A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

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Chapter 13 -- Ol' Smokey

The best-laid plans never seem to survive contact with reality, and so it was with our day at the park.

We had just finished taking a spin on Swamp Thang -- think teacups, but with swamp boats, faster, and the whole thing constantly tilting at odd angles -- when the member of the staff running the ride gathered everyone they could find together to let us know that the opening of the coaster would be delayed for about an hour and that the water park wouldn't be opening at all due to technical issues.

A few people were disappointed at the news, especially some of the kiddos.

"Hope this doesn't ruin your day at the park," Brian said, seeming honestly worried.

"Are you kidding?" I laughed, giving him a quick hug. "Brian, this has been great so far. So what if a few rides are down: that just gives us reason to come back sometime, right?"

"Right," he agreed, laughing too. "Any time."

With the delay to the coaster opening, we decided to re-work our itinerary a bit, and after we were finished sampling the other open rides, we made our way to what Brian called the 'carnival district' of the park.

Like the central courtyard, there was still a lot of work being done in this part of the park, with a number of the amusements only half-way renovated and not yet open. To make up for it, one of the small amphitheaters had been kitted out with a few of the boardwalk games that would usually be down near the shore, and we managed to keep ourselves busy with a mixture of carnival and arcade games.

I even let Brian win a few of them.

Eventually, the time for the roller coaster to open began to loom, so we made our way toward our last stop in the carnival district: Fright Manor.

"When I was growing up this was just a regular haunted house, and a kinda hokey one too," Brian said. "From what Frank told me, though, it's one of the attractions the new owners have spent the most on."

"Frank?"

"My friend who got us the tickets. And it looks like he was right," Brian said, looking up at the edifice before us.

"I'll say!"

Our entire time hanging out in the carnival district, we had seen hints of Fright Manor in the background, looming just beyond the trees on the east side of the district. It wasn't until we approached that the place really began to make its presence known, though. Bottles hung from the trees, clinking away in the warm breeze off the river, and whether through careful gardening or barely controlled chaos, the grounds that separated the manor from the rest of the district had a definite oppressing presence to them.

The manor itself, much like the rest of the park, was still somewhat under construction. While the main facade on approach from the park was there, giving the impression of a proper spooky plantation house, there were still a number of places along the expansive wings where the concrete and steel inner walls of the structure were visible, not yet covered with either their decorative veneers nor grown over with the plant life that was obviously intended to help disguise the more industrial extensions on the structure.

Still, I could see what they were going for, and I imagined the place would be pretty unsettling once it was finished.

Most of the rides and amusements we'd gone to, we had been accompanied by at least a couple of other people, but when we walked through the large double-doors at the front of the manor, we found nobody there but a bored-looking attendant, leaning on a podium near the front.

When she noticed us, the attendant shuffled to her feet and did her best to put on a happy expression. "Hi there, welcome to Fright Manor! Sorry for the less-than-terrifying entryway: we're still getting a lot of the actual texture of the place in order. That includes a lot of the features along the way, but we're open for folks who want a preview of what we're planning!"

"So, the ride's not finished yet?" I asked, as though the stacks of building materials and the smell of paint in the lobby didn't make that clear enough.

"Not nearly," the attendant said, her shoulders slumping in her park-issue polo. "Like, the RIDE ride is, but it's this sort of Pirates of the Caribbean deal. We've got all these dioramas and animatronics, and... it's being a butt," she admitted.

"Bugs in the system?" Brian asked as we came to a stop in front of the podium, the girl making no move to rush us into the waiting cars.

"Literally, in some cases," she said. On seeing our expressions of confusion, she continued. "The designers didn't take into account the local wildlife when designing some of the maintenance accesses, so it's been an adventure as they've tried to figure out how to keep the frogs and snakes and lizards and everything else from gumming up the works or making it too dangerous to keep running. The ride's all fun and games 'til what you thought was a fake creepy-crawly tries to climb in the car with you."

I looked at the low side walls on the cars in question, and just imagining what might try to get in with us made me shiver, probably more than anything the ride could show us would.

"Sounds like maybe we shouldn't do this one," Brian said, giving me a worried look.

"Oh, it's safe!" The girl assured us, waving her hands and looking upset. "I didn't mean to drive ya off! Right now, they're keeping the lights up so that things are super-visible, and I've got monitors right over here behind the wall letting me keep an eye on pretty much everything," she said, waving to a section of wall that jutted out next to her podium. "So, if there is a... there won't be a problem," she said, realizing she wasn't really helping.

I wasn't convinced, and from the look on his face, neither was Brian. "How long is the ride?" I asked the girl.

"It's about ten minutes right now: it'll be longer when they have all the features in place, and they slow the speed of the cars down?"

I looked up at Brian, asking the question.

He looked back down at me.

As if to confirm our decision, a loud bang followed by a gruff "Sonuva!" from somewhere out of sight but inside the structure caused both of us and the girl at the podium to jump.

