Feb. 14th

It had been a weird week. Still giving blood. Trying to figure out way the wheels fell off my car or why every video I rented seemed to be bootlegged. It was getting a bit much. Having sensed my dismay, like the good friend she is, Macy called and told me I was going to the amusement park with her and Herald. She didn't ask me mind you. She literally told me that I was going and I knew there was no point in arguing with her when she had set her mind to something.

Picking me up in her recently acquired new used Toyota, she commanded Herald into the back and had me sit with her in the front. I really hoped that some of her irrepressible confidence would transfer to me. She is one of those people who seemed to radiate self-assurance. I admired and envied her.

Macy paid for all of us at the gate. Herald and I traded a glance but knew better than to say anything. Completely passing the rigged carney games (their continuing existence proof that P.T. Barnum was onto something), we went to the scram-machines, also known as "rides". Not having the nerve for the more Herculean of geometry abusing death-defiers (the worst of which could make Pythagorus puke), we went to the bumper cars. Herald was embarrassed. Macy was embarrassed but game so Herald didn't dare say anything. After having our tickets torn and being warned against any head-on collisions we were off and to our cars.

The three of us had an unspoken agreement and avoided hitting each other while slamming mercilessly into everyone else. The joy was short lived however (no surprise there). Turning out of another t-bone collision, I was rear-ended by a jock type who had worked up by a good bit of speed. Party by geometry, partly by aerodynamics, with no small help from bad luck. I went skidding across the smooth surface, through the barrier and out over the grass. The last thing I remember seeing was a metal fence.

The doctor said I suffered a sprained wrist and a mild

concussion. According to a police officer that showed up in my room, a Lieutenant Maddox, I assisted in halting the progress of a fleeing bank robber, when the fence I hit was knocked over on the fleeing felon, during an ill-fated attempt to lose the police in the fair ground.