Dash
got out of the building first. Both me and Sky were out of breath by the time
we joined him outside with all the crowd of people laughing, eating sweets and
buying souvenirs from dozens of stalls on the pavement. The place is so alive
and full of colours and I was almost bursting with excitement. I turned to my
companion and saw him tying the end of Dash’s leash around his left wrist. Then
with his other hand, he grabbed my
hand.
“Before
anything else, we have to hide our faces.” he said, smiling. We strolled around
the place then, and it was not long before we found a stall that read “the
Tropical Style.” The racks were full of bikinis, glasses and tourist hats and
lined up were surfboards of different designs and sizes. The man owning the
shop greeted jovially.
“Welcome
to the Marquette! You can browse for what you want, dears.” Then he smiled
happily. We went to the racks and chose among the sunglasses. You wouldn’t
believe the kind of glasses they have! They are the weirdest I have ever seen! Sky apparently noticed this, too.
Then we spent a full 10 minutes laughing about them before buying three glasses
– the one’s for Dash – and I bought a large-sized, white tourist hat that
matched my sandals.
“Dash
looks drunk.” Sky said, chuckling. We chose glasses with pink butterflies at
the side for him, though I didn’t think he minded. I laughed.
“Now
that we have extremely fool proof disguises,” he said. “Where do you want to
go, sis?”
“I
heard that there are terrifying rides in here.” I responded.
“The
rollercoaster it is.” He said, yanking my arm and leading me to the throng of
people at the huge carnival ride with screaming people. I couldn’t believe that
through all the noise and the screaming people, you can still hear “Last Friday
Night” blaring from the speakers.
“I
want to ride that thing!” I yelled at Sky. “Of course you do!” he yelled back.
Then he led to the short line of people waiting for their turn. A personnel
tapped Sky’s shoulder.
“Excuse
me, sir!” he said loudly in an effort to be heard over the noise. “You have to
give the dog to the pet-in-charge! No pets allowed in the rides!”
“What?!” Sky said, leaning closer to the man.
The
guy tried again. “Your dog isn’t allowed in! Give him to the pet-in-charge!”
“My
dog what?!”
“GIVE
HIM TO ME!” he roared.
“Sure!”
Sky responded. Then the guy gave him a laminated number. The Spice Girls sang
next in the speakers – “Tell me what you
want, what you really really want, now tell me what you want…”
Sky
turned to me. “This place is crazy!”
“I
like it, too!” I replied, laughing. I saw the guy earlier handing Dash to the
pet-in-charge together with the other dogs. In a few seconds, both of us were
being ushered in with dozens of other people to the two-person seats.
“I’m
not so sure about this anymore!” I panicked. Sky looked at me. He’s so handsome, my God. He looks like a
celebrity with his glasses; it was almost heart-breaking. “You need to tie your
hat!” he said, reaching out to tie the knot at the base of my neck to keep the
hat from flying away. I started to say thank you, but then the damned machine
started to move. Cluck-cluck-cluck.
“Oh
no…”
Sky
just laughed aloud, exhilarated. Oh God. It’s getting faster and faster. And higher.
I screamed. I feel as if we were going through a million miles per second and
the wind was whipping at my face. “Shit!”
The
ride was terrifying. It lasted for
full 5 minutes and all I did was screaming and swear a lot. The people around
me were damaging my eardrums, including Sky. The damned guy was having fun.
Then
for what seemed like an eternity, the rollercoaster stopped gradually and we
were on the exit. I was breathing hard. Never
again. What was I thinking?! That was the most excruciating moment of my
life. Sky turned to me with a huge grin plastered on his face.
“Let’s
try that again!”
Lord,
God.
“Have
you gone mad?”
He
chuckled lively. “It was your idea in the first place!” he shook his head. “And
to think you almost screamed your bladders out – ”
“I
punched him on the shoulder. “Just because everyone doesn’t have your moronic
personality, doesn’t mean – ”
“Shut
up, sis. You’re still green and you look like you’re about to – ”
“You
know what? I’ll just get the hell out of this piece of metal.” Then I started
to unstrap myself and I saw him doing the same thing. He grabbed my upper arm.
“You
just reminded me of something.” He pulled out handcuffs – the same ones, I bet –
and tried to – Oh, God no.
“Just
when I actually had fun with you – ”
“You
still might escape. Rule number two, sis.” Then he handcuffed my right wrist
with his left.
“Stop
calling me that. And don’t you think we look retarded – ”
He
laughed. “All we have to do is hold hands and it won’t look so retarded, that’s
all. I was petrified.
“Hold
hands? With you? My freaking kidnaper?”
“You
know, I’m not exactly your kidnapper, in the general sense. I’m just protecting
you from people who wants – ”
“Same
thing, really.”
“No,
it’s not. I had no idea you lack basic education – ”
“I’ll
go find Dash.” I said, then imitated his voice. “Rule number three, bro.” Then I walked quickly, dragging
him. He chuckled. “You have such a small temper.” I looked at him. “And how
does that concern you?”
“Well
you know, first of all, you’re my responsibility – ” I looked at him,
astonished. Then I interrupted him. “Responsibility?
I never knew I had a nanny – .”
“Shut
up. Number two; you escape, I don’t find you, I’m dead.”
“Considering
I don’t kill you first.”
He
raised one of his eyebrows. “Yeah, that too. And number three, you’re fun to
annoy. So there you go.” I stared at him.
“Fun?
To annoy? Do I look like a clown?” He laughed. “You look nothing close to a
clown right now.” He lost me.
“Was
that a compliment?”
“Are
you joking?” he asked, mouth open.
