“Step right up! You — yes you! Come closer, don’t flee,” said a booming, gravelly voice. His wraith-like bony finger pointed at me from the frayed cuff of his oversized burgundy sleeve. The brim of his top hat was pulled low, shadowing his face. Yet, I felt his gaze and his draw, nonetheless.
I started, as if waking from a dream or a nightmare, before I gaped up at him, shivering from the cold fog surrounding us. I’d been transported to an unfamiliar fallow field. A brightly lit, empty Ferris Wheel stood before me. It rotated slowly, then sped up. Its rainbow-colored lights spun into a never-ending spiral, captivating and bright.
His shadowed face appeared before me. “What’re your vices? Your virtues? The things you can’t let go of? Quick, quick--”
His insistent questions annoyed me, but not as much as his bony fingers. They poked me into positions while a glowing measuring tape floated around me.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Measuring your soul, of course!”
He and his tape measure danced around me. “Where o’ where shall your soul reside? Upside, downside, or does the dude simply abide?” he chuckled.
“Hmm, where shall we go? What shall we leave? Those are the questions of the haunted be. Ride the wheel, and we shall see!”
I floated to sit in one of the carts, just like when I was a scared child and my so-called friends cajoled me past my fears. I rode the wheel. I saw my life from above and below. Where would I go? The wheel spun faster, the colors whirled, my stomach dropped. My regrets glowed and plummeted. My memories whistled past, as fleeting as dandelion fluff.
Where would my soul go? I didn’t know. The wheel stopped turning, and the bar raised up. Did it even matter? As above–so below.