Chapter Six

Carlos

The drive was one of the most relaxing that I had taken. I was glad that I had asked one of my colleagues if I could drive her car. I had been eyeing it ever since the first time that it had been parked in the reserved doctor’s parking. The car was smooth and it handled easily, purring and taking corners like it was nothing.

“Back in Spain, we would have raced with cars like this one.”

“You raced cars?”

I laughed. There was something childlike about the way that he asked the question. There was a naïve wonder that shone through his voice. He was impressed. “We were not supposed to, of course. Mind you, I’ve never driven a car quite this nice.”

“The back streets of Spain lacked German engineering?”

“I will have you know, Spanish engineering can be just as impressive.”

“Of that, I have absolutely no doubt,” Nate said. It was a whisper that I nearly missed. I sucked in a breath. This man was driving me crazy.

He started singing to the song that was playing and I knew that I was gone. His singing voice was way different from his speaking voice. It was raspy and gruff, like an old soul singer but to rock music. I could listen to him sing any day.

I listened to him until the song was over. I had been tempted to join in but I was worried that he would realize he was singing and stop. “You are very talented, Nate.” I told him.

“Ha. Thanks, Carlos. Once upon a time, I wanted to be in a rock band.”

“A rock band is the last thing I expected from you.”

He shrugged.

Around the following corner, the trees on either side of us had thinned. The amusement park came into view, tall skyscrapers of rides waiting for us. It was going to be a fun day. Nate sat up straighter in the seat, staring out at the sight before us with wide eyes.

“Holy shit. That looks epic,” he said.

“I love roller coasters. I’m rather honored that you’ll be experiencing them for the first time with me.”

I pulled the car up to the boom gates. It was a good thing we had no windows to roll down. I pressed the button on the machine and it ejected a ticket. I took the ticket and drove in as the gate opened up for us. We drove in and I picked the first open spot that I could find, parking. I did not mind walking a little further to the entrance of the park if I had to.

“First things first,” I said as I parked and shut the engine off. “Did you say that you had packed food for us?”

I could see the excitement written all over Nate. He hopped out of the car and walked around to the boot. I popped it open from the front and then joined him. I pulled the cooler bag out as he grabbed the duffel bag. My stomach was grumbling with hunger.

Nate tossed the duffel over his shoulder. “Do you want to just eat here or should we find somewhere?”

I looked around the parking lot. On the far side, there was a section of grass with one or two trees. I gestured to it. “We could have another picnic of sorts, if you are up for it.”

“Sure.”

The food was amazing. Nate could make food for me every day of the week and I did not think that I would ever have anything to complain about. He had made chicken salad with mayo on two Prego rolls. There were cups of jelly and custard for dessert. I had never had dessert at a picnic but I thought that it was a revolutionary idea. We had fruit juice, too.

“I really love fruit juice. I hope you don’t mind.”

“This was amazing and delicious, Nate. Thank you so much for putting all of this together. I had not even thought of food.”

Nate beamed. “It was a pleasure. I tend to come prepared.”

“That is what she said.” I had picked my moment well. Nate laughed with a mouthful of juice, trying to keep it contained. “Sorry. Dirty jokes are a bit of a staple for me.”

“I would respond but that would only lead to more ‘what she said’ jokes. I have been here before. It’s an endless cycle.”

“That’s a pity, but I fear that you’re probably right.” I stood from the ground and held a hand out to Nate. He took it and I helped him up.

Together, we gathered all of the containers and packed them back into the cooler bag. We had finished all of the food and drink that Nate had provided. We made our way back to the car to put the cooler bag away and then, finally, we made our way to the entrance of the park. Nate had returned the duffel bag to his shoulder before I could take it from him and he carried it.

“You ready?” I asked as we waited for our tickets into the place. I had booked them in advance so all that needed to be done was pick them up when we arrived.

“As I’ll ever be.”

