FB4-88 "Bridge Over Troubled Haters"

"Piece of cake." Tyr told herself. Then put her left foot down on the rope and her right hand above. "Good start !" the Carny admitted. "Keep your balance, that's the thing. Just keep your balance."

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F U T U R E   B A R R I E R ( The 4th Novel ) Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance © February 2021 - Written by David Wicker Please do not reprint without permission  CHAPTER 88 - "BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED HATERS" [ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER TO READ ] * * * This chapter is Rated: TEEN Slice Of Life (02-23-21) Alright, let's get started shall we. Wow, where to begin ? I guess we can start with Drama. The Drama Llama, pretty sure you've all heard of this, right ? I mean it was just last Sunday I was with Chris, we were going by Dollar Tree cause I know they finally have a store-brand version of Lysol, spray that kills 99.9% of germs, I'm always for that and wanted to pick up some for me and my friends. When two cars nearly had a head-on collision and ran into each other, screeching on their brakes. Now as a boy I remember this happening and as both windows were down the words were: "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, are you okay ?" "I'm fine, how about you ?" "I just wasn't looking where I was going." "Same here." "Well so glad to have met you, I need to go." "You take care and have a wonderful day." "Thank you so much ! You too." And no that's not from a movie, that was actually spoken those many years ago. Today ? Similar situation, both car windows were down. The conversation was a bit more brief though and definitely one sided. "Look where the f!uck you are driving, bi!tch !" And then both drivers drove off angrily. I mean, who wouldn't ? Wow. So, yeah I guess times have changed. Quite a bit actually. Me ? I try to be very polite when I can. Especially if it's my own fault. And even if it's not, I try to be gracious and courteous. The last time someone bumped into me causing me to drop what I was carrying. Me: "Are you okay ?" Them: "Me ?" Me: "Yeah, I was just standing here, causing an accident." Them: "But I ran into you, yeah, sure. I'm fine. Weirdo ..." Then they walked away after that. And yeah may I am, a bit of a weirdo or what have you. I always have been different in life yet I don't that's a bad thing. Confuse them with kindness I always say ! . . . You looking at me with those baby-blues ... ? I now have 2-hermit crabs as pets. While they certainly won't win any beauty prizes anytime soon, they are interesting to watch. Now on the carpet they spring out of their shell and take off like a shot, but in the 10-gallon aquarium with no water in it, they move very slow and deliberately, checking everything out. And I have the big package, hermit crab food, a hermit crab heater (you attach to the side of your aquarium). Hermit crab sand. Hermit crab feeding blocks, and a few choice snack items. One BBQ potato chip, one piece of candy corn, and a few grains from my cereal, "Nuts & Honey." And as they are wandering around the aquarium constantly, they come across these choice tidbits and nibble on them, then move on. I find they are not so much active in the day than at night. At night they're like little sentry guards moving around constantly. I suppose I should attach tiny little lights to the top of their shells and video record them doing their patrol. Might be interesting to watch. . . . On another note, I did indeed write up a new chapter for Dating Wyona a little late in the day, last Sunday. https://www.writerscafe.org/writing/dw817/2767040/ And - it has really got me thinking, how much I miss Wayne. I was quite tearful Monday. Thinking about how pretty that Memory music was seeing and hearing it for the first time. And being with Wayne in general. Good times. Maybe this will sound extreme maybe not. It's not poetry, but maybe it will hit you like poetry. . . . ** When I die it won't be from a bullet wound, not even a heart attack. I now know what will kill me surer than any faster poison in the world will be grief. ** Grief for once what was, lovely, beautiful, happy, and now will never be again. That will be what it is that will lay me deep in the Earth and bury me with the dirt. ** That very uncertain passage between the living, the dying, and the hopeful continuing. ** I'm okay. The seroquel. That devil's drug is deep within me. It has it claws neatly wrapped around my heart and head and it's not going to free itself from me, not without a fight. ** And that's fine. It has me and I have it. And we continue to see the next day, shining or dark, but the tomorrow is still there ... . . . Yeah, and maybe I should write that up as a bit of poetry. I think what's happening is at night is when the Seroquel starts to wear off. I normally don't take my next pill until 11pm at night. And sometimes before then it feels as if it's leaving me. Sort of like skinning me alive and then leaving all my nerve endings exposed. While there is no physical pain there is a deep sense of melancholy, depression if you will. Your brain starts to whirl around in your head. It starts to focus and spin and clarify. On to events in our lives that meet these sad and somber situations. Where we were immensely happy and we realize that happiness will never be met ever again. Plenty of time for tears. Plenty of time to sleep. Plenty of time for a little bit of everything I think. One day at a time. Just take it one day at a time ... . . . Continuing with the story, Dev had just left the Fun House and saw the carny he cheated from his dishonest game still going around, pointing, and talking to the other carnies. Dev in his haste with his group following ran away to where more of the carnival games were seen, and it was time for another game. . . . I definitely did not want to meet that carny again. So in trying to get away I immediately ran headlong into a group of people who were watching one of the carnival games involving a rope ladder. The ladder was not fastened by two ends on either side but only one so when someone gets up on the ladder it is quite difficult to maintain your balance without toppling over. And even if you are still holding onto the ladder, by being upside-down that is still considered a disqualification. I watched a few people ahead of him take a try at it for $2. There were many prizes available although I was quite content with that video-game system I got. Tyr then stepped forward, "I wanna try this !" I was given change earlier so I took $2 out of my pocket to hand her. We watched a bit more as other guests of the