Anticipation Descriptive Writing

A Descriptive Essay

Anticipation grows consistent with every step I take along the gritty concrete labyrinth. Beneath a blazing sun, the smell of baked asphalt, sugary cola, and pretzel surround me. I follow the unpainted, gray chain fence that leads me forward. Overhead the deafening whirl of metal and screams briefly fill the hot air. The consistent drone of greasy motors and hissing pneumatics engage my curiosity. My heart rushes like a child on Christmas morning about to receive a favorite toy. Gone is the trepidation felt at the ticket stand. Trying to see through the myriad of people, my novice eyes grasp the breadth of what I am about to do. My mind is absorbed by its brutish presence; encompassed by its enchanting disposition.
Like a metallic sea serpent from a Jules Verne novel, it sprawls upon the earth. A paradox of reality and science fiction fills my consciousness as I move forward in single file. Oiled wheels and glistening machinery heaves and breaths like a living dragon before my youthful eyes. My senses reel before the whooshes of compressed air and clanking of metal upon metal. The heavy air reeks of sweat and old bubble gum. I hesitantly persuade my lower appendages to keep pace with the masses. I am bumped, jostled, and pushed by humanity as if we were cattle being led to slaughter. Excitement grows upon the restless horde contending for position in this frenzied arena. I notice my tight grip on the paint-chipped metal that keeps me safe from certain death--or is it certain joy, I ask myself. A clamoring screech that overwhelms my thought process has come to rest before me. It is time to contend not with the demon that lies before me, but the demon within called fear. Before I know it, the leathery shoulder harness has been tightened as if I am being prepared to hurl through the sky in a fighter jet. A man yanks and jerks my belt to the point I can hardly breathe. My confinement within this dreadnought is complete. I join chorus with twenty-five other souls in screams and laughter as the brake gives way. Clutching the foam-padded rung before me with every fingernail, I feel a snap and into the unknown I go like a baby bird leaving the nest for the first time. “This is not so bad”, I think to myself. Suddenly, I notice the first dip just ahead. My legs flailing, I fall like a lead sinker in a pond. Still I think this is not so bad. Around the next turn I see my demon return from deep within. A momentary lapse of courage descends upon me as if I were a rat suddenly caught in a trap. A collection of ear-piercing screams descend upon me and then silence for a moment. “Oh no,” I murmur to myself.
Staring up, the Matterhorn of perdition awaits me.
A sudden lurch and we start the ascension I pray would be over soon. Click, click, click reverberated over and over like a death sentence about to be carried out. I knew when it stopped all hell could, and would, break loose. I look around and not ahead as if that would calm my tattered nerves. The sky is blue, trees are green down below, but what I see before me surely makes my face turn white. We tip over like a sailboat in a swell. The clicking stops as does my faint heart. Waiting for the inevitable made seconds seem like minutes. I quickly shut my eyes, as if trying to entice a monster in my closet to go away. The downward rush of sleek, painted metal and humanity takes seconds. The downward dash into oblivion feels like an assault on the faculties. Time stands still as my mind overloads with excitement, joy, fear and finality. What have I done? Nearing the point where gravity takes over, I steel myself within this sarcophagus of peril. My weight pulls me down into the beast as if my body were made of iron. At the bottom, my bewildered eyes open and I realize it was over. I had passed my first test of
mettle.
Around the bend I face not one, but two maelstroms of vertical horror.
We arrive at a pair of giant tortuous and curved twins of terror in a flash. Hurled up into the first cyclone, I am slammed in all directions as if in a washing machine. Blood-curdling shrieks and nervous laughter mix with the distortions of gravity. With barely time to recover, I am buffeted again back and forth as if in a car wreck. Subversion takes over my body as if I have a choice. Thrust out like a child’s toy, I struggle to catch my breath and my wits. Around another bend I relent before yet another assemblage of fear-rendering cruelty. Like a monstrous version of Archimedes screw, we traverse this helical path in seconds. Consternation does not have time to interact with the mind. Propelled out from this vortex, the goal can finally be seen
ahead.
Like an excursion to the top of the highest mountain, my journey is coming to an end and I am still alive. I have climbed my K2. Compressed air secures this exhausted group to a sudden, blinding stop almost giving me whiplash. Surrounding our arrival await the next gathering of the cheerful and hesitant now ready for their cycle upon the mighty machine. Arriving at the port where it all began, I contemplate the last few moments of my life as a criminal would delight in a last-minute pardon. I stay anchored into my refuge of a seat a few seconds longer than many, pondering it all. I look around for another child like me who, harboring fear has come to reconcile their conflict within. Let another take my place as I have found my reconciliation on this hot and humid summer day. A large pretzel and Coke will be my celebration and maybe--just maybe--try it again.