Eden (18 page)

The base of the ride would spin at incredible speeds, forcing the capsule to swivel out until it was totally horizontal.  The result, the riders who were already strapped to the walls of the capsule, were unable to even lift their heads or arms from the walls, not to mention the fact that, they to, were completely horizontal.

If all that weren’t bad enough, please take into account that the ride that was spinning you in space at such incredible speeds wasn’t even properly anchored to the ground.  If you can imagine all of that, you could imagine the horror I felt when I saw Drake point to the Zero G ride.

“Let’s do the Zero G,” Drake said slow and steady, knowing that each word was like a dagger in my heart.

“Let’s do it!” Eden agreed.

It was my worst nightmare.  How could I say no?  I couldn’t let Eden go on a ride without me; I would never hear the end of it from Drake and the others.  I had no choice, I had to go.

“Are you sure you want to go on that ride?” I pleaded with Eden, hoping that she would change her mind.

“It looks like so much fun,” she squealed, not taking her eyes off the ride.

“That was horrible,” I could hear Matt whisper through his teeth at Drake; “you know how Tom hates rides.”

“I wasn’t asking if Tom wanted to go,” Drake pointed out with an evil grin, “He can stay here safely on the ground like always.”

Matt punched him in the arm, but it was too late, I could see by the look on Eden’s face that she really wanted to do this.  Taking a deep breath, silently praying that it wouldn’t be my last, I nodded my head.

“Let’s do it,” I said mimicking Eden’s cry, although mine was considerably quieter.

Drake and the others looked at me in astonishment.  They had never seen me agree to go on a fair ride before in their lives.

“Are you sure?” Kyle asked, “We don’t have to go.”

“No, we’re going,” I assured him.

Eden looked so happy, how could I say no?  If I didn’t go, I knew that Eden wouldn’t go either and she wouldn’t complain about not going on the ride at all.  It was because of that reason that I couldn’t deny her this little thrill, this little bit of happiness in exchange for all the happiness that she had given me.  It seemed like such a little thing for me to do.

I went up to the ticket counter and bought two tickets.

“What about me?” Drake asked innocently.

“You’re lucky that I don’t kill you,” I whispered to him under my breath.

“Whoa,” he gasped holding his hand up in surrender, “I just wanted to go on an innocent ride, what’s the problem?”

“Nothing, forget about it,” I grumbled through gritted teeth.

If by some miracle I survived this ride, I was going to beat Drake to death.  I handed Eden her ticket and waited for my friends to purchase their tickets.  The five of us then walked over to the line of people waiting to put their own lives on the line.

How bored was the human race, when just to feel a little excitement we would risk our lives like this for no reason?  You would never see a deer skiing, or a penguin mountain climbing, so why were we so complacent that only the danger of losing our lives made life worth living?  We were all doomed, by our own hands most likely. Finally our turn came and the five of us walked up as a group.

“How many,” the operator asked.

“Five,” I told him in a voice too high to recognize as my own.

“Six if you’re counting the giant puma,” Drake chided in from behind me.

“You’ll all be in the same capsule then,” he told us.

“Will anyone else be in the capsule with us?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I wanted complete strangers present in case I panicked during the ride.

“No, there are enough of you that you’ll have the capsule all to yourselves,” he informed me, “Right this way.”

The operator led us to a capsule, that obviously would rise the highest above the ground; just my luck.  Entering the capsule, the operator motioned us all against the wall which was padded with harnesses.  Strapping us each into a harness, he informed us that we should remove anything that could fly off of us like glasses and such.

“Have fun,” he said as he slammed the door and locked it in place from the outside.

Did he say fun?  How could something like this ever be considered fun?  Looking around the capsule at Eden and my friends, I could see that I was alone in my anxiety; everyone else seemed to be having the time of their lives.

When the ride slowly came to life, I stared at the cable that entered the side of the capsule.  The only thing connecting the capsule to the cable was the metal ball at its end that was secured into a socket that was apart of the capsule.  As the spinning picked up speed, I felt my stomach sink and my body press into the padding on the wall, I tried to lift my arm, my head, anything; but it was impossible, I was rooted to the spot.

I could hear my friends and Eden scream with excitement and briefly saw the smiles on their faces, but my eyes were immediately drawn back to the cable with its metal ball; my life line.

