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“How was school today?” Cattail asked Mushroom before she got in the car.
“It was alright.” She responded, as always. “Can I try to drive back today?”
“Go right ahead!” Cattail responded. “I’ll take any excuse to be lazy.”
Mushroom chuckled before muttering her near-silent, ‘Mirrors, brake, drive’ rhythm she had gotten into when trying to start the car for the first time, even though the car was already on. She made a circle around the parking lot before getting on the main road back to her middle-of-nowhere house.
“Did you hear that Holly’s Farm is having free entry on Friday?” Cattail asked. “I was thinking of taking you all there.”
“Who all?” Mushroom picked up.
“You and Dy, I’d assumed you’d ask him,” Cattail put down. “Turn right here.”
“Oh, yeah. That sounds fun.” Mushroom replied before doing slightly too tight of a right turn for Cattail’s comfort.
“Try to ask him tomorrow then.”
“Okay.”
“Now remember, the interview project is due tomorrow! Be sure not to forget!” Dynamite's English teacher, Mr. Lime, reminded the class for the fourth straight day this week.
“What time is it?” Dynamite learned over and whispered into Mushroom's ear.
“Eh, 2:52, we've got about ten minutes.”
“Got it,” He responded. Having both finished interview questions multiple days in advance, simply waiting on their interviewee, they both proceeded to hurry onto their favorite school-unblocked game of choice.
[Mu]: btw.
[Mu]: my dad is taking me to holly’s farm tmrw, wanna come?
[Dymite101]: rly?
[Mu]: yea
[Mu]: it’s free this weekend.
[Dymite101]: heck yeah! what time?
[Mu]: after school - 8.
[Dymite101]: bet
[Mu]: GG
[Dymite101]: ggwp
Dynamite swiftly closed his laptop as the bell rang.
“You sure it’s free? Should I, like, bring money for food or something?”
“No, I’ll pay. It’s free, I swear.” Mushroom clarified.
“Alright then, see you then!” Dynamite repeated himself. Mushroom trailed behind as she gave him a brief goodbye, stopping to ask the teacher about one of her interview questions before meeting Cattail at the car.
“Is Dynamite coming along?” He quickly made sure to ask before he inevitably forgot.
“It was-” Mushroom began before she comprehended Cattail’s sentence, “Oh, yeah, he’s coming as well.”
“Cool, do we need to get him or can he drive?”
“He wrecked his car last week, it’s still in the repair shop.”
“Right…” Cattail forgot.
Mushroom grabbed her phone before immediately dropping it in the black hole between the seat and the console. After some brief struggles, interrupted by small conversation with her father, she finally dug it out and called Dynamite. She waited a couple trills of the call sound before Dynamite picked up on the other side.
“Hello?”
“Hey, are your parents fine with my dad driving you up to the farm?”
“They should be, I'll ask though.”
Mushroom heard through the muffled sound of Dynamite turning the phone away from his ear a brief conversation between him and his dad. Something about making sure he kept his phone on him since he had gotten it recently.
“Yeah, that's fine.”
“Alright, see you tomorrow.”
“See ya!”
Mushroom hung up her phone and confirmed with Cattail. She was about ten minutes from her house now, silently waiting in the passenger seat, backpack resting on her legs.
Mushroom sat down on the bench next to the drop-off of the school while waiting on Dynamite. He had to stop by his locker where he left his wallet, since his mom insisted he at least bring enough money to get food. Mushroom already saw Cattail’s car further down the near-endless line, but she wasn't sure if Dynamite knew what Cattail's car looked like, so she stayed on the bench for now before—
“Alright, sorry about that.”
“It's fine. My dad's here.” Mushroom said, leading Dynamite along to Cattail’s car.
They sat on opposite sides of the back seats, Mushroom behind Cattail. Mushroom quickly plugged in her phone to the painfully slow car charger.
“How was school today, Mushroom?” Cattail familiarly asked. Mushroom gave her equally familiar response. “And Dy, you?”
