(You can listen to this piece on S2E25 of the podcast)
People didn’t come to the Colorado State Fair on Thursday mornings as chilly and overcast as today except for Tanya. But here she was one of only two people in line for the Ferris Wheel wishing she could be where she really belonged. The one other person in line, a nondescript bohemian-looking middle-aged lady was whisked into the seat opposite her, and Tanya pretended she hadn’t called off sick from work today to sulk her misfortunes.
A poof like the sound of a powder brush dabbing fleshy cheeks shook the car, and twenty seconds later, Tanya was biting her bottom lip, not sure whether she was too far off the ground to survive the fall if she jumped out of the Ferris Wheel bucket now. She was only 90 degrees up on the ascent. The bohemian lady turned fairy godmother primped herself with pats to her bouffant and straightening out her mauve formal ball gown. The probability of this moment was infinitesimal. What would her colleagues think if she told them? That she’d experienced a real-life mathematical conundrum of physics and matter. The changing of properties so astounding that surely she could publish several papers about it. If this was real-life. Was this real life?
“Dear. I beg you to focus on this matter. You can bet quite scatterbrained, no wonder you were overlooked.”
Tanya snapped out of her rabbit hole thinking and licked her dry lips.
“A choice you say?” Tanya croaked.
“Yes dear, a rather simple one I should say.” The Ferris Wheel reached 120 degrees into its trajectory. Surely it was too late to jump out now.
“And I can go today?” Tanya asked.
“Yes, you can go straight away,” Fairy Godmother said.
“And be with my one true love?”
“Yes, you’ll be with your one true love.”
“But I have only until midnight?” Tanya asked. Fairy Godmother winked.
“I believe you’ll be finding it sufficient enough time to win over your beloved.”
Tanya paused. Was it this simple. Taking a deep breath, she nodded.
“Yes,” Tanya said.
“Yes?” Fairy Godmother pulled a glass protractor from her rhinestone clasp. “Use this at the International Mathletics Competition, and you’re sure to take home the trophy.”
And suddenly, their little cabin on the Ferris Wheel turned into a plane, and Tanya’s casual attire turned into her usual mathematics professor khakis and sweater, and she flew off to claim the national title of her dreams.
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