Sierra agreed with Vicki. She had never been to Magic Mountain, and today she was definitely in the mood to go a little crazy and have some fun.
“I only wish I could have had a shower,” Amy said. “It’s so much hotter here than at home. Doesn’t anyone else feel a little less than fresh?”
“Don’t worry,” Wes said. “There are rides here guaranteed to freshen you up even if you don’t go on them.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Amy asked.
“I can’t tell you. I’ll have to show you,” Wes said as he pulled into the huge parking lot. The lot wasn’t completely full, which made Sierra think going late on a Thursday afternoon was a lot better than trying to go on Saturday.
“Is anyone else going to take a sweatshirt?” Sierra asked. She was warm now like Amy, but she knew it could get chilly once the sun went down.
“Not a bad idea,” Wes agreed. “Once we’re inside the park, I don’t want to have to come all the way back out here.”
Armed with money, sweatshirts, and Amy’s discount coupons, the five friends headed for the park entrance, joking and laughing all the way.
twelve
“HEY THERE! How’s everybody doing? Are all five of you together? How about if all of you stand right there, and I’ll take your picture?” A young man wearing a park uniform held up a large camera. He and several others stood at the entrance to Six Flags Magic Mountain Amusement Park offering to capture the entrants on film.
“Sure,” Vicki answered for them. She struck a pose with her arm resting on Randy’s shoulder.
Sierra caught Randy’s expression under the bill of his baseball cap. He looked surprised that Vicki was leaning on him. Surprised, but kind of enjoying it.
Sierra looped her arm through Wes’s, and Amy did the same with his other arm. Vicki moved closer to Amy and wrapped her other arm around Amy’s neck.
“Terrific,” the photographer said, quickly capturing the shot while they held their chummy pose. “Here’s a ticket for you. If you would like to buy a copy of your photo, you can turn this into the photo station and pick up the picture when you leave the park.”
“I definitely want a copy,” Vicki said.
“So do I,” said Sierra.
“Me, too,” Amy said.
The three girls looked at Randy.
“Whatever,” he said with a shrug.
“I’ll visit your picture, Sierra, whenever I need a memory,” Wes said, leading them to the photo station.
His comment made Sierra realize how great he had been about this whole trip. Wes was so much older than the rest of them, yet he never treated them as if they were beneath him. If there were an award for the best big brother, Sierra would have nominated Wesley.
“Where to first?” Vicki asked after they had turned in their orders for the picture.
“Anybody else ready for the Viper?” Wes said.
“What’s that?” Amy asked, sticking close to his side.
They walked past a large circular water fountain. Sierra felt a delicate mist as the late afternoon breeze caught the fountain spray and taunted her with its refreshing coolness.
“I could go for something to drink,” Sierra said.
“What about the Tidal Wave?” Randy asked. “That one sounded pretty good from what the guidebook said.”
“Yes,” Wes said with a grin, “this might be a nice time of day to visit the Tidal Wave.”
“Just point me to the gift shops and food court,” Amy said. “That’s where I’ll be waiting for you guys.”
“Oh, come on,” Sierra said. “Don’t be like that. You would like lots of the rides here. I’ll go on them with you. And who knows? You might just feel brave enough to try one of the really fun rides.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Amy said. She wasn’t wearing the expression of someone who was rebelliously enduring this trip. She merely looked uncomfortable—as though she would just like to have a shower and a nice, clean bed to crawl into.
Sierra had to admit she had seen Amy’s hair look better. And the dark shadows under her eyes appeared to be more from fatigue than smeared makeup. Amy was definitely one of those people who did better with a bath and a blow-dryer than she did with going creatively au naturel, like Vicki and Sierra.
As a matter of fact, Sierra wouldn’t have minded a clean shirt before they attacked the amusement park. A hot shower would have been nice, too, but she could wait. They were here, and it was time to have fun.
