First Place Win for my Micro Story: FREE RIDE FOR LIFE

 I'm thrilled to have won first place in Globe Soup's Micro Contest. Word limit: 100. Theme: A ticket.

FREE RIDE FOR LIFE

Three months’ hard-earned allowance bought my season ticket to Hersheypark’s fairgrounds.

“Awesome, gurl.” The Gravitron’s drop-dead operator high-fived me. “Never seen a greenhorn not toss their cookies when the floor retracts.” He flipped me a wooden disc, “For luck.”

I caught the token, inscribed, “Free Ride for Life.”

***

The floor dropped out from under me again.

Cocooned in a recliner, cool chemo trickling into my vein, I fondled the patinaed token, my souvenir of a serendipitous youth, and closed my eyes to merry-go-round memories—

Your deft fingers, tossing me a lifetime of free rides—now wizened and interlacing mine.