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He falls back into his seat, breathless, hair windblown, and face bright with effort. “Drama queen,” he teases.
“Says the adult who’s afraid of the dark.”
“Good thing we’re taking care of each other now.”
My cheeks flush, and the skeleton of what the abandoned amusement park once was floats into view. A place that brought so much happiness is just visible beneath the overgrown greenery and broken-down rides. Wind whistles between us, tasting impossibly of cotton candy.
“What do you think?” he asks.
“It’s sad,” I say. “Everyone forgot about this place. Like it never meant anything to anyone.”
“Sad? No. It’s—you’re looking at the wrong part.” The Ferris wheel whines, and we descend. “Close your eyes.”
“What? No.”
“Just trust me. Hurry.”
The eagerness in his expression convinces me. Will’s hands come to my shoulders, the touch light, but firm. He adjusts me to face to the right of where I was looking.
“Wait for it,” he says, his voice a breath against my neck. My heart drums a new beat against my rib cage.
“This is ... bizarre, you know.”
I can feel his grin inches from my ear. The sensation of rising again makes my stomach feel like it’s floating. “I know. Open your eyes.”
Sunshine explodes in the space where darkness was just moments before, and a surprisingly well preserved ten-foot ice cream cone rises up from the overgrown greenery.
“Wow. We walked past that. It looked like a decrepit ice cream stand.”
Will’s eyes light up. “I know. Did you see what’s written on it?”
I look closer at the faded letters visible just above the wild brush and weeds.
ADVENTURESTARTS WITHHOPE ANDENDS WITHICECREAM.
“Kind of perfect, right?” Will asks.
“Kind of,” I say, because the lump in my throat is preventing me from telling him that this is the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time. I’m in a forgotten place with an unlikely friend, and for the first time in a long time, feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be. “It’s strange, too, right?”
“Strange?” A current of wind pushes back Will’s hair as we descend, highlighting the planes of his face and the defined lines of his jaw.
“Yeah. I mean how Maeve gave me a tea for courage, and now here I am, doing one of the bravest things I’ve done in a long time.”
20
WILL
Listening to Hope tell the story of the Ferris wheel at Adventure Land feels like being there again, only this time the colors are brighter and the air is crisper. Her eye for detail makes the story come alive in a way that feels at once real and surreal.
I wonder if anyone has ever told her how rare that ability is. Or how when she gets animated, the yellow in her eyes turns golden.
“Did I miss anything?” Hope directs the question to me, but her attention is focused wholly on Maeve, whose face remained expressionless as she twisted my mother’s ring around her finger and listened. Sure, she smiled when Hope gestured excitedly and looked thoughtful when Hope relayed the part about the failed locket, but there was—and is—an intensity in Maeve’s attention that feels almost predatory. The urge to hide Hope away becomes a physical need.
“That’s all of it,” I say. Hope skipped the part where I crossed three lanes of traffic and nearly gave her a heart attack. I doubt she forgot.
“It sounds like you two had quite the adventure,” Maeve says.
Her choice of word sends a lightning bolt down my spine. Hope locks eyes with me, as if we’re both in on the same private joke.
