A trip to Bakken

In May 2019 Margaret Adamson, and her friend Sue Fulcher are providing the prompts.
They will be published by Elephant's Child.
This week's prompts are:

Ironically
Trove
Reflecting
Visit
Dressing gown
Buttercup

And / or

Chronic
Slippers
Stretching
Chuckled
Technical
Practice

Although I've written a short end to my story of Susan and The Unicorn Farm, I don't feel like stopping. There's still so much more to tell. This is a continuation of Susan - Holidays at Home.

Uncle Freddy bought a book called "Hjælp!" (Help), leading to a funny incident, as he sat down on an old, decrepit bench shortly after. Ironically the bench collapsed, and uncle Freddy with it, the only visible part of him being a hand with the book in it. Everybody laughed, and had to pull themselves together to get him out of the rubble.

As soon as Susan had netted a reasonable sum of money for the coming day's visit to the amusement park, she pushed the rest of her stuff over to Linda. "You can keep 4 fifths of the money, you make on my things," Susan said, knowing full  well that Linda was adept with numbers, and only were going to cheat on her for a minor sum.  She was tired of boisterous uncles, loud family members and drunken people in general.
Susan went into the kitchen and made herself a couple of sandwiches. She took some milk and some candy and carried it all  upstairs into her room. Once inside she tied the rope, she kept handy for this purpose from the door to the window post, effectively preventing anyone from opening her door, as it opened outwards. The key to her door had gone missing before it was her room. Hence the rope, When Susan had to leave the room locked, she tied the rope in place and climbed from her window out onto the balcony leading to her parents' sleeping room and from there she could access the rest of the house. Her parents did not like her doing this - they found her out once she broke the window by leaning against it while tying the rope, and the shards rained down past the window they were sitting at in the living room below. They accepted it, as some of her smaller cousins were very inquisitive and their parents lenient. She chuckled now at the memory of the raining shards, but it had not been funny then. She had been shocked, but unharmed. The pane of glass had somehow fallen out of the frame in one piece, only it hit the rain spouts on its way down and broke i a million tiny fragments. Susan had been picking up shards for days after, a job that had been made harder by the many many yellow buttercups with their shiny petals reflecting the sun.

Susan sat down at her table, eating first the sandwiches, then the candy, savouring the taste of cold milk and candies. She was diligently studying Cantrippes ...  once again. The text on making objects float in the air was written in a very technical language. She had asked Heidi for help, and when they both admitted defeat, Tue had come to their rescue, explaining just how those twisted phrases were meant to be read. And now, finally she understood. She took out her wand and made today's coins zip and soar through the air. When she was sure she had it down, she turned the page and got to colour changes. "Colour changes," Susan thought to herself. "Well, that might come handy if Mum tries to put those orange hairbands on me again, but I don't see the great use,"
But it was part of what she had been asked to study for the next holiday. And Thora had made it quite clear that they were going to learn all of it, when Veronika, the lanky flower power girl, had protested against their learning of these minor matters. Susan bowed her head over the book, she still had to practice a lot to get the pronunciation of the colours in Icelandic right.

Nest day began late, but it did not matter much. The amusement park did not open until 12 o'clock. Almost all the stuff had been sold, all the food eaten and all the beer drunk. Mum was still dallying around in her orange dressing gown and slippers. Linda was impatient, trying to make her hurry up and get ready while Susan put the empty bottles back in the crates and stacked them in a corner. Then she put the pillows back on the garden swings and generally tidied the place.
Finally Mum and Dad were finished. They begun climbing into the car, when Mum suddenly looked at Susan's hair. "Susan, where's you hairband?"
"Oh, Mum, do I need them today? They got lost yesterday, somehow."
"Susan, Susan, you're always loosing those hairbands. Well maybe we can buy you some new ones today." "Lets be off!" Dad said, and they hurried into the car, Susan lugged her worn, blue haversack and Linda was toting her new, purple bag. During the long drive Susan repeated the colours in Icelandic. She envied Heidi, who had Lis and Tage more than ready to help her study the words. Not because they were hard to learn, most of them were very like the Danish counterparts, it was just so much more fun learning together.
Susan's tummy began feeling queasy, as always on long car rides, but fortunately they arrived before she had to ask for a break.

***

The amusement park was fun. They visited the house of  crazy mirrors that made them small and squat or gave them large balloons for heads connected by thin necks to an almost inexsisting body on bandy legs, or any other wavy and distorted images making them all laugh and look wondering at one another. The way out was through a labyrinth made of glass walls. Susan always wondered why it was so hard to get out. You could see where you were supposed to end up, all the walls were transparent, and yet somehow everybody always banged their head against a glass pane in their search for an exit.
When they finally found their way out they all had a snow cone. Susan chose mint flavour, and Linda had strawberry. Dad always wanted lemon, and complained that it was too sweet, while mum also took strawberry  and only ate half of it, protesting that the cold ice set her teeth on edge. Susan and Linda shared the rest of it, each of them thinking she got less than the other, none of them saying anything, because they knew that bickering would make Mum and Dad shorten the stay.

Susan wanted to go to the funhouse. Even though it made her think of uncle Theodore and his stupid remarks it was a fun place. Linda agreed, but Mum and Dad wanted some coffee. The girls placed their bags and parents at the coffee house and ran off. The funhouse was fun, crazy, leaning stairs, that made you feel like the house moved beneath your feet, dreamy butterflies in semi-dark rooms, tubes and barrels trying to knock you off your feet, rolling pathways in different speeds, squirts of water and the hamster wheel for people - that was the best part. They spent a long time inside, and when they finally left the grille of course sent up jets of air lifting their skirts. Stretching and straightening their skirts they laughed and squinted in the sunshine.

