I land on the ground inside the junkyard and I start looking around. I don’t see Jace.
The place is so dark tonight with the new moon, but the stars are out in force.
I pull out my phone and call Jace’s number.
“You’re here,” he answers.
“How very creepy of you to say,” I respond. “Where are you?”
“I’ve got a little surprise for you.”
“That’s all well and good,” I tell him, “but if I don’t know where you are…”
“You know exactly where I am,” he says. “I’ll see you when you get here.”
He hangs up and I start walking again. Even with all the stars, the night is so dark that I’m having a little trouble finding the correct path through all of the wreckage. Soon enough, though, I’m through, and staring up at the Ferris wheel.
I don’t see Jace.
I pull out my phone and call him again.
“You coming up or what?” he asks.
He’s at the top? Last time, he vowed that he’d never climb “that fucking thing” again. I gaze up at the Ferris wheel, trying to spot him, and I manage to make out his shadow against the backdrop of the night sky.
That’s a surprise, all right.
“Come on!” he shouts from the top. “I don’t have all night!”
A thrill flows through me, and I make my way to the base of the ladder. Climbing up, I forget my usual fear and just keep putting one hand above the other.
As I get toward the top, though, that trepidation returns, and I’m slow to make it to where I can look over the top of the ladder and see Jace sitting in the car.
“You’ve got this,” he says as he holds out his hand.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. “What am I doing here?”
“Why don’t we talk about this after you’re in the car?”
I climb up and reach out to him. He takes my hand. It takes a little bit of maneuvering and my life flashing before my eyes more than once, but I manage to get into the car.
Jace reaches forward, puts the pin in the front of the restraint, and turns to look at me.
“What are we doing here?” I ask him as I try to get my body to stop shaking.
“We’re both overcoming our fears,” he says. “They say that the only way to do that is to confront them directly, so here we are.”
“That’s very new age of you,” I tell him, “but you didn’t send a car for me just so I could-”
He reaches down to his side and produces a small bottle of wine.
“It’s nothing fancy,” he says, “but it’s all I could fit in my pocket for the climb up.”
“How did your hearing go?” I ask.
“I’m suspended until they can figure out what to do with me. I was hoping for a little less, but considering that they could have fired me and immediately called for the revocation of my license, I’d say it’s a win.”
“I’m sorry I’ve been ducking your calls,” I tell him. “At first, I was telling myself that I didn’t want to further jeopardize your career by