Spring Fever

 

Peter could no longer remain in doors, not another minute. The beautiful spring days gave him strange feelings. It left him helpless with no control over himself. He took his hat and walked out of his office. Peter kept going until he reached Highland Amusement park. He knew this park；here he had felt the first excitement of love more than 25 years ago. Now he was a married man with a wife and 12 years old boy and he loved them dearly, but it was spring and some-how he felt free as the wind, the way he felt in his twenties when he thought he had the world in his hands. 

The whole park was over-whelmed by a holiday atmosphere as if life had opened a new road for the people. He felt the same way deep down within him. He wanted something to happen to him, something new and different. He thought of his wife knitting her sweater. Billy would be playing his toy or fixing his bicycle. If he had been at home with them, he would be fixing the flower bed and working around the house. But he did not feel that way now. The fever of adventure rose within him. He was carried away by a rebellion against the principle he had respected. 

Inside the amusement park, he stopped in front a shooting gallery1) and watched the man shoot down white ten ducks and birds. The gallery owner turned to Peter and said：“Come on. Try your luck, win a nice prize for your girlfriend. ”Peter laughed. “Ok. Brother. ”He said：“I will try it. ”He picked up a rifle2), aimed at the moving ducks and pulled the trigger3) quickly shot after shot, and he won a big doll.

He walked away and then he saw a young woman. Without hesitation, Peter held the doll out to her and said, “Pardon me, but would you do me a favour? I feel funny carrying this doll around. So would you mind taking it？It needs a mother. ”The girl shook off her surprise and laughed. “Well. If it embarrasses4) you, I suppose there is nothing else I can do.” She accepted the doll and thanked him. “It’s lovely. Where ever did you get it？”“I won it at the shooting gallery. ”He told her and almost without realizing it, he was walking beside her up the path through the park.