Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (12 page)

“Sorry.” He cleared this throat. He called out to the attendant, “You okay? Sorry about that.”

The attendant just glared at us and rubbed his face.

“I’m really sorry.” I told him. I don’t think he really cared. I started to get the case of the giggles. I couldn’t believe I caused one side of his face to get so red. I looked at Patrick, “Maybe we should go.”

“Yeah… good idea.” He grabbed Andy’s hand and we walked away as quickly as possible, then burst into laughter.

“Didn’t I say… bodily harm?” I laughed.

“Oh, yeah! Remind me to never be in front of you when you have a ball in your hands.” He said as tears formed in his eyes.

I started laughing so hard that my sides starting hurting and my own tears streamed down my face. I had to gasp for air. It took some time for us to calm down.

Andy looked at his giraffe, then up at me, “Liz, what’s your favorite animal?”

“The penguin.” I didn’t have to think about it. I loved watching them waddle, then swimming with ease. It was like they were flying underwater. “Why?”

He held up his giraffe, “Raffy needs a friend.”

“He does. Doesn’t he?” Patrick commented playfully. “I guess we’ll have to keep our eyes open to see if we can find any friends for Raffy.”

“I know where we can find them! The frog toss had penguins!” Andy exclaimed and tugged Patrick in that direction.

Patrick stood still. “Wait. You got to pick the basketball game. Isn’t it my turn to pick?”

Andy stopped pulling his arm and gave him an angelic look. “Oh yeah... I thought you forgot.”

“Trying to steal my turn, huh?”

“I’ll let you choose two in a row.” Andy begged.

Patrick stared at Andy and the corner of his mouth upturned. “Hmm… Or I could just take my turn now. Let’s see… I heard there’s a frog game around here somewhere.”

Andy smiled and pulled him in the direction of the game. “Come on, it’s over here!”

I followed them to the booth. Andy was right. The booth was filled with two sizes of penguins with various colors of bow ties. To win the prize, you had to launch the rubber toy frog and have it land on a lily pad. The circle of lily pads that it landed on determined the size. If it landed in the outer circle, you would win a small penguin. Landing it in the inner smaller circle would get you a larger one. You got three tries to win. Patrick paid the attendant and she handed him three frogs.

“I want to try.” Andy stepped up to the frog launcher. He put the frog on it and pushed down on the other end. The frog leaped into the air. One leg landed on the pad before it slid into the water. He tried again. This time it flew further, into the inner circle of pads. It landed upside down on a lily pad and stayed.

“Wow! Cool!” I gave Andy a hug.

“Way to go, Andy!” Patrick high fived him.

“Thanks!” He was grinning ear to ear. He was so proud. “What color should I get?”

Patrick shrugged, “I don’t know. Liz, what do you think? What’s your favorite color?”

I looked at the options. “I like purple. Get that one.”

The attendant handed Andy the large penguin with the lavender bow tie.

“We have one more frog to launch.” Andy reminded us.

“Liz?” Patrick tried to pull me in front of the launcher.

“Have you already forgotten about the basketball debacle?”

Andy and Patrick started laughing. “No…just keep your eyes open this time. Wait! Let me get my camera out. I’m going to record for our project.”

Great. He took his camera out of his backpack and started recording. It was a good idea, the game was a good example of physics at the carnival. But I didn’t want my try to be recorded. Oh, well. He motioned for me to start.

“Okay…” I couldn’t possibly do anything bad this time, since the frog sat on the launcher. Physics dictated that it could only go within a certain area.

Patrick called out to the attendant, snickering. “You may not want to stand too close to the pads… or Liz. It might be safer for you to stand on this side of the counter.”

The attendant took a few steps away from the target area. I placed the frog on the launching end of the lever. I looked at Patrick and Andy. I slapped down the other end of the launcher. The palm of my hand hit the right side of the lever causing it to move from its spot. I guess they weren’t secured to the counter. The frog flew off to the left and would have hit the attendant, if she didn’t heed Patrick’s warning. Oops.

We all started laughing. I managed to get out, “Sorry, good thing you listened to him and moved.”

Patrick stopped recording and shook his head, “Geez, you weren’t kidding when you said you were uncoordinated.”

Andy was getting a little hungry, so we headed to the food court. I was amazed at all the options. It wasn’t just hot dogs that you could buy. There were so many different foods on a stick. I guess handheld food was the ideal thing at a carnival. As we walked by each stand, I could distinctly smell what they had to offer. Some was sweet, some spicy, most were fried.

“Patrick, can I have a churro?” Andy asked as we passed a stand that sold them.

Patrick stopped and turned around. “Sure. Liz, you want one?”

“No, thanks.”

Patrick must have seen the giant question mark on my forehead. “Have you ever had one?”

“No. I don’t know what it is.”

“You don’t?! You have to try it! It’s so good!” Andy exclaimed.

Patrick nodded, “It really is. It’s fried dough with cinnamon and sugar. What’s not good about that? I’m going to get you one.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to.”

