False Memory Story

Laughing hysterically we hopped off of the flying ride. “I know I thought I was going to slip through the bars!” Eugenia said between giggles, which made us laugh even more. The manager of the ride was watching us, still annoyed that we had been kicking and singing while we were in our seats. “And the guy kept eyeing us like we were crazy! What should we go on now?” Her eyes lit up.
“I don’t know! Which one haven’t we gone on?” I laughed. I was exploding with happiness. I loved going to the county fair with Eugenia every year. She was the best friend I could ever ask for
My brother Justin and Eugenia’s brother John walked over. “You haven’t gone on the haunted house ride yet,” John said with a huge grin. Genia and I looked over at the giant black ride with a scary grim reaper by the entrance. All you could see from the outside was a big black curtain and a whole bunch of kids that were way older than 6 and 7.
“Um, ya but I think we’ll pass on that one. I don’t really like scary stuff.” I tried to say it coolly but I wasn’t even close. Only Justin knew I had a huge crush on Genia’s brother.
“Oh come on! You’ll like it!” Justin said, clearly enjoying it.
I turned to Genia and she shrugged. Little did I know she had wanted to impress Justin too.
“Okay we’ll go on it,” I said. “Good idea.” I smiled at John, secretly freaking out.
We turned toward the ride and Genia let out a huge gulp. We started slowly walking over until we reached the line. We were the shortest ones there and the older kids were looking at us speculating if we really were that young. We looked back at the boys and they gave us two thumbs up. We each took out four tickets and handed them to the ride manger. He looked us up and down and laughed, probably at our already terrified expressions.
“Enjoy your ride,” he snickered and then called over his shoulder. I looked to see who he was talking to and only found the grim reaper statue. Gen nudged me.
“Ready Katie?” she asked, hoping I would back out.
“Uh-huh,” I managed to choke out. “Born ready,” I said feigning confidence.
We jumped into the cart and gripped the handle for dear life. It started to move behind the curtain and I closed my eyes as tight as they would go. Eerie music began to play and the people in the cart in front of us screamed at the top of their lungs. I freaked out and let out a blood-curdling scream of my own. Genia began to scream as well and I shut my eyes even tighter. We continued screaming at the top of our lungs and with my eyes welded shut for what seemed like forever. I peeked through my eyelids only to see a huge skeleton lit up by black light and somehow managed to scream louder. Finally I felt the cold air on my face and I knew it was over. We had done it! I turned to smile at Gen only to see her eyes pop wide open at something behind us. I reluctantly turned to look and found the grim reaper from the beginning was on the back of our cart cackling. He waved his scythe around in the air and we ran out of the car before it stopped moving. The guy who had taken our tickets was holding his stomach from laughing so hard. Genia and I ran straight into my mother’s arms, hysterical.
“What happened?” she said, worried.
“We- went on- the ride- and there was- a grim reaper- and a skeleton- and- it was Justin’s fault!” I spit out the words between the tearless-sobs.
My mom immediately turned to Justin and John and gave them a disapproving look. “Well sweetie you know what might make you feel better? Justin and John went on the ride and they screamed just as much as you did and they are two boys a year older than you.”
“Really?” I asked, starting to smile.
“Yup,” my mom said just as Justin blurted out no at the same time.
Clearly proud that she had found out how to make me feel better she went on to tell me how they had screamed like little girls and had come sobbing into her arms as well.