Incredibly, the ride began to spin faster and the metal ball creaked under the strain, I could see it straining against the socket now, as if it would pop out at any moment, flinging our capsule out into empty space. Much to my horror that was exactly what was beginning to happen.

The squealing noise of the ball being ripped from the socket silenced all the cries from my friends and suddenly we were all staring at the socket with dread.  I tried to move, all of us struggled against the g-forces.  The only one in the capsule that didn’t seem worried was Eden; it seemed more like she was debating something in her mind.

I knew that Eden was super strong and that she lived for a long time; but was she indestructible?  I didn’t want to find out, but something told me that I would be beyond all the worries of this world if that ball let loose.  My worst fears came true when with a final groan the ball popped out from the socket and we could all feel the capsule lurch free; only the centrifugal force from the high speed spinning was keeping us from being flung into space, but that wouldn’t last long.

Suddenly, as if coming to the same conclusion, Eden leaped from the wall of the capsule, ripping free of her harness.  My friends looked on in amazement as Eden made her way to the socket barely struggling against the g-forces that rooted the rest of us to the spot.  Reaching out, she grabbed hold of the cable seconds before it flew out of the tiny hole in the capsule roof.  Against the velocity of the spinning ride, Eden seized the cable with the metal ball in one hand and gripped the socket with the other; straining, she pulled them together.  Holding the rod in place with one hand; Eden crushed the walls of the socket around the arm, locking it once again in place.

Relaxing slightly, Eden was dragged back to the wall; the rest of us staring at her in wonder; although in my friends’ cases it was more like shock.  They all stared at Eden unable to comprehend what had just happened; what she had just done. As the ride gently came to a stop I quickly unfastened my harness as Eden rushed to assist my friends; I was left with the responsibility of unfastening the harness from the Pink Puma stuffed animal.  We had to get out of here before anyone noticed what Eden had done to the ride.

“What happened?” Drake asked groggily, “How did she do that?”

“Not right now, Drake,” I said, “We have to get out of here.”

Eden assisted Kyle and Matt from their harnesses and reached the door before me.  For once I was grateful that we were in the top capsule on the ride and that would make us the last to be opened.  We couldn’t wait for the operator to unlock our capsule, once he looked in, he would know something was up.  We had to get out of here – now.

Looking at Eden, she seemed to read my mind and nodded to me.  Gripping the door she pulled the door inside, against its hinges.  With a slight groan, the metal bar locking the capsule door from the outside, snapped.

“Hurry, get out,” Eden called to my friends and they obediently rushed for the exit.

When we exited the capsule we could see the crowd disembarking from the ride down below, the operator was about halfway to our capsule.  When he entered a capsule to unfasten the occupants’ harnesses, we made our escape.  We ran down the platform, blending in with the crowd of departing patrons.

We didn’t stick around to see the outcome of our vandalism; we headed for the entrance gates and made our way across the parking lot.

“So what was that all about?” Matt asked when we were safely away from the crowds, “How did Eden do that?”

“Yeah, spill it,” Drake demanded, “There is no way that a normal person could have done what she did.” He raised an accusing finger at Eden, “What is she some kind of secret government experiment?  Maybe that was why that shady guy in the car was looking for her the other night.  They want her back!”

“Secret government experiment, Drake, do you realize how ridiculous you sound?” I reasoned with him, “What’s next, are you going to be afraid that now that you know the truth about her, the government is going to want to silence you forever?”

“Dude, why would anyone want to kill me?” Drake asked astonished at my outburst.

I could see Eden staring at me from the corner of my eye, a small smile playing across her face.  I realized how ironic my statement was because I had suspected the exact same thing only days before, but I didn’t have to time to acknowledge the hypocrisy of it.

“Its okay, Thomas,” Eden told me calmly, “If they are your friends, we can trust them with the truth.”

“We can trust them,” I told her, “I’d trust these losers with my life.”

“I hope so,” Eden said, “because we are about to trust them with mine.”

“Quit stalling,” Drake demanded, “Just tell us, we promise to keep it a secret.”

I took a deep breath and released it.  There was a lot of explaining to do.  This was going to take a while.

19

It took twice as long for us to explain the story of Eden to my friends.  I blamed it on the fact that Drake interrupted us every few minutes with his pointless questions.  When we finally finished our explanation, we were met with complete silence.  Looking around, I could see that my friends were stunned; Drake’s jaw actually hung slack in disbelief.

“So what you are telling us is that Eden is part of an ancient race of immortals?” Kyle whispered in astonishment.