"Damnit, Dave, what's it this time!" She yelled down the tunnel, only to duck and shriek when a barn swallow flew out and over our heads, darting out the door. Right behind it came a dirty man in a pair of coveralls.

"Did it leave?" He asked the girl, then turned to us before she could answer. "Did it leave?!"

"Ah, yeah. Flew out the door," I said, pointing with my thumb.

"Good," he said, then sat down on the rounded front of one of the cars. "Damn things keep trying to nest in the haunted swamp section."

"Isn't it a bit late in the year for swallows to still be nesting?" I asked, looking over my shoulders back toward the exit.

"You askin' me?" The man shrugged and wiped his forehead with a grimy work rag. After a moment, he seemed to realize we were guests, not other workers, and tucked the rag away and blushed. "Ah, sorry, folks. Were you wantin' to, ah," he looked down and patted the side of the car he was leaning on, leaving a greasy handprint on the dark red paint.

"I think we'd decided against it," I admitted, catching Brian's nod in my peripheral vision. "But thanks."

"You sure?"

"We're sure," Brian said, even as we were already backing toward the entrance. "Maybe next time."

"Probably for the best," the guy agreed, wiping his forehead with his bare hand this time.

"Thanks for coming by anyway," the girl attendant said, giving us a friendly wave.

We waved back, then turned and got out of the place as quickly as we could.

I waited until we were clear of the cyprus trees with the bottles before looking back over my shoulder and grinning at Brian. "Maybe hokey was better?" I asked him, getting a choke of laughter in response.

"Yeah, well, they've still got, what, nine months to work out the kinks?"

"I'm less worried about the kinks than the skinks," I said, less laughing than giggling at my own joke.

"Skinks? Oh, heh," he agreed, giving me a quick hug around the shoulders. Like at home, his hand caressed my ass on the way down, this time seemingly less by chance than the first.

Even less by chance, I felt his fingers brush the side of my hand.

I looked up at him again, but his eyes were looking anywhere but at me, even as I felt his fingers brush the back of my hand again.

I looked away too but turned my hand palm-up, fingers open.

A second later, I felt his questing fingers slip across my palm and gently take hold.

Another look his way, another expression of determinedly not looking back at me, though his fingers did squeeze my hand gently.

I squeezed back and looked forward again. Whatever was going on between us, for the moment, I was content to just let it be and figure it out later. After all, this was my day off, I was supposed to be relaxing and enjoying myself.

And I was, I reminded myself with a contented smile and a bounce in my step.

The barriers were still in place, letting guests know that the paths to the roller coaster were still closed, but there was already a group of people huddled outside them when we arrived.

"Any news?" Brian asked one of the other men, a tall, balding fellow in a faded polo shirt.

"One of the workers came by about five minutes ago, and said it would be about ten minutes from then," the guy said, double-checking his watch. "Y'all enjoyin' the park so far?"

"Yeah," Brian and I said at the same time, getting me a hand squeeze and a grin from him. "It looks like they're putting a lot of money into the place."

"Betcher ass," the man said, getting a dirty look from a woman nearby who was there with a young boy. "I'm Charles Wilkins, head of marketing," he said, giving our clasped hands a glance before offering his own hand to Brian.

"They want me to get a feel for the place so I can start working on some early ad campaigns." He kept a grip on Brian's hand after their shake and leaned in close to us. "Between you and me? I don't know if they can get everything done before opening day. But hey, when are things ever done on time?" He asked, then leaned back and laughed.

Brian laughed too. "Yeah, the haunted house...."

"Ah! Don't even get me started on that shithole," the man said, getting another nasty look from the lady with the boy, who covered his ears and led him over to one of the nearby shops. "I tried to tell 'em that nobody wants animatronics nowadays, they'da been better off investing in one of those three-dimensional virtual rides, but the new owners really wanted a Haunted Mansion equivalent for some reason, and see what it's getting them. I don't--"

"FWEEET!"

We all turned to watch as a trio of workers approached us from beyond the barrier, the lead woman dropping her whistle as she neared.

"All right, folks, the time you've been waiting for is here!" She said, the other two workers taking position near the barrier, ready to move it. The whistle had done its job, catching the attention of park-goers further away, and she gave the crowd a few moments to coalesce before continuing.

"A few rules before we open the barriers. Ol' Smokey is in fine working order, but you'll still see equipment around for the work on the water park and Bandit: please stay clear of any machinery you see, even if it's not active.

“Likewise, for the test period, we're only going to be running a maximum of three cars at a time: I know a lot of you were looking forward to not waiting in lines today, but them's the breaks," she said, getting a few chuckles from the crowd. "Now, keep calm and walk, don't run, to the coaster. Fellas?"

The two workers with her took hold of the sides of the barrier and swung it open, and without another word, the woman with the whistle turned around and began to head back down the path, leaving us to follow.

"So, what's special about Smokey?" I asked Brian as we walked along.

"It's an old-style wooden coaster, the oldest one in Louisiana," Brian said.

"Not as old as the carousel," I asked, a little worried.

