After sleeping in a moving car, a night in an actual bed leaves me infinitely more energised. This will come in handy for the day’s plan: Movie World.
After an extended debate in which Teddy argues in favour of visiting Wet’n’Wild (primarily for the innuendoes), Sophie for Dreamworld and Elliot for Movie World, I have the deciding vote. I really don’t care where we go but I eventually vote for Movie World. I tell the others that Elliot should get to choose since it was his car that got us here, but part of me thinks there should be some perks to being my best friend.
The park opens at nine-thirty and is already busy by the time we arrive, nearly an hour later. I pay the entry fee for all four of us (thanks, Grandma) and pick up a park map.
‘What do we want to do first?’ I ask. A huge fountain is directly in front of us, surrounded by a bunch of people who also seem to be deciding where to start.
Sophie takes the map from my hand and skims it. ‘Should we go by section? Start over here in the Looney Tunes area –’ she points to the bottom right corner of the map ‘– and work our way across?’ Her hand makes a sweeping movement across the page.
‘Um, yeah, I guess,’ says Elliot, his eyes glued to the swooping red coaster track ahead of us.
‘You keen?’ Teddy says to him.
Elliot’s eyes glisten in the sun as he watches the coaster car soar across the track. The sound of screams and whoops fills the air. A faint smile crosses Elliot’s lips.
Sophie and I look at each other.
‘I think we know where Elliot wants to be,’ she says quietly.
‘I … No, it’s fine,’ says Elliot, dragging his eyes away. ‘We should all stay as a group.’ But his eyes are back on the Superman Escape before he can even get the sentence out.
‘Go on,’ I say. ‘We’ll meet you later.’
Elliot holds my eyes for a second before he and Teddy race away like two off-leash Australian Shepherds at a dog park.
I don’t really understand how they can go straight on the intense rides – I’ll definitely need time to psych myself up.
Sophie and I head down Main Street together. Quite a few superheroes walk up and down, waving at kids, giving high fives and getting their photos taken.
‘Some of these buildings are beautiful,’ says Sophie, glancing around. ‘They’re so detailed.’
They look like normal buildings to me but I don’t really know what I’m talking about. Sophie has a much keener eye; she wanted to be an architect before she had Luke.
We’re a good ten years older than the target audience for the Looney Tunes section, but that doesn’t stop us. We go on a Sylvester & Tweety Cages ride, where we sit in cages that spin around in the air; a Yosemite Sam’s Railroad ride; and then we queue up for the Road Runner Rollercoaster. It feels a lot like being a kid again. I don’t want to go home to responsibility.
While we wait for the queue to move, Sophie keeps talking about the design of the park and how the scenery is thematically linked to the rides so cleverly, as well as the overall aesthetic of the park.
‘You really love your architecture, don’t you?’ I ask.
Sophie laughs. ‘Am I talking about it too much?’
‘No, talk away,’ I say. I like listening to her describe the things she loves. ‘You still want to study it?’
‘I don’t think so.’ She grabs a clump of her hair and begins plaiting it at her collarbone. ‘I’m not sure it’s realistic anymore.’
‘Why not? You could totally do it.’
Sophie shakes her head and leans against the railing. ‘I gave up all thoughts of that when I had Luke.’
‘But you could still do it,’ I say. ‘Plenty of people study and have kids.’
She chews on the inside of her cheek. ‘I don’t know. Maybe when he’s older and been in school for a while or something.’
‘But –’
‘Please, Jen,’ she says. ‘I know you mean well but I’ve thought about this a lot. It was a big factor in deciding whether to …’ Her eyes flicker towards the group of kids queued in front of us. ‘… You know.’
‘Right. Sorry.’ I knew Sophie had considered having an abortion but I guess I let it slip to the back of my mind.
‘It’s okay,’ Sophie says. ‘I’m just saying … It’s something I thought about a lot. And I’m happy with my decision.’
It gives me a fuzzy feeling in my gut to hear her say that.
We reach the front of the queue and climb into the coaster car. Though it’s technically a kids’ ride, the Road Runner Rollercoaster is a good ride by any standards. We ride it four or five times before we head back to meet the boys by the fountain.
‘How was the Superman Escape?’ I ask.
It doesn’t take me long to regret the question because the boys rave about it while we all get photos with the superheroes on Main Street and are still going by the time we reach the front of the queue for the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster.
Each car seats four people: two in the front, two in the back. Elliot and Teddy jump into the front and I take a back seat next to Sophie. Teddy surprises me with how loud he squeals when he thinks his head is going to be chopped off by one of the props, a swinging axe. The ride isn’t so bad but I get a little dizzy when we go backwards in the dark. I prefer the Road Runner.
I’m starting to get hungry but Elliot insists we go on the Wild West Falls, which we do before finding some ridiculously overpriced food. (Again, thanks Grandma.)
‘Can we see the stunt show?’ asks Teddy through a mouthful of chips. ‘It starts in fifteen minutes.’
‘I’m down for that,’ says Elliot.
It makes sense to see the stunt show now so we don’t vomit while we’re being thrown around on one of the rides.
The show is crazy impressive; the stunt drivers get their cars up on two wheels, jump off ramps and over obstacles and people, and come within millimetres of crashing into each other. The choreography is ridiculously precise. I don’t want to think about what would happen if one of the drivers needed to sneeze or something.
‘It’s lucky I can’t drive stick, or that’s how we’d be getting home,’ says Teddy.
After the show, Elliot wants to go back on the Superman ride. I’m surprised it took him this long to suggest it.
‘You guys go,’ I say. ‘I’ll watch.’
‘You sure?’ says Sophie.
I nod. It doesn’t go upside down but it goes really high and fast. Even the Scooby Doo ride made me feel gross, so I’m not sure I’d be up to it.
‘Come on,’ says Elliot. ‘It’s not rough, I promise.’
I look up at the arching track and watch the coaster fly across it.
I take a deep breath. ‘Okay.’
We line up for about forty-five minutes. I don’t really pay much attention to what the others are doing around me. Small TVs hang over the crowd with this guy talking about the physics of the ride: four point two positive g-forces and one negative g-force.
‘Is that a lot?’ I ask.
‘Stop stressing,’ says Teddy. ‘You’ll be fine.’
We get to the start of the queue and the coaster pulls up in front of us. I climb into one of the seats and breathe.
Elliot hops in next to me. ‘You okay?’
I smile and nod. The restraint comes down over my head and the attendant checks that we’re all locked in. I have to be okay now. I can do this.
We start moving and I tighten my grip on the restraint. We weave through the subway of Metropolis – the coaster is supposed to be the train – and a voiceover tells us that earthquake tremors are destroying the city above us. The ‘train’ stops and there’s this clinking noise of metal-on-metal, presumably the sound of cogs and gears falling off.
This is it. We’re all going to die. I knew I shouldn’t have come on this stupid ride. Now it’s broken and we have no escape.
But with fifteen seconds until the roof caves in, Superman appears, telling us he’ll get us out of here. Fast.
‘You ready?’ Elliot says from the seat next to me. I nod but I don’t think he can see me. I keep my eyes straