Roy looked up and up. He hated heights. His partner tugged him forward. "Roy will you come on? They're getting ahead of us." Hearing the screams, he gave a shudder and allowed his partner to drag him forward. At the base he had to crane his neck up just to see the top. It was making him dizzy. Once the safety harness was secured, he grabbed it in a death grip. Sweat was breaking out on his forehead as they slowly inched their way to the top. Johnny kept glancing back over his shoulder to check on him. Roy knew the harness would hold, however he couldn't seem to loosen his grip. As they neared the top, he closed his eyes for only a second when suddenly they were falling!
They plummeted to the ground in a heartbeat of the time that it took to reach the pinnacle. All he could hear was his pounding heart, and he let out a terrified scream. Just before the ground could end his fall he felt his harness jerk him hard to the side and then he felt himself going back up, only to begin falling again. His vision greyed. It was too much. It would be over soon. All he could do was hang on and pray he would make it safely back down to the ground. He shut his eyes and held on. Finally there was an abrupt jerk, followed a complete lack of movement.
"Roy? Roy, you can let go now." His partner shook his shoulder gently. He slowly opened his eyes to see Johnny grinning at him. He slowly let go of the harness and took Johnny's proffered hand to help himself up. Behind Johnny he saw the crowd thinning out and two impatient children hopping from foot to foot.
"Dad, Dad that was AWESOME! Can we go again? Please? Please?" Each child grabbed one of his hands and tugged him to exit. Johnny was doing his best not to laugh, but seeing the look on his partner's face was making it difficult. Joanne was waiting for them at the exit. Hearing the kids begging to ride again and seeing the expression on her husband's face, she quickly shushed them, reminding them that there were plenty of other rides in the park they hadn't been on yet.
When Chris looked like he would protest, Johnny jumped in. "Now Chris, you know your mom's right. We really should try ALL the rides before we start repeating them." Roy heaved a sigh a relief and shared a glance with Joanne. He could always trust his wife and partner to have his back. At least he thought he could before Johnny continued. "You do realize this place has SIX rollercoasters. That means FIVE more to go and we started with the smallest..." Joanne burst out laughing, while Roy could only stop and glare at his former partner. Seeing the glare, Johnny quickly said "I'll be right back, just need to run into the gift shop for a minute."
Joanne snuggled into her husband while they waited for Johnny to emerge. "I'm glad we asked him to come with us," Joanne said. "Look how happy the kids are. They would've been so disappointed if we had to postpone the trip because I was a klutz and broke my arm."
Roy gave his wife a quick kiss. "Yeah, what's one more kid at an amusement park anyways?"
Joanne gave her husband a light punch in the arm. "Now stop that! Johnny even drove us here so we wouldn't be crowded in my car. He's going on all the rides that I shouldn't so the kids don't have to ride alone, or argue who is going to be stuck with an empty seat next to them. I suppose they could've ridden together while we waited." Joanne tilted her head to one side and thought for a minute before continuing. "Nope. Maybe if they were a bit older, and if Jenny wasn't just squeaking by the minimum height requirements that could have been an option. Inviting Johnny was the best plan." She giggled then and said, "He really is a big kid isn't he?" Roy grinned in return and stole another kiss.
A few seconds later, Johnny bounced out of the gift shop with empty hands. He promptly went over to Roy and Joanne, relieving her of his camera. "We ready to go?" He asked.
Joanne and Roy glanced at each other. "I don't know partner. Are we? I thought we were waiting on you?"
"Well I'm ready."
"Didn't find anything to buy?" Joanne asked noting the lack of packages.
"Actually I did, but they offered to send the package to the front gate so I wouldn't have to carry it all day. Do you believe that Roy? I didn't know they did stuff like that. Did you? Hey kids, are you all ready for the next ride?" Johnny called out before giving Roy a chance to reply.
Chris and Jenny promptly abandoned their fountain watching and each grabbed one of their Uncle Johnny's hands. Both of them were convinced they had the best idea of where to go next. Joanne settled the matter quickly by stating they would work through each section of the park in the order they came to the rides. With much giggling and grinning, they moved on to the next attraction.