“Nope,” I answer.
“Then you, my good trollop, have never lived.”
“When we’re not together, do you just sit around with a thesaurus and look for alternate words for prostitute or what?” I ask.
“No,” she answers, “I was in a band back in college.”
What that has to do with anything is beyond me.
It’s already dark enough outside that it’s taken me this long to realize why we haven’t been confronted by security: the amusement park isn’t just closed for the night. It’s been closed down for a long time.
Everywhere are bits and pieces of old carnival rides, many of them rusted into near oblivion, although here and there are almost completely assembled rides, though I seriously doubt I’d even get near one, much less on one.
“There’s the tilt-a-whirl,” she says. “I was fucking with you earlier about trying to figure out how to turn the thing on — that ship sailed a while ago. Still, I bet we can get a pretty good view of the sky in that one with the open end facing the hill.”
She leads the way as if she’s been here a thousand times before, and I can’t be certain that she hasn’t.
“It looks pretty rickety,” I tell her.
“Don’t worry, doc. I’ve had my tetanus shot.”
As I’m walking up the creaking metal stairs, I mutter, “I’m more worried about the thing collapsing on us.”
Even with my trepidation, it doesn’t seem like we’d be in too much troubl
e even if the ride were to fall apart with us on it, so I follow her into one of the cars.
The metal is cold as we sit down, but she was right about one thing: the view is pretty idyllic.
“Isn’t it funny how even a slight change of perception can make everything look so different?” I ask.
“Pretty cool, huh?” she returns.
We sit for a while, looking up at the sky.
There aren’t too many lights around here, so the stars are out in force. I’m trying to find constellations to point out to her, but it occurs to me that I only know how to find the big and little dippers.
It’s cold, especially on this metal seat, so I put my arm around her shoulders as she huddles closer to me.
“You know,” I say, “while you were in that building, I got a text message.”
“What’d it say?” she asks, huddling up next to me for warmth.
“It was from Melissa’s boss,” I tell her. “I think it’s safe to say that whatever’s been going on between the two of them has been going on for a while now, and I really don’t think there’s any reason to believe it’s going to be over any time soon.”
“Fuck her, anyway,” Grace says, shivering next to me. “You don’t need someone who’s going to treat you that way.”
“I think I’m starting to realize that.”
Grace looks up at me and smiles. “Come on,” she says. “There’s something that I really want to show you.”
She gets out of the car and starts walking back down the stairs. It takes me a little longer to get out of the car than it took her, but soon enough, I catch up to her.
“I can’t believe you’ve never been here,” Grace says, walking about half a step ahead of me. “Back in college, I used to get drunk out here with some frat guys.”
“Were you in a sorority?”
“No, I was too young. Apparently, they don’t like to let anyone in unless they’re old enough to go for a beer run. Besides, sorority chicks are bitches.”