Wes walked briskly through the stream of people, and the rest of them followed. He was obviously a man on a mission. They gave up trying to offer their suggestions of where to go and trotted after their trailblazer in the green knit shirt.
“This way,” Wes called to them over his shoulder as he headed for a bridge. The sound of people screaming with delight grew louder as they followed Wes onto the bridge. “Hurry! This way, you guys,” he called out, looking at them and then looking at the waterway that ran under the bridge.
“Right here, Amy,” Wes said, putting his hands on her shoulders and standing behind her. She came up to about the middle of his chest, and as he held her in place with a pesky grin on his face, Amy turned to look up at him with a smile of admiration—apparently for his gentle gesture of holding her shoulders as they gazed at the elaborately decorated canal.
Sierra realized she had lost one of her earrings. Looking around on the ground and retracing her steps, she tried to see where the dangly silver earring had landed. People were tromping all around her, and she figured retrieving the lost jewelry was probably hopeless.
Looking up at her friends, she noticed Wes giving Randy a nod. As Sierra watched, Randy followed Wes’s example and stood behind Vicki with his hands on her shoulders. Vicki’s grin lit up her whole face. Like Amy, Vicki turned to give Randy a sweet look of affection.
Then it happened. A speeding boat loaded with screaming people came barreling down the shoot. On cue, Randy and Wes both ducked behind Vicki and Amy while holding the girls firmly in place. The huge spray of water from the careening boat rose into the air and crashed down on them. Amy and Vicki were drenched—soaked to the skin. Amy’s hair was completely flat and dripping water down her face. Randy and Wes looked well doused, too.
Vicki laughed. She laughed hard and beat Randy’s chest with her fists as well as shook her wet hair on him. Sierra laughed, too, giving up on her earring and joining all her wet friends. She unfastened her remaining earring and tucked it into her pocket.
“I promised you a little freshening up, didn’t I?” Wes teased Amy.
Amy didn’t respond as Vicki had. Instead, Amy stood there, dripping, stunned, and looking as if she might cry. She turned her chin up toward Wes, pulled her soaked bangs from her eyes and said, “I can’t believe you did that to me.”
“Believe it,” Wes said, still sporting his mischievous grin. “And unless you want to get it again, we’d better move off this bridge.”
A chorus of screaming passengers announced the next boat was heading their way. The group scrambled off the bridge.
“You guys will be sorry,” Vicki said, grabbing Amy by the wrist, “because now we’re going to the restroom, and you’ll have to wait for us. No telling how long it will be before we come out.”
“No problem,” Wes said. “You can find Randy and me in front of the funnel cake stand. You see it over there?”
Vicki nodded and ducked into the restroom with Amy.
Sierra watched as Amy and Vicki disappeared into the restroom and Wes and Randy marched off to the food cart, slapping each other on the back. She had been afraid this would happen; she was the leftover.
Dozens of happy amusement park visitors streamed past her as she stood there. Sierra felt the same way she had when she was six and became separated from her family in a crowd at a concert they had attended one night. She had been taught as a child that if she ever got lost, she should stand still and wait. She had been promised an adult would come find her. Thi
s time, no one was coming to look for her.
At the concert, she had stood alone only a few minutes before her father’s concerned face appeared in the crowd and his steady hand reached out and grasped hers. It was a vivid memory. The sudden rush of terror over being lost and alone had been replaced instantly with an overpowering sense of comfort and security when her father reached out for her. At the touch of his hand, Sierra had held on tight. She never wanted to feel that kind of loneliness and fear again.
Yet, here she was, seventeen years old, doing exactly what she wanted to do, with all the people she wanted to be with, and fear had found her. Isolation circled her. It was as if she were six years old all over again. Only this time, no one was going to reach out his hand to grasp hers. Her father was a thousand miles away.
Then a thought came to Sierra, the kind of thought that starts in the heart and warms the spirit all the way through. Her heavenly Father was not a thousand miles away. He was here with her—right beside her. He always was, and He promised He always would be.
