Page 8 of Ghost Falls
“What’s a funicular?” Jude asked.
“It’s sort of a combination of an elevator and a train. We get into the car and it takes us down using cables like an elevator, but the car itself is on tracks.”
“I can’t imagine Aurora is going to like that,” Jude said. He knew Fitzgibbon would be there to soothe his daughter, but once she got it in her head not to do something, that was the end of the discussion.
“He bribed her with ice cream and a shopping spree,” Ronan said with a snort. “Apparently there’s a soft-serve vendor that sells pink bubblegum twists in a waffle cone. It’s up by the Skywheel.” Ronan pointed behind them.
One of the attractions Jude couldn’t wait to try was the Niagara Skywheel. It was a scaled down version of London’s Eye. He was looking forward to having a bird’s eye view of the Falls. In the same area was a dinosaur-themed mini golf course, a game arcade, and several restaurants. It would be the perfect place to take the kids for lunch and some fun tomorrow after Cope’s duties were done for the morning at PsychicFest. “Let’s do this before Aurora decides a hundred new stuffies aren’t worth the price of the boat ride.”
Jude and Ronan joined the others in line for the funicular. He could hear Fitzgibbon telling Aurora how much fun it would be. The look on the little girl’s face said she thought it was otherwise.
When the funicular car reached the top, the doors opened. Jude watched as wet and happy tourists disembarked. Some were laughing. Kids were shouting that they wanted to do it again. Jude hoped that would be Aurora, Everly, and Wolf after their trip to the falls.
After the car emptied, they all filed inside. Aurora didn’t seem to be affected by the height or the steep incline the car was about to descend. The ride was short, only three minutes long and when they reached the bottom, Aurora was laughing over something Wolf had said. So far, so good.
The line leading to the boat dock was short. With it being October, the large tourist crowds of the summer were long gone, just as they were back in Salem. Fitzgibbon handed their tickets to the man scanning them. Each of them were handed bright red ponchos.
“It’s so pretty!” Everly gushed. Ronan unfolded it for her and helped her into it, securing the hood so that only her face was showing. Cope and Fitz did the same for Everly and Wolf, before donning their own.
“Dad, look!” Wolf called out. “It’s Cannonball!” Wolf pointed ahead of them, where a non-descript man stood with a woman and a child who appeared to be Wolf’s age.
Hearing his name, Cannonball turned. “Hey, little man. What’s your name?”
“I’m Wolf and these are my friends, Aurora, and Everly. I can’t wait to see you stunt on Sunday!” Wolf jumped up in down.
Jude noticed the woman standing beside Cannonball looked as if she were on the verge of tears. She turned away from her husband who was shaking the kids’ hands and posing for pictures. “Jude Byrne,” he held out his hand.
“Nice to meet you. This is my wife, Heidi and our son Carl the third. We call him CJ.” Cannonball offered Jude a wide smile.
Wolf instantly starting chatting with the boy, asking him who his favoriteStar Warscharacter was. Predictably, his answer was Baby Yoda, who seemed to be everyone’s favorite.
Jude had a hundred questions he wanted to ask the stunt man, but the line started to move and before he knew it, they were on the boat with Ronan trying to find the best place to view the falls.
“Okay, that was interesting,” Cope said, coming to stand beside Jude against the lefthand railing of the boat. “His wife is absolutely beside herself worrying about Cannonball.”
Jude nodded. “I could see it in her eyes. Well, that and the disgusted way she looked at Wolf when he called out Cannonball’s name.”
“She wasn’t upset with Wolfie, but at the idea that another little boy idolized her husband.”
“Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to have shown Wolf the YouTube videos of Cannonball’s greatest hits.” Jude knew from experience that boys were more likely to try crazy stunts. The combination of testosterone and bad judgement fueled several memorable stunts that ended with Jude bleeding and Running Eagle having to take him to the local emergency room. The stitches and casts had never been enough to make Jude slow down or be more cautious. He knew Cannonball had experienced the same kind of childhood, but with the added burden of being the son of a dead daredevil. It wasn’t that Heidi was being unfriendly, but more that she didn’t want Wolf to follow the same path as her husband. Jude agreed completely.
“She might be the key,” Cope said, as the boat started to push away from the dock.
“What, to getting Cannonball to call off the stunt?” Jude asked, spotting the little family a bit further up along the railing. CJ was jumping up and down, pointing the dramatic American Falls.
“Yeah,” Cope agreed.
“Well, she hasn’t been able to get him to budge so far.” Jude studied the young woman, who unbeknownst to her would become a widow within seventy-two hours. Most families didn’t know when tragedy would befall them, but Heidi Jackson did. Her husband would die at ten past one on Sunday afternoon. It looked to Jude as if the woman was already in mourning. He wished he could reach out to her and offer some measure of comfort, but knew that the last thing she wanted was for Cope to confirm her worst fears.
“When we get to the press conference tonight, I’ll try to find Heidi and see if I can get a feel for where Cannonball’s head is in all of this.”
Jude shook his head. “No, you need to talk to our daredevil. Tell him what you and Everly have seen and not just with what happens on Sunday, but what you see in their future. The pain and struggles that both she and her son are going to experience without him. Ronan and I will speak to Heidi and find out if there’s anything at all that could talk Cannonball out of going over the falls.”
“Daddy, look!” Wolf shouted. He pointed to the top of the American Falls, where the water was gushing down and causing mist when it pounded the rocks below.
Jude understood now why the boat was called The Maid of the Mist. He took a spot next to Wolf and knelt down to be at eye level with him. It was only one hundred and ten feet from the precipice to the river below, but at this height, it looked so much taller. “Pretty cool, huh?”
Wolf nodded his head enthusiastically.
