Summertime Godfather’s Carnival Ride

My SMS response started out as prose, just me relating to my good friend as best I could, no thought of “creating” anything but conversation.

“I imagine this weekend for you must be kinda like the big pause before diving into a swimming pool or ripping off a bandaid.
I’ve never imagined myself in that role . . . closest I’ve ever come might’ve been taking my friend H to the DMV to get her driver’s license.”

. . . suddenly a brass-knuckled muse, Calliope, seized hold of my neck and Bam! We were off the rails, off the chain, off the charts:

“A celebratory cocktail flavored with the enormous satisfaction of
loved ones achieving a major milestone, taken with a gut-punch chaser of generalized anxiety. On the table: a brand new shrink-wrapped campaign module, a hidden roster of upcoming NPCs with which to contend, and the roller coaster of hopes and fears that is every new shake of the dice.

Summertime. Rollercoaster screams: simultaneous horror and ecstasy, voluntarily peril at the carefully-set brink of disaster -- or at least we hope so.