That realization covered her with peace. Terror and all its icy companions fled. She felt as if God had invisibly slipped His nail-scarred hand into hers, and all she had to do was hold on tight.
“You are so real,” she whispered into the unseen realm. “You’re right here. I know You are. And You’re never going to leave me, are You?” The calmness of the presence of God’s Spirit in the middle of that busy crowd amazed Sierra.
She blinked and looked around, almost expecting people to stare at her, as though her hair were on fire or something. That’s how changed she felt. But no one was staring. Apparently, no one else had sensed God’s presence the way she had. He had done that just for her. With her heart full to the brim, Sierra headed for the restroom. She felt changed. She wasn’t a little girl anymore. She didn’t feel cut off from her friends or lost. She was loved, and she knew it.
Amy and Vicki were at work in front of the mirror, using all the beauty supplies Vicki had brought with her. Amy had combed her wet hair straight back and was standing in front of the heat-blasting hand dryer. Neither of them seemed to have noticed Sierra hadn’t been with them all along.
The girls ended up spending less than ten minutes in the restroom. Amy’s shock over the dousing wore off, and a playful attitude took its place. When they met up with the guys, there was lots of joking, teasing, and even a little funnel-cake smashing into Randy’s face.
Sierra wanted to tell everyone she had just had this amazing experience in which she understood God’s presence as never before. But she found it awfully hard to have a serious conversation with someone who was holding a chunk of cake at the end of a plastic fork, ready to catapult it at her face.
“More cake, anyone?” Randy asked.
“None for me,” Wes said, getting up. “I think I hear the Viper calling my name.”
“Oh, yes, I can hear it,” Vicki said. She made her best snake face and hissed out, “Wesssss-ley. Come to me, Wesssss-ley.”
“Is that a roller coaster?” Amy asked reluctantly.
“Yes,” Wes said, “it’s a roller coaster.”
“And does it go …?” Amy made circles in the air with her finger.
“Only twice,” Wes said. “It’s over before you know what bit you.”
Amy gave Sierra a pleading look. “Are you sure you want to go on it, Sierra?”
Sierra nodded. “Come on, Amy. You can always close your eyes.”
“No way,” Randy said. “You’re not allowed to close your eyes. If you close your eyes, they stop the ride, and you have to get out and walk down the emergency stairs.”
“What if you close your eyes when it’s upside down?”
“They still make you get out,” Randy said. “There’s a safety net, so, you know, you just unhook your seat belt and down you go.”
“You guys are mean,” Amy said.
They were walking at a faster pace now. Wes was, once again, eager to reach his goal.
“Can’t you accept that some people have a death wish and some people don’t?” Amy kept talking louder. “I mean, why should this be a test of my tolerance for fear? Can’t you see that in this life there are rollers and nonrollers? I’m in the minority here because I’m a nonroller. So what? Isn’t it time we all started honoring diversity?”
By the time Amy finished her speech, Wes had led them to the end of the line for the Viper. After ushering Sierra, Vicki, and Randy into line, he hung back with Amy.
“You guys go ahead,” he said.
The line was moving quickly. Two other guys immediately got in line behind them, making it impossible for Wes to slip in with the three of them.
As the crowd pressed forward within the railings, Sierra looked over her shoulder and was surprised at what she saw. Wes was bent slightly, looking Amy in the eyes. Then he reached over and put his arm around her.
thirteen
THE LINE FOR THE VIPER moved so quickly Sierra soon couldn’t see what was going on with Amy and Wes. Was he counseling her as a big brother? Had she started to cry, and was he trying to comfort her? Or was he expressing affection for her?
Why does this bother me so much? she thought. I’m all in favor of Vicki and Randy’s getting together, so what’s the big deal with Wes and Amy’s getting together? Is it that I think Wes is too old for Amy?
