“Thanks!” he yells as his car dives beneath the oven.
A few minutes later, the car carrying Hayden and Izzy comes into the house. They’re laughing, oblivious to Remy’s tantrum. Hayden points to Hansel in the cage. “Someone put a muzzle on that kid!”
“Hell,” Izzy says, “I’ll throw him in the oven just to make him shut up!”
I push the button when they’re at the oven, and then Remy appears in front of me completely solid, her face contorted in anger. In the back of my mind I take a second to wonder what stage Luke would call this.
“Why won’t you listen?” she says slowly. Water starts to drip down her forehead and gather at the ends of her braids. Her hands ball up and she glares at me angrily. “Why won’t you help her?”
Izzy and Hayden whoop it up as the oven lifts and their car careens down the slope.
“Stop laughing!” Remy shrieks. The electric board sparks up, and then the power goes out.
I drop my inhaler and freeze in place as Hansel’s frantic cries become slow and distorted and finally fade to silence. Smoke fills my nostrils and I pray the board won’t catch on fire.
“Helloooooo?” Izzy calls out, laughing from inside the oven tunnel. “I think we’re having technical difficulties.”
“Here, witchy witch,” Hayden bellows.
“Shut up!” Izzy says, but she’s laughing.
I stare at the place where I think the board is, relieved there aren’t any flames.
Izzy starts the Land of Enchantment cheer. “Who’s got the magic? Who’s got the style?”
“It’s smile,” Hayden cuts in.
“Who cares? Who’s got the vision to go the extra mile? Land of Enchantment, that’s our name—crappily ever afters, that’s our game!”
One of them proceeds to make farting noises and they both erupt in giggles.
“I have to get out of here,” I whisper. I stand up and feel my way along the wall. An icy chills passes me and I hiss at Remy. “This is your fault!”
I feel her small cold hand take mine, and then I’m in the woods. Real woods—not the fake one inside the ride. Someone crashes through the brush, breathing heavily. “Oh my God, just leave me alone!” a voice shrieks.
Who is it? Izzy and Hayden are making so much noise, I can’t get a good read on the voice.
“Please!”
A second person passes about six feet from me, picking their way carefully but quickly through the brush. I see a glint of sliver in the moonlight—a knife.
“Leave me alone! Somebody help me! Help me!”
I try to listen to the voice but Remy is screaming and Izzy and Hayden are yelling out the cheer again.
There’s a jumble of noises—snapped branches, Land of Enchantment, leaves crunching, save her—and then a scream cut short. I listen for more, but all I can hear is Hayden and Izzy. At least Remy is quiet now. But then there’s something else. A sound. A repetitive sound. All I can think of is the sound the knife makes when my mother carves the turkey on Thanksgiving and she hits the bone and cartilage. Grating.
It’s getting harder to breathe, and I feel around the wall, trying to retrace my steps back to the control board to find my inhaler. I hit my shin on something and curse. And then the lights are back on. Hansel is crying for his sister and I’m gasping for air.
Ryan comes running toward me. “Megan! Are you all right?”
I put my hand on my throat. “Inhaler,” I wheeze. “Dropped it.”
I grab onto the control panel to steady myself, but I know I’m going to pass out. I feel the inhaler pass between my lips and the medicine pumped into my mouth. I gasp and choke but instinctively hold my breath and count to ten in my head. Then I slowly exhale and my breathing eases.
“Here, sit down,” Ryan says as he helps me into the chair. The power flickers off again, and I clutch his arm.
“Don’t leave me,” I gasp.
“I won’t,” he says, holding me tight and stroking my hair. He moves the inhaler into my hand, knowing I’ll need another hit.
Then I hear Remy again, but this time it’s soft, hiccupy sobbing like she always does after one of her big melt-downs.
A flashlight pierces the darkness. “Megan?”
“Luke!” I call out. “We’re over here!”
Luke flashes the light over Ryan and me. In the dim beam I see a look of surprise on his face. “Oh! I didn’t know someone was with you.”
I nod. “Yeah, this is Ryan.”
