The People you meet in Heaven
Jingle, who is a part-time worker at the BijouPier for rides, is 17 and almost ready to grow up and find a life of his own, away from his demanding mother. He's nothing but a repair-man for the Dead-drop ride, fixing the carts everyday.
Dead-drop was a good name for it.
When a cart ceases to make it towards the pit-stop, and a little girl's life is at stake, Jingle saves her, but kills himself.
Heaven is not what it seems.
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60 seconds in my head, and I can still feel that cart smashing into my ribs from here. The suns not doing any good, either, along with the murmuring crowd like moths to a flame. I'm the flame here.
And I'm dying out.
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An hour to Live…
"Jingle, my man! Going out for awhile?"
I take a glance at my swaying father on his leather sofa. His face is red and his mouth is open in a toothy grin. I want to punch out the remaining teeth he has. In one hand, a bottle of beer churtles full of the alcoholic stuff.
I can even smell it from here. "No dad, I need to get to my job" I heave a sigh. Why even bother? He's not going to even remember what I say…
My ears prick up to hear the sounds of footsteps up stairs. Great…
"Jingle? Don't tell me you're going to go to that cruddy Amusement Park again! I don't want you gallabanting around with any girls! Stay put!" I hear my mother screech. My father grunts.
"Yeahhh…stay awhile an' hab a dwink!"
I shift my eyes to the mouth of the stair case. It's a big staircase, due to our livings. It's a big house. It'll take time for her to make it all the way down here. Slowly I roll my eyes, then with a wave to my half asleep dad, I make my move…
"Can'tstaygottago, bye!"
With a quick blabber of words, I'm off. I slam the door shut to bore it into her head that I'm leaving. Stupid old crow. It was only a year ago that she suddenly comes up to live with me and my old man. She's screwed everything up.
And now she wants me to be the predecessor of her business company. To live in a law suit and to take meetings half a time of my life? Excuse me? First of all, you've already ruined my life, and now you're making it worse. Second of all, lawsuits are not my type.
I look down upon my attire. Dirty jeans, a chain, belt, bad-boy jacket and a slim-t-shirt. Yep, lawsuit are certainly not my type.
I rush towards the driveway of the amusement park. Sun-Way Carnival is what they've named it. Just you're average Ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirls, bumper carts and the roller coasters. There's also the traditional cotton candy, taffy apples, sno-cones…etc,etc,….
I smile as I see the gateman. He grin's his toothy grin and opens the gate for me. He knows what I do. Quickly I slide under the gate just before its half open. I hear the gateman laugh.
"Slow down there sonny, your shift isn't until 1:00!" He waves. I wave back, ignoring his advice. Why slowdown? I've got a whole lifetime ahead of me.
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Slowly she falls…
Slowly…
Again, the pain in my ribs is un-bearing. Blood is all I taste. My hands twitch. Someone is calling the hospital. Bless him. Someone wants to call my parents. And he should go to hell. The last thing I need is my parents. The last thing I want is some sobbing face that is my dad and some grinning face that is my mom.
Slowly she falls…slowly, slowly…
Slowly…
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20 more minutes…
"Hey Jingle!"
Jingle whizzed around from greasing the tracks to find his friend's Dexter and Howdy. They were good friends to him, even though he took their rivalling crush, a girl named Pashmina. Yeah, those were the times where they would fawn over her, brining her gifts and flirt.
But then she would always reject them. It kinda made him confused to why she chose him over the people who were chasing her. For those beautiful eyes, that long beautiful hair and that nice...
Jingle snapped out of it. N-no being perverted right now…
"So Jingle, how's that job doing?" Howdy crowed, punching him in the arm. Jingle laughed weakly, flinching at the punch. Howdy was always like that. Just, well, stupid.
But a good stupid, anyhow.
Jingle sighed and flashed a smile. "It's alright, not many customers since last year…"
Dexter made a pout, folding his arms together. "It's always like that, isn't it? They're not as interested in these Pier attractions anymore, it's now the real type of amusement parks they want! Taking stupid pictures with the fluffy mascot---I HATE YOU, FLUFFY MASCOT!"
Jingle and Howdy laughed, glad that Dexter was still fun to laugh at even in his anger.
"Wanna grab a bite to eat?"
