Nobody Knows Your Secret

12

Virgie was at her wit's end. 

A cow had mooed last night after dark, and the dog had howled before the moon had risen. She'd seen a black snake along the side of the road as she'd driven here. She'd watched Cleve the night before talking to his buddies. The fool had lit three cigarettes off his one match. 

Claire was doomed to die. 

Virgie knew it in her bones.

Yet, if she'd tried to stop Cleve from coming today, no telling what he would have done to her and to Claire. Virgie did the only thing she could do as she watched her beloved daughter follow her father up the wooden walkway to the roller coaster car. Virgie prayed.

The car that the ride man had placed her beloved child in was at the end. 

Land a Goshen. 

Virgie stood horrified. 

The man was putting Cleve and Claire in the 13th car on that line. The giant wooden structure swayed before Virgie's eyes. She took two steps to the side and sank on a bench before her knees gave way.

She would have screamed to the top of her lungs for Claire to get off the car, but the ride was already rolling down the tracks. Virgie watched. The small cars traced up the track, rising to the first steep hill, topping it, they flew down with lightning speed. Sharp turn left, then right, then slowing down for the long climb up the second hill, around they came. She caught a glimpse of her daughter's pale face just as the car disappeared into the fake coal mine's black entry. 

There was a crashing sound. 

Screams.

Several riders were hurt from a malfunction on the roller coaster. A mechanical failure had caused some of the cars to leave the track and careen into the ground. 

The coaster cars were a mass of twisted metal, soaked in blood. Cleve and Claire were among the lucky ones. They survived, but Claire was badly hurt.

"If only we'd stayed home and baked that cake," Virgie kept mumbling. 

That same thought would haunt her for years, running circles in her head like a merry-go-round that never stopped.