Capítulo 21: Something Good Finally Happens, and I Blow It
You read right. Sometimes I marvel at my own stupidity.
Beep. Beep. Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep!!!
"Ben! Hurry up!"
I gave Julia a finger she couldn't see and snatched the rest of my stuff. When I finally found my front door, a tall figure stood in the path. Red heels inched her towards the top of the doorframe.
My mother shoved a bottle of sunscreen in my bag. "Do you have your phone?"
"Yes," I lied.
"And you said this was with your therapy friends, right?"
"Yes," I lied again.
"Don't forget to call me when you get there."
"I won't."
"That's a lot of stuff for a community outreach project."
"Yeah."
"Where did you say this was again?"
Three minutes of interrogation later, I shoved around my mom and slipped through the door. Her voice followed me out. "Say hi to Julia for me. Love you!"
"Uh-huh," I mumbled.
I know. You would've told them your plan to go on a road trip to a cheesy kid's carnival with your best friend's goofy friends you just met. I don't think like you. My parents couldn't know. They'd never let me go. I was incapable of fun. Spending time with people who have normal brains, the kind of people who don't need therapy? Forget about it.
Besides, I was of the same blood as Kyle Wood. A day out of town could only mean the death of all dignity.
I slipped into the passenger seat of Julia's car.
"What. Did. You. Do?"
I found her eye contact. "What?"
"What?" She made wide gestures with her arms. "What is all of this stuff?" She pointed at my bag, stuff bulging out of the fabric. "I told you to bring a jacket."
"I did bring my jacket."
Julia banged her head against the steering wheel. I'm surprised she missed the horn.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Her voice broke into a fit of laughter, but her eyes were glistening like the peak of Mount Everest. If it had been dropped off in Antarctica. "You're impossible. You are leaving all that stuff in my car."
"Okay."
She put the car in drive. "You sure your parents are okay with this?"
I nodded.
With a sigh, Julia pulled off the curb. We passed the fountain, took sharp turns until the houses were cleaner versions of mine. Ten minutes later, we found Valerie's RV. Paintings of gingers and bright pink daisies weaved around the windowpanes.
RV…R.I.P. Valerie?
"Sorry about the mess."
Valerie's bubblegum hair was crimped even more than last time. Apple cores, candy wrappers, and old photographs buried the floor. Two velvety couches with fluffed-up pillows took up most of the walls.
"No problem," Julia said. "Where is everybody?"
"Joey's in the bathroom, Brooke's running late because Paige slept in, Alexander's on his way, and Leah-"
Like the perfect timing of a sitcom, guess who walked in?
"Hey, guys," Leah muttered. (Black, tiny female Austin.) She plopped onto one of the couches. "Tell me you did not say Paige is coming."
"Yes," Valerie snapped with her pink frills. "We talked about this."
Leah lowered her head.
"Talked about what?"
It was like someone had hacked at the social strings with a chainsaw. Everyone's heads shifted towards me. Why would they… My mouth clenched shut. See none and hear none, and don't ask questions. Yet…I'm not sure how it happened. I'd spoken as if I cared about the course of the conversation. I didn't like it.
"Nothing," Leah snapped.
I stuttered, searching Julia's eyes for a lifeboat. Valerie put her hand on my shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry about it, Ben. It really is nothing."
"Brooke's just got a brat for a sister and everyone knows it," Leah said.
"What?" I tried the communication thing again.
I was getting good at this.
Leah swiped fog from her glasses. "I guess you should know. Don't wanna say something wrong and make Paige flip like I did.
"Brooke's parents are divorced, and she lives with her mom, but she always made a point to visit her dad when he was around. He has some sort of traveling salesman job and usually isn't home anyway, so a few visits couldn't hurt. Paige wanted to live with her dad, so she got to go to a fancy boarding school so she could still technically live with him."
My eyes studied the floor. I asked for a story, so I got a story. It still felt like I was an international spy being tortured by terrorists. But, instead of being tortured for information, I was tortured with it.
She continued, "But, you know, boarding school is an expensive waste of money, and after freshman year Paige's dad told her she was going to have to live with her Mom and go to public school—like she was supposed to in the first place. Long story short, prima donna didn't get her way, so she thinks that means she gets to be a jerk."
My head was spinning. Had someone strapped me to a windmill?
"And she's such a…" Leah made a strangling motion with her hands. I remembered every time Kyle had done that to me. "AAUUGHHHH."
"Gees, Leah, cat got your tongue?"
His hair was like a dark, muddy bush. The African American boy had a big smile and bleach white teeth; he was also dressed like a hippie. (At least, I think he was. I've never seen a hippie.) Celebrities and athletes crossed my mind, all whom he mirrored.
So, this was Joey.
I'd never wondered or cared.
He snorted and fell into the couch. Eyes drilled towards the window, he picked up a candy wrapper and licked it clean. I snapped my head at another creak. In came three more people.
The blondie sisters, Paige and Brooke.
Finally...His name was Alexander. Let me describe him a little for you.
He was like the male lead in a high school rom-com. Brown, cropped hair made up his forehead. He wasn't very tall. (But everyone looks short next to me. I could be biased.) He was the "after" picture, like The Frog Prince after being kissed by the princess. Prince Charming. That's probably the best description I could give. Ready to sweep Cinderella off her feet.
Crap.
"Sorry we're late," Alexander said. The girls stopped mid-breath.
Crap.
Why was this bothering me so much? Maybe he looked too much like Kyle. Maybe I didn't like that look Julia was making at him.
I got over it after introductions.
