This was when they first spotted the short balding man with the pinstriped jacket standing out front, supporting his weight with a bamboo cane.
"Come on up kids! Ride The Scrambler, only two tickets apiece." The man said in a voice that seemed to naturally fill the area in a pleasant baritone.
"The Scrambler is the answer to all your problems, all your questions, all your dreams."
"Do you dare challenge the ultimate ride?" the barker read from a sign hanging outside the entrance of the tent while emphasizing each word he read by tapping it with his cane.
The barker politely held the flap on the darkened tent open so Joanna and the other patrons could slip inside. There in the center of the tent was a small weathered metal platform. In the center of the platform was a metal pole rising up approximately eight feet with equally spaced bars radiating from the center. Suspended from each bar, hanging a few inches from the base of the platform, was a transparent cylinder with its door standing open; one for each patron.
A hand-painted wooden sign mounted with rusty wire to an equally rusty steel pole stood slightly askew before the entrance to the platform. The peeling paint on the sign read:
The Scrambler!
- You must be this tall to ride this ride (a small line was painted in red some four feet from the ground)
- Requires a minimum of three passengers.
- One passenger per compartment.
- Ride will begin automatically when all doors are securely shut.
- Not responsible for incidental death or disfigurement.
