Nick followed Lily. They climbed into the seat of the twister. He reached out and pulled down the safety bar. She moved close into him, worked her head under his arm. Somebody pushed at their seat, gave it a shove. It swivelled around and she grabbed at the bar.
The music died, lurched into life again and their seat swung into motion. Beneath them slats rattled across the humped floor and picked up speed. The music soared, and they felt themselves thrust into the back of the seat. "Heeeey!" said Lily. The motion threw her towards Nick and away, towards him and away.
"Remember when you were a kid?" she shouted.
"Yeah!" he shouted back.
A fairground man came over with easy strides riding the rolling floor and rested his hands on the back of their seat. He leant right over them for a moment, as if inspecting their heads, then he pushed hard on the seat rim and sent it spinning, spinning fast, so all they could do was hold tight. Eyes shut, hands locked to the bar, they shouted and screamed, and when the spin of the seat met the turn of the carousel the force that pushed them meant they had to fight to face one another and they screamed and laughed as if they were never going to scream or laugh again.
When the spinning slowed, Lily was crying.
The fairground man came by. Nick pulled Lily into him and whispered to her. She shook her head. Nick looked up at the man and nodded.
Then the man leant over them again and threw with all his weight, and away they went deep in one another's embrace, spinning and spinning, faster even than before.