carnival tried to climb the rope ladder and ring the bell at the top. Some of which actually got pretty far before the rope ladder suddenly spun around. The carny was nothing but gracious in his words. "Oh ! Good try good try. You almost got it that time." "Look at you, you're a real monkey, that's wonderful, but nope. No dice." "Wow you have great balance ! Yes you do but sorry, not enough." Then it was Tyr's turn. She handed him the $2. He went into his spiel. "Alright ladies and gentleman, let's give the little lady some room here. I have a feeling she's never done this before." He leaned closer to confide in her, "You never have done this before, right ?" Tyr shook her head. He smiled broadly seeing an easy mark, "Well that's just fine ! And don't you worry, I won't let you fall. If you get scared just say so and we'll take you down." "I'm not scared." Tyr said a little petulantly. The carny smiled even wider. "Alrighty missy. Alright, you're a brave lass after all. I'll give you that. You can start when you're ready." Tyr stepped over to the rope ladder and looked up at the shiny silver bell at the top. "Piece of cake." she told herself. Then put her left foot down on the rope and her right hand above. "Good start !" the Carny admitted. "Keep your balance, that's the thing. Just keep your balance." Tyr made rapid progress, right up to the middle, higher than were I stood and finally spoke a little shakily, "How much time do I have ?" "Take your time !" he said. And I could see why. As she started to slowly climb higher a bunch of teenage boys all collected now as it was perfectly easy to see up her skirt. One reached for a pocket camera but the carny used a directing stick and snapped it hard on the wrist of the guy with the camera. "We'll have none of that, boys. You can watch this peepshow but give the little lady some respect." The boy shrugged but was wide eyed all the same. And Tyr who I know had never done this before was making good progress indeed ! Suddenly right there I started cheering, "Way to go Tyr ! You're getting there ! You're almost there !" Tyr was getting a little shaky as she got higher. "I don't think I can do it." she said fearfully looking through the rope ladder at the ground below. "Don't look down !" I told her. "You're doing great ! Three more feet and you have it !" Then the carny stepped back for a second. I thought he was reaching for a cigarette when suddenly the ladder turned over. "What !?" Tyr asked in confusion suddenly as she hadn't moved at all. I rushed forward to catch her in my arms so she wouldn't get hurt. Tyr looked at me completely confused. "I don't get it ! I was making such good progress !" The Carny was there to console her, "There there, missy, it gets harder the higher you climb. Didn't you know that ?" But to me mathematically that didn't make any sense. The rope ladder was the same all the way to the top of the bell - wasn't it ? Was the ladder cut a particular way to make it harder ? "Lilly, Janet ?" I asked. They each shook their head. Lilly spoke though, "Dev, you take a go if you want. I'll bet you can do it. You have great balance I know." Tyr suddenly came very close to me and deliberately held my hand tightly. While it could not be easily seen in the dwindling sunlight, the same circle of light played over our hands. I reached in my pocket for another $2 and handed it to the carny. He stuffed it in his pocket with all the other money. "Alrightee ! We got a real knight here, folks. Sir Balance-A-Lot !" I smirked, "Instead of Sir Lancelot ?" He smiled toothily at me, "Enjoy your time, kid. This century." Now I carefully watched what Tyr did. She had admirable balance going all the way up and then suddenly the rope ladder turned over I guess because she panicked. I certainly wouldn't let that happen to me. I started to climb, got to the middle, and it seemed as if I was going to do just fine when the ladder turned over suddenly. I jumped down. Now I was surprised at myself, "I guess I lost my balance is all." The carny spoke, "Hey, it was a good try. A very good try. Want to take another crack at the big prize ?" Then Janet stepped forward to interrupt, "Dev - there's more of the carnival we can see." But no, I was GOING to win this game. I pulled out another $2. I had pretty good balance I know and Tyr she was flawless in climbing that ladder. The important thing is not to panic the higher you go. The ladder was the same top to bottom. The only difference was height. Then again, maybe it's impossible. "Here, can you do it ?" I asked the carny, a little frustrated now. "Me ?" He was taken aback. "Well, yeah, sure." He looked around, there was quite the crowd. Mostly the older teenage boys hoping to get another gander up Tyr's skirt again. He nodded. "Sure, kid. Here, watch me." So saying he set down his stick and in incredible speed and grace climbed all the way to the top to ring the bell. He jumped down and looked around. Then spoke not just to me but to everyone. "You see ? It's not impossible. You just have to have good balance and courage. Two dollars a game, win the big prize, what do you say ?" People crowded forward, eager to see, but I still hadn't made my 2nd attempt yet. He looked at me, "Okay, kid. You can start now." I started at the bottom and got right about to the middle again. Instead of looking at the ladder though I was looking up ahead, just beneath the bell. At where the rope ladder was being held by a single cable. And there ! I could see it now, there was a small shiny motor. I had no doubt in my mind now that he was hitting some button to remotely force the ladder to turn over. What a cheater ! I concentrated for a second and saw some tiny sparks then a small puff of smoke come out of the motor. It was dead. I smiled. I looked to Tyr. "I'm gonna do it this time ! Pick out whatever present you want !" She looked at me with amazement on her face. "How can you be so sure, Picklepie ?" * * * Out of the corner of my eye I saw the carny go back to one shelf and once again look like he was lighting a cigarette, pulling one from his pocket. But no he had to have been going for some kind of remote control ! I had already burned out the motor thanks to SIM so I knew it wouldn't work. And boy did he look frustrated. He kept stabbing his wrist in his pocket and looking up at me. it was definitely not working. I climbed the rest of the ladder and rang the bell. Then I neatly slid down it like a fireman on a rescue ladder. Then there was thunderous applause and cheers from all the onlookers. The carny was muttering to himself but came up to me. All kindness and consideration were gone from his voice. "Yeah, you won. Big winner. Big whoop." He