Page 24 of Seeing You

The three of them left the arcade, and Silas did all the talking as they walked across the property and up a steep hill to the queue for the mountain coaster. He couldn’t even see the track, so that told him it couldn’t possibly be that bad.

He did, however, wonder why they were going up so high.

They got up to the platform and he noticed there were individual cars instead of multi-person ones like a typical coaster.

“Silas, you go first,” she said. “I’ll take the second one, and Mr. Calloway can take the third.” Then she turned to him. “Listen to the instructions when the attendant helps you into your car. You have controls, but don’t go too slow or you’ll ruin it for everyone behind you.”

That’s when he looked over his shoulder and noticed there were at least a half a dozen in line after him.

“I don’t understand why I have controls. Aren’t all roller coasters on a track that move you along?”

The snickering and the look of pure mischief on her face had him worrying that he was making a huge mistake, but before he knew it, Silas was getting into his vehicle. Marcus watched intently and tried to make out the instructions, but he couldn’t. The next thing he knew, the boy was gone with a squeal of pure joy. Billie’s eyes barely left his as she got settled in her car too. Then, with a flippant little wave, she was gone with a loud,“Woo!”

Dammit.

Slowly and carefully, he stepped forward and into the car, then sat down. The attendant—who looked only slightly older than Silas—gave him the talk about how to slow down and how to come to a stop, and that he wasn’t allowed to crash into the cars in front of him. There was probably more, but he still didn’t understand what was going to happen once he pulled away from the platform.

But when he did, his yell wasn’t full of anything but fear.“What the hell…?!”

Suddenly, he was hurling through the trees at a speed that felt way too fast. He had a hand brake, but Billie told him not to go too slow.

What the hell is too slow?!

Somehow, this was a roller coaster thrust within the natural beauty of a mountain landscape.

And if he wasn’t so freaked out and terrified, he might actually appreciate the scenery.

Unfortunately, he was too busy panicking to pay much attention. There were too many steep drops, sharp curves, and near-misses with trees for him to focus on anything but slowing down without slowing down too much.

How is this fun?!

Gravity was doing its job and even though it felt like forever, Marcus was smart enough to realize he’d only been in motion for maybe a minute. Eventually he’d get to the bottom and off of this hell ride. And as much as he’d love to give Billie a piece of his mind, there was no way he was going to admit to the fear.

“Pull it together, Calloway,” he murmured right before screaming his way through a particularly sharp turn.

Off in the distance, he spotted Silas waving and Billie standing beside him. Even from a distance, he could see she was smirking at him.

Don’t give her the satisfaction…

There were signs signaling for him to use the hand brake to come to a stop, so he did. For a moment, he could feel himself trembling and knew if he didn’t brush it off, everyone was going to see it and laugh at him.

Especially Billie.

So, as calmly as he could, he let the attendant help him get unstrapped and then climbed out of the car.

“Wasn’t it awesome?” Silas asked, bouncing with excitement. “It was all like…whoosh!Andswoop!And then just…just…vrooming! Gah!I want to go again!”

He met Billie’s gaze and caught her knowing look. But she didn’t call him out, instead she guided her nephew toward the exit and reminded him that there were other rides they hadn’t gotten to yet.

“We’re going on the ATVs next, Mr. Calloway! You gonna come with us?”

“Um…”

“I think Mr. Calloway has other things to do, Silas,” she gently told him. “And hey, this was supposed to be our day together. Now let’s hike it over to the ATV trails and then we’ll go inside and get something to drink. What do you say?”

He nodded before turning and facing Marcus. “Thanks for being so cool about me running into you earlier. I hope you had fun on the coaster.”

“I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt, but next time, be sure to watch where you’re going.”

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