Joshua Chen
tonight , and I reached for her hand . Her fingers were cold , or maybe mine were warm .
It was dark now , sunlight barely visible on the clouds , and they had turned on the lights . This was one of my favorite parts , the flashing colors on the rides reminding me of childhood . We passed by a bench and I remember wishing to myself how we could stay on those benches forever , my arm wrapped around her to keep warm against the ocean breeze , and us just talking and talking . But Lily loved the rides . “ What ’ s your favorite part ?” I asked her . “ The drops , of course .” She had a matter-of-fact expression on her face , then she nudged me playfully and ran ahead . We approached the one that just looks like a massive pole , where it ’ d take you slowly up to the top and , like a string being cut , drop you all the way down .
The rides were mostly empty at this point , and it was just the two of us . We climbed into the seats and pulled the cushioned metal bars over ourselves , locking them into place . Lily turned to me and smiled excitedly , then held out her hand and I took it , and the machine started moving up .
I looked down to the ground , saw the employees closing up their stations and shutting down the rides , everything getting smaller and smaller . I thought of my mother and her dishes , and imagined dropping a dish from this height , and about leaves falling gently down , and I found myself missing her embrace . I thought of the night after I broke her plate , sneaking out of bed to find her , seeing her sitting alone at the dinner table in our tiny apartment under a single yellow light with the apartment bills spread all about . I remember going back to my room and crying about the shattered plate , thinking I had somehow broken more than just her porcelain .
Lily said something and I realized we were at the top . Blinking , I felt the familiar surge of anxious excitement . A mechanical snap and we were falling , and I felt her hand slip from mine as we both screamed and plummeted down .
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