Sweet Sixteen, Chapter 10 ~ Gut Spinner

“I don’t like it.  There’s gotta be something we can do.  We’re her parents, after all.”

Liseli sighed, glancing up from the computer screen.  “Russ, would you please find something else to obsess over?  Or go outside or something, you’re about to drive me crazy.”

“What?”  He turned away from the window, where he had been glowering out at the road — the road Elly had just buzzed away down on the back of a motorcycle.  “Don’t tell me this doesn’t bother you at all.”

“Elly is sixteen years old, Russell — this may surprise you, but she is going to be attracted to boys who are not stamped and preapproved by you.”

“I don’t . . . I don’t believe this.”  He laughed incredulously.  “You’re saying it doesn’t bother you that our daughter is off gallivanting with—”

“Gallivanting?”  It was Liseli’s turn to laugh.  “Did you just use the word ‘gallivanting’?”

Russ frowned and changed his tack.  “I thought we agreed that this guy is bad news.”

“No, we didn’t.  I agreed that it’s entirely possible you’re right, but I also said that it’s more than likely you’re being paranoid, jealous, and just slightly ridiculous.”

“Why?  I told you, he’s a Key, and that can’t mean anything good.”

“You can’t possibly know that about him just by looking at him,” Liseli said dryly.

“Yes, I can.  Don’t ask me how, I just . . . know.  He’s a Key.”

Liseli shook her head, still unconvinced.  She’d seen Elly’s new boyfriend herself, after all, and nothing in particular about him had shouted “I’m a Key, which rhymes with T and stands for Trouble!”  She couldn’t say she really liked him, he didn’t seem too bright, but God knows if she got ulcers over every none-too-promising friend her children made she wouldn’t have a stomach left by now.

“We shouldn’t have let her go on a date with him.”

“Oh would you stop it?”

“Why are you brushing this off?  I would have thought you’d be the first one to get upset.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“Well.  You’ve always been a little overprotective of the kids.”

“I am not overprotective.”

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing.”

“Oh please, you’ve always said I’m too up tight and unreasonable.”  She rolled her eyes and thumped the keyboard in exasperation.  “You always used to be the one saying, ‘Let them eat ice cream three times a day and play in the street.’  ‘Don’t worry, his bones heal fast.’  ‘Why would watching ten hours of TV rot their minds?’  ‘Backstage at a rock concert is a great place for an eight-year-old.’”

“Fine, whatever.  I’m the irresponsible parent, yeah, I know that.  Which is exactly why I don’t understand your attitude right now.”  Russ shrugged helplessly.  “If I’m worried, you should be twice as worried.”

“Well, I’m not, and I’ll tell you why.”

Liseli turned her computer off and stood up, giving up on getting any work done while Russ was freaking out.  “Elly is not a helpless child.  She has not been a helpless child for a very long time.”

She brushed past him and headed out into the hallway, adding over her shoulder, “I know that Elly can take care of herself, hence my not ulcerating every time she walks out the door.”

“No, no, no.”  Russ followed her down the stairs.  “That’s all wrong.  She’s only sixteen, she’s naive, she has no idea how disgusting guys are, and—”

Liseli snorted.  “Have you even met your daughter?”

“And that’s forgetting for a moment that he’s not just any jerk off the street, he’s a fucking Key and even if you don’t think that’s a big deal, I know it is.”

“If I hear ‘he’s a Key’ one more time I will scream and you will become deaf.”

“Why are you defending this guy?”

Liseli stopped and turned around.  “I am not defending him, I don’t even know him.  But one of these days you are going to have to start treating your daughter like a woman, not a little girl, okay?  I am protective of my kids, yes, but at least I can recognize when they’re growing up, and Elly is growing up.  I suggest you look into doing the same.”

“Oh, and that’s so mature, the way you keep turning this around so it’s all about me.”

“Isn’t it?  Isn’t this really just about the fact that you can’t handle the idea of not being the Number One Male in Elly’s life?”  Liseli jabbed him in the chest with one finger.

“That is not true.”

“You’ve always freaked out whenever she’s had a date.  This whole business about ‘sensing’ Sien is a Key and ‘knowing’ he’s evil or something is a new and exciting level of paranoia, but you have always been really unreasonable about every boy who so much as breathed within a ten foot radius of Elly.”

“I have not been unreasonable.  They’ve all been horny sons-of-bitches.”

Liseli laughed.  “Sweetheart, they’re guys, that’s a given.  It’s the way of the world.”  She threw up her arms in a sarcastically dramatic gesture.  “Welcome to it!”

“Okay, I admit it, I don’t like the idea of Elly with any boy, but that’s not the point, here.  I’m serious.”  He leaned forward earnestly and lowered his voice.  “There is something wrong about this guy, and I don’t think Elly should have anything to do with him.  I know I can’t keep her locked away her whole life, but this guy in particular is not good news.”

“Prove it.”

“What?”

