Familiar Strangers - Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 8 ~ The amusement park

"An amusement park? Six flags? Iris..."

"Hey! Mr. Canada sir, I remember you telling me that you love adventure. What's more adventurous than riding giant rollercoasters and looking death in the eye?" I defended

"Fair point, Miss RiRi Rainbow girl"

"Hey what ride should we go on first?" I asked him. He just smirked and opened his mouth

"Mlle RiRi Rainbow girl, me ferez-vous les honneurs de monter le plus gros et le plus fou du parc? Juste pour que je puisse voir a quel point tu as peur." I widened my eyes in shock.

"Charlie, I-"

"Ha ha you don't know what I said!!" I bounced back from my shock, as he said it, ready to take this little Canadian devil down.

"Au contraire, mon ami, je pourrais vous comprendre parfaitement. Vous voyez, vous pensez peut-etre que je suis juste une fille du Texas qui n'a pas la moindre idee de ce que vous venez de dire, mais je vous ferai savior que je viens d'une famille cajun, ou nous utilisons des mots francais dans notre vie quotidienne alors je a decide d'etudier le francais. Et a propos de ces montagnes russes, j'aimerais beaucoup. Et je vous garantis que je n'aurai certainement pas peur des petites montagnes." I said as I smiled. It was now his turn to stare wide eyed and point at me.

"How did you- How...? I- RiRi!!"

"As I said, I grew up in a Cajun family, a culture that comes from French descent. I already used dozens of French words in my everyday life, so I figured why not learn the actual language? And now guess what! Je parle couramment!"

"Well you certainly got me. Call it a draw?"

"Sure maple man, but only because I want to go ride the collososaurus!" he laughed and took my outstretched hand. I led him towards the biggest ride in the park with the most drops.

"We'd like the front seat please!" I exclaimed as I paid the ride manager. Me and Charlie climbing straight into the car and I pulled the seatbelt all the way down. Safety first kids!

I looked over at Charlie and he looked like he was about to throw up.

"Char, are you okay?" I asked him. He turned to face me with an unsure expression.

"I'm fine." he whispered.

"You most certainly are not you brave brave boy"

"I am!" he pouted. I giggled as he tried to seem mad. The ride started moving and he looked at me with fear in his eyes.

As we went cranking up the slope, I spoke to him, trying to comfort him. "Do you want to hold my hand Charlie?" he nodded sheepishly and took my hand in his. He squeezed it hard as we got higher up. I squeezed him back as I whispered things like "You're okay" and "You are a strong, brave person, you can do this."

We finally got to the top of the slope and I could see all the way down. I was too busy comforting Charlie that I hadn't realized how high up we were. The car began to tilt down for the big drop and I clung to his arm. As we went down, we both screamed in terror, but by the end of the ride, we were having the time of our lives. At the last big drop, I threw my hands up and my left hand went straight to something soft. Charlie's face. Great.

"Ow!" he yelped.

"Charlie!" I yelled as I watched his hand go to his eye. "Are you okay?"

"Mmmhmmm" he hummed in response. I waited for the car to come to a halt as we jumped out of the ride. I led him to a nearby bench and cupped his face with my hands.

"Hey are you okay?"

"Like I said, yes." he said, kind of exasperatedly.

"Here, let me take a look." I said as I prying his fingers away from his eye. Yeah that was definitely gonna bruise.