Wild Ride Read Free Page A

He jerked his thumb toward Ethan. “This here is Ethan, Glenda’s boy.”
    On that, Young Fred came all the way down to the beginning of the dock. “I heard about you,” he said to Ethan, admiration in his voice. “Big military hero. Navy SEAL.”
    â€œSpecial Forces,” Ethan said, taking a dislike to Young Fred.
    â€œHuh?” Young Fred said.
    â€œGreen Berets,” Ethan amplified.
    â€œWhat are you doing here, man?” Young Fred said, dismissing that. “You got out of here. Why would you come back?”
    â€œHe came back ’cause this is his home,” Gus said, sounding peeved. “We gotta go. You get on up to your place now.”
    Young Fred took a last incredulous look at Ethan and went back to the boat dock house.
    â€œHe lives up there,” Gus said. “Keeps an eye on the place. Good boy.” He sounded doubtful on the last part.
    Ethan looked past the dock to the Keep, the dark tower looming in the center of the paddleboat lake. The drawbridge, which usually touched down on the end of the dock, was up and there were no lights on in the restaurant on the main floor, which, if memory served him right, was unusual. Of course, his memory was temporarily being sat on by many slugs of Jack.
    They passed the battered Fortune-Telling Machine that he had learned early was a complete crock, and Delpha’s tent-shaped booth that he’d carved a hole in the back of so he could listen to Delpha tell fortunes, which were not a crock. Then the Double Ferris Wheel, where he’d grabbed his firstkiss, and the Pirate Ship with its dozen jolly plastic pirates looking brand new, which was a testament to that Brannigan woman’s skill; they’d been in pretty bad shape since the glorious afternoon when he was twelve and he’d beaten the crap out of them with a wooden sword and declared himself King of the Pirates. Then the games (Carl’s Whack-A-Mole was still there) and the food booths (if he never had another funnel cake again, it would be too soon) and finally the struts and tracks of the Dragon Coaster, with its massive wooden dragon tunnel arching over the highest loop, waiting to swallow the cars on their last ascent, and the seven-foot iron-clad orange Strong Man statue in front of the Test Your Strength machine next to the entrance to the coaster. The whole place looked great except for the dragon tunnel at the top of the coaster that was still missing the jeweled eye it had lost before Ethan could remember.
    Gus climbed the stairs onto the wooden platform and went into the small booth that controlled the ride. He threw a switch, and the thousands of tiny green lightbulbs that lined the course of the ride came alive.
    Lit now, it looked smaller than Ethan remembered from all the times he’d sneaked out of Glenda’s trailer at midnight to watch the Dragon soar, the times that Gus had told him stories of demons in the park and made him count the number of times the cars rattled at the end when they hit the dragon’s tail. Five meant the park was safe, he remembered now. Demons all locked up. Gus had even given the demons names. Tura, the one that looked like a mermaid: Ethan had had some fantasies about her. Fufluns, the good-time demon. Two others he couldn’t remember. And Kharos, the Devil.
    It was a miracle he’d never had nightmares. At least not from his childhood.
    The freshly painted blue-and-green cars were ready to go, their scales gleaming in the green lights on the tracks. Ethan stood with Gus on the platform as the old man pulled out his pocket watch and flipped open the lid.
    â€œIt’s time.” Gus shut the watch, stuffed it back into a pocket on his vest, entered the small booth, and hit the controls.
    With a shudder, the cars began moving, heading toward the first turn, gleaming in the lights as they clattered up the incline over the Keep lake,the entire ride shaking as if it were going to fall