Coney chaos

“Young master, I really must insist --”

“What, that you’re going to ride it?” Chrysler glanced over at Jonathan, a mischievous twinkle in his dark eyes. “Just what I wanted to hear.”

That was actually the exact opposite of what he was going to say. Jonathan’s knees knocked together as he looked up at the lit Thunderbolt. It shone beautifully against the clear night sky, but that only spelled out what was to come. That lift. That loop. That length. The last thing Jonathan wanted was to ride the Thunderbolt.

Yet, Chrysler wanted nothing more. He stood there, almost bouncing in place, staring longingly at the carts as they went up the ninety degree lift. His hands had a death grip on the rail. Normally, Jonathan would call the excitement contagious. This time, though, fear overrode everything else -- something that Chrysler seemed to notice.

He tugged at Jonathan’s scarf, forcing Jonathan to look at him again. “I got a deal for you,” he said to his butler. “If you ride this with me, then I won’t run off on you tonight.”

Jonathan wanted to call him out for lying. Chrysler never promised to behave. Ever. He didn’t even promise that to his grandpa. He squinted, scanning Chrysler’s face for any sign of mischief. Chrysler, however, looked deathly serious.

Terrifying. But if that was the case, Jonathan couldn’t turn down that offer. Jonathan looked at the Thunderbolt, its long line, then back to Chrysler. Chrysler’s manure-eating grin was impossible to ignore.

Jonathan heaved a sigh. “Very well,” he said reluctantly. “I will do it. But only if --”

“Great! Let’s go!”

Chrysler bolted ahead towards the crowd. Jonathan had to rush to keep up, and shouted at Chrysler to ‘wait’ all the while. That proved to be futile, as Chrysler did not slow down until he absolutely had to. Jonathan just barely squeezed in next to him.

“This is going to be so great! I can’t wait to ride this!” Chrysler quickly smoothed down his hair as best he could in his excitement. “You’ll have fun, I’m sure of it.”

“Q-quite.”

Jonathan was not going to have any fun at all. He was certain of that. His knees knocked together as he and Chrysler got closer and closer to the front. Before he knew it, they were being ushered into the cart at the front. God, why the front? Why him?

Chrysler rushed in, being careful to get all of his hair inside the cart. He sat on it without care and was almost wiggling in his seat when Jonathan sat next to him. Jonathan was the one to pull down the bar. He triple-checked it just to be sure that it would hold. It helped that the ride attendants triple-checked, but it didn’t help by much.

When the ride attendant made the announcements over the loudspeaker, it went in one ear and out the other. Jonathan glanced over at Chrysler, who had an ear-to-ear smile on his face. He glanced behind him to see a couple talking. Finally, he looked to the front -- to that mind-boggling lift. His heart sank.

Jonathan had a death grip on the bar when everything started moving. It sounded so unsafe -- were the carts supposed to lurch like that? -- and it jerked forward, up the lift. It was almost seamless, but a jolt now and again made Jonathan jump out of his seat. People shouldn’t be moving like this. They shouldn’t be at this angle! How was this even --

“Ready for this?” Chrysler asked, as giddy as a schoolboy.

Jonathan couldn’t even look over when he answered: “Absolutely not!”

The cart froze for one terrifying moment, and then the descent began.

Wind whipped at Jonathan’s face, as did strands of Chrysler’s hair. Every muscle in his body wanted to scream, but all he could do was clench his teeth and keep a death grip on the rail as the coaster went down and through the loops -- dear god, the loops! How could anyone love this? How could anyone love that feeling of weightlessness, and how could they love it when the carts curved at such odd angles?!

It seemed to go on forever. The delighted screams of the crowd and Chrysler’s excited whooping and hollering only made Jonathan cling for dear life even more. His knuckles were white, and he was sure his hair was a mess by now. The winds were so harsh, and the g-forces made him want to pass out from terror.

When the ride jolted to a stop, Jonathan swore he would be launched out of his seat. But, no, he was secure -- and traumatized too. He shook, staring vacantly ahead of him, as the carts pulled forward and back to the dock. Chrysler, of course, was delighted beyond belief. He was still laughing and clapping.

What on God’s green Earth had just happened!?

“You did great, man!” Chrysler slapped Jonathan’s back, jolting him back to awareness. He then stood up and moved to the side, off of the ride. “I thought you’d be a screaming mess!”

“That’s quite generous,” Jonathan mumbled as he climbed out of the cart. He almost staggered, but managed to catch himself -- this time. “Can we sit down for a while? I feel like I’m about to faint.”