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19 seconds in my head…
Now the pain isn't a big deal any more. I'm starting to worry about Pashmina for some reason. If I'm going to die…at least make my death faster, please. I can hear Dexter sobbing and Howdy yelling at the crowd to get back.
But why? I'm not dead yet. It's not a crime scene yet…
Is it?
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11 more minutes…
Jingle never liked it when teenagers came to the Bijou Pier. They were either here to find some place to screw each other, or to cause mischief on the rides. And that made Jingle mad.
He didn't mind the children though. They had come to know his name, often calling him "Jingle Main-ten-nance"
He looked down to see his name tag. It did sorta make sense for the children, seeing on where the name was and his job.
Jingle
Maintenance
He never really liked the name Maintenance, but they were kids and he was an adult. Well, not really. He was only seventeen.
His train of thought was crashed as he heard a couple of teen's laughter near the bumper cars. He sighed. Let me guess…
Slowly he picked up a wrench and forgot about what he was working on, an old track. He was curious about the mischievous laughter coming from the ride.
There, he found 2 or 3 teens sitting on top of the railing, jeering and calling for one rider to "bump them"
"Hey, this isn't a bench. Not safe. Get off." Jingle spat in short murmurs. The teens only glared at him, probably mistaken him for an owner's pet. One ignored his glares and called out to the riders. "Hey! Bump me!"
Jingle lost it. He slammed the wrench against the railing. "GET LOST!"
The teens ran away.
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7 more minutes…
"Mr. Main-te-nance?"
Jingle groaned and turned around to find a little brunette staring up at him. Her yellow and white checker dress made her look like a tiny china doll, along with her sunhat.
"Yeah? What is it?" Jingle knelt down meeting the girl's own eyes. She giggled and patted him on the chest. "Where's your mom?" he murmured as she played with his dyed hair. The brown and light brown streaks made a moving rainbow.
"She's riding the rides."
"Without you?"
The girl remained silent, poking him at a small pocket. "Make me an animal!" she cooed. She gave him a sweet smile to butter him up. He rolled his eyes and opened the pocket that she was poking.
As if he had done it before, he got out 3 brightly coloured pipe-cleaners. It was useless for hi to make the animals out of balloon, but the kids liked this too. Quickly he made a shape, knowing that the girl would love it.
"A bunny?" she asked in awe.
Jingle smiled and kneeled down, gently handing her the "bunny" As if it was something dropping, the girl swipped it from him and giggled, spinning around as all kids do when given something. They go to some land of happiness.
"Ohhh! Thank you thank you thank you!" the girl yelled in happiness. Jingle couldn't understand why she was so happy, but left it at that.
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10 seconds in my head…
I hear the voices fade. I can see from the side of my eyes, police spreading yellow-ban tape all over where I am. Hey! Wait! I'm not dead yet! I'm not dead---remove the tape and don't pronounce me dead! Hey!
9 seconds in my head…
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"OH MY GOD, LOOK!"
Jingle always knew that sound. It never happened, but he was trained to look at every sound that came to his ears. Especially if it was a bad sound.
Quickly he looked to find a fat woman pointing in sheer terror at the Dead Drop coaster. He quickly scanned the situation and found out that the pit-stop was ruined. The Dead-Drop, a pit-stop coaster, was supposed to drop right at the top and stop half-way, giving the riders a scare.
But was the cart supposed to fall all the way? Jingle's walkie-talkie buzzed alive
"Jingle! Jingle get to the bottom and we'll take the top!" the engineers yelled on their walkie-talkies. Jingle didn't respond, running to his post. Let's see…if they're going to the top then they're going to think that…
"Shit…they're going to cut the cord!" Jingle yelled, waving his arms at the engineers. The crowd seemed to drown out his straining yells.
"NO! DON'T CUT THE CORD! DON'T CUT THE---"
(snap)
It all went too fast. All he could think was to yell: Get back!
The last thing he saw was the terrified eyes of that little girl he was played with earlier. The girl screamed and Jingle pulled her out of the way. As the cart smashed into his shocked body, his ribs the last thing he thought.
Did I save the girl…?
Pashmina, are you ok?
Am I going to die?
All I listen to as I die is the carnival music, repeating it's chorus over and over again...
Slowly she falls...slowly...slowly...slowly she falls...slowly...
Slowly...
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Thanks for reading. Next chapter coming up one day…I think…(sweatdrop)