“That’s right,” I answered warily. These three had been my best friends for years; they were closer than brothers to me, but their reactions had me scared that they couldn’t handle this.

“If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I would have never believed it,” Matt added.

“So are you guys cool with this?” I asked, “Can you keep this secret?”

“No doubt,” Matt quickly agreed, “We won’t say anything.”

Kyle nodded his head in agreement with Matt.  Drake seemed like he wanted to say something; for once it seemed like he was trying to censor himself.

“Damn, Tom,” he finally blurted out, “You mean to tell me that she’s not only hot and rich but now she’s freaking Wonder Woman, too?  What the hell, man?  You suck!”

He finished his tirade by angrily jabbing an accusing finger at me; I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face.

“Does she have any sisters?” Drake asked finally, “Preferably one a little closer to my age?”

I didn’t know if Eden had any siblings, but I doubted that any of them would be anywhere near Drake’s age.  Shaking her head, Eden confirmed my suspicions; like me, she was an only child.  I could see Drake’s face fall from the corner of my eye, but no one was paying any attention to him; as if any of us ever did.

“So these...leeches,” Matt began, trying to remember the terminology, “They tracked you to East Harbor?”

“That’s correct,” Eden confirmed.

“So what makes you think that more won’t be on their way?” Drake accused.

“Leeches don’t usually associate with each other,” Eden explained, “They are selfish creatures that like to keep to themselves; the chances that the two who found me shared that information with any others is like a zillion to one. I would have better odds of winning the lottery…twice, than I would have of another leech  finding me.”

“Why do you have to jinx it like that?” Kyle whined. We didn’t pay any attention to him; Kyle had always been overly superstitious.

“So, do you think we could see the fireworks from here tonight?” I asked as we reached the far end of the parking lot next to the mall.

“Yeah, they should be viewable from here,” Matt agreed.

“Good,” I said in relief, turning to Eden, “I wouldn’t want you to miss them.”

My friends had no interest in staying for the fireworks; plus I think that after hearing Eden’s story they felt a little uncomfortable around her.  I couldn’t blame them, if I hadn’t been madly in love with her; I might have felt uncomfortable too. Thanks to the commotion taking place at the Zero-G, they couldn’t return to the fair, so they decided just to head home.  Eden and I watched them go, I could tell that she was nervous that we had revealed everything to them; but I reassured her that my friends could be trusted.  Sure they could be a-holes at times, but they were loyal a-holes. Looking at my watch, the time was just after five, we had a good three and a half hours until the fireworks began; too much time to spend in the fair parking lot.

“Do you want to go grab something to eat?” I asked finally beginning to get hungry, “We can get tacos in the mall.”

“I guess so,” Eden agreed sadly, “but I really wanted to try a funnel cake.”

“We can get one later,” I promised, “After the sun sets and the commotion dies down.”  I finished, pointing over at the ride that had almost taken the lives of me and my friends. That seemed to appease Eden; she looked up at me and took my hand.  Together we headed for the mall.

The mall wasn’t very busy today, which was strange for a Saturday afternoon; I guess that was because of the fair’s close vicinity.  Heading into the tiny food court, we stopped in front of Taco Loco.

“What do you want?” I asked Eden as I withdrew my wallet.

“Just get me a number one meal,” she said.

“Soft or hard?” I asked her referring to the state of the taco shells.

“Hard,” she answered curtly.

Eden seemed to have a lot on her mind.  It was obvious to me that she didn’t like the idea of more people knowing about her existence.  With the leeches and the wardens out there somewhere, I couldn’t say that I blamed her; I just wished that there was some way I could convince her that my friends could be trusted.

After ordering two number one meals, both hard shells, I took our tray and we sat down at an empty table.  Most of the tables were empty, so for the most part, Eden and I had the food court to ourselves.

“Do you think I freaked your friends out?” Eden asked shyly in a quiet voice, not looking me in the eye.

“Sure, they may be a little freaked,” I admitted, “but they’ll get over it.  You’re still the same person you’ve always been.”

“I’m just worried that they won’t want to be around me,” she whispered.

I remembered my original reaction to Eden’s secret and I blushed, but at least my friends knew the truth upfront, they didn’t have to speculate like I did.

“If you want I could call them tomorrow,” I assured her, “Maybe we could all do something together and you’ll see that you are just worrying for nothing.”

