Mr. Terupt Falls Again (26 page)

A
fter the confrontation with Lexie’s old friends, our group scattered in different directions. I wasn’t sure where everyone went, but Jeffrey and Jessica and I headed back to the rides. Jessica was right—this was the best part of the carnival.

It didn’t take long for us to make our way to the Torpedo again. This was going to be our fifth time on the roller coaster. What better way to end the night but on the main attraction?

As we waited in line, we watched people who were finishing their ride screaming away. That’s why I saw Mr. Terupt and Ms. Newberry get off the roller coaster as we were getting on. And I saw something else that I had missed before—the warning sign. I hadn’t seen it until now because the dumb thing was leaning almost all the way to the ground. The paint was chipping off it and you could barely make out the words, but I was able to read the important parts.

NOT
Ride If You:

A nervous disorder
. That was the part that scared me. Your brain is part of your central nervous system. Why was Mr. Terupt riding the Torpedo? He was at risk. Then it hit me. Why had Mr. Terupt’s dizzy spells and stuttering stopped? Was it because he was all better or because he had stopped taking the medications? If he had stopped the medicines, then wasn’t he at a bigger risk for a seizure, especially after being jerked around on the Torpedo?

When we got seated on the roller coaster they announced it was the last run. We were lucky to get on again, but suddenly I felt unlucky because I wanted to get off. A sense of doom fell over me. I needed to check on Mr. Terupt.

Jessica pulled the lap bar down and looked at me. She saw I wasn’t excited.

“What’s wrong, Luke?”

“Mr. Terupt shouldn’t have been on this ride,” I said. “Not with his brain injury.”

Jessica’s face went pale. The Torpedo didn’t come close to scaring her as much as my words did.

Suddenly, the chain of cars lurched forward. First we banked hard to the left, then we went up a little rise. Once the Torpedo cleared the crest it picked up speed and never slowed down. We took a series of sharp turns at light speed
before being shot out of a dark tunnel. People I know who have visited Disney World and ridden Space Mountain tell me that the Torpedo whips you around in the same fashion, just not with all the special effects or for as long—unless you happen to be on the last run of the night. Our operator didn’t disappoint. He let us whip around a few extra minutes, and for the first time ever, I was begging him to stop.

It was after we came out of the dark tunnel on our second lap that I saw the commotion. There was a crowd gathered nearby, all huddled around the ground. I started yelling for them to stop the ride. But everybody was screaming. No one heard me. We kept going.

F
ADE IN: The Torpedo comes to a halt and LUKE and JESSICA ram the lap bar up and jump out of their car. JEFFREY hurries behind them
.

CUT TO: The sea of people. They’re eerily quiet. We can’t see past them. We can’t make out who or what they’re gathered around. We can’t tell what they’re watching that has them
mesmerized. LUKE, JEFFREY, and JESSICA fight their way through the crowd
.

I
knew he wasn’t okay. He shouldn’t have been on that ride!

I
was angry. Mad at the world. My life was finally going good and then this had to happen—again! It wasn’t fair! Why?!

T
here were people everywhere. I couldn’t see. I dropped Lexie’s hand and tried wiggling my way through the crowd. Someone was on the ground.

T
each and Luke knelt next to the body. It was a woman. But who?

“C
all nine-one-one!” someone shouted.

“Hang on, Evelyn. Help is on the way!”

My heart almost stopped. My breath was taken from me. It was Danielle’s grandma!

N
ot Grandma. You can’t take her
.

O
nce I pushed my way through the crowd and saw what was going on, my mind went back to that day in the snow when Mr. T was the one lying on the ground—unresponsive. Danielle knelt by him and gently slid her hat and coat underneath his head. Luke was also by his side, checking for breathing and a pulse. Jeffrey came running back outside. “Help is on the way,” he yelled. Anna was nearby, on her knees, crying silently, with Jessica in hysterics next to her. Jessica was screaming and crying, “Mr. Terupt! No! No!” Lexie and I both stood back watching—alone.

As my mind replayed that snowy day, I heard Jessica’s yelling all over again. And then I suddenly realized the frantic cries were for real, except now they came from Danielle.

“Grandma! No! No!” Danielle had pushed her way through the crowd to discover that her grandmother was
the one on the ground. She dropped to her knees and fell to pieces.

Anna was right there with her, like she had been with Jessica last year. She wrapped her arm around Danielle. Mr. T and Luke knelt by Danielle’s grandma. Jessica and Ms. Newberry stood nearby. I stayed back—frozen in place. I didn’t know what to do other than watch. And I didn’t even like doing that, but it was another one of those times when you couldn’t just turn away. Luke, on the other hand, knew how to respond.

Practice might make perfect for some things, like wrestling, for example. I know I keep getting better every time I drill a move. But there are other things where no matter how much you practice, if you don’t have “it,” then you’re never going to.

I’d been through this scene with Mr. T, Asher, and now Danielle’s grandma, and I could tell you I wasn’t getting any better with experience. I didn’t have what it took in these moments, but Luke did.