The ferris wheel, part 1

Nancy sped across the city on her motorcycle, her leather jacket protecting her from the city's thick smoke and dirt, elements that proved the city's evils and corruption. Nancy drove to the most dangerous place she knew, the place where some don't make it out alive, where all her mysteries are contemplated and where many are solved: The ferris wheel. Nancy was surprised to see Ned. This once promising young lawyer and Nancy's first love, was now the operator of the ferris wheel, his clothes smelled of vodka from a plastic bottle and he smiled a smile she had never seen while they dated, one no law student has ever smiled.

Ned's smile confirmed Nancy's fears, the fears Ned's parents threatened when Nancy told them she was going to break Ned's heart: Nancy realized she had forever broken Ned's legal aspirations... his hopes and dreams of never smiling, drinking $40 martinis in an irresponsible excess, someday owning a Bentley, and sleeping with his pancake chefs were now just a distant memory of a life once lived. Once destroyed. For a brief moment, Nancy thought of taking Ned back, of leaving the world of sushi, leather, and sexy crime-solving boots.

But then she remembered: she had work to do. It's tough to be a gritty crime-fighting all-American detective girl - it's a job that never stops. She grimly nodded at Ned, reached behind his grubby jacket, and pulled a flask out of his back Levis pocket. "I'll take this one for the ride, babe," she said, leaving a clean Benjamin in the flask's place. She spun open the top of the flask and took a drag. Then she climbed up into the ferris wheel basket. The ferris wheel: rife with danger, reeking swinging basket death. But she had to do it. It was the only vantage point from which she could watch those ILSMS rescue a panda in the zoo far, far below.

Nancy's leather jacket stuck to the basket chair's rain-worn cushion; the ferris wheel's mechanism, which hadn't been properly maintained in years, creaked with every strained attempt to keep the baskets in the air; and, because Ned now hated Nancy and blamed her for his failed legal career, he stopped the ride as Nancy's basket reached the top of the wheel, the place where at least four patrons have died. Nancy, a true ILSM, confidently believed Ned's decision to stop the wheel was because he still loved her, he wanted to peek up her skirt from below, and he wanted to give her the only gift he, a mere ferris wheel operator, could still provide: more time at the top. 100 feet above the pavement, Nancy looked out over the city and contemplated today's mystery.

"There is a panda in distress," she thought, "and I must eat sushi in 5 and a half hours. Is there time to save the panda?" 100 feet above the ground, in a basket that could plummet to the ground at any moment, Nancy doubted herself. She doubted her ability to properly maintain her body in such a sexy way, while still making time for pandas and sushi. She had so many responsibilities. Too many. Nancy contemplated jumping from her rickety basket, ending it all, leaving the panda's fate and spicy salmon rolls to someone else, but then she remembered something that made her life worth living: she still had cocaine.