As they got closer the dark February sky was dulled out by the glow of lights stringed around the fairground. He and his newly found friend wandered in and decided to have a go at the dodgems. Carter still had his £5 note as the girl insisted on paying since he had returned her purse to her. He wished he didn’t spend the rest of his money on flowers for Ella, and he made a silent wish to have more to spend on the fairground rides with this girl. He was having a lot of fun tonight despite what happened a few hours prior, but it seemed it had to come to an end as Carter put his last pound in the dodgems. It seemed the machine didn’t accept his £1 coin as it rolled back out… with another, and another, and another. Soon Carter had another £20 to spend on rides.

You can have more. Just wish it.

Something took over Carter. A new energy. He realised his luck was changing, and it didn’t have to stop now… but the night was almost over. Carter wished he had more time; that he could carry on living this moment forever. He and Cassie were having a lot of fun, something he never expected when he looked at the events of his life. It was a miserable one… definitely a miserable one. He started to think of that night, the car that hit his mum years ago. Everybody in school kept feeling sorry for him, but he didn’t want their sympathy. He blamed himself a great deal, and their sympathy made him feel guilty and miserable, not that it was a great difference from what he already felt. Why did he have to run onto the road. He remembered what always happened to him when he had too much fun.

Carter was 8 and he and his mum were going back home from a fun time playing bowling at his friend’s birthday party. He was walking down the street holding his mother with one hand and his party bag in the other, and Carter remembered that there was a bouncy ball in the bag so he decided to take it out and play with it. They were nearly home when Carter fumbled the bouncy ball and it went onto the road. Without checking Carter wandered onto the street and squatted down to pick up his bouncy ball. He realised its shadow getting shorter and he looked up to find a car heading his way. He could hear his mother’s muffled screams in the background, and the rest… the rest went by too quick to remember. He didn’t want to remember. All he could remember was the aftermath. His mother on a stretcher, with blood pooling around her. He had a blanket over him and he was squeezing his bouncy ball. Sirens were blaring and people were staring out of their windows. He was too young to know what had happened.

Back to the present Carter tried not to think about that night, but it was a constant reminder to never have fun again, to never be happy again. Was it a coincidence that he was reminded of that night on this one? He was finally happy, and he had to be reminded. But this new energy had taken over him. Whatever he wanted to happen would happen if he wished for it. Carter found himself wishing for more time again, but this time not with Cassie… he wanted more time with his mum. In that moment Carter started to remember memories he thought were forgotten. Memories so vague he always thought they were part of a dream, but here they were. All there as clear as a blue sky, and suddenly that night was not the only memory that filled his mind. Carter thought that he was happy but all his new memories did was make him feel worse, because he could see what he had ended. Carter decided to let the past go and move on. He was going to be happy now, and this new feeling inside him, these new ideas would make that a possibility.

Carter realised he was spaced out and when he zoned back in he had left the fairground with Cassie’s number in his phone, and he was at Circus. The shopping district of London was bustling with crowds upon crowds of people. Christmas decorations still hung from building to building, and desperately needed to be taken down. Carter figured that one way to make himself happy was to buy what he liked, but Carter only had £20 to spend… oh… and that £5 note, but Carter wanted to hold onto it . It was a symbol of the day his luck started to change.