THE EKKA
August 15th 2008 05:03
I didn’t go to the Ekka. I’ve never been to the Ekka. It’s terrible, I know. When I was young, I used to live up north. We also had our own version of the Ekka. It was called “The Show.” It was when people from “the country” brought over a Ferris wheel, a bunch of rides and a horror show or two. There were clown head games and water games and dart games and food stalls that sold expensive ice cream. They sold Show bags that were called things like THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SHOW BAG and THE WORLD'S BEST SHOW BAG, and they included things like THE WORLD'S SMALLEST CAMERA and THE BIGGEST AMOUNT OF CANDY IN THE WORLD.
I was around eight years old when I went to my first Show. I went with this redhead kid, Patrick, whose mouth would always remain open. We never knew why he’d always leave his mouth open.
The tagline of the Show was, IT’S WHEN THE COUNTRY MEETS THE CITY.
Patrick snickered. He said, “It’s when the cuntry meets the city. Get it? It sounds like cunt.”
I didn’t laugh.
We went on the roller coaster. It was called the Donkey or something. We were scared because it constantly sounded like the entire roller coaster was breaking. Our ride rattled and vibrated and shoved us left and right. A boy behind us kept whispering, I don’t want to die, not today, please, not today, I’m too young, I promise I’ll be good from now on. Patrick cried.
I wonder where Patrick is now. I should look for him on Facebook. I wonder if he still keeps his mouth open, if he still thinks of cunt.
Image taken from Ekka website.
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As promised, here are some ways to POSSIBLY get published through various competitions and opportunities here in Australia.
Interactive Press is holding a national competition for unpublished manuscripts. More info here.
Harper Collins is hosting Varuna Awards for manuscript development.
There’s also the Brisbane Writer’s Festival and the Queensland Writer’s Centre. You can Google those. I'm tired and I'm writing from a library - my laptop broke.
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