In Sea Haven, high school and college kids get summer jobs on the boardwalk running the rides. There are always a few whose only job is to walk around and jiggle everybody’s safety bars before they signal the operator to hit the GO button. Well, that’s the way it’s supposed to work, if the ride is owned and operated by people who care about safety and doing the right thing.
The “brand new” StratosFEAR Free Fall?
Not so much.
The owner is Sinclair Enterprises.
As in Mayor Hugh Sinclair.
And as we approach the recycled ride, I see that the mayor’s son, Ben, is the guy sitting in the control booth, his hand poised over the big green GO button.
Apparently, his dad’s lawyers were working extra-hard today. They got him sprung in record time.
Luckily, there is a bright yellow chain blocking access to the StratosFEAR, so Ben can’t really take anybody for a ride.
A sign reading “Opening Soon!” dangles off the barrier.
“We’ll see about that,” mumbles Ceepak as he unclasps the chain.
We enter the switchbacks where customers will patiently wait to have the crap scared out of them.
The base of the StratosFEAR is painted with white, wispy clouds filling a blue sky. A squared-off white tower, with crisscrossing diagonal support struts and trusses, rises 140 feet to a blinking lightning-bolt pole topper.
A fresh-faced guy, maybe thirty, wearing a bright blue polo shirt and khaki pants, an accordion file tucked under his arm, comes ambling around the base. He sees us. Gives us a friendly finger wave. Then turns to the mayor’s son in his controller seat.
“Blast her off, Ben.”
“Whatever.”
Ben, who’s also dressed in a bright blue polo shirt with a “StratosFEAR” logo embroidered where the polo pony usually gallops, slaps his chunky green button.
Twelve empty chairs-three on each side of a boxy blue car-slowly elevate up the tower. The shoulder restraints are in the down and locked position.
Ceepak and I crane our necks to watch the ride in action.
Not that there’s much action to watch. Just that clump of chairs slowly climbing the tower.
“When the car finally reaches the top,” says Professor Ceepak, “it will pause momentarily. And remember, Danny, a body at rest tends to stay at rest.”
True. When I’m on the couch, I tend to stay on the couch.
“The cable holds the chairs, the chairs hold the riders. So when the mechanism suspending the car lets go, the chairs will fall but there will be a slight delay before your body feels it is also falling.”