"Are you sure you will be all right, sweetheart?" Anton asked his wife.
"I'll be fine, Anton." Patty patted her seven-months-pregnant abdomen. "You know how much I love the fair. If I get too tired, I can always just sit down for a little bit."
"Well, all right," Anton reluctantly conceded.
"I can't wait to ride the merry-go-round!" Anna said, doing a little dance of impatience. She wore a red-and-white checked dress with white socks and red sneakers, and her hair was done up in pigtails with red bows.
"I always loved merry-go-rounds when I was a little girl," Patty told her daughter.
"Are we ready to go, then?" asked Anton.
"Yes!" Anna shouted.
The family piled into the car, and Anton drove to the fairgrounds. Anna rode in the back seat with her nose pressed against the window.
"Daddy! Daddy! We're here!" she cried when the Ferris wheel came into view.
Anton chuckled. "So we are." He parked the car, and they all got out. Anton and Patty walked toward the entrance, Anna in between them, holding their hands and skipping along. Anton purchased the tickets, and they went inside.
They saw rows of games, rides, and sideshows, with the carousel right in the middle. Anton lifted Anna and sat her on one of the horses, then jumped down and stood beside his wife. The carousel began to go around and around. Patty watched until she saw Anna, pigtails flying in the breeze.
"Look at me, Mommy!" the little girl called.
The ride came to an end, and Anton lifted Anna off the horse, over her protestation.
"I wanna go again, Daddy!" she demanded.
Anton laughed and handed the ride operator two more tickets.
After the carousel, the family walked further down the path, until they came to the swings. They stood watching them soar, higher and higher.
"Wow, Daddy, look how far up they go!" said Anna.
"I know," Anton replied. "I think perhaps a bit too far up for you, liebchen. Come, let us find something you can ride."
They passed the bumper cars and the tilt-a-whirl, arriving at the Scrambler.
"I remember how much fun I had on that last year, but I don't think the bar will go over my big belly this year!" Patty laughed.
"Would you like to ride it with me, Anna?" Anton asked his daughter.
"Oh yes!" said Anna. She looked at Patty. "I'm sorry you won't fit, Mommy."
"That's OK," said Patty. "This time next year, you'll have a little brother or sister to play with."
After Anton and Anna rode the Scrambler, the Reikers decided it was lunchtime, and while standing in line at the hot dog and hamburger stand, they met up with the Brimmers.
"How are you feeling these days?" Elizabeth asked Patty.
Patty gave her a brave smile. "I'm all right, most of the time. I do have a whopper of a backache sometimes! Anton gives the best back rubs of anyone." She looked at Max and Laura. "And how is school going so far this year?"
"Great!" said Laura. "I just made a new friend. Her name is Annie White, and she comes over to play with me sometimes, and I go over to play with her sometimes."
"That's good, that you have a new friend," said Patty. "What about you, Max?"
"I have a friend named Stephen that I like to play cowboys and Indians with," said Max.
The two families bought their food and sat together at a picnic table to eat it.
"I rode the carousel and the Scrambler," said Anna.
"I rode the carousel too, and the tilt-a-whirl, and I went into the haunted house and didn't get scared," Laura bragged.
"Yes you did," said Max.
"I did not!"
Max just laughed. "Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!"
"Mama, make him stop!" Laura whined.
"Stop teasing your sister, Max," said Paul.
After eating lunch, the two families walked around some more. Soon they came to the Ferris wheel with gondola seats. All four Brimmers and all three Reikers fit into one gondola together, and they all enjoyed looking down on the fairgrounds and surrounding area from up high, although Anna was a little bit afraid and hid her face in her father's shirt at first.
"All those people down there look like ants, don't they?" Max commented.
Patty felt a little sad when the ride ended, and shortly afterwards, Anton noticed that she was clutching her chest.
"Heartburn again?" he asked. She nodded. "Do you want to go home, then?" She shook her head.
"That's all right. It'll be better in a few minutes."
Anna rode a couple of kiddie rides, and then Patty could hide her backache no longer, so they returned home, where she went right to bed.
"Is Mommy sick?" Anna asked her father.
"No, she's just tired," Anton replied, although he was worried they'd overdone it that day.