“Oh, it was fun!” Dynamite answered, slightly caught off guard by Cattail already having a nickname for him.
“Glad to hear it! You ever been to Holly's before?”
“It's been a while.” Dynamite responded.
It wasn’t the longest ride in the world, especially since Dynamite especially liked Cattail’s taste in radio. Cattail tried to sing along, but even he knew he couldn’t really hold a tune to save his life. Dynamite and Mushroom, meanwhile, played a traffic bingo sheet she had gotten last Christmas she hadn’t used yet. She already had four in a row with only a road work sign needed for a bingo. Dynamite meanwhile, seemed to have every possible set of three possible without any one tile for a bingo.
“Alright, we're here! Now don't have too much fun!” Cattail cheekily said.
“We’ll finish it when we get back,” Dynamite asserted. “And maybe this time I can have an actual line for once!”
“You’re about as good at making lines here as in Calculus class.”
“HEY!” Dynamite shouted, offended.
Cattail made sure to follow them to the entrance just in case he had misread and he would have to pay for them to get in. “I’ll leave you both to it,” he said, before letting Mushroom and Dynamite run wild. “Be sure to call me if you need anything. Dy, do I have your number yet?” He asked.
“I don’t think so,” Dynamite answered questionably. Dynamite felt around in his pockets before quickly realizing he was missing more than just Cattail’s number. “I don't think I have my phone either…”
“That's fine, Mushroom, you got it?”
“Yeah.”
Mushroom checked the time, 4:14, four hours, before she looked up at the giant Ferris Wheel standing over the park like a mountain. If she was alone, she would have already beelined straight towards it. Being alone at the top of the Ferris Wheel was the most quiet, peaceful feeling she could imagine. Dynamite, meanwhile, first noticed the bakery twenty feet from the entrance and wanted to stop by to try a cookie. They both got a Cinnamon Apple Cookie that Dynamite very much enjoyed. Mushroom sat across from him at a circular table above an outlet where someone had seemingly forgotten their phone on the wall. Mushroom made a quick joke about it before they both went back outside and towards “Holly Harbor.” It was the water area of the park. Dynamite made sure to “accidentally” hit Mushroom square in the face in the water gun arena before they continued up the hill to the—
“Ferris Wheel!”
Mushroom noticed the entrance and the “five minute” wait time. “Come on, we have to.”
“I-” Dynamite looked up at what was likely at least fifteen stories worth of circular metal grids. “I’m not sure if I can… It’s tall as crap.”
“That’s what’s fun! Come on, you’ll like it.” Mushroom practically dragged Dynamite into the line with her. There were around ten people in the way to make sure Dynamite had just enough time to contemplate everything that was about to lead him to getting into a glass cage about to be raised two-hundred feet in the air. Somehow, him and Mushroom boarded with no one behind them. It seemed nearly abandoned.
Alright, no turning back now.
“Look, there’s the bakery,” Mushroom pointed out. Dynamite attempted to look before recognizing just how high above everything they were. Still, he tried to control his nerves…for now. He could panic later.
“Your fur is standing up again.”
Dangit.
The bakery seemed to get exponentially further and further away as Dynamite almost made it to the top.
“Why is it slowing down? WHY IS IT SLOWING DOWN?” Dynamite later panicked.
“They just have to get someone on at the bottom.” Mushroom calmly replied. “We have a fantastic view right now though.”
He did not want to look at the view right now.
Dynamite could almost feel himself falling to the Earth's core as he sat down. He wanted to vomit.
“Are you okay?”
“No. I’ll be fine though, sorry.” Dynamite felt tiny. He wished he was sitting on a bench outside the wheel waiting for Mushroom. Unfortunately, he was instead now sitting across from Mushroom, silently screaming into his hands while trying not to break down.
“I didn't know you were afraid of heights, sorry.” Mushroom clarified. The Ferris Wheel had begun moving again, and they were finally over the tallest point.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Dynamite tried to say with any sort of confidence he could muster.
All downhill from here.