I hoped that I sounded more sure than I felt.  I was sure that my friends would come around; I just prayed that it would be quickly.  I didn’t want Eden to worry needlessly.

“That sounds great,” Eden smiled, “I would feel so much better knowing that your friends accepted me.”

“Then stop worrying about it,” I told her, “How’s that taco by the way?”

“Pretty good,” she smiled biting into one with a crunch, “It’s pretty hard to screw up a taco; they all taste the same”

“I’m sure that your tacos would taste light-years better than these,” I teased.

“Maybe one day you’ll find out,” she laughed, “We’ll do a Mexican Night.”

“I can’t wait,” I answered truthfully.

The rest of the afternoon went by relatively quick.  Eden and I had wandered the mall until the sun set, around eight.  The fireworks started at nine sharp, so we decided to make our way back to the fair grounds.

“I’ll run and get us a funnel cake,” I told Eden when we reached the parking lot.

I knew that she had been looking forward to trying a funnel cake before the Zero-G incident and I wanted today to be as perfect as possible for her. Leaving Eden in the parking lot, I entered the fair again, trying to be inconspicuous.  Surely no one would remember my face from this afternoon, certainly not when Eden had been walking beside me, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I was relieved to see that the line for the funnel cakes wasn’t long at all; I could pull this off no problem.

Glancing around I could see that the Zero-G was still closed and roped off; even the lights around it were off.  Thankfully any investigation that had been done there was long over. Purchasing a funnel cake, I quickly made my way back to the parking lot; Eden was still where I had left her.  I don’t know why I worry about her so much.  She had proven time and time again that she can handle herself; I guess that’s just how love is.

“Wow,” Eden exclaimed when she saw the funnel cake, “it looks so…” she seemed to be searching for the right word, “…fattening,” she finally laughed.

“I think that is the major requirement for any food to actually taste good,” I joked, breaking off a piece of the warm dough and handing it to her. “Why is it that the worse a food is for you, the better it tastes?  It’s like our taste buds conspire against us.”

Laughing Eden popped the dough into her mouth; she seemed to concentrate on the taste.  After she swallowed she looked up at me smiling in approval.

“It’s really good,” she confirmed, looking at her fingertips covered in sugar, “…and messy.”

“Another good taste requirement,” I laughed.  Finishing up our snack I could see that the fireworks were starting.  Eden looked up in wonder just as the first rockets bloomed into an explosion of colors.

The display lasted for the better part of an hour, and it was close to ten when the grand finale lit up the night-time sky.  The crowd burst into applause as the lights faded.

“That was so pretty,” Eden commented, “Thanks for watching it with me.”

“It was totally my pleasure,” I told her.  The wonder in her eyes when the dazzling lights lit up the sky were well worth the wait in my opinion.

“And remember to thank your mother for lifting your curfew for tonight,” Eden reminded me.

“Believe me; if it wasn’t for you my mother would never have let me stay out tonight,” I admitted, “She really likes you.”

“I’m glad,” Eden smiled, “because I plan to be in your life for a long time.”

“You ain’t kidding,” I joked making reference to her incredibly long life span.

She made an angry face and mock punched me in the arm, “Never comment on a lady’s age.”

“Sorry,” I said sincerely.  Even though the punch had barely touched me, it would be sure to leave a bruise tomorrow.  I had better watch my step.

It was a short walk back to Eden’s house.  When we reached her porch I stopped at her door and gave her a kiss good night.

“I had a wonderful time with you Thomas,” she whispered, “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me,” I laughed against her lips.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” she asked.

“Well, I wanted to see my friends,” I told her, “and make sure that they are ok with everything that happened today.  After that I am all yours,” I added with a leer.

“That’s good to know,” she teased, “I hope that your friends can accept me.”

“I am sure that they will,” I assured her.

“Good night,” she said leaning over to kiss me again.

“Good night,” I repeated returning the kiss.

A few seconds later I was walking through the front door of my house.

“How was your date?” my mother asked as soon as I closed the door behind me.

“It was great,” I told her, “We had a lot of fun.”

“That’s good,” she replied.  Even though I couldn’t see her face in the kitchen, I could hear the smile in her voice.

“I’m going upstairs to change,” I called to her, “Good night.”

“Good night,” my mother called.

It was a little after ten, not very late, but after the events of the day I was exhausted.  I barely had enough energy to get dressed for bed before I passed out.