“You heard me, prove it.  Prove that you’re not being an idiot.  Until then I’m not going to do anything to stop Elly from dating him and you are not going to either, unless you want to deal with me.”  Liseli eyed him with what she hoped was her most dangerous look.

“I—”

“Nu-uh.”  She held up a finger to silence his protest.  “Until you’ve got more than the heebie-jeebies against Sien, I don’t want to hear about it.  This is about treating Elly with a little respect, like a human being instead of a possession.  You have to let her live her life, Russell.  I’m serious.  You’re all for letting Eric do whatever stupid thing enters his head, no matter how dangerous.  And even though I hate it, I let him because I know I can’t stop him from being who he is.  Don’t you think Elly deserves the same?”

“It’s different.”

“Why?  Just because she’s a girl?  Please don’t pull that crap or I will smack you.”

Russ sighed, and for a moment she thought he might drop it.  But then he said, “Look, Liseli, Elly Ann isn’t like you.  She’s a lot more sheltered than—”

“Don’t say it.”  Liseli put a hand over his mouth.  “Because it’s not true.  Russ, when you look at Elly all you can see is the little girl she was once upon a long time ago.  You see this helpless little baby, or toddler, whose entire world revolves around you.  And that’s just not Elly, anymore.”  She removed her hand, patting the side of his face in a conciliatory motion.

“What are you saying?  I don’t matter anymore?  She’s none of my business?”

“No, you idiot.  I’m saying that you have to understand that as Elly gets older her world is going to expand and you can’t keep trying to smoosh her back into the same tiny box she used to fit in as a child.  If you try, she’s just going to resent you.”

“I think I can handle a little resentment if it means she’s safe.”

“But that’s just it!  You can’t do that!  She’s going to have to make decisions on her own someday, you can’t expect to control her life forever, and if you can’t figure out when to let go she’s just going to wrench herself free.  God knows I don’t want to see any of our kids make mistakes or hurt themselves or screw up their lives.  And so I try to protect them when I can, but I’m not going to try to stop them from being human, either.  Get it?”

“I get it.  Really.  I do.  But this guy is trouble — bad trouble — and I am going to ‘prove it’ just like you said.”  Russ nodded decisively.  “Just give me time.”

---

“The amusement park?” Elly laughed, peering around Sien’s shoulder at the gateway rising above them.  “I haven’t been in here since . . . well, since cotton candy was a big deal to me.”

Sien coasted his motorcycle to a stop.  “You like it?  I took a chance, not knowing . . . but I thought—”

“It’s great, I used to love going on the rides.”  She patted his back as she slid to the ground.  Her legs felt a little unstable after perching on the back of the bike the whole way there, and she staggered a little.  “Apparently I’ve lost my knack . . . .”

Sien flipped the kickstand down and hopped casually off the bike.  “Well, let’s go get that knack back.  Jack.”

Elly laughed despite the extreme corniness of his rhyme, and thought to herself, You really have fallen for this guy, haven’t you?

Sien paid their admission and they walked in.  Elly was hit with a wave of nostalgia as she looked around at the rides towering above the food stands and games, and smelled the scents of salts and sticky sweets.  Parents, children, and other teenagers like them were strolling along, some carrying giant stuffed animals or colorful puffs of cotton candy.  It made her feel suddenly eight years old again, but when she looked to her side she saw Sien, not her father, walking beside her, and she smiled.

“So, what should we do first?” Sien asked, with a not-so-subtle glance over to a food stand advertising alligator on a stick.

“Rides before food,” said Elly sagely.  “Otherwise, projectile vomiting may occur.”

“Right.”

“Oh!”  A thought suddenly occurred to Elly, and she spontaneously grabbed Sien’s arm and jumped excitedly.  “Sorry.”  She pulled back in embarrassment.  “I just realized that I’m tall enough to go on the Brain Blaster!  And I wonder if they still have the Gut Spinner of Death?”  She clapped her hands together and let a little squeal escape.

Sien laughed, shaking his head.  “Well, you know this place better than I do . . . .”

She grabbed his arm and dragged him along as she babbled, “I always wanted to go on those rides but I was never tall enough and I actually cried the last time they wouldn’t let me on!  Ha ha!  And, oh, the Flaming Banshee’s Torture Chamber In Hell, that was the other one!  This is going to be so much fun!”

“Oh.  Boy?”

“This was such a good idea, Sien.”  Elly smiled at him.

He shrugged.  “Well, you know, I thought ‘why sit and watch a movie when you can go out and do stuff?’  And in lieu of rock climbing or white water kayaking, there’s this place . . . .”

“Yes, but I just meant, even I had forgotten how much I liked the amusement park.  Yet you thought of it as a fun place, and I agree, so we’re thinking alike!”  As they walked Elly switched from grabbing Sien’s elbow to looping her arm through his companionably.  “Watch out, yardstick man,” she joked, lifting her free hand above her head, “I’ve got the height and I know how to use it.”

