay, so while you were going up the hill about to start the ride down, did the boy say anything to you?

Well, he did say that he hopes he has fun on the ride, and I saw him looking around, kind of suspicious.

Oh yea? What do you mean by suspicious?

Well I don’t know, kind of like just looking up and down and all around, I thought it was to maybe just get a view from everywhere, because I did the same thing.

Okay, so did you see this boy unbuckle his belt?

Actually, I didn’t, I looked around and then closed my eyes because I always do that before I go down the big drop, then all the sudden right as the ride was about to drop, it stopped out of nowhere.

And then what did you do?

Well then I opened my eyes, and looked around and saw the little boy wasn’t there, and I heard everyone screaming, so I kind of get scared because I didn’t know what happened.

So how did you find out what happened then?

Well they let the ride play through, then I got off and met my mom, and then from there I heard everything that happened, I was so surprised because I never thought it would happen.

So you’re positive you didn’t see him unbuckle his belt? And he didn’t say anything to you about doing it or anything?

No not at all, I think he just wanted a little thrill, but I guess it didn’t go as he wanted it too.

Okay, that’s all Shannon, thank you very much for giving us your time; your mom is waiting outside.

Okay you’re welcome. (Shannon walked out along with the officer)

 

 

 

7. (Man thinking to himself)

 

Wow, I can’t believe that this just happened. Did he just fall off this ride, or am I just dreaming? I must be dreaming. Oh my god, I’m not dreaming, look at the blood, and everyone screaming. Wow, I really cannot believe this. Out of all the years I've worked here, this is the first time I ever ever saw this happen. I wonder how he fell? Did he get pushed off? Did he jump? Wow, what happened to him? And look at him just laying there, a poor little boy whose life just got taken from him out of nowhere. I wanna walk over there and see, no, ill just get in the way. Wow, I wonder what’s going to happen now to this park. Will they close it down? Maybe the boy’s family will sue. Man oh man, poor little boy. He just fell like a little rag doll down the coater, and his arm, oh wow, his arm, just getting cut off out of no where. This is so crazy, what a crazy day. I hope I wake up from this dream. This was really a horrible sight. Poor little boy.

Reviews

[Inda Lauryn]

This was a fantastic story. I love the outline in the beginning and the way it unfolds from different points of view is great. I usually point out grammatical errors, but for some reason, I like them here. It sort of gives this feeling of immediate and personal communication, particularly with the text messaging passage. Also, I was wondering about the little girl's p.o.v. Her language seems a little grown up, so I'm not sure what to make of her age. Otherwise, this is an awesome piece of work.

[Hannah!]

I really liked this a lot--I was impressed particularly with how distinct the different perspectives are; even without the color shift, it was pretty obvious when one character's story was done and the next one began, rather than all the perspectives sounding more or less the same. I loved the perspective of the girl who was texting most of all--the others were good, too, I think I just identified with her reaction the most.

One thing, though: Is it even legal for the police to interrogate minors without the parents being present? I honestly don't know--I know that, at least, parental permission is needed, but it was pretty apparent that they had that. That was the only thing that I saw wrong with this story, though, except for a few minor typos; overall, it was a really interesting read.