We watched the man at the park give in to the intrusive thoughts.
“You, you, and you. In the middle,” he pointed at the larger boys. Then to the tiny ones, “You guys, next level. Nobody hang over the edge. That’s my space to work.”
And then he stretched ligament and muscle, like he was going to medal.
“Should we-” Cheryl started.
“Shut it, Cheryl,” I said. “Just watch.”
“Ok,” Cheryl said and shut it.
He gripped the metal merry-go-round bar like his name was John Henry. Then he pumped and turned his legs like they were the locomotive. The speed climbed. The children’s faces blurred into their screams.
Cheryl leaned forward, and my hand landed on her knee saying, “Cheryl.”
Her knee said, “Ok.”
At top speed, he let go and tried to tag each bar as it flew past. Gave up. He let it spin itself until it stopped, and the kids stumbled off like rocks spilling from a pocket.
He slumped. No medal.
“Hold up,” I shouted. “Just wait.”
A road crew worked putting up a new sign. I jogged over and picked up an old one lying in the grass. It read: “Caution: Kids at Play.” On the way back, I grabbed the leaf blower from the truck and handed it to the man. I could see Cheryl out of the corner of my eye, my hand still as I left it, resting on her knee.
“Get lost,” I told the kids hanging around. They scattered back to safety except for one, a small one who said, “I’m for this” as he wrapped arms and legs around the center pole. “We’re going to Mars.”
I sat along the outer edge, in his space to work, and hooked my legs around a bar while holding the caution sign out like a rudder.
John Henry got to work. The locomotive left the station.
At top speed, he let go. The world melted into crayons. I heard the whirr of the leaf blower and felt the sign threaten to blow away with the leaves, but I clenched down, locking my knuckles and turning them white.
“Mars,” the kid screamed. “We’re going to Mars!”
The fluid inside my inner ear sloshed. The Earth tilted and flew away. My vision dimmed and then filled with sparkle. I slipped over the side.
That’s how I ended up in the hospital.
The kid orbited Mars.