Dynamite intermittently looked up from his hands to see if he had secretly become unafraid of heights in the last twenty seconds. He didn't. Eventually, he deemed the height not tall enough to kill him if the entire Ferris Wheel came crashing down, and he decided to finally start looking around.
“I'm really sorry, Mushroom.” Dynamite pleaded. “I mean, it's kinda cool, but just…” Dynamite strung plenty of words in his head, he was sure none of which would make any sense to anyone but him. “How are you not terrified of THAT?” He pointed to the top of the wheel. “It's like… what if something goes wrong and you're just stuck up there? And then you have no way down, and one wrong step and you're just floating until you die. And... and…” Dynamite couldn't feel his legs. He was shaking. Mushroom stood up, making the cart slightly shake and spiking Dynamite's already uncomfortably fast breath rate, and sat down next to him. The slight wobbling from the imbalance of the cart didn't do much to help Dynamite’s nerves, but having Mushroom next to him did.
“Sorry, we're only two carts away, get ready to get off.”
“Couldn't be more.”
Dynamite got out of the cage as quickly as he could, not realizing he left Mushroom trailing slowly behind. He heard the muffled noises of the families both ahead of him in getting off and just now getting on the wheel. It seemed like the wait had only gotten longer.
Mushroom caught up to him after a brief sprint. “Let's not do that again. Wanna go by the ice cream place up near Hurricane?” She asked.
“Sure,” Dynamite agreed. “What's Hurricane?”
“New raft ride they opened over the summer. If the wait’s not bad, we should try it.
“We'll see when we get there,” Dynamite answered. They stopped by the Glacier Ice Cream Parlor and each got a double cone. Mushroom got double coffee while Dynamite got half cookie dough and half chocolate. Mushroom pointed out the new ride as they sat outside under an icy-blue umbrella.
“Honestly, looks kinda fun.” Dynamite said. “How long is the wait?”
Mushroom told Dynamite to wait for a second while she got up to check the sign at the front. “Forty minutes.”
“Really? I thought it would be much worse.”
By the time Dynamite finished his ice cream, it was much worse.
“Ok, are we sure we want to wait sixty-five minutes?”
“You have other plans tonight?” Mushroom reasonably answered. “Alright, twenty questions, go!”
After a shockingly long five minutes, Dynamite had it narrowed down to a tall round metal-and-glass object before realizing—
“I hate you sometimes.”
Mushroom had the cheekiest grin Dynamite had ever seen.
After a couple rounds of more reasonable answers, such as a pepperoni pizza, famed explorer Turtleshell, and, for some reason, the concept of time, they could see the loading station.
“Finally! What time even is it?” Dynamite inquired.
“6:54, hour and six minutes left.” Mushroom responded timely.
“Should we call your dad?”
“After.”
Dynamite and Mushroom made sure to “Watch your step!” as the attendant instructed before being swept into their raft, prepared for the worst. They approached the lift before Mushroom realized she was more than likely about to get absolutely drenched.
“I'm in danger aren't I?”
Yes.
Dynamite was enjoying himself up until the second lift where Mushroom then enjoyed seeing his ego completely shatter.
“Ok, ok, I get it. Thank you Hurricane, can you please not now?”
No, Dynamite, it cannot not.
Mushroom thoroughly enjoyed Dynamite's descent into chaos as he somehow landed on each of the following three drops straight into the freezing cold water.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!” Dynamite asked the very much inanimate yet somehow comedically brilliant raft.
“Maybe if you apologize to the raft it'll be nicer to you.” Mushroom said, mockingly.
“NO!” Dynamite refused. Fortunately, Mushroom's luck had seemingly run out as she took the final fall on the largest of the ramps.
They both got off the ride and tried to find somewhere sunny to wait while their clothes were still soaked through.
“How long do we have left?” Dynamite wondered.
“Fifty minutes or so.”
“We should probably go ahead and call your dad.”
“Yeah, let me call him.” Mushroom declared. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and was greeted by a large red battery the moment she pressed her power button. “Dynamite, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“So you know how I mentioned that charger in the car was really bad?”