“Do you two know each other?” Ryan asks stiffly.
I nod again. “Luke works here, and he’s a friend of Ari’s.”
Luke is looking back and forth between Ryan and me, and I’m suddenly uncomfortable. I hear Samantha’s voice in my head—No PDA, it’s against the rules—and untangle myself from Ryan.
“Um,” Luke begins, “the generator is acting wonky, so I told Kevin I’d get you and he’s going in through the back exit to get the people stuck in the tunnel. And”—he looks at Ryan—“you’d better not let Kevin see you leave; you’re not authorized to come in during a shut-down.”
“Sorry, I didn’t want to leave my girlfriend in the dark!” Luke turns on another flashlight and hands it to Ryan.
“I just don’t want you to get in trouble, that’s all.”
“Let’s get out of here, Meg,” Ryan says, holding out his hand and pulling me up.
Luke stands aside and lets Ryan go first. “Wait,” he whispers as I walk by. When Ryan rounds the corner, Luke puts a hand on my shoulder and leans down close to my ear. “What happened? I heard her clear across the park.”
I start walking. “Another vision is what happened— another scary-ass vision!” Tears well up in my eyes. “We’ve got to do it tonight, with or without Nicki. I don’t care if we have to pull a random stranger off the street!”
“What about your boyfriend?”
“No, not him,” I say, and hurry to catch up with Ryan. As I walk carefully in the light Luke is shining my way, I wonder, why not Ryan? He certainly seems less skeptical than Nicki. But Nicki was Remy’s friend. Surely she’d be more likely to show herself to Nicki. I nod. Nicki’s the one.
As we make it closer to the exit, I can see the path outside in bright light and a crowd gathered around Miss Patty.
“Okay, team,” Miss Patty says. “We called you over so you can see how to handle things in an emergency. If a ride goes off-line, what’s the first thing you do?”
People look at their feet, but one hand shoots up from the crowd.
“You in the back!”
Samantha steps forward. “You try the backup generator and then immediately alert whoever is on supervisor duty for your area of the park!”
Miss Patty smiles at her. “Right you are! Good job! And who goes in to help anyone stuck on a ride?”
“Only level-three or-four employees,” says a tall, skinny guy with a French accent standing next to Samantha.
“Excellent!”
They lean into each other and Samantha blushes. Dare I hope Samantha might be hooking up with a French hottie?
“Don’t worry people,” Hayden says loudly as he leads Izzy and Kevin out of the exit. “We were this close to being baked in the witch’s oven, but we kept our heads, remembered our enchanted team training, and made it out alive with only one finger being chopped off!” He holds up his hand with his thumb hidden in his palm.
People start laughing and clapping, but Kevin waves his hands in the air.
“Whoa, whoa! No one lost a finger, and there was never any danger of anyone not making it out alive,” he says, glaring at Hayden for a second. “But this was a good drill and I’m proud of the way most of my team handled it. Now, if your team leader says you’re done, you can head on home. Don’t forget, character actors still have to meet in the costume shop.”
Luke gives Ryan a sideways look. “Later,” he says. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
Samantha waves to the French guy and then skips over to Ry
an and me. “Oh my God! I can’t believe you were trapped in there, Megan. Were you scared?”
“No,” I lie, “but Ryan here did come to my rescue.” I hold up my inhaler.
He gives me a quick squeeze and then takes a step away, obeying the no-PDA rule.
“Well, I’m really glad I’ll be out in the open air! I’m doing the captain gig for the SS Mermaid, the swan boats, and the water fun park. And I met this supernice guy, Christophe from France, who’ll be my second mate. And I think he might like me!”
“A French second mate? You lucked out,” I say, thinking Christophe from France just might signal the end of the third wheel in my relationship.
“I know!” she chirps.
“Well, just be careful, Sam,” Ryan says. “You’ve know him for what—a couple of hours? And he’s from France!”
“What’s wrong with France?” I ask, glad I didn’t tell them about the messed-up export from said country hanging on the wall at Ari’s.
