7
They’d gotten to the hotel and checked in at the reception. They were beat once they gotten into their room, so he’d ordered room service and Ellen had gone to take a shower. Johnny was sitting on the bed looking at the park map, circling rides and different areas with different colored markers. Ben walked over and sat beside him.
“See anything good,” Ben asked.
Johnny nodded, “this looks like fun,” he pointed at one.
After a moment Ben cleared his throat, “Johnny, I was just wondering if you moved the sleeping pills?”
Johnny looked up into his eyes, “No, I saw Mom put them there before she left the house, it was the morning she left to get my birthday cake. She forgot where she put them, so I showed her.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, would I lie to you Ben?”
Ben looked at him.
How the hell could he be thinking something so stupid?
“Okay buddy, that’s fine,” he stood up, then walked into the main room and sat down on the couch.
Is he telling the truth?
Of course he’s telling the truth, he’s only a fucking kid…
Then why do I keep going over that stupid dream?
It’s because you’re nuts, that’s why. Ellen’s right about you, Ben.
Shut up!
He grabbed the remote control, smacking it against the side of his head, “shut up shut up shut up!”
Ben took a deep breath, calming his mind and switched on the TV. He was flicking through the stations when the bathroom door opened. Ellen walked out wearing a white towel wrapped around her torso, it stopped just above her thighs.
Her long smooth legs reflected the sunlight coming in from the windows. He swallowed a lump in his throat. She stopped in front of him, wrapping her hair in a towel.
“Same old Ben, the whole park to explore and you’re more interested in how the Falcons are getting on.”
He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.
“That’s me.” His eyes followed her curves.
“Put your tongue back in, buster,” she turned and walked into the bedroom.
After Ellen got dressed, they sat and ate the food that’d just arrived.
Afterwards they left to make a start on the park. As they got in through the entrance, Johnny ran towards a group of kids surrounding a cluster of performers.
Ben told Ellen he’d be back in a minute. He walked over to a stall where they sold those Mickey Mouse hats. He bought three and walked back to her.
Ben gave one of the hats to Ellen and stuck his on.
“We might as well soak it up, hyuck-hyuck.”
She couldn’t help but letting out a giggle. He smiled wider and then walked over towards Johnny. Donald Duck was handing out candy. Johnny took one and turned around looking up at Ben.
“This is cool!”
“Sure is, here I got us these,” he stuck the hat onto Johnny’s head, his blond curls flattened down sticking out from under it. Johnny’s eyes stared back out under the brim, his mouth smiled but the eyes didn’t.
A few hours later, they trudged through a densely packed line for a roller-coaster. It opened out onto a platform and broke down into a dozen lines for the different sections of the roller coaster. Ben hadn’t wanted to go on any roller-coasters but Ellen and Johnny had, so he went along with it.
“Where do you guys want to sit?” Ben asked.
“I don’t mind,” Ellen replied. “What do you think, Johnny?”
“Let’s sit at the back,” he said.
A girl a year older than Johnny had been stood in front of them with her older sister. She had been exchanging a word or two with Johnny since they’d gotten in line. She turned now, looking at him.
“What,” she asked, “are you a chicken?” She giggled then and made a chicken noise.
“Cut it out, Claire,” her older sister nudged her.
Johnny’s face went red.
“No I’m not!” Johnny’s fists were clenched at his sides. “Where are you sitting?”
“We’re sitting in the front, obviously, we’re not chickens!” she made the noise again, flapping her arms now.
Her sister gave her another push on the back, “I said cut it out!”
Johnny turned and looked at Ben and Ellen, the look in his eyes made Ben swallow.
“I want to sit at the front too!” Johnny said in an empty voice.
“Okay honey,” said Ellen, “we can line up behind your friends.”
“I don’t know Ellen, my stomachs a bit weak for sitting at the front,” said Ben. He’d never been good with rollercoasters, the front sounded like a living nightmare.
The older sister heard him, “he can sit with us if you’d like.”
Ben looked at Johnny, who nodded back at him.
He didn’t know why, but right then and there he didn’t want to be anywhere near Johnny. His skin felt like it was crawling with a thousand insects, tingles floated through his body as he looked at Johnny staring at the small girl.
“Just be careful,” Ellen told Johnny. “We’ll cue up further down, if you change your mind come and find us, okay?”
Johnny nodded and went into the left line for the front car with the two girls. Ben and Ellen went into one further down. They were surrounded by a large crowd of people waiting to get on.
Ben stood on his tiptoes trying to get a view of Johnny, or the girls, but he couldn’t see anything. The noise on the platform was near deafening, the chatter of the crowd and the grind of the rollercoasters chain.
Screams were caught occasionally from somewhere in the park, Ben’s heartbeat had increased. He really hated rollercoasters ever since he was small, but he wouldn’t be made out as a coward.
“Are you nervous?” Ellen asked him.
He looked at her and tried to act confident.
“No, are you?”
“I haven’t been on anything like this since I was a teenager!”
“Me neither.”
They stood looking at the line in silence until somebody began shouting, “Fire, there’s a fire!”
People turned and looked for the fire. A trashcan was smoldering in the far corner and flames were beginning to rise above the rim. A man in a Yankees jersey was stood beside it, pointing. The flames got higher, two men tried in vain to extinguish it with bottles of water. A staff member ran through the crowd towards the trashcan holding a extinguisher, he began spraying it into the bin.
There was a loud rumble and screaming as the roller coaster began its last decent and back into the platform.
Some people turned from the trashcan, towards the noise of the roller coaster as it slid into the platform from the right. The noise of the grinding chains rumbled loudly and the shouts of the staff member putting out the fire were drowned out.
Nobody was watching the front of the line where the two girls were waiting, nobody saw the little girls as they fell onto the tracks, right underneath the cart.
Nobody realized what was going on until they heard the cracking, popping sounds of breaking bones and the deathly screams.