The Big Wheel

“Hey Midge!” called Booker-T as he entered the gate at Midge's house

“Hi Booker-T,” greeted Midge as she came from the back yard.

“What is your owner doing?” asked Booker-T. “I thought she would be gone to work.”

“She is getting ready for work” said Midge “You are really early this morning. Did you forget the time?”

“I thought we could go to that ride park and check it out before all the construction people got there,” said Booker-T. “ We can check out those neat looking rides.”

“I think construction people start their days early,” said Midge. “I remember them showing up really early across the street when they built that water park over there. My owner should be going in a few minutes and we can go check it out.”

Booker-T sat down on the porch and waited with Midge. When her owner drove away from the house, they hurried out the gate to go to Jake's house.

“Do you want to ask Melody to come along with us?” asked Midge.

“I asked her before I came to your house,” said Booker-T. “She has to go to the vet's office this morning for her yearly checkup and shots.”
“Oh,” said Midge. “Okay, lets hurry.”

They rushed along the sidewalk to Jake's house. When they entered through the gate into the yard, they found Jake asleep on the porch swing.

“Wake up, Jake!” called Midge.

“Hi you guys,” said Jake as he sat up. “You are here early this morning. Is everything okay?”

“I know,” said Midge. “But every thing is okay.”

“Okay,” said Jake. “What is going on this morning?”

“What do you mean?” asked Midge.

“You forget, I know you,” said Jake. “What are you and Booker-T up to?”

“We want to go check out the park with the rides before the construction people get there,” said Midge.

“Don't you remember,” said Jake. “Construction people always arrive early to start working when the weather is cooler outside.”

“We can try, Jake,” said Midge.

“Okay,” agreed Jake. “We can try. Lets go.”

The three hurried along the sidewalk to the park. They looked around the area and saw no trucks and only one care near the fence. They walked around to the back where the hole was in the fence.

“Oh Jake,” said Midge. “They covered up the hole in the fence.”

“How can we get into the park now?” asked Booker-T.

“I don't know,” sighed Midge. “Lets walk around the fence and check it all out again. Maybe there is another hole we can climb through.”

They started to slowly walk around the fence, checking all the boards to see if any were loose. Near the front they found a loose borad and pushed against it until it broke off and fell into the park.

“Oh, Midge,” said Booker-T. “We are going to get into trouble doing that.”

“How will they know that we did it?” asked Midge. “I didn't mean to break it. I didn't push too hard on it. It just fell over.”

“Do you see anyone inside?” asked Jake.

“No,” said Midge as she stepped through the fence opening into the park. “Come on.”

They entered the park and stood looking around. Seeing no one around, they slowly walked across the grounds toward the Ferris wheel and stood staring up at it.

“Wow,” said Midge. “That is a really big wheel.”

Midge walked uip to it and jumped into the seat.

“What are you doing?” asked Jake.

“Push the button Jake,” said Midge.

“That might be dangerous Midge,” said Booker-T. “You could fall out of that seat. We don't know how it works.”

“But I want to ride the big wheel,” sighed Midge. “Please push the button.”

“We can get into a lot of trouble if you ride the wheel,” said Jake. “I think we should go home.”

“No one is here,” said Midge. “Please push the button. How will they know.”

Jake climbed onto the platform and saw all the buttons on the panel. “I don't know which ones to push. There are more than one button.”

“Does one of the buttons say, 'start'?” asked Midge.

“No,” said Jake. “Here is one that says 'Run'.”

“Push Run,” said Booker-T as he stood watching to see what was going to happen.

“Okay, Midge,” said Jake as he reached for the button. “Here goes.”

Suddenly the wheel began to move and Midge sat and looked around as she got higher and higher into the air.

“Jake!” called Midge. “Wow, I can see everything up here.”

The wheel kept turning and she came around back low, but the wheel took her right back up again.
“Hey!” screamed a man's voice as he came running across the pavement to where Jake was standing.

“Scram!”

“Midge!” called Jake. “We have to go. The man is chasing us away.”

The man lowered Midge's seat to the bottom and she jumped off and ran to where Jake and Booker-T were standing.

“That was very high,” said Midge. “But the wheel don't go anywhere but around and around. I went up and down. I want to ride that thing over there.”

“The roller coaster?” asked Booker-T.

“Yes,” smiled Midge. “It is like a train.”

“I don't think you can today,” said Jake. “I think that man was angry because you were in the big wheel. We better go home this morning.”

They hurried to the broken fence board and squeezed through and started running along the sidewalk.

“We can do it another day,” suggested Midge.

Jake just smiled as the three walked back to Jake's house.

“Lets go inside and get something to eat,” said Jake. “I'm hungry.”