Him

Lights were on as darkness fell across the whole park, giving it an even more magical touch to it, especially the lighted Manhattan Mountain and the glowing pink and blue Sleeping Beauty Castle.

The line to the Snow White ride, which I was stationed at for the night, was getting shorter. It must be getting near to firework time.

A couple went onto the car as I greeted them with my infamous smile. “Welcome abroad to Snow White’s Scary Adventure. Sit back and enjoy.”

The car came to a halt as I quickly checked the lock and waited for the previous car to go to a certain stage in the storybook before letting the next car go.

When I pushed the button, signaling the car to continue its journey down the storybook track, the car remained bolted to the ground.

Crap. I pushed it harder, hoping it would work, but nothing happened. I looked up toward the exit and saw Hebe, my partner and my best friend, gave me a strange look. I moved my index finger across my neck and mouthed ‘it went dead’. Another car came and she helped the passenger to get out as she mouthed ‘what’ with her eyebrows knitted. I threw my hands up. How the hell would I know?

I took a look at the screen that showed the inside of the storybook room and realized that none of the car was moving. Great! I didn’t break this old thing did I?

I think Hebe realized that something went wrong with the machine because she ran down on the track to me.

I laughed nervously as I began to tell the couple about the bad news. “Um, I guess you can’t really sit back and enjoy the ride after all. There seems to be some technical difficulties going on.”

The guy with the handsome features and spiky gelled hair smiled at me while his girlfriend’s smile turned upside down. “Are you going to fix it very soon?” he asked.

I let out another nervous little laugh. “I don’t know…” Honestly, how was I supposed to know how long it would take to fix this old thing? Once in a while, it would take a day to fix it, but most of the time it would only take up to 30 minutes.

He looked at his girlfriend and asked if they should wait. She only shrugged. He turned back to face me. “Guess we will wait for a while. At least the AC isn’t broken.” He smiled at me again, and, oh boy, it sure did sent loads of butterflies to my tummy.

Thank God Hebe arrived and chased all those butterflies away or else I think I would melt in front of him.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

Mumbling several silent curses, Hebe pushed a few buttons on the stand but nothing happened. “Guess we have to shut down the place and call the tech center for help.”

I signed. Why did God have to make the ride go down when I was working here?

I pressed the shut down button and all the lights in the storybook room. “Sorry but there are a few technical difficulties and Snow White’s Scary Adventure will be shut down at the moment until it is fixed. We will come and help you unlock the safety bar and guide you to the exit. Sorry about the inconvenience and we hope you will enjoy the rest of your stay here. Thank you.”

While I was speaking through the microphone, Hebe had already went inside and helped the “stuck” people. Frowns and pouts were attached on each child’s face.

A child’s cry could be heard coming from the exit area and a mother carrying a scared child in her arms exited. Hebe seemed to be apologizing as she patted the child’s shaking head.

“What happened?”

A smile spread across her tired face. “Well, their car stopped right where the wicked witch popped out of the window and that poor kid was stuck in that dark room for the past five minutes. Wonder if we will ever see him here again.” Hebe laughed. For some odd reasons, guilt was starting to make its way to me.

“Ahem.” Someone cleared his throat behind Hebe and we turned to see who it was. That guy shifted in his seat and my eyes landed on the safety bar across his girlfriend and his lap.

Oops. I forgot that I had locked them before I realized that something went wrong with the machine.

Immediately I went and unlocked the bar as Hebe called the tech center.

“Hey, you got a really nice name.”

I looked up and saw the guy pointing to my name tag. I muttered a silent “thanks” as I felt my face burned.

“Hey, Gui Gui. They’re on their way.” Her eyes traveled from my blushed face to the guy and then back to me. She leaned closer to me and whispered, “He’s cute, isn’t he?”

I didn’t like it when she teased me. Hebe waved at the guy and greeted, “Hey, I’m Hebe.”

He smiled at my best friend as jealously rose up inside me. If only he could smile at me again.

“I’m Aaron, and this is my girlfriend, Serena.” Throughout this whole time, Serena had been listening to her ipod with her head turned away from us. I wondered if she was always like this.

“Uron, what kind of name is that?” Hebe laughed.

Aaron’s face turned slightly pink as I covered my face with one of my hand out of embarrassment. I swear that I would get a hearing aid for Hebe for her birthday.

“It’s Aaron, not Uron.” He said.

“Oops. Sorry!” It was her turn to turn pink this time.

Aaron chuckled, “My sister’s name is Hibi with a ‘i’ instead of ‘e’.” Hebe smiled and gave me a thumb-up.

Great. Now I would have to fight against both my best friend and his girlfriend for Aaron? Wait. Let’s back track for a second. Who said I was after Aaron in the first place? I must be thinking too much right now.

The tech teamed arrived and Hebe showed them around, leaving me with the only riders around here. Several popping sound and music came from the beautiful night sky, and I knew that the firework had started. “Aww. We missed the firework…” he pouted as he stared outside.

“There’s always tomorrow,” I said. He only nodded and enjoyed the faint music playing in the air.

If he could flash me one of his smiles again…

“How long are you two staying here?” I asked, breaking the dreadful silence.

“A month. I’m here to attend to a business meeting, so I thought I might take my girlfriend to my favorite place.” He paused as his smile turned upside down. “But Serena doesn’t like it here. She thinks it’s too kiddy here.”

Before I could say anything cheer him up, Hebe and the tech. team came back and said they would try the machines now.

“Hey, Aa-ron,” Hebe called out, emphasizing each syllable of his name. “Mind stepping off and let us try the ride?”

He smiled at Hebe once again and nodded. Grabbing his belongings and his girlfriend, he stepped off the car. I locked the bar and pressed the button to let it go on the scary adventure on its own.

We watched carefully as the car drove past the little TV screen on the stand. We did two more trials before letting Aaron and Serena on.

“Have fun and sorry about the long wait,” I said.

He smiled, “It was nice meeting you. Tell Hebe that too.”

I smiled. That would be the last time I would see him. I watched their car turned the corner as people began to file into a line again.