CHAIR-O-PLANES

Maybe someone has been assembling them for a few days, but you realize it only when they are lit up. The fairground rides are here! The small Ferris wheel, on top of which you can even see the opposite island, the bump cars shining and spluttering, and the fabulous swing ride, my favourite carousel. FIVE ROUNDS ONE THOUSAND LIRA. The woman at the box office is always the same – blond-eyed, fat, sulky and always sweaty. That little fuchsia cooling fan has no use but to make the banknote you’ve just slipped in flutter about. A handful of tokens to fly. One takes a seat and the other takes the seat behind and clings to the first seat. The clash of chains breaks the music that fills the air laden with saltiness. Then comes that moment when everything seems still. Motionless. Until a clean blow makes you move and you slowly begin to gain speed. And as long as you can still see the people on the ground with their noses in the air, you feel you’re an astronaut flying into space. FIVE ROUNDS TO FLY. You feel projected in the infinity, only the chains keep you anchored to the world, which stays still down there and is really beautiful         as you see it from above with the sea merging with the sky.  Here is the hanging trophy, waiting. Here we go, it’s time to give a try.  A kick in the bottom to go higher, grab it and win a free round.  

If it wasn’t for the little man of the carousel that, as he likes, pulls the rope from below to make the undertaking impossible.
It is not time to win. But who cares, in my pockets I still have four rounds left to fly!