"Faster, daddy, faster", Lily insisted.

The phrase took me back in time eighteen years, before the roundabout in front of me could make another circuit. I was listening to my daughter, then three, shouting exactly the same words to me. She too was laughing her head off, thrilled and exhilarated by the speed and movement.

Suddenly she stood up, innocent of the laws of physics. In an instant she was dangling, crying out, hanging upside down, trapped on the now nightmarish ride by one foot, being swept round, for precious seconds just out of my reach. She had the presence of mind to lift her head clear of he ground. I stayed calm, firmly but gently bringing the heavy, spinning machine to a standstill. My stomach didn't stop turning until long after.

It all turned out well enough, once a "green stick" fracture was diagnosed, then set in a local hospital. Today, she and I can laugh about it.

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