"Hey let's go and try the Wheel of Fortune," Linda said, I'd like to win some nice things."
"Nice things?" Susan answered doubtfully. "Normally I only win small teddies or a plastic Snoopy or some such. I am not lucky as you or aunt Dina. But if you really want to, then let's try."
"I do," Linda said, "somebody from my class told me that you could even win records there."
The wheel of fortune was on the corner farthest away from the coffee shop. Behind the big wheel were shelves filled with prizes. On the floor stood crates of mini teddies, soap bubbles, colour crayons, and plastic Snoopies, these were consolation prizes. The prizes got bigger and better on the shelves. The lowest shelf was marked 3rd prize and contained many playthings and small bottles of wine and canned goods and nylon stockings. The middle shelf contained bigger versions of everything plus some jigsaw puzzles. The topmost shelf had a red sign with 1st prize in golden lettering. It was a veritable treasure trove, it held electrical appliances, two toned horns, liquor bottles, enormous teddy bears, big boxes of chocolate and as Linda had said even records. They stood for a while looking at the prizes.

"Wow," Linda said. "They even have some brand new records. Look at that! They have  Boney M's Nightflight to Venus. I'm going to die if I win it."
"Well, then. Let's try." Susan said. "Why don't you try first?"
Linda looked at the prizes, the wheel and at the numbered squares fastened to the counter. "How do I do?" Linda asked.
The man in the booth explained: "One number cost you 50 øre. You place the coin on your chosen number or numbers, then I turn the wheel, and if the outer wheel stops at your number you've won. The inner wheel tells what price. If your number's not chosen, you can have a consolation prize from the baskets."
The outer wheel had the numbers 1-50 in different colours, corresponding to the plaques on the counter repeated four times over. The inner wheel had first prize, second prize, and third prize written many times over. There were way more 3rd prizes than any of the others, and four golden segments proclaimed 'Free choice'.
Linda deliberated for a short wile, then she placed her coin on the lower left of the red plaque, covering the number 2. The man turned the wheel, and a fat lady dressed in emerald green placed some coins at other numbers. The man in the stall said in that sing song voice preferred by his kind: "The wheel's still turning, place your coins, win a prize!" but there were no more takers.

While the wheel turned, Susan looked at the top shelf, and found a record she wanted. Shu-bi-dua's 78'eren. It was new as well, not as new as Boney M's but still.  Susan wanted to win. She never had any luck. But now Linda was playing. The wheel started slowing down, the small rubber pointer could be heard hitting the marking pins. It went  Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, and gradually slower flap ... flap ... flap ... flap until with a final flap it stood still at number 2. The inner wheel turned a bit more, then it too stopped. And it showed one of the tiny golden squares with Free choice. A dazed looking Linda asked for the Record she wanted, and the man handed it to her with a strained smile.
The next two rounds, the man raked in some coin from other people while Susan got her courage up to play. The man handed out dreadful plastic toys and small packs of crayons to  the looser. The emerald green lady looked a bit downcast as she accepted the third handful of consolation prizes.

Finally Susan placed her small coin on the blue plaque covering up the number 8; the emerald lady placed bigger coins in the middle of several plaques, to indicate that she bought all the numbers on the plaque for that game. Once again the man spun the wheel, and in his sing song voice urged people to place their bets. Susan waited, and the flapping noise from the pointer hitting the pins seemed to fill up the whole world. Flap, flap ... flap. It was a blue number. Susan rubbed her eyes. 8 it said.
"You won too!" Linda yelled. "and free choice too!" Linda jumped up and down. Susan could not believe her luck. The owner of the stall could not either.

"What do you want?" He asked in an intimidating manner.
"I'd like the record by Shu-bi-dua, please." Susan said in a quavering voice.
The man took the record and handed it to Susan: "Here you are."
"Thanks a lot!" Susan said.
"And now! Off you go girls!" The man said in a loud, angry voice. "You've won too much today already. I'm loosing money on customers like you!" The emerald lady tried to get a word in, but Susan and Linda took their records and ran off as quickly as they could.

***

They returned to Mum and Dad who had just finished their coffee.
"We're in luck today!" Linda called. Look what I won, and Susan won a record too.
"The man was mad at us for winning," Susan said, "but we did not do anything wrong, did we?"
"What did you do?" Mum asked, and Linda and Susan recounted their incredible luck."
"No, you did not do anything wrong," Mum said. "The man was just disappointed at loosing."
"And maybe he was angry with himself for not cheating," Dad added. "Most fortune wheels has a hidden contraption to stop it where the owner wants it to stop. And he forgot to press it. The chances of both of you getting those golden free choice for the smallest possible stakes must be very slim indeed."

The small family went out into the surrounding woods and opened their picnic basket. After eating Mum insisted on them cleaning the area for egg peels and tin foil and straws. "You can leave the apple cores under the bushes, but all other thing you have to put back in the basket. No need to be a litterbug."
"It's something chronic." Linda said. Susan only smiled, she still could not believe her luck.

***

"You two lucky birds. Let's all go and put a bet at the Chocolate Derby. I'd like some chocolate." Mum said smiling at Susan and Linda.
It was of course not real horses. A lady stood in the middle of a circular stall, where some wooden horses ran at the end of long arms. You made your bet by putting a coin in a numbered slot. This activated a light at the slot and at the horse with the same number. The winning horse gave the owner a small chocolate bar or box of chocolates. The house won often when not all horses were accounted for.
The lady in the emerald dress was there as well. She saw the girls enter and smiled: "Well now you're here I'd better leave.  You'll win it all." She waved off their feeble tries at an excuse. "You're just lucky today. Nothing wrong with that." She stayed and played, and lost more  than she won.
Mm, Dad, Linda and Susan all won small boxes of cheap, but good chocolate at the Horse races. They ate and shared those on their way home by car.