“It’s okay!” Ava said.
“No, it’s not.” I shouted, again and again, for someone to turn it off. But the circus music drowned me out, not that an employee was anywhere close.
“Okay, Ava, walk forward. Keep your eyes shut tight.”
“I don’t feel very well. I’m not sure I can walk.” She stumbled.
I had to release her eyes to catch her.
“Keep your eyes closed, Ava.” I scooped her up in my arms.
Thankfully, she was small enough for me to carry, and I pushed through a black curtain and out into the night air.
I hauled her to a bench and sat down, keeping her and the bear in my lap.
“Ava?” My chest was so tight I could barely breathe.
She was quiet, too quiet.
Was it a seizure? She wasn’t stiff. Nothing was pulsing.
But still, she didn’t come around.
This was my fault.
I should have known there would be a strobe in a Fun House. I understood carnivals. She didn’t. This was on me. I hadn’t protected her at all.
“Ava?”
I wasn’t sure what was wrong. Her face wasn’t blue. As I held her, she seemed to breathe.
“Ava?”
Her head turned to the side and moved in a short, jerky pulse.
Damn it, a seizure. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
“Ava?” I wasn’t sure how long to wait before I called for help.
A few curious passers-by watched us, probably assuming we were having a lovers’ moment.
Her head got heavy and flopped against my arm, and then she said, “Owww.”
I was so relieved, I felt like crying. This was nothing like the one in the hospital. Short. Only her head was affected.
“Are you back?”
She lifted her hands to her hair. “My head is going to fall off. It feels like death.”
“I know that feeling.”
I still wasn’t sure she knew me. I had no idea how she came out of seizures. This was only a partial one. Her whole body hadn’t been involved. I had them all the time. But I’d missed the ending of the only one of Ava’s I’d seen, that first time in the disco room.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
She thumped my chest. “Ava, you dummy. You were saying it nonstop.”
“What’s my name?”
