Statue of Liberty

Mia never thought it would turn out like this. Maya was fourteen, for goodness' sake, certainly old enough to understand that when you're on a Ferris wheel, you stay in your seat.

Perhaps Mia had overestimated Maya's ability to act like a normal person in public.

So now, she was at the bottom of the ride, heart pounding, watching her younger sister try to grab onto the top of a rusted gondola roof for dear life. Her swollen vocal chords did not want her to scream anymore.

"Relax, Kitten. The nice man over there is going to get her down." Diego sipped on his carnival-bought coffee.

Mia was hysterical, and being treated like a child wasn't helping matters. She grabbed the Styrofoam cup from the other attorney's hands and flung it across the pavement.

"It was your idea to come here!" she growled hoarsely. "I said we should go to a movie!"

Diego rolled his eyes.

"Yes, because I really knew that teens nowadays enjoy flinging themselves off of Ferris Wheels."

"She certainly doesn't act her age... And she didn't fling herself off..." Mia was now squeezing her co-worker's hand, ignorant to the fact that she was cutting off his circulation.

Seeing her sister's panic, Maya tried to help the situation by waving to Mia. The movement made the gondola swing back and forth, causing the medium-in-training to lose her grip. She heard a screechy noise as her bare legs slowly moved down the metal, followed by the rest of her body.

"Oh my God, she's falling off!" Mia managed to scream into Diego's ears. This caused him to hear a ringing sound for days afterward.

The ride repair man, an emotionless man in his late thirties, slowly came closer to the girl in his crane. He wanted a different job.

"You just hang tight, missy, and I'll get you down," he called slowly, in that bored tour guide sort of way.

Maya started screaming as she finally slipped off the edge of the roof, and grabbed on to the handrail. Below, she heard Mia shrieking louder than humanly possible, and Diego trying to calm her down. If she died, this was not the way she wanted to go.

Although it would make headlines in the paper...

Maya's thoughts were interrupted as something made an eerie sound, not unlike nails being scraped across a chalkboard. The man in the crane, who was moving very, very slowly, turned pale and stared at the iron bar connecting the gondola to the rest of the ride. As Maya felt her body lowering slowly, she understood what had happened.

The old Ferris wheel was finally coming apart.

Mia, still screaming, started to draw attention to herself. People from all over the park wandered slowly towards the Ferris wheel to see what the source of the noise was. Some even took out their cell phones.

If you record this, Mia thought, I'll kill you.

Diego stared.

"...Did I voice that last thought?" she asked slowly.

"Yes."

"Heh...Heh..." Mia smiled awkwardly and turned her attention back to her sister.

Maya stopped screaming. She didn't dare make a move. Any sort of motion and the bar would twist downwards, sending her down to the ground, and most likely killing her.

"Keep holding on!" Mia called up. "You're doing great!"

Mia's words made Maya's head instinctively turn toward the sound. The movement made the bar bend even more, and Maya lost her grip, due to the angle. Her hands slipped from the handrail as she plummeted toward the Earth.

Mia froze as she watched her sister fall a few hundred feet. A sharp cracking sound made her burst into tears as she ran toward the spot where Maya landed.

The girl lay in a ball, unconscious. Obviously broken limbs pressed against Maya's skin, and the very sight made Mia dizzy. The last thing she saw before blacking out was Diego calling 911 on his cell.

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"What the frig, Maya?! Why did you climb out of your seat like that?!" Mia yelled at her sister in the hospital room. Maya had broken her left leg, right arm, and three fingers in her left hand, but otherwise, she was very much alive.

"Never mind..."

"No, Maya, I do mind! What could have possibly caused you to do that? Mom made me promise to take care of you if anything ever happened to her, and this is not taking care of you! How do you think I feel?"

Maya looked sheepish.

"Well... Danny at school said that he knew someone who climbed on to the roof of that Ferris wheel and he was able to see the Statue of Liberty!"

Diego chuckled.

"Kitten, we live in California. The Statue of Liberty is in New York."

"I know..."

Mia facepalmed.

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"Mystic Maya, Mystic Maya!" Pearl bounced into Phoenix's office, waving some paper around.

"What is it, Pearly?"

"I just got tickets for us to go to a carnival! They have candy, and rides, and even an exhibit showing an old wrecked Ferris Wheel!"

"Really? That sounds fun!"

"Yeah, it will be! I wonder what broke the Ferris wheel... They said it only broke 4 years ago, and Ferris Wheels are awfully big..." Pearl looked puzzled.

"Probably some really fat person!" Phoenix said, chuckling.

Maya stomped on his foot.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Maybe some kid just wanted to see the Statue of Liberty!"

Phoenix blinked.

"Maya, we live in California...And what does that have to do with anything?"

Maya just glared at him.

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A/N: Don't put Snapefan21 in front of a computer after giving her sugar. She writes stuff like this.