“No. Why would – ”
“You
won’t even recognize a compliment it was dancing on your face. That’s a real
gift.” He winked at me. I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Where’s that guy earlier?
And oh,” I just remembered something.
Payback time for Ryne. “for the record, you’re so irresponsible for someone who
has a ‘responsibility.’ You didn’t even check the guy out before giving off
Dash to him. What if he – ”
“Actually,
I did check him.”
“No
you didn’t. You two screamed at each other – ”
“Exactly.”
he smiled.
“You
lost me again. That doesn’t make sense at all.” He explained patiently to me, “If
a person has a comm device and screams like that, believe it or not, it will
actually be making a sort of buzzing sound and I was – ”
“Close
enough to him so you can hear the sound?”
He
grinned. “Very good, sis! Keep that up. Oh. Here he comes. Just look pretty and
hold my hand.”
“Why
in God’s name would I do that?”
He
grabbed by hand and interlocked our fingers tightly. “Do you want to look retarded as you put it, or – ”
“Fine!
You’re always right. I can’t do anything about everything, at all. I honestly
don’t see why I argue with you when – ”
The
pet-in-charge greeted us. “Hello, lovebirds! Where’s your card? You have a dog
right?” he asked, looking at us both.
“We’re
not a coup – ” I started to say.
“It’s
okay, honey. You don’t have to be shy.” he smiled sweetly at me. He reached
into his pocket and got out the laminated number and the guy gave him Dash’s
leash, and Dash barked at us, still wearing his sunglasses.
“Enjoy
the Marquette!” the guy left.
I
turned to Sky. “Honey. Why the hell
are you so annoying?”
“It’s
one of my charms, darling.” he flashed a killer smile at me. For a short
second, I was absolutely dazzled. Then he laughed out at my face. “You like me
don’t you?” he asked.
What?! This is getting very annoying.
“That’s
the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!” What’s with people for God’s sake? Even
Imah!
“No
it’s not. Come on, Ryne. I won’t tell anyone.” he chuckled. “It will be our own
little secret.”
“Go
to hell.” was my response.
“You
know, in your dictionary, that usually means yes.” He smiled, exposing that
little dimple on his left cheek. Then we suddenly heard,
“You
two look so gwood togethur!” I looked around. No one was looking at us. Then
Sky tapped my shoulder at pointed down.
Looking
up at us with eyes full of wonder was a 4 year-old girl with blonde pigtails.
No one was with her, but she doesn’t seem to care. Sky knelt in front of her.
My
eyes were wide as I saw the picture. Not all people find guys with small kids a
turn-on, but God. Sky looks nothing
like the guy who just killed people less than 24 hours ago. He looked
different.
“Where’s
your mom, dear?” he asked, holding both of her shoulders. He was searching for
bugs. The electronic ones. It makes me sad that something as innocent as a
little girl can be involved in this mess – that you can’t completely trust
anyone at all.
“She
said she will come baack, but she didun’t.” she said cutely. I knelt beside Sky
then. I said to her. “We’ll help you find your mom, okay?” she giggled. “You
wook pretty.” Wow. Sky turned to me. “Told you so.”
“Shut
up Sky.” I turned back to the girl. “Thank you.” I smiled. “What’s your name?” I
asked. She said, “Samantha.”
As
she said that name, I saw Sky’s reaction. His emerald eyes were clouded with
wistfulness and he looked like he was reliving a memory from the way that his
eyebrows wrinkled as he watched the little girl’s face.
But
he seemed to see someone else.
I
held his hand that was handcuffed to mine. A sad Sky was something very
troubling to see. I said quietly, “What’s wrong?”
He
blinked two times and his features morphed into one of self-loathing. He shook
his head then he stood up. “Let’s find her mom.” Unexpectedly, he shook his
hand out of mine. I stared at him.
What
just happened?
The
little girl held my hand – the other one – and asked,
“What’s
your name?” smiling.
“I’m
Ryne.” I replied calmly. Then I shot a sideway glance at Sky. After a moment’s hesitation, I added, “And
this is Sky.” He doesn’t see to be listening tough, just walking quietly, and
searching the crowd for Samantha’s mother. She pulled at my hand and said, “Are
you married to him?” she pointed at Sky. I sighed. This is really getting
wearisome. “Sky is my friend. Sam, can you tell me what your mom is wearing? We
can find her easily that way.”
“Uhh,”
she said, with her hand on her chin. “She has gold hair.” And then Sky. There was it again. Hi posture
turned rigid and his face showed raw emotion. Then what happened next was out
of my comprehension.
I
gripped his wrist and said, “What’s wrong? And don’t tell me it’s nothing, we
both know it’s anything but nothing.”
He seemed distracted, looking at nothing in particular as he said, “It’s a long
story. And I’d rather not share it, if you don’t mind.” I stared at him. The
crazy thing is I do mind. I’m not used to seeing Sky like this, it’s not… good.
When he gets sad, it’s contagious. I don’t like seeing him this way.
We
continued to walk in silence. But there are dozens of females having blonde hair, it’s impossible to tell which one. I turned to Samantha again. “What is your
mom wearing?”
She
simply said, “Blue.”
“A
blue dress?” I asked patiently.
She
gave me a huge grin. “Ban. Dana.” She said it like it was two words. So, a blue
bandana. That’s not so hard to find. I looked at Sky worriedly. He then turned
to me.
“This
place is huge.” he said, emotionlessly. “We won’t find her mom. Maybe we should
just ask around.” On the contrary though, his tone made I clear that he doesn’t
want to socialize at the moment.
“Where
did you last see your mom?” I asked Sam. Her eyes shone as she replied, “Cotton
candy!”
“Err.
The cotton candy store?”
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