The lady at the ticket counter slid two tickets to me beneath the glass. I took them and handed one to Nate. On the off chance that he might want to go on a ride without me, he needed to hold on to it. The lady pressed a button behind the glass and the gates opened up for us to walk into the park.

“Do you mind keeping this here for us?” Nate asked, referring to the duffel bag.

“That’s no problem at all. Please put it into the box beside the booth.” She gestured to a box that I had not noticed before. It was sticking out of a hole in the wall. Nate dropped it in and there was a click as a plank of wood sealing the wall was raised and the box was pulled inside, disappearing from sight. When it was pushed back out, the bag had gone, and the wood was replaced. “There we are. You’re free to come and collect it whenever you please.”

“Thank you!” Nate called. After that, we went forward.

One of the first things to hit us was the noise. The sound of families and children and groups of teenagers having the time of their lives was coming from every direction. The second was the smell of food. I knew that we would probably be visiting the snack stalls before the day was up again.

“Let’s go to that one!” Nate yelled.

I looked at the direction that Nate was pointing. It was one of the tallest roller coasters in the whole park. The fact that it was painted jet black and the top of it had spikes sticking out of the very top said that it was meant to be one of the scary rides. It had ‘Terror’ in the title. It looked like a tower where goblins lived.

“You want that to be the first roller coaster that you ever try?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“Hey, if you’re going to do something, you may as well do it right. Right?”

“I really don’t know if there’s a wrong way to ride a roller coaster.”

“Okay, let me rephrase it. Go big or go home?”

I laughed and shook my head as Nate had already started making his way over to the death coaster. I half expected the goblins to start climbing out of the railings while we stood in line. There were not many people ahead of us. There was no surprise there.

When we were second in line, there was a couple standing in front of us. The woman had her cheek against her boyfriend’s shoulder and the two of them were holding hands. I looked over at Nate, whose eyes were completely focused on the roller coaster. I looked back at the couple as the man pressed a kiss to the top of his girlfriend’s head and she turned her head upwards to look at him, a smile on her face.

Before I knew what I was doing, I had moved closer to Nate and slid my hand into his where it hung loosely at his side. He looked away from the roller coaster and down at our hands before looking up at my face. There was a rosy hue to his cheeks and he smiled. I gave his hand a squeeze in response and smiled back at him.

“Next!”

We stepped up as the couple before us climbed into their seats. The ride moved forward on the rails as the attendant unclipped the rope for us as we showed him our tickets. I had bought us the ones with unlimited access so we did not need to pay for certain rides.

Nate climbed in first and I followed. I released his hand only so that we could buckle up our seat belts before I took it again. He seemed only too happy to let me hold it, locking his fingers between mine.

“Are you ready?” I asked him for the second time that day.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he said. He had the biggest grin on his face.

We sat back in our seats and watched as the gates to the ride closed off for safety while the ride was activated. The seats lurched into life and slowly the ride moved forward on the rails. A robotic voice sounded out from a speaker somewhere inside our small cart.

“Please make sure your seat belts are on and buckled, your seat belts are adjusted to the correct tightness and that your hands are on the handlebars in front of you.”

“I guess that’s our cue,” I said to Nate as I removed my hand from his.

I put both of my hands on the long metal rod in front of us and Nate followed suit. We had barely grasped onto the bar before the carts started to move forward again. The same robotic voice from before rung out from above our heads and began counting downwards from ten. My heart started to race in my chest in anticipation.

The ride lurched forward at the very same second as the voice reached the count of one. My heart moved from my chest into my stomach as we sped upwards. I held on for dear life as we were thrown upside down and thanked my lucky stars that seat belts had been invented and I was not required to hold onto the handlebar alone in order to survive. I looked down to see that we had gone upwards by at least ten feet in a matter of seconds. Beside me, Nate yelled out but the look on his face was one of pure exhilaration. I laughed out loud at it before yelling out myself as we went full circle. The blood had rushed to my head and I felt high on adrenaline as we raced forward once more. We were at the highest point of the roller coaster when it started to slow down, losing its momentum, and finally stop. We were in some sort of a tunnel – the lights of daylight had gone and had been replaced by a sort of orangey glow which I was sure was meant to resemble flames.

