We were firecracker riders. I was strapped to you like dynamite. Everything blurred by and in my mind I sent every carousel that I had ever been on spinning a million miles faster than it was built to go. And I pictured an army of children all lined up like tin soldiers until they all shot down slides at the same moment like magnets racing to opposing poles. I put every memory I had managed to collect on fast-forward until all that was left was film strip noise. I paused for nothing, so I cared for nothing. You carried us over landscapes and the speed made me feel as though I was shedding every atom of my body. I was mercury and the speed scattered me into silver bits that I did not have a moment to miss. The speed made me leave myself behind.