He shrugs. “It’s France—no one likes France. And what happens when he goes back there at the end of the summer?”
Samantha frowns.
“Hey, that’s a long way away,” I say, giving Samantha a conspiratorial smile. “And there’s nothing wrong with a summer fling.”
Samantha sticks her tongue out at Ryan. “Exactly! And I don’t even know if he likes me likes me.”
“It sure looked like it to me!” I say.
“My team!” Kevin barks. “Over here!”
“I’ll wait at the benches,” Samantha says.
Ryan and I walk over to Kevin, who’s looking more stressed-out than ever. “Okay, I just talked with Miss Patty. This ride is closed until further notice. It’ll need an electrician to go over the wiring, then it’s gotta be inspected.” He shakes his head. “It’s one of the oldest rides and it’s always causing trouble.”
“So do we need to get trained on another ride?” Izzy asks.
“No,” Kevin says. “Until this is up again, we’ll have you relieve people during their breaks. Some of you will be on cleanup, and some will get a quick gift shop orientation. Anyone a character actor?”
I raise my hand.
“Megan, you may get some extra hours at that until Hansel and Gretel’s is fixed.”
I nod. For once I’m glad I signed up for the Snow White gig.
“We’ll have your new schedule printed when you show up on opening day,” Kevin says. “I apologize for the inconvenience.” He waves dismissively at us and turns toward the office building shaking his head. “I hate training day and I hate this fucking ride.”
Ryan and I look at each other with wide eyes as Tyler stares after Kevin and says, “He said it again! Why did he jump all over my ass? I only said ‘hell.’”
“You need to be at least a level three to swear,” I say.
Tyler rolls his eyes. “This is such a crock of shit. Who’s got the magic?” he says bitterly. “Crock of shit,” he says again after giving us a wave good-bye.
“I’ve got my costume meeting, hopefully it won’t take too long,” I say after Tyler leaves.
“I can’t wait to see you dressed up as Snow White,” Ryan says.
“Wouldn’t you rather see me undressed?”
A smile breaks out on his face. “Yes! Can’t you tell Nicki you have more training tonight?”
Reality crashes in again. “I wish I could.” I truly mean it too, because I know Nicki is not going to like being a guinea pig for Luke’s ghost wrangling.
“Oh my God! Look!” Samantha yells, running toward us with her phone held out in front of her. “I just got a text message from Christophe. He asked if I wanted to hang out tonight! There’s a softball game at the exchange students’ dorm!” She jumps up and down a few times and I raise a hand to give her a high five, which she eagerly hits.
Ryan’s brow furrows. “You’re not going are you?”
“Of course I am!” She giggles as she starts to text Christophe back.
I give Ryan a puzzled look. “Why wouldn’t she?”
“She’ll be with a bunch of strangers.”
“She’s a big girl,” I say, though I can kind of see why he’d be worried. Samantha is the antithesis of street smart. “And I read in the information packet that there’s supervision at these things—she’ll be chaperoned.”
Samantha puts her hands on her hips. “Who says I want to be chaperoned?”
“It’s just better that way, until you get to know the guy,” Ryan says.
“And I better head off to the meeting,” I say, not liking the look on Ryan’s face, and not liking the nagging suspicion that he’s not as happy as I am that Samantha may be moving on to foreign pastures. “Why don’t you see if you can find Christophe while I’m there?”
Ryan looks at me with his eyebrows raised, but I don’t care—I’m determined to see a Samantha/Christophe hookup.
Samantha squeals. “Oh, great idea!” She takes her phone out and starts pecking away at the tiny keyboard.
“I’ll wait by the front entrance—alone,” Ryan says. “Like tonight.”
I keep myself from rolling my eyes. “Hopefully the meeting won’t be too long, and we can hang out for a bit afterward.” I wink at him and he smiles, making me feel like an utter creep for lying.
ELEVEN
I walk into Ye Olde Costume Shoppe and see Miss Patty has already started. She looks up at me. The smile in her eyes is gone and I wonder if she’ll demote me to the Fun Farm despite whatever strings Ari has pulled.