then reached under the counter to pull out a tray of items, once again really cheap stuff that made a gumball machine's contents look like shopping at Tiffany's. I looked to Tyr who had her eye on this plush "Polly Rocket" doll that was half her height. Really cute looking too with sparkly eyes, pink gloves, and cute little boots. Adorable skirt with ruffles around it. "Pick what you want kid and get out of here." he said clearly pissed that I won his game despite his attempt to cheat me. But I pointed to the doll Tyr had a short distance away. "I want her to have that." He sighed deeply and placed the shelf back under the counter. "Then you have to win two more times. That means you must win 2x more in a row ! If you mess up even once you have to start over from the beginning with 3 wins then !" I nodded. I thought it would be something like this. "Fine." I went ahead and pulled out 2 more dollars to hand him. He snatched them angrily from my hand as more of a crowd developed, very curious to see if I could perform the same feat again let alone twice ! "Alright, get going." he said. He seemed pretty certain that the first time I rang that bell would be my last. That it was sheer luck I managed to get as far as I did. I started climbing but THEN he got beside me on the ground and started calling out crazy rules. "No knees on the rope." "What ?" I asked. He scowled, "You heard me, you can't put your knees on the rope. You have to climb the ladder without doing that." I smirked, "Yeah, sure." So I made sure my knees never touched. Halfway up he called again, "You can't have your elbows touch the rope either." At this point the crowd was getting pretty angry and ugly with him calling out these rules. He yelled back, "Hey ! I've been really nice to let you all try this without these rules but THESE are the official rules for this game ! And I'm enforcing them NOW !" More than one person called out, "Cheater." back to him. He mopped his face with a handkerchief, clearly starting to sweat. And there it was. I was at the top. I looked to him with a big grin on my face holding my hand just an inch from the bell. "Ring the damned thing already." he muttered, stepping away. I paused for just a second. I then lifted up one of my arms and held it up triumphantly still maintaining my careful balance. There was a lot of cheering and applause to this. Then I rang the bell. I jumped off from the top. "3rd time I get the prize, right ?" I wanted to confirm with him. The carny looked like he could chew nails, and I don't mean fingernails, I mean nails out of wooden planks. He wasn't speaking now he just shook his head at me. Sighed and nodded. I gave him another two dollars which he angrily stuffed down his pocket. I started again from the bottom. I got a quarter-way up when he AGAIN made up another stupid rule. "You can't have any part of your arm touching the rope." The mob which is exactly what it was now started to shout at him. "You cheater !" "You phony !" "He already won ! Deal with it !" "Give the girl the prize already !" "That's a dumb rule !" But I nodded and repeated, "Okay, no part of my arm will touch." And I continued to climb. Halfway up he made another cockamamie rule, "No part of your leg can touch the rope, either." Now the mob surged forth. The carny quickly grabbed his directing stick in defense swinging it around. "Stay back, all of you !" he yelled angrily. The mob stayed where it was but were clearly furious at all these new rules which I somehow managed to do. He turned his head to quickly watch me. And now, yeah I was sunk. A very large part of me maintaining my good balance was in using the weight of my legs laying against the rope and the weight of my hands to counterbalance. Without being able to touch my leg to the rope I would surely not be able to move at all from this position ! The carny seeing I couldn't budge chuckled to himself, "What's the matter kid ? Yeah you're all talk and no show now ain't ya ! Just jump down already and claim defeat !" I had it with this guy. I concentrated for a moment and carefully lifted up my feet and hands, all of them, hovering in the air for a second I then neatly glided to the top without touching any of the rope at all, literally floating to the bell. The carny's eyes got wide with fright seeing this impossible display that was clearly against the laws of gravity. The mob could not see this though as my back was to them. All they saw was me neatly go up the ladder where I easily and noisily rang the bell again. I continued to ring it looking at the carny who like the other carny now looked quite frightened. "She gets the prize." I stated flatly, continuing my fearsome feat of floating. It was not a question. I then jumped down from there. Tyr rushed forward to give me a big hug and kiss alongside her massive Polly Rocket stuffed doll which she had already yanked down from the display. "Thank you so much, Picklepie ! You were wonderful !" The crowd was absolutely elated though. They were clapping and cheering and carrying on thoroughly. I stepped through them as multiple strangers patted me on my back and were all speaking at once. "I knew that game was rigged." "You sure showed him !" "He ought to give you all your money back !" "Great job !" "You were wonderful out there !" I had my head down looking at my feet. The last time I felt such pride was when I was playing Light Speed Chess against Lemonie, the Queen, those many days ago. https://www.writerscafe.org/writing/dw817/1588556/ I extricated myself from the crowd. I looked to Tyr and Lilly who were on the ground now examining the new prize Tyr won and talking excitedly amongst themselves. Janet was to my side too, yet she was just quietly writing something down in her notepad. I looked to her quizzically. She spoke directly, "I was on the side watching you, Dev. That was a neat trick you pulled off back there. And yeah just like they said that Carny was cheating." She closed the notebook. "The way you handled that though ... Another curiosity for Mr. White to address." I looked behind me and saw the Carny had taken off running. Half of the mob went after him while the others stood and talked busily amongst themselves. Janet stepped closer, "Dev, they may throw us out of the park if you keep on cheating the carnies." I shook my head and sighed, "There was no way that guy was gonna let me win fairly though !" Janet nodded, "Yeah I saw that. Still. Anyways - " she looked around. "I guess it's my turn to pick out something." She craned her head around. It certainly was a very busy carnival. "Oh ! Definitely that !" and she pointed to the side. END OF CHAPTER 88 Return back HOME You are Earth Visitor #

