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As much as I didn't want to believe it, it was happening. Mr. West had decided to take over the controls of the carousel. The clueless owner, so opposed to anything other than making money, now seemingly perceived himself capable of operating one of the park rides. A ride that had just undergone serious modification!
“Can he run that thing?” Calvin asked nervously.
“I highly doubt it!”
“But how much damage can he actually do? I mean, all it does is go around in circles! Surely it's foolproof... right?”
“I sure hope so,” I answered. “But I don't know if anything is foolproof enough to be safe in his hands!”
The overweight man had wedged his way through the crowd and made his way to the small control booth where one of his employees was operating the ride. He gruffly pushed the much smaller man out of the booth before somehow shoving his large stomach inside. I watched, aghast, as he looked down at the controls. For a moment I thought better judgment would win out. That he would see just how little he knew about the ride and back down. But of course, he didn't.
“Let's throw this baby into second gear, shall we?” I heard him call out to the crowd.
There was a roar of cheers from the patrons, which only bolstered his confidence. He reached down, grabbed a large knob labeled 'throttle', and gave it a hard twist to the left. Increasing the speed would have been risky enough, but what Mr. West actually did, was put the ride in reverse. But not just in reverse. He put it into FAST reverse.
“OOFFFF!”
The people unfortunate enough to be on the ride at the time were thrown violently forward as all momentum ceased. Then they were yanked backward as the carousel began its fast spin in the opposite direction. Screams of horror went up from the crowd. Mr. West, seeing his mistake, hurriedly turned the knob back forward, but nothing happened.
“I- I never programmed the carousel on how to respond if it was in reverse,” I said slowly, now realizing what a bad situation we were now in.
“Turn it off! Turn it off!” people were now screaming from the crowd.
“It's not responding!” answered a very panicked Mr. West.
He punched the kill switch button with his fist, but that too was unresponsive. That was another feature that I had not had time to reprogram. Of course, last night I had never imagined such a terrible situation would occur! I caught a fleeting glance from Mr. West in the control booth. He had to know that I was behind this, but of course that no longer mattered. He was the one in hot water now.
The ride was beginning to spin wildly out of control. From beneath the carousel, sparks were shooting as the gears were ground in ways they were never intended for. People began madly dashing for the exits, and the ones on the ride itself held on for dear life. The roof of the ride, a large plastic disc, ornately designed to look like a carnival tent, was tottering unevenly. It was coming unscrewed from it's holding position! In just a matter of seconds, we would have a major disaster on our hands.
“Fin,” Calvin shouted. “There has to be something we can do! Anything!”
And then the last and only solution came to my mind.
“The main power line,” I said. “We have to shut it off.”