Chapter 13: Splash Mountain

The next day started out bad and steadily became worse. Matilda was sullen and Jenny was silent. They'd planned to spend this day in the park; so they did. To do otherwise would have brought into open the fact that things were not well between them, and neither was actively willing to do that. They'd tortuously combed the park for each and every ride and attraction they'd missed in the preceding days. Finally, it was going on 3 o'clock when Matilda finally said something with enthusiasm.

"We forgot Splash Mountain.... I can not believe we forgot Splash Mountain!" Matilda grabbed Jenny's hand and started pulled her toward the one major ride they had forgotten. It was in a portion of the park they had hit on the first day, but they'd skipped it because the line was too big.

The walk up to the top of the mountain was half of the experience of the ride. It was peppered with little recreated scenes from the movie upon which this ride was based, a partially animated, partially live-action feature called Song of the South. An interesting piece of trivia was that the movie was not currently available in its uncut form to American audiences, because of issues of real or perceived racism within the film. But it was available in the UK and in other parts of the world, which Matilda thought was funny, considering. Disney felt free to export to other countries what it was ashamed of in its own home. As they chatted about this, and about the old fashioned animatronics that controlled the puppets in the scenes, Jenny felt her heart lighten for the first time that day. Matilda was obviously enthralled.

They were soon in the fenced portion of the line that led directly to the ride part of this attraction. Things went well until Matilda got a glimpse of the ride itself. She grabbed Jenny's hand and pulled her out of the line. "I can't get on this ride with you," she said. Confused, Jenny craned her head and was able to get a glimpse the vehicle they were supposed to ride down the mountain. Splash Mountain was a waterfall themed ride and the vehicle was made to look like a hallowed out log. There were no proper seats on the thing. Two to three people- or three and a child- sat between each other's legs. Since both Matilda and Jenny were wearing their typical tourist garb of T-shirts and shorts this would make for a lot of skin contact.

"You take one log, and I'll take another down, OK?" Matilda said.

This seemed silly to Jenny. "It's only a short ride, I think we can manage it," she said, pulling Matilda back into the line.

Matilda eyed one of the crafts doubtfully. "I think you over estimate my control."

They'd had real fun for the first time that day, walking up the hill on the way to the ride. Going down separately would be like admittance that the day was a loss, so Jenny shrugged away her doubts and kept Matilda in line with her.

Soon they were in the front of the line, Jenny sat down first and pulled an extremely reluctant Matilda down in front of her. Feeling Matilda pressed against her, thigh against thigh, back against breasts, Jenny knew that the reason she'd insisted they ride together was because she was selfish, because she knew that she would soon have to start putting boundaries between them for Matilda's own good and she wanted to remember this trip to Disneyland as a fairy tale place where all things are possible. You're sending mixed signals, herself told her, and she told herself to shut up.

She realized that Matilda was shaking in her arms. From this alone? But this was a lot, and she knew it, she couldn't remember the last time there had been this much full contact between them but for the briefest of hugs.

"Jenny, I don't know what to look at." Matilda said, her voice strangled with panic.

She was right, there was nothing around them but people and breakable animatronics and scene pieces. Without any other choice, Jenny brought her hand up and clasped it firmly over Matilda's eyes. "You'll be fine," she said, her voice next to Matilda's ear, and, with her other hand wrapped around Matilda's stomach and rubbing it gently, this wasn't at all like a mother reassuring her child.

They were released to free fall down the 50 ft waterfall. Adrenalin filled seconds later they were at the bottom, gliding along the small river that would spit them out at the end of the ride. When all was clear and nobody else in sight, Jenny spoke into Matilda's ear.

"I'm going to let you open your eyes soon. Look at the water when you do."

Matilda nodded. Jenny pulled her hand away from Matilda's face. Seconds later she saw a sphere of pure water rise gently out of the water. It was beautiful, bending light and spitting out the images on eaither side in a colidiascoped affect. Matilda let it hang beside them for few short seconds before letting it slip gently back under the surface.

The sphere fallowed them to the end of the ride, underwater but still holding its shape, which Jenny could see as a small bulge that occasionally broke the surface of the water. At the end of the ride Matilda jumped out of the boat as if it were on fire. By the time Jenny had exited the attraction, she saw her lying on a shaded grassy area near the exit of the ride. From the way her chest was heaving, Jenny could tell that she was breathing deeply.

A flash of color, and she noticed that there was a wall of digital photographs to her right. A lot of the attractions did this, automatically taking a picture mid-ride at the most thrilling point, which you could then choose to buy or not. Jenny's eyes automatically searched for and found the picture of the two of them. Her hand was clasped tightly over Matilda's eyes, her arm around her waist. Momentum was causing them to lean back, so that Matilda was basically lying in her arms, and with their mouths open in surprise, the only adjective that could fully describe the picture was 'erotic.'

* I have been trying to be as correct as possible when talking about Disneyland, since I know a lot of people may have visited there. But I've had to be creative in some aspects. I couldn't remember exactly how many people are seated in the Splash Mountain Ride, so I looked it up. In some pictures, there were as few as 3 people in the boat, in others as many as 6 (half of which were children.) Also, there are at least 3 different Splash Mountains around the world, some of which are completely different in regards log construction than the one at the California Disneyland. So, I just went for what made the most sense and impact in the fanfic. It may or may not be like that in real life.