“Sorry I’m late,” I say quietly, and then make my way to the back of a crowd of at least thirty people.
“As I was saying, being a character actor is just about the most important job in the Land of Enchantment world. Once you don one of these finely crafted costumes that I have painstakingly made sure are accurate to the tiniest detail, you become that character, and you become one of our Faces of Enchantment.”
Faces of Enchantment? In the illustrious words of my coworker Tyler, what a crock of shit. I’m half tempted to raise my hand and ask what about Bo Peep’s ultrashort miniskirt is historically accurate? Or should I mention the Snow White look-alike I saw had a much more detailed bodice? Sure it was soaked in blood, but still, it was a hell of a lot nicer than the satin Halloween knockoff I’ll be wearing.
I shake my head. I’m officially losing it. How else can I casually compare my outfit to what some poor girl lying butchered on the forest floor was wearing?
Oh!
What if that horror show I just saw was the chase before the kill? I hear the sound of the knife cutting through bone in my head, and my stomach turns. God, she was hunted down like an animal. Bile rises in my throat and I swallow it down.
“Are you okay?”
I jump and see the girl staring at me.
“Maybe you should sit down. You look like you’re gonna pass out,” she whispers.
I take a deep breath. “I just need something to eat. I haven’t had lunch.”
She nods but moves a couple of feet away from me as if what I’ve got is contagious—or maybe she’s afraid I’ll throw up on her or something. One thing’s for sure, it’s getting harder and harder to pretend everything’s fine, and people are starting to notice the cracks in my facade.
I just pray Luke can successfully work his psychic mojo on Nicki tonight, and then we can try it on Mom.
My heart sinks. In order for Remy to move on, then Dad’s got to too. As much as I keep thinking it’s for the best, what if I’m wrong and Mom’s right?
Tears gather in my eyes and I try to brush them away without looking too obvious. It’s hard to believe everything was status quo just a few days ago, and now Remy’s turned everything upside down.
“I have about a million things to do before opening day, so Henrietta is going to give you a few tips about being one of our Faces of Enchantment,” Patty says as she smiles and waves her fingers around her face.
“Oh, and would Megan Sones please com
e to my office afterward?”
I stand up straight, totally taken off guard. “Um, sure.”
After Patty leaves, Henrietta Stupin gets off her chair and looks at us wearily. “First thing you need to know is ya gotta marry rich or invest wisely so you don’t get stuck schlepping around a park in your eighties like me. Second, and you returning girls already know this, putting on one of these hoochie-girl costumes brings out the worst in even some of the biggest churchgoing men, so you’d best be keeping an eye on roaming hands.”
A few people titter, but we mostly just stare at her.
Henrietta gives one girl sitting on the floor the evil eye. “Don’t think it’ll happen to you, eh? Well, I’m in my eighties and I got my rear end slapped sixteen times last summer, and some old coot got a little too friendly with my bra while I was posing with him and his granddaughter and he knocked the padding out of the left cup! I ain’t got nothing without the padding neither.”
She looks around at us, nodding her head. “So just imagine how many’ll hit on you young things!”
I exchange horrified looks with the girl next to me. She’s looking a little faint herself now, and I’m pretty sure this is not the talk Miss Patty envisioned.
“And don’t try and turn ’em in either,” she continues, “’cause they’ll just deny it and call you crazy. Trust me, I know! And as for you boys who signed up for Prince Charming, get a life!”
The five guys in the room all flush deeply, but the rest of us laugh.
“Hey, I’m the Big Bad Wolf,” one pimply guy says, looking around at the rest of us, but no one says a word.
Henrietta puts her hands on her hips and looks around the room. “Any questions?”
Everyone’s head shakes.
“Good! Don’t know why Patty wanted me to talk to you anyway. You dress up and walk around—what’s to know?” She rolls her eyes. “Class dismissed ’cause I gotta get a smoke!” Henrietta salutes us and stalks out of the room.
“Too bad we can’t at least get tips for being groped,” one girl says as we start to file out of the room after Henrietta.
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