Sierra thought Wes couldn’t be interested in Amy because he had certain criteria for what he was looking for in a girlfriend, and Amy didn’t match that description. His first priority was that the woman must be a strong Christian. Amy had admitted more than once that she wouldn’t necessarily put herself in that category. So why was Sierra still nervous about any attention Wes gave Amy?
Vicki and Randy talked about the roller coaster as they inched toward the front of the line. They could see the loops and hear the screams of those who had gone before them. Vicki said she didn’t like the way the structure made a clanging, rattling sound as the cars climbed the steep incline to the top of the first loop. Sierra nodded agreement but only half listened as she continued to process her thoughts about Wes and Amy.
By the time she reached the front of the line, Sierra figured out what was bothering her. She didn’t want to share Wes with another girl. He was her big brother, and if he became attached to someone else, it would change everything.
Instead of freeing her, the realization made Sierra feel heavy. She knew she couldn’t control her brother’s life, and the only area she had any influence on Amy was in selecting clothes. This was something she had to let go of or it would hurt her relationships with Wes and Amy.
What’s going on, God? Sierra prayed. Two big revelations for me right in a row. First hold on, then let go … What is this?
The uniformed ride attendant on the platform motioned for Randy to climb into an open, single seat in a roller-coaster car. Sierra and Vicki were directed to the front seats in the first car.
“Front-row seats! What did we do to deserve this?” Vicki said, grabbing Sierra’s arm as she stepped into the hard plastic car. “Is it too late to change my mind?”
They sat down, and the safety bar came down over their shoulders, locking them in. It was hard to move and impossible to say anything to Randy, who was several seats behind them.
“Yes, I think it’s too late to change your mind,” Sierra said. As the car lurched forward with a rocking motion, her stomach did a flip-flop. “Don’t worry. You’re going to love this. It’ll be great!” she told Vicki.
“Are you sure?” Vicki asked in a nervous, high-pitched voice.
The car made its creaky, clanking climb to the top of the rise. With their faces toward the sky, Sierra noticed how pale blue it was. To the right, an airplane left a white, dusty streak across the wide expanse of heaven. It might as well have been accompanied by the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard because that sound gave her the same sensation she was feeling in her stomach as they neared the crest of the Viper’s first loop.
“You kn
ow, you might be right,” Sierra yelled over to Vicki. “I think I want off now.”
“Sierra,” Vicki shouted, pressing her leg against Sierra’s in a show of moral support, “you’re supposed to be the brave one here!”
Sierra pressed Vicki’s leg back. They were at the top. Before them lay nothing but air. Sierra gripped the guard bar and let out a scream as the green nemesis plunged them into the depths of its belly. The rush of air pulled their hair straight back and drew the skin on their faces away from their wide-open mouths. In a matter of seconds, they were dropped, spun through two great loops, and spit out of the control booth with a jerk. Sierra and Vicki screamed the whole way.
Dazed, dizzied, and hoarse, they stumbled out of the car and waited for Randy. Randy’s only evidence of the adrenaline rush was his crooked grin.
“Ready to go again?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” Vicki said, gripping her sides.
“That was great!” Sierra said, her voice loud and raspy. “Wes is going to love this one! Where do you guys think he is?”
They exited together, awkwardly bumping into each other and apologizing with their shared laughter. Wes and Amy stood a few feet from the exit.
“You’re going to love it!” Sierra announced when she spotted her brother.
“I’m ready,” Wes said. “Who else is game?”
“I am,” Randy said.
“Not me,” Vicki said with a moan. “Why did I eat all that cake?”
“I found a ride that’s more my speed,” Amy said. “Anyone want to go on a kiddy ride with me?”
“I’ll go with you,” Vicki said.
Sierra debated before deciding to go with Vicki and Amy. “Where should we meet you guys?”
Wes pointed out a spot for them to meet, and they agreed to be there in about forty minutes.
“Are you okay, Amy?” Vicki asked as they leisurely went in search of the Goldrusher, Amy’s ride.
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