Nate was about to remove his hands from the bar in front of us. “No!” I yelled. “The ride isn’t over yet. Hold on tight.”

He did. I could see the whites of his knuckles, matching my own. There was a loud clanking noise and I looked up to see mechanical bats hanging from the roof. The orange lighting gave an ominous feeling as they moved their wings back and forth wildly, the source of the metal clanking that I could hear. Suddenly the room was filled with black shadows and I blinked repeatedly. The bats were flying out at us!

I could hear Nate’s shouting combined with my own as the roller coaster pushed forward once more. It was a straight dip down and it felt like we were falling and flying all at the same time. I watched as the ground came closer and closer, looking up behind us as the bats took flight and chased us. My heart had moved from my stomach to my throat.

Just when it seemed as though the front of our cart was going to crash into the ground and shatter into a thousand tiny metal pieces, we were whipped back into our seats as it turned on the rails and began moving in a straight line, slowing down steadily.

A few carts in front of us, the couple who were in line before we were, laughed as we halted to a stop with the screech of steel. The woman whooped and cheered, throwing her arms into the air as the entrance to the ride came back into sight. Nate joined in with her beside me, wolf-whistling and cheering. His hands, I noticed, were still clinging to the handlebar.

I removed my hands from the handlebar and angled my body to him. I turned his face to mine and pressed my lips to his, kissing him deeply. I was breathless, my heart racing, as we kissed. Nate made a small humming sound deep within his throat, removing his hands from the handlebars and wrapping his arms around my neck as he returned the kiss.

We only broke apart when we heard someone clearing their throat. It was the attendant. He looked embarrassed to be intruding on the moment and I grinned at him. “Sorry, man.”

“That is okay. I just need to follow protocol, you know. I had to get you guys out so that the next group could climb on.”

“That is totally okay. I understand.”

Nate and I unbuckled our seat belts and the attendant helped us step out of the carts one at a time. I realized why he was there when I had to take the hand that he offered. My legs felt like jelly as I stepped out of the cart and I was sure that I would have fallen over had it not been for his presence.

“I can help him,” I said to the attendant as I caught my footing. “You can go help the others out.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, no problem at all.”

“Thank you,” the attendant said. He let go of my hand and made his way further down the rails to the couple in the cart ahead of us.

I held my hand out to Nate and I could tell by the way he stood that he felt the same way as I had. His legs wobbled the slightest bit as he tried to stand from his seat and he caught a hold of my extended hands, gripping onto them tightly as he stepped out of the cart.

“That was fucking amazing,” he finally said. He was beaming at me.

“That is one word for what that was, yeah,” I said. I returned the grin.

“What word would you have used, then?”

“Terrifying seems an apt word.”

Nate laughed. It was the most genuine laugh that I had heard from him up until that point. It rumbled from deep within his stomach and it was infectious. I found myself laughing with him and pulling him into my arms. I held him as we laughed, his head on my shoulder, until my eyes were watering. I think that it might have been the most genuine laugh that I had had in a while, too.

By the time I felt like I could stop laughing, I was able to stand properly and I trusted my feet to walk. My heart rate had slowed down substantially. I pulled back from Nate to look around the area. The attendant was further down, helping the last few people out of their carts. I slipped my hand back into Nate’s and led him out of the roller coaster area. We passed the couple from before, their bodies entwined as they shared a long, slow kiss outside the roller coaster. I felt Nate squeeze my hand.

Not for the first time, I found that Nate made me feel like a teenager. My feet led the way and I found that I was soon sprinting through the park, back the way we came. Nate’s hand clasped mine tightly and his feet hurried alongside mine. We were carefree.