Highly Commended
Over 18s Category
By Sue Anderson
I’m having a grey day, so I put on my blue jeans and go down to the fair. Pink sugar smells in the air, golden oldies blazing out, rides to make you scream. The carousel calls but the waltzers are best.
As we spin, colours mix and melt. Time slips away, spinning off the years.
The seat is slippery, nobody to wedge me in, so the black-haired boy comes to ride on the back. Looking sideways I can see brown hands with dirty fingernails. He leans over me and whispers something. I smell his onion breath on my cheek, sweet as candy. I’m not quite sure what he says, but I don’t care – this time, the answer will be ‘Yes.’ Cheap thrills are what I need now. No sense in caution. Nobody older and wiser to warn me away.
The buzzer sounds. Slowing. Colours separate. And stop. The boy helps me down: ‘You OK Grandma? You’re looking a bit green. Mind the step love. There you go.’
Sugar!