The White Roller Coaster

I promised to write a sequel to last week's "Cannibal" memory, and here it is.

Not long after the first traumatizing experience on The Magic Carpet Ride with Alicia, she and I went with my older sisters to Lagoon. I tried to warn everyone that it might not work out well for Alicia to go on any of the rides, but she really wanted to come along so of course we couldn't leave her behind.

When we arrived at Lagoon, we decided we wanted to go on the White Roller Coaster ride (which is actually a very scary ride because it is so old and rickety), and my sisters told me that I would be riding next to Alicia. They couldn't have freaked me out more if they had told me I was going to be put on the next rocket to the moon. I begged and pleaded to ride with someone else, and I admit I was not very grown-up about it. I didn't even think about poor Alicia's feelings because I couldn't get the picture of her biting my arm out of my head. If she did that to me on a dinky little carnival ride, what would she do to me on a BIG roller coaster ride?!

Finally, my sister Julie decided to be a good sport and ride with Alicia. I rode with Summer, a family friend, and we were directly behind Alicia and Julie. Surprisingly, Alicia seemed fine, even after she got in her seat and the bar came down to hold her in place. I began to wonder if my other sisters were starting to think I made up the whole arm-biting experience...

But then, the ride started, and the roller coaster made its way up its first incline at an agonizingly slow pace. As the roller coaster ascended, I noticed Alicia's shoulders starting to ascend right along with it. I could see her body physically tensing up right in front of me, and I wondered if Julie noticed it.

The roller coaster slowly rounded the top of the first big hump, and as it started to descend, Alicia's tense shoulders suddenly slackened and her entire body went limp. Julie noticed at that point, and hurried to grab Alicia's wobbling head and hold it next to her own shoulder while we were tossed around the humps and turns of the extremely rough and rickety roller coaster ride. I have to hand it to Julie, because she somehow held Alicia's upper body relatively still throughout the entire ride. Once the ride came to a stop, Alicia finally woke up (apparently she had fainted) and stepped off the ride just as shakily as she had stepped off The Magic Carpet Ride. I was very glad that Julie agreed to ride with her that time.

Although it is fun to tease Alicia about these experiences, I actually have a lot of admiration for her because she continued to go on rides until she overcame her fear. I don't know a lot of people who would do that, and I really respect her for it. You're awesome Alicia (and beautiful)!