“Pfft. Party pooper.”

Even with the gentle ribbing, Chrysler steadied a wobbly Jonathan and guided him towards the exit, grinning all the while. Jonathan would have thanked him properly, but the world was spinning.

Maybe he could say something without sounding woozy after sitting down for a while.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chrysler did keep his word, much to Jonathan’s delight. Not only did he stay by his butler’s side while he recovered, he also didn’t wander while grabbing some overpriced drinks. Jonathan saw how twitchy Chrysler was and how he looked at almost everything that moved, but he stayed put while Jonathan got his bearings.

It even lasted when they started moving. The duo traversed the entirety of Coney Island, passing the raceway, the Steeplechase (much to Chrysler’s chagrin), and moving by The Tickler. Chrysler’s eyes shone with excitement, but he stuck by Jonathan’s side the entire time.

‘I suppose he really wanted to ride that coaster with me,’ Jonathan thought to himself. Then again, Chrysler always took promises seriously. He knew that much. It even showed when they passed by the carny games in Luna Park (after purchasing a Luna Card, of course). Instead of bolting over towards Whac-A-Mole, Chrysler just grabbed Jonathan’s sleeve and tugged on it.

It was the second time that Jonathan nearly fell over that night. Once again, he managed to catch himself, and he looked towards Chrysler, fondly exasperated. “What is it, young master?”

“I want to try this! There’s no one around, it’ll just be us. Come on!”

Jonathan looked at the game. He then internally shrugged. This wasn’t going to nearly crush him with g-forces, so what was the harm in it? It didn’t have the height of the ferris wheel, either, which was a double relief. He just barely managed to say ‘yes’ before Chrysler tore off towards the stand. Jonathan merely sighed and followed.

“We’re going to do one race!” He told the worker. “Me and Jonathan here.”

“So, just two?” The worker glanced towards Jonathan, nodded in greeting, and then took the Luna Card from Chrysler.

“Yep!”

“All right, stand in front of the setups here ...”

Jonathan stood next to Chrysler. He nervously glanced over at the young master; he swung around that mallet a little too much for him to be comfortable. But he tried to push it aside and just focus on what was in front of him.

“First to 150 points wins!” she called out. “Ready ... set ... go!”

The moment the moles started to pop out, Jonathan’s reflexes kicked in. He hit the poor mechanical things on the head as hard as he could. The pitiful mallet made that a bit difficult, but he could make it work. His counter went up very quickly, soon surpassing one hundred. A part of Jonathan almost felt bad for Chrysler.

Speaking of the young master ...

He spared a glance to Chrysler, who was moving just a bit slower than him, but with much more gusto. Chrysler hit those moles over the head like his life depended on it. Even the worker flinched now and again, but she kept a tight smile on her face as she watched.

Jonathan was not very surprised when the mallet slipped from Chrysler’s grip and bonked him on the side of the head. Jonathan yelped and dropped his own mallet, which smacked against his arm. Neither truly hurt, but the sheer shock from the hits stunned him.

“Oh, jeez -- Jonathan, you all right?”

Jonathan rubbed his head, nodded, and then immediately got back to it. He grabbed his mallet, and continued to smack the moles on their little heads. Chrysler was going to pay for hitting him with the mallet, and him letting it fly like that meant that Jonathan had more time to --

“We have a winner!”

Had he won? Jonathan blinked for a couple of moments, then looked over at a very pouty Chrysler. A brief pang of guilt shot through him, but it went away as quickly as it came. Instead, Jonathan just smiled as he took his prize of a tiny dinosaur plush.

“Here.” Jonathan held out the sparkly dinosaur towards Chrysler. “You’ve always liked them more than I.”

Chrysler blinked. “No, no, you won! You should keep it. Besides, I sort of hit you with the mallet.” He paused. “... You weren’t lying when you said you were okay. Right?”

“That is more of your ‘wheelhouse,’ as some would say.” Jonathan chuckled good-naturedly. “I insist.”

Chrysler’s grin was quite contagious this time; Jonathan couldn’t help but grin right back as Chrysler snatched the dinosaur from Jonathan’s hands and hugged it. Even though Chrysler made him want to scream sometimes, there were plenty more times when it was all worth it -- like now, for instance.

Now, if he could stay still --

“Ooooh! Let’s go on the ferris wheel next! My little dinosaur buddy needs to see the world from up high.”

Jonathan internally groaned, but followed Chrysler as he all but skipped towards the ferris wheel.