Chapter 5
Chapter five
Emotional Extravaganza
Iwatch in feigned amusement as an underpaid park employee pretends to outrun a massive rubber boulder.
For a moment, it seems like he’s done for, the boulder rolls over him, the kids in the audience gasp, and then he stands up, unscathed, to thunderous applause.
The Indiana Jones Stunts Spectacular certainly doesn’t live up to the name.
“See? This isn’t so bad!” Gabby says, clapping along.
It really isn’t so bad, taking in the over-engineered distractions of an amusement park.
However, the fact that I never got an update from last night, the fact that there’s still this little edge in Gabby’s voice, and the nervous way V walks on eggshells around her do little to make it feel like I can relax.
“How many more of these are on the schedule?” I ask.
“This one isn’t even over!” Gabby pushes back.
“What do you mean? He got hit by the boulder.”
“Yeah, but there’s a plane and a chase,” V tries to add in a supportive tone.
“See! Besides, it’s still drizzling.”
“Or I could go buy an overpriced umbrella.”
Gabby’s lips draw into a thin line at the sight of my disinterest. “Are you not having fun? It’s your trip. I promise, we can do something else.”
V looks around Gabby’s pale form with a stern face, the kind that asks why I’m making her girlfriend upset. It’s about this time that I get tired of this game of cat and mouse, and under the cover of a public place and a desire not to focus on the sudden pyrotechnics, I just lay it all out there.
“Gabby, what’s going on between you two? Why did you really rush down here to see me?” My words are sharp and direct.
At first, Gabby looks confused, almost offended. “You just broke up with Chad. We wanted to support you.”
She’s sincere, she’s always sincere, but knowing what I know, I can see the little she’s holding back, the line in her jaw. “But that’s not the only reason, is it?”
V makes another frustrated face, begging me not to push, but I’d rather have us all be upset and miserable than whatever this is—finally, Gabby relents. “No, it’s… No.”
Another cheer comes from the crowd as the Indiana Jones actor shoots a caricature of a sword-wielding Middle Easterner, making me pity the fact that this is probably how half the world looks at Manny, as some sort of scary, barbarous, brute—a feeling I find all too familiar.
“V told me something was up with you two. Things have been rough?”
V stares daggers, but Gabby doesn’t even deny it. “Yeah, I uh, yeah.”
“And you think getting me to move back will fix it?”
This time something sours on Gabby’s face, as if I’ve said all the right words in the wrong order.
“No! Franky, you’re my friend, not a bandage.
I don’t want you to fix our relationship.
It doesn’t need fixing. I just miss you.
I miss what we used to do together. Talking about books and movies, finding new music to listen to. Gossiping about everything.”
Gabby takes V’s hand, a loving, tender grasp. “V is who I love, but you’re my best friend.”
Something hitches in me at the admission.
The strangeness of living with someone else for literal decades, knowing you three are best friends, and not being able to internalize it even as the other says it out loud.
The tightness returns, paired with a burning behind my eyes, and not just because of the latest blast of flames from the show.
I try to make sense of the turbulent emotions swirling within me, but all I manage to do is leak tears down my cheeks.
Gabby doesn’t say a word, she just leans in in her understanding Gabby way and hugs me, her hands gripping me in a tight hold, as if to anchor me in a spinning universe. Even V gets up, shooing aside a man on the bench opposite me so she can close the protective loop.
“I’m sorry.” I don't know why I say it, I don't know what I’m even sorry for, it just feels like what I’m supposed to say in that moment.
“Shh, no,” Gabby coos, rubbing circles into my back. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’m sorry.”
Gabby pulls away and looks around as the crowd begins to get up and leave, the performers having taken their bow, signaling that the show is properly over.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, planning this.
I think I just wanted an excuse, any excuse, to get you away from your ex and somewhere where I could remind you of how much fun the three of us are together. ”
V stretches across to try to reach both of us in her grasp. “We could have done that at home with a handle of whiskey.”
My voice is a wobbly chuckle, accepting V’s inappropriate interlude. Even Gabby relaxes, her face still sullen, unable to weep because of her incorporeality, but still shedding something like happy tears at the idea.
At some point, I realize it’s just us in the bleachers, the park attendants eyeing us to clear out so they can clean up before the next show. I gesture for us to get up. The three of us trudge toward the exit, not happy, but with a new, more profound appreciation for each other.
“It wasn’t all bad,” I finally manage to say. “I’d never been to an amusement park before. At least not a modern one, not on purpose.”
This manages to return Gabby’s smile. “So you are having fun?”
“Uh, fun might be a stretch, but I’m hanging out with you two, so, actually, yeah.”
Gabby lights up, almost floating off before V literally pulls her back down to Earth. Then V eyes our surroundings, trying to make heads or tails of the signs. “So, should we get out of here? Pack up and head back to your apartment?”
“No!” I blurt out the word so suddenly that I’m not sure it didn’t come from the park speaker. As V and Gabby interrogate my sudden outburst, I scramble to think up an excuse better than having a date tonight. “I mean, we are already here, and I am having fun. Really! Let’s finish out the trip.”
V eyes me suspiciously, but Gabby is already unfolding the park map, scanning for the next thing she marked. “Yes! There are a lot of good themed rides and shows nearby.”
My eyes sweep the map, and immediately note one big red flag. “Anything but there,” I say as I stab my finger at the Tower of Terror.