“Yes…”
“My phone is dead.”
The silence was audible.
“So… Do you know your dad's number?” Dynamite hoped.
The silence grew larger.
“We're trapped, aren't we?”
“Yup.” Mushroom responded, trailing off.
“Your dad's still going to come by at eight, right? Can't we just meet him there?”
“Did we ever tell him to meet us at eight?”
“Hold on, I'll call my dad, and then he can call Cattail.”
“Does he have Cattail’s number?”
“I don't know, but clearly we don't!”
“Also didn't your dad tell you to keep your phone on you the whole time?”
“It's a bit late for that now, isn't it?” Dynamite finally ended the conversation before walking up to a random pinkish Magazine to ask to use their phone. He saw some recent calls to someone named Ava Ledger before swapping to the keypad to dial for his dad. From what Mushroom could gather, his father did not seem all too happy but was going to try to find a way. Dynamite made sure to thank the Magazine before turning back to Mushroom. “Not much to do now except just wait.”
And so they did.
Mushroom led them down back towards the exit (Dynamite making sure to stop by to get another one of those cookies!) where they waited on a bench right outside the park.
Dynamite occasionally got up to call his dad back a few times, only to eventually meet the disappointing realization that the only contact they had with Mushroom’s dad was through Facebook Messenger. His dad had apparently tried to call it a couple times, but Mushroom was pretty doubtful Cattail actually had the app installed.
“Do you think they’d have a charger in the gift shop?” Dynamite asked
“We could try.” Mushroom responded, before Dynamite’s impatience quickly motivated him to practically drag Mushroom into the gift shop the moment there was any hope of leaving. “Probably check the checkout line, they leave the useful stuff there most of the time,” she added.
Dynamite waited in the checkout line, continuously scanning each of the walls for some resemblance of a USB. Meanwhile, Mushroom decided to look around elsewhere just in case Dynamite's endeavors ended up fruitless. The only thing she found was a painfully childish Cocomelon Watermelon iPad charger she hoped she wouldn't have to buy. She went back to check with Dynamite who had thankfully found a much more boring alternative.
“Do you need me to pay for it?” Mushroom made sure to ask.
“Nah, just $5.” Dynamite explained. “Where are we going to actually plug this in though?”
Mushroom had to think for a moment before remembering.
“Didn't someone leave their phone plugged in in the bakery?”
“Oh, yeah! We can just go back there.” Dynamite excitedly also recalled.
Dynamite checked out and was very thankful that entry was still free after accidentally leaving the park momentarily. They made their way back to the table to find the phone now gone but a very free outlet still below the table. They plugged their newly acquired charger into one of the USBs on the outlet and waited through Mushrooms annoyingly long power-on animation. Soon enough, Dynamite heard the lovely trills of a call on speaker phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, where are you right now?”
“I'm still in the parking lot, where have you all been?”
“You’ve been there the whole time!” Dynamite nearly screamed, forgetting he was in a crowded bakery. Mushroom could hear Cattail trying not to laugh through the phone.
“We're in the bakery, can you come pick us up?” She asked.
“Sure, Dy also ready to go?”
“Yep.” He responded.
“Alright, see you out front! Love you!”
“Love you too!” Mushroom responded, before hanging up the phone and unplugging the charger. “Hopefully we won't need this between now and the entrance.” She sarcastically stated, holding her phone up. “Let's go.”
“Yeah, let's get outta here.” Dynamite agreed. “This place is giving me a headache at this point.”
Mushroom was very relieved to be met by her dad's gray SUV in the front pickup circle. Mushroom walked around the back of the car to once again get in the seat behind her dad.
“Hey, can you plug this in?” She immediately asked.
“Sure.” He answered, then turned to Dynamite. “So what did I miss from the parking lot, ‘the whole time?’” He jokingly asked
Dynamite stammered out the entire day's events with Mushroom very quickly getting concerned about how much oxygen Dynamite actually had left in his body.
“Sorry, can you say that again? I missed that first bit.”
“NO!”