After we took off, Valerie pulled out the junk food: candy corn, chocolate nuts, and Easter jellybeans. Julia explained that she did it to break the ice. I didn't understand how a chocolate-covered peanut could chip away at the road conditions, but I ate everything she offered me.
"So," Alexander spoke. Julia tensed beside me. "You're the infamous Benjamin Wood?"
Where have I heard that before?
Julia laughed with such an odd shriek I thought my ears were going to burst. "Yup, you've got it."
"Well, I hope we can make it back in one piece," Alexander said.
Oh, dramatic irony.
"Me too," Julia crinkled her nose.
Her pulse throbbed against my arm. What was going on with her?
✎✎✎
This chapter break skips to when we arrived. I never had to speak a word, as Julia did it all for me. Between Julia, Alexander, and some nagging between others, I hardly had to do anything at all.
Except breathe, that is. Breathing is always important.
Sometimes I forget.
"Yes! Time for a sugar coma," Joey said.
I hadn't been to any carnival, fair, or amusement park in eons. The group frowned at the manure pile Valerie's tire had scorched over. My head found the sky.
An obnoxious structure blocked my view of the sun: the roller coaster. I'd never been on one, but I wasn't about to tell them that. I think it was called the "Double-Dog-Dare,' because that's the stupidest name the creators could come up with. Anything for ticket sales. It was politics for carnivals.
"Let's go!" Valerie dragged the group for the coaster.
It resembled a spider web that had been stepped on, then stretched again. Each seat would hold two. Rather than voicing my concerns, I stood in line with the others. Julia was unusually distracted, so my eye of reason was gone. I listened to conversations around us: cheeseburgers, parliament, tabletop spinners. Stuff like that.
We reached the front.
"Come on party peeeeeoplllllle!" Joey dropped his fifth corn dog into a trash bag and leaped into the open seat, flailing his hands to the peasants below. The dark tone of his skin was covered in the pink and blue sugar particles of cotton candy. "We don't have all day."
The dude who ran the machine glared at us. The way his eyebrow sagged, I could've sworn he was related to the fat, angry man. (Don't worry, he's actually a minor character who doesn't contribute to my life's plot.) Everyone behind me groaned and clenched their jaws. In front? The mean ticket man and Joey the nut-job.
Wait. They didn't expect me to get on this death-trap.
Did they?
No way, no how. I agreed to come to this "fair thing" to annoy my friend and defy expectations. Death and thrill into death was not part of the deal.
Joey bounced around as the sugar in his body transformed into full blasted energy. "Dude, you coming or what?"
I swallowed. "Oh, um, yeah."
Tiny Person slapped his head.
I sat next to Joey. Behind me, everyone else firmed into position. It reminded me of those space movies; we were astronauts with a dream to defy the laws of gravity. Ahead was Julia with Alexander. Her cheeks were flushed out, cherry red.
I don't remember the gate closing or any of the jokes Joey told me. One minute we were frozen. The next, gravity shifted beneath me, and we pulled forward.
"Whoa."
"What?" A frown washed over Joey's face. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet. Because, uh, it's a little late for that."
I shook my head. "Why are we…this isn't…I don't…"
My stomach flew up into my chest. I searched the horizon for bright light, something to tell me my time had come. The sun got bigger.
Joey snatched his fingers around the seat edges. "Whoa."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. It's just that usually I can see things coming. The way this thing is moving I can't really—"
Screams flooded my ears.
Joey blinked. "Did we just—"
This time the yelp escaped from my own mouth. It was dark. There was an opening, it was bright again, and we were going up.
"Yeah," Alexander screamed from above. "We did."
Our conversation was cut short when the bumps of the track halted. We were frozen above the drop. The drop. I gripped the sweaty iron bars that kept me trapped in this machine of death. But I didn't speak.
I couldn't speak.
Joey, on the other hand… "Hee, hoo, Ahh, Ohh, Ya know, this ride closed last year because some kid died on this. Right here. He fell right in front, and got run over, and—"
"Shut up, Joey," Paige and Leah demanded.
Everyone joined me in the silence. The words of Joey the fraud relayed in my head.
"Wait," I turned to my chained partner in death. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
You ever experienced a moment when your words turn into a full-hearted scream? I did. When we reached the bottom, my legs refused to work properly. Gravity took its toll as I stumbled towards the ground and crawled to safety.
It was okay, though. Because Joey had to do the exact same thing.
I leaned against a fence post.
"Some 'King of Fear,'" Leah said, returning her oversized glasses to the bridge of her tanned nose. "I thought you were going to hurl!"
"Don't...be...ridiculous…" Joey breathed.
Ten seconds later, he was making some of the most horrendous sounds known to man into a nearby trash can.
Pinkie lent me a hand. She didn't wait for me to take it this time, snatching my fingers to yank me to my feet. She bounded to sit atop the fence. "That. Was. Amazing! We should go again."
Julia sloped against Alexander, her knees bent at opposing ankles. "I'm sure you could bribe Joey into going with you."
They all laughed at their poor friend as he left the remains of his stomach into that doomed can. I caught my lip as the odd resonance attempted to find its way from my throat to the air.
I think laughter is contagious, like a yawn. Three rides later, I was cackling with the rest of them. When I bothered to speak to them, I didn't hate our conversations as much as I anticipated. That acid feeling in my chest melted. Was it noon? Were my parents calling? Was there an alien invasion going on somewhere? I didn't have the mental capacity to care—having fun was too important.
I could go on and on about the day we had, but some things are too good for words. Let's just set a quick scene in present tense:
We've been there for about four hours. We are all broke. Even me. It feels good to be cashless with the rest of society.
We get off the final ride.
Estado de energía semanal
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