"Hah! No. The first version of Ol' Smokey went up in the nineteen fifties. They re-worked the whole thing in the late nineties when they built Bandit, but I'm not sure what all they've done to it since re-opening the park."

"I can tell you that!"

"Hmm? Oh, hey Frank!" Brian said, giving the worker approaching us one of those one-armed back-slapping man-hugs. "Didn't know you'd be here today!"

"Well, they got me doing some tests on the reinforcements to Bandit's structure, make sure they're up to modern code," Frank said, his eyes sparkling when he saw me standing next to Brian.

"Sounds fascinating," I said, only half-sarcastically.

"Oh, it is," Frank agreed, eyeing me hungrily. "Though there are certainly more fascinating sights in the park. Francois Pinchot," he said, offering me his hand.

"Ah, Leigh," I said, taking the offered hand and getting a surprisingly gentle shake in response.

"Venable?" He asked, giving Brian a sideways look.

"No? Serrano."

"Fascinating indeed," he said, letting go of my hand and stepping back.

"Frank...."

"What?" He asked, chuckling at Brian's scowl. "You know I have a thing for sporty girls," he said, his gaze traveling to my jersey but his focus clearly on what was underneath.

"I'm not a, I mean I'm not that," I trailed off, blushing as both men looked at me. Brian squeezed my hand again, but I could tell he was torn between annoyance at Frank and wanting to laugh at my reaction.

I wasn't torn at all and glared at both of them.

Frank chuckled, then turned his attention back to Brian. "I think you've told me about her before, haven't you? Your roommate, right?"

"Yeah. Leigh's had a rough week, 's why I asked for the tickets today. Thanks for that, by the way."

"Hey, what are friends for it not sharing, right?" Frank asked, looking my way again.

I frowned and pulled my hand from Brian's so I could cross my arms across my chest. "I'm not property, Francis," I said pointedly.

"Francois," he said, his smile faltering a bit.

"I kinda like Francis," Brian said, putting his arm around my shoulder. I glanced up at him and saw something in his eyes that made me feel a little scared... but also set some butterflies in my stomach.

Frank coughed. "Ah, my apologies, I... sorry," he said, giving me a respectful nod. "I hope you two enjoy the coaster, and just let me know if you want tickets again." With a dramatic gesture he lifted his arm and looked at his watch. "I should get back to work. See you back at the office?"

"In a couple weeks," Brian agreed, relaxing a bit.

"Sure. You two take care," Frank said, then walked off.

We continued standing there for almost a minute, I think neither one of us sure what to make of what had happened, until finally I felt the tension in Brian's arm relax as he began to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" I asked, frowning up at him as he shook with restrained humor. "He was a creep!"

Brian gave me a squeeze and a little nudge to get us walking again, and after only a moment of stubbornness I went along with it. "Yeah, he's always talked a big game at work, and I knew a lot of the women at the company avoided him, but I didn't figure he'd be that blatant, especially...."

Pause.

"Especially if he thinks we're on a date?" I asked, surprising myself by finding the nerve to say the quiet part loud.

"Yeah," Brian agreed, squeezing me again.

We walked along in silence for a little while. Most of the crowd we had started out as part of had passed us by during our conversation with Brian's "friend," and I could hear the coaster starting its first run some way ahead of us, the clanking of the carriage accompanied by some loud but generic country music.

I thought about our day so far and smiled.

"I've had worse dates," I said quietly, reaching up with my left hand to take hold of his where it sat on my shoulder.

As we came closer to the old, converted lumber mill that made up the entrance to the coaster, I couldn't help but think about something Brian had said earlier in the day.

"Brian?"

"Yeah?"

"Now will you tell me what you want if you win at the go kart track later?"

"No."

"No?!" I dropped his hand from my shoulder and spun to face him, walking backwards as I did so. "I won't agree if you don't tell me."

"You won't agree if I do," he argued, giving me a cocky wink.

"So, it's something embarrassing?"

"Maybe at first," he agreed, in a teasing tone. "But honestly? I don't think you'll mind it once you get used to it."

The butterflies in my stomach returned. "It's not... dirty, is it?" I asked, blushing.

Brian looked to the sky dramatically, pretending to think about my question. "I suppose that depends on how much of a prude you are. You might wanna turn around."

"Hmm? Oh!" I said, turning around just in time to stop myself from backing right into the rear of the line of people waiting for the coaster.

Brian's hand was in the middle of my back again as I thought about what he had said, and the possibilities for what he was thinking.

In the distance, I heard a girl screaming as the coaster raced along its course, and I knew that soon enough, that could very well be me, yelling at the top of my lungs as we zipped around the curves and over the hills. Somehow, I doubted the adrenaline rush would help calm down my fluttering pests at all.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. I thought I had a good idea of what Brian was planning on asking as a forfeit if I lost....

And I intended to make him earn it.

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NOTES:

As per usual, the next chapter is now up on BCTS Patreon! We're approaching the half-way point of the story too!

Comments and kudos welcome and appreciated.

Melanie E.