Sien laughed and gave her a warm look that made her stomach tingle.  She looked away with a self-conscious smile, and caught sight of the banner reading “Gut Spinner of Death” in a garish red, yellow and green tie-dye pattern.  They got in line, watching the current round of parkgoers spinning and screaming inside the metal cabs.

“Funny thing,” Sien remarked casually, “I’ve never actually been to an amusement park before.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“But you must’ve gone on some kind of rides somewhere before?”

“Not actually.”

“Not scared, are you?”  She grinned tauntingly.

“Please,” he scoffed.  “Of that?  I ride a motorcycle, after all.”

“Of course, how could I forget?  Very manly.”

“Right you are.  Real life death ride without the safety bars.”  He cocked his head to the side.  “Or the silly names.”

Their turn came, and they climbed into a red cab, sitting side by side with the bar locked down over their laps.

“Well, this looks likes it been in service for . . . a million years or so,” Sien mused, inspecting the chipped paint, ripped seat cushion, and discolored metal polished by thousands of hands.

“Old and reliable,” nodded Elly.

“Right.”

The ride started to spin, slowly, gaining speed as it rotated around once, twice, three times.  “Kind of like a merry-go-round, right?” she said loudly, to be heard above the motor.  “You have been on a merry-go-round, haven’t you?”

“Once or twice,” Sien called back.

Their conversation was ended by their cab suddenly jerking to life, throwing them both into the back of the seat.  The next moment they were propelled toward the gaping air before them, checked only by clutching the safety bar so it wouldn’t connect with their middles.

Oh, your knuckles really do turn white . . .  Elly thought, gazing down at her tensed hands.  Then she was flung to the right, and suddenly found herself plastered against Sien, who careened into the right side of the cab.  She couldn’t tell if her galloping heart rate was from being flung around the cab or that she was now in full body contact with Sien.

“Sorry,” she muttered, conscious that he couldn’t be very comfortable crunched against the inside of the cab, but no sooner had she said it than the Gut Spinner jerked again and she went shooting to the left.  Sien followed her helplessly, and Elly found herself the one sandwiched between metal and human.  It hurt.  She saw the muscles in Sien’s arms straining as he fought torque and gravity to peel himself away from her.  He managed to give her a little air to breathe, but suddenly their world spun again and Elly screamed shrilly as she got a good look at the ground, hanging upside down, the bar digging painfully into her quads.  She welcomed the pain, though, seeing as that bar was the only thing keeping her head from meeting the ground.

Just as her head felt like it would explode from all the blood rushing in that direction, the cab righted itself sickeningly fast and starting to spin faster and faster, like a top.  Spots appeared in front of her eyes and she felt nauseous watching the blur of the world around her.  She felt gravity pulling at her from the opposite-than-normal direction and realized that they were now being spun swiftly at an angle to the ground in addition to the constant merry-go-round of the main unit.  She jostled back and forth, up against Sien one moment and smooshed against the metal wall of their dubious cocoon the next, then back to slipping and sliding into Sien again.

The ride slowed eventually, and Elly closed her eyes, taking deep breaths.  The ride made a sighing, hissing noise as it came to a stop, and a pleasant, mechanical voice said, “Please push your safety restraints into the upright position and exit to your left.  Thank you.”

Elly pushed against the bar with weak arms, and it didn’t budge.  She whimpered and joggled it, and then when Sien shoved against it as well it popped lose and swung free.  “Ugh,” Sien groaned, pulling himself up with the help of the side of the cab.

Elly half jumped half fell out of the cab and took a few dizzy steps in no particular direction.  “Oh man . . . which way is left?”

Sien was right behind her, and when she stumbled backwards drunkenly he caught her.  “Whoops,” giggled Elly, “my knack . . . is not yet back.”

Just then a small boy — maybe ten, maybe younger, definitely the shortest you could possibly be and still get onto the ride — ran past them laughing madly, “I’m going again!”

Sien loosened his hold around Elly’s waist and said with a self-conscious cough, “There’s the exit.”

“Oh yes, to the left, of course.”  Elly stepped away from him reluctantly.  They staggered out of the Gut Spinner corral into the thoroughfare.

“So that wasn’t bad,” said Sien.

“Not at all.”

“I mean, compared to a tight curve on a country road, eh.”  He shrugged.

Elly nodded.  “Probably they can’t make it too bad, because of the kids and all.”

“Oh yeah, definitely.”

“It was okay, though.”

“Mm-hm.”

“I mean, for a small park like this.  Nothing too fancy.”

“Yep.”

“So, what next?  There’s the Brain Blaster and the Flaming Banshee . . . .”

Sien pointed.  “Look!  A shooting gallery!”

“Ooh.  Are you a good aim?”

“I have no idea.  Let’s find out.”

“Yeah.  We’ll do the Brain Blaster after this, then.”

“Definitely.”