Day At The Amusement Park Read Count : 110

Category : Stories

Sub Category : Fiction
          	I grip the steering wheel of my old black car. As it sputters along on the expressway, someone in the back points out of the window. Her nails with a fresh coat of pink nail polish. Her black hair pulled to the side by a loose braid. She has tan skin. She’s wearing a plain purple tee-shirt that’s too large for her and light blue jean shorts. She’s sitting in the right back seat. Her name is Lizzy. Next to her is Ben. He is so tall that the top of his light brown hair is touching the roof of the car. He has on a plain white tank top and washed out jeans that he cut down into shorts. He has already put on his sunglasses over his dark brown eyes and is wearing flip-flops. Lizzy turns to look at me, her light blue eyes sparkling.      
          	“Look how tall it is!” She says while grabbing the back of the passenger seat and pulling herself up so she was so close to me that I could see the few freckles that are sprinkled across her face. She’s pointing at the first hill of a red roller coaster on the horizon.
          	“Um-hm. That’s pretty tall.” I said. She let go of the seat and fell back into her seat.
          	“God, I can’t wait to go on it!” She sighed, staring at the roller-coaster. She’s shaking out of excitement. I adjust the rearview mirror so that I can see Ben. He’s shaking too, but not out of excitement. He has gone pale. He’s just staring out of the window.
          	“You okay, Ben?” I ask. His head shoots in my direction.
          	“Ye-Yeah. I’m fine, dude.” Ben quickly says with a short laugh. I turn off the expressway and get into the first line of many; parking. The amusement park is so close, yet it seems so far away. The car inching forward as a chorus of car horns honk around them. However, what was even louder than the car horns were the roller coaster tracks clicking up and up and up and then a stop, then comes the screaming that’s teasing all of us.
          	Ahhhhhgh!” Lizzy screams. “Come on! I waited all summer for this!”
          	“We’ll get there.” I say. Lizzy playfully pushes my shoulder.
“Not fast enough!” Lizzy watches as a car goes up the red roller coaster. After a couple of minutes, I finally scoot up to the dingy booth and hand over the money that the three of us saved together. This entire day took a month for all of us to save up enough money to come here. I park in the nearest parking space. We get out and I look out to the park. From this far back it looks more like a postcard than a park.
We step out into the burning sun. There is not a single cloud in the sky; just the sun staring down at us. It’s blazing hot. Ben gets out the bright orange spray bottle of sunscreen. He starts on himself filling the air with the putrid smelling spray. He passes it to Lizzy who cringes at it before tossing it over to me. I spray it on me, but accidently get some in my mouth. I cringe and stick out my tongue. They both laugh.
After an even longer line to get in the park, we finally get in. We stop to get vanilla ice cream. I’m grateful to have a different taste in my mouth even though it’s melting too fast for me or Ben to keep up. However, Lizzy has already devoured it.
Me and Lizzy get in line for the first roller coaster. Ben decided to stay on the ground. The line moved inch by inch; stuck under the sun. Only a few spots with a fan. In those spots Lizzy would stand in front with her mouth open and tongue sticking out; her eyes were closed, and her hair blown behind her. After, 45 minutes that felt like it would never end, we were the next to go. Lizzy is holding onto the bar and jumping up and down. A family behind us is negotiating to get a spot in front of others, so that they’ll be able to be in the same car.
Our car pulls into the station. It’s yellow with red flames painted in the front. The gate opens. Lizzy barely waits for the last couple to get out before she sits down. We get strapped in by a loose seat belt and an over-head harness with metal handle bars. I grab the bars as two tired employees check our harnesses.
“Who’s ready to get out of here!” Screams one of the employees from a small box.
“Yeah!” Screams Lizzy, who’s one of the only people to scream. She throws her hands in the air as we go around a corner. The car starts up the track. I can hear the and feel and clicking of the tracks under my feet. Behind me there are a couple of people that are already screaming. One person is even nervously laughing. However, I can’t see anyone behind me because of the harness. The black harness makes me seemingly have tunnel vision.
We get to the top and stop for a single second. Then we plunge down the track. I’m screaming along with everyone else in the car. We go into the first loop and then into the second. I feel weightless for just a second, but then a sudden turn goes into a corkscrew. Finally, the car screams to a stop. I’m thrown into the harness which plunges into my stomach. We get out and Lizzy can’t walk straight. We start laughing as we meet up with Ben.
“That was amazing!” Lizzy screams. Everyone coming off the ride is either smiling or laughing.
We decided to do something more Ben’s speed and go to a street of souvenir stores, fast food places, and frozen yogurt places. We go from store to store and restaurant to restaurant. By the time that Lizzy wants to go on another ride we’ve got tons of bags and each of us is holding cotton candy and sharing a funnel cake.
As we walk to the next ride, many people pass us. Families pass with their kids chasing each other far in front of the parents. Some kids are even hold a large pink teddy bear with a white snout and a white stomach. It’s clear that they come from the carnival games lane as there’s only one game that’s not rigged. Teens pass in small groups talking to one and other. Couples holding hands, and elders sitting on the bench. As we pass an elderly couple on a bench they wave at Ben and he waves back.
“Who are they?” I asked.
“Mabel and Greg. I meet them while you two were going on the rollercoaster.” Ben is not afraid of talking with strangers. Throughout the rest of the day we pass 12 other people who wave at Ben. Me and Lizzy go on ride after ride while Ben hangs out with whoever is there.
Nighttime rolls around. The full moon is high in the sky. There are carts full of light up sticks that employees are selling. Their carts are full of neon pinks, blues, and green. We go up to one of the carts to spend the last of our money. Lizzy buys a pink light up bracelet, I buy a blue light up rope, and Ben buys a green light up stick. The green glows off his face. Then there’s a scream coming from our left.
“I saved the best for last!” Lizzy says and runs towards the red roller-coaster; the one that she has been waiting for the entire day. Me and Ben can only walk a few feet behind her as our feet are both hurting. I turn towards Ben.
“Do you want to ride with us?” I asked. Ben gulped and started shaking, but he took a deep breath.
“I should go on at least one ride, right?” He asked more to himself then me.
“If you want to.” I say anyway. He looks onto the roller-coaster and then he nods and follows us into the line.
After a long line and some negotiation with the people in front of us, we get into the middle of the car. Lizzy is sitting with Ben while I’m sitting alone behind them. The car is red to match the track. The car has no door on either side. The only thing holding us in is an orange handlebar.
The car inched forward, up the first hill. After a minute the car made it to the top and it stopped. I looked to the side to see the entire park. All of the other rides are decorated in neon lights. The night sky was full of a rainbow of neon lights. Then the ride threw us down a 90 degree drop. I could only hear two sounds: the screaming and the wind passing through my body. It threw us up and down its second hill and whipped us into a curve. It finally dipped into a tunnel that’s entrance looked too small. It was too dark to see anything, but I felt sharp turn after sharp turn. We blasted back up and out of the tunnel and slowed to a stop. The bar loosened, and we got out.
No one on that ride could walk straight after that. Everyone was bumping into each other and laughing. Even Ben was laughing and keep saying how much he loved it.
We left the park still laughing as we made it to my car. Lizzy and Ben fell asleep as I left the parking lot watching the neon lights out of my rear-view mirror and I can still hear the screams from all the rides.                                              

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