The scent of french-fry oil, and greasy hamburgers had haunted me all day. It was that strange “sickly-sweet” smell, the scent that is so horrifying, yet so appetizing and delicious at the same time. It reminded me of McDonald’s.

I was getting pretty hungry. I was extremely grateful though that I had decided to wait, because of what my girlfriend proceeded to ask me. I had been anticipating the question all day, and now it had arrived. “Will you go on this one with me?” She asked, as she grabbed my hand. It gave me a sense of calmness. It made me feel warm, but not for long.

I did not know what to say, I really didn’t want to go on any of the rides, especially this one. But I had already spent $20 on a ride bracelet. What a waste of money. I was screwed; I had to at least go on one.

I have such a big fear of heights. I then asked myself, “How am I going to do this?”

She has always had this weird way of convincing me to do stuff that I really don’t want to do. Usually she only does it because she thinks I’ll benefit from the experience, or because I might end-up enjoying myself; which is usually the case. It’s a quality about her that I have actually grown to love very much. Besides, I’m willing to do almost anything to make her happy, and she would do the same.

I looked-up at the metal death trap. It was rusty and old like my dad’s yellow Ford pickup truck. The truck had many dents in it, caused by my father’s wreck less and childish behavior.
“He was out hunting one day; he does the (poacher-style) hunting where you just shoot at the animal while driving. He was following the young rabbit into a trap. It had led him to drive onto a frozen pond. You can guess what happened next…”
A lot of “crazy” thoughts began to run through my mind at once. I accidentally blurted out, “Hey, at least we’ll die together.”
She laughed at me, telling me not to worry, telling me that we would be fine. That didn’t help comfort me at all. I just pretended like it had.
But I promised her, and I never break my promises, with her any way. Besides, I really didn’t want to look like a loser, even though she’s well aware of my extreme fear of heights. So I said, “Okay, let’s get in line.”
The line wasn’t too long, only like five or six kids were in front of us. The operator asked us if we’d sit in the center seats, I think he wanted us to sit there to even-out the car.
The seats were crammed, I wondered if it was originally intended for little kids, or if people were just a hell of a lot smaller back in the day. I grabbed the handle bar in front of me; it had gum stuck to it, I really didn’t care though. I needed something to hold on to.
Once everyone was seated, we began moving backwards. I felt an uneasy feeling in my stomach as we went back and forth, back and forth; each time gaining more momentum. I felt like I was going to vomit on all the innocent people standing in line.
Then instead of going all the way around in a circle, we stopped right at the top. We were upside-down. I was scared s***less!
I thought we were finally done because we went backwards again, but instead the operator made us go upside-down, again.
I was so unbelievably terrified, that I shut my eyes as tight as I could. I just wanted it to all be over. I was so sure I was going to fall out. I hated this feeling so much.
It was the Moonraker; it was the scariest moment of my short teenage life.