Standing, wearing nothing more than a towel wrapped around my waist, and a damp but not soaked GoodNite beneath that I looked into the large bathroom mirror admiring my blonde head. I couldn’t help, but wonder what my grandparents or my mother would say if they saw me right now. Actually, my mother and grandparents were the least of my worries. The one who I feared was Daddy_Phil because it wasn’t too long ago that he’d taken me to deal with my purple colored hair. So I am 100% sure he’s going to not be happy with this bleach job. Of course, he’s going to kill me anyway for running away to California, but he’ll probably kill me twice.
Destiny had even bleached my eyebrows and eyelashes, which I didn’t even know was possible. I looked like an honest to goodness sun bleached surfer-dude.
We had to do a hair-treatment before I could call it a night. She said that if we didn’t, by morning my hair would be so brittle it would all break off and I’d be completely bald. Needless to say, I was all for the hair moisturizing treatment; the last thing I wanted was to have my head as bald as my balls.
“Now you go ahead and get yourself changed, Momma Destiny needs a nice hot shower. Tomorrow we’re going to do two more makeovers.”
With my towel still wrapped about my waist, I slipping into a fresh GoodNite while wondering what she could have meant by two more makeovers.
“Momma Destiny?” Meek who apparently had reawakened, called as she was about to disappear into the bathroom.
“What’s that sweet boy?” she sang and I swear she sounded just like Mary Poppins right then.
“Alvin and I are going to go stretch our legs and get some fresh air. We’ll be back in a bit.”
I wanted to ask, “We are?” But figured Meek must have a reason for wanting to get the two of us out of the hotel room.
“Okay, take the key so you can let yourselves back in. You might want to stay nearby; I think it’s going to rain soon and it’s pretty late. Don’t want anything happening to my sweet boys.”
Forgetting my modesty for a millisecond, I allowed my towel to fall off as I quickly yanked my shorts up over the GoodNite, threw on my shirt, and jumped into my shoes as fast as I could.
“What’s up?” I asked as the two of us walked away from the hotel room.
“Nothing’s up. I saw something on the way here that I wanted to check out is all.”
It was a bit windy, but not too chilly. Actually, the air felt kind of good and was helping to clear my head of the chemicals that had been used to bleach our hair. The two of us walked about ten minutes, not talking but taking in this town we found ourselves in. When we reached an old chain-link fence, I saw why Meek had wanted to check this place out.
“Looks like an old amusement park.” I said.
It looked like it hadn’t been open in years. Trash was strewn everywhere; weeds grew up between the cracks in the asphalt walkways. The Ferris wheel, now a monument to rust, was more than half covered in some sort of brown leafy vines.
“Wanna go in?” Meek asked.
“Not especially.” I said but followed him anyway as he searched the fence for a spot where we could easily slip under it.
“Hey Skeeball.” I said, “I’m good at that.”
“Still smells like a carnival.” Meek commented.
The smell of funnel cakes and cotton candy hung in the air like ghosts.
A gust of wind from behind us blew some of the trash past us. An empty soda can clinked and bounced down the avenue ahead of us. The sound seemed to echo on for ages.
“There’s the bumper cars!” I pointed out and we both jogged over to them with some excitement.
I suppose the little kid in each of us had got excited and forgot that we were in the middle of an amusement park ghost town. Each of the bumper cars were overturned, apparently vandalized.
My attention was drawn away from the bumper cars by an eerie sound. Across from the bumper cars, the wind was causing a rusty door to creak as it swung back and forth. As it would swing, it would hit a metal restroom sign, which now hung from only one chain from above the door.
“Kind of beautiful and creepy at the same time.” Meek commented.
“I kind of like it. It’s peaceful.” I said back.
We walked past each game and ride for a while, kicking at the occasional stone or empty can and talking.
“Think we made a mistake?” Meek asked.
“Mistake?” I asked, not sure what he was referring too.
I had a notion that he was talking about hooking up with Destiny but that isn’t what he meant at all.
“Ouch!” Meek moaned.
Meek had hit his head on a low hanging awning, which was nearly falling off the front of the Orange Julius stand.
“You alright?” I asked with a bit of a chuckle.
“Didn’t see that darn thing.” He said while vigorously rubbing the sore spot.
“How’s your head?”
“Well it’s still attached. So I guess I’m alright.” He said with a forced laugh.
Then returning to our conversation Meek said, “From what Destiny has said, half the country is looking for us now. We’re all over the news.”
Agreeing I said, “Yeah, I didn’t expect that.”
We walked a bit more. Me on one side of the avenue of carnival games, Meek on the other; we were about thirty feet apart but still talking as though we were side by side.
“Doesn’t matter what we do now.” Meek said.
“What do you mean?”
“If we keep going or go back, either way we are both going to be in a lot of trouble.”
I picked up two game tokens I found on the ground.
“Yeah, I’ll be lucky if my grandfather doesn’t ship me off to Military school in Siberia.” I said.
That made Meek laugh; but it wasn’t a funny sort of laugh, more like a nervous and sad laughter.
“Pepper’s probably worried sick.” Meek stated.
It was pretty dark and the wind was really strong.
“Think we better start heading back?” Meek asked and I wasn’t sure if he was asking if I wanted to go back to the hotel or back to Maine.
Holding one of the tokens, I gave it a fling so that it sailed through the air flat and far. It hit the merry-go-round, shattering one of the remaining florescent light tubes. The sound was a lot louder than I thought it would be. First, there was the shattering glass, then the tink-tink-clang of the token as it bounced and ricocheted.
Meek laughed, picked up a small stone, and gave it a throw. I couldn’t believe how girl-like he throws but the stone still made it to the merry-go-round. There was no glass breaking but the stone made more noise than my metal token had.
I gave my other token a fling. It made a ringing sound as it left my hand, arched up and was caught by the wind and carried over the merry-go-round.
“Good throw!” Meek said.
“I don’t want to go back to Maine, EVER!” I called over to Meek.
He threw another stone and turned around before it reached the ride. He was about to say something when…
C R A S H !