Reviews

[Kari Rakitan]

Lysol is pretty toxic from what I understand. I just use bleach because chlorine is in our water anyway, and a little more here and there won't hurt. I have a friend who only uses alcohol because she thinks even bleach is too toxic, but alcohol is more expensive and tends to dissolve labels more than bleach, and the label residue ruins the shop towels I use when sanitizing groceries. If we're talking hand sanitizer though, I'd stick with alcohol.

That pocket camera thing trying to snap pictures up her skirt was adorable.

Haha, I knew they would find another cheater! That was pure awesomeness.

[dw817]

Hi Kari:

>> Lysol is pretty toxic from what I understand. I just use bleach because chlorine is in our water anyway, and a little more here and there won't hurt. I have a friend who only uses alcohol because she thinks even bleach is too toxic, but alcohol is more expensive and tends to dissolve labels more than bleach, and the label residue ruins the shop towels I use when sanitizing groceries. If we're talking hand sanitizer though, I'd stick with alcohol.

Now that it's not quite so hard to find I buy bottles of it. I actually spray my hands with Lysol before I go outside for anything. It fizzles a little but doesn't hurt my hands at all.

>> That pocket camera thing trying to snap pictures up her skirt was adorable.

Buncha pervy boys but hey I'd seen worse back in Middle school. There was one bully I knew there that would torment the girls by getting behind them and suddenly raising their dress over their head causing them to fall down in the hallway usually with their butt in the air as they fumbled around trying to get free of their dress.

But one time he went too far. He did this while passing the room to the gym where a P.E. teacher was coming out of the doorway. She saw perfectly well what he did and grabbing his arm dragged him all the way to the principal's office while the other girls in the hallway applauded.

To my knowledge he never returned to that school.

>> Haha, I knew they would find another cheater! That was pure awesomeness.

Yep, thanks. I am definitely going to try and catch all the cheaters at the carnival, but first it's Janet's time to pick an amusement and it will be featuring a very old friend indeed.

... That will be written up tomorrow ! Tuesday. Hope to see you there, Kari, and thanks for commenting !