“No, come on! If you don’t like it, Andy and I will eat it. Right, Andy?”

Andy nodded. Patrick went up to the stand and bought three churros. Andy immediately started eating his. He seemed to really be enjoying it.

Patrick waited for me to start eating. “Well, are you going to try it?”

I looked hesitantly at the thing. “Well…”

“Just take a bite. If you don’t like it, don’t finish it. Come on, I thought you trusted me.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. I don’t know what I was afraid of, except that I had never been very adventurous in food. I did trust Patrick and if Andy liked it and he was a kid, how weird could it be? “Okay. Fine.”

I took a small bite of the churro. It was sweet. I could taste the cinnamon and sugar. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It was
really
good. I took another bite and another.

Patrick laughed and nudged Andy. “So, I guess we won’t be getting more.”

I looked at them, “What?! Okay, you guys were right. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Yeah.” Andy giggled.

Patrick laughed. “Me too.”

8. ALONE

I couldn’t believe how much fun I had tonight! It was great! I never thought I would like laugh like that, what a rush. I still felt giddy thinking about it. Of course, it’s back to reality as we pulled up to my cousin’s house. As I got out of the car, I felt the grin plastered on my face.

I turned and looked back into the window, “Thanks so much, guys. I had a great time.”

“I’m glad you came. It was fun watching you and Andy trying to walk after getting off the Gravitron.” Patrick smiled at the memory.

“Hey, centripetal force is killer! And I never said I could walk straight to begin with, let alone after being spun around 100 miles an hour.” I joked back. I turned my attention to Andy. “It’s not fair for him to expect us to walk right after being spun around like that, is it?”

Andy smiled and playfully punched Patrick, “No.”

“It was really nice meeting you Andy. I had fun.”

“I had lots of fun! Wanna go next weekend?”

“Yeah. Good idea, Andy. How ‘bout it? You up for next weekend?” He said hopefully.

“I’d really like to. I gotta check with my parents first. I’ll let you know.” I really hoped my folks would let me go. I needed to find a way to convince them.

They pulled away from the curb and just like that my crazy fun night was done. I tried to get a grip on myself, to wipe the stupid grin off my face. I mean, I could be happy, but I didn’t need my folks to get the wrong idea or ask too many questions. I wanted to keep this night to myself. If I didn’t have to share it them, then I could hold on to my feelings and joy a little bit longer. The last thing I wanted was some third-degree that would pick apart my night and make me defensive about it. That’s how it always ended up. They’ll think something is up between me and Patrick. There wasn’t. But that’s not what they’ll think and then they’ll definitely not let me go with him and Andy next weekend.

When I got to the door, I could hear the laughter inside. They were having a good time. Good. Maybe they won’t bug me about my night and just go on having fun with theirs. I rang the doorbell. Nothing. Hmm, maybe it didn’t ring when I pushed it. I pushed the doorbell again. I know I heard it this time. I also heard all the laughter inside. I heard my name and then more laughter. They were laughing at me. They knew I was out here waiting for them to open the door and let me in and they weren’t doing anything about it, but laughing. I felt like I got slapped in the face, punched in the stomach and the ground beneath me give way all at the same time. They were laughing at me. I sat down on the stoop in front of the door trying to get a grip on myself. How did I go from the best night of my life to the worst?

What was I going to do? It was way too far to walk home from here. How would I explain that to my parents? But, why should I even care what I would say? They were the ones laughing at me and not letting me in. Still, I couldn’t help but fall into my pattern of defending my actions to my parents. I sat there for at least ten minutes debating what to do and finally realized there was only one thing I could do. So, I got up and tried to contain the tears that were welling up in my eyes. I still could hear the laughter inside the house and feeling very much like an outsider. An outsider to my family, where I knew I was different from them, but I never felt so isolated and alone from them as I did right now. I pushed the doorbell and heard it ring. At least this time, I heard a pause in
some
of the laughter. It seemed to take an eternity before the door opened to let me in.

* * *

When I got home that night, I was tired. I felt exhausted. The evening was a roller coaster in the ocean. I had the highest of highs at the carnival, laughing so carefree and not thinking about anything at all. It felt good not to think, like freedom. Then the coaster dropped into the depths of the ocean, suffocating me when I got to my cousin’s house and heard them laughing at me, knowing that I was outside and not letting me in. And here I was, yet again, thinking, worrying and feeling alone.

I didn’t want to be alone. But what could I do? I couldn’t sneak out, I didn’t have the guts for that. Besides, with my wonderful luck, I’d get caught or kidnapped or something. So, I did the only thing I could dare to do. I picked up the phone and called Patrick. If I got caught calling a guy this late at night, at least the punishment would be less severe than sneaking out.

I called him hoping to get my mind off my family. I wanted to return to the me that I was when I was with him and his brother at the carnival. I tried to sound like myself when he answered, “Hi, Patrick. Thanks again for taking me to the carnival. Thank Andy again too.” Yeah, I don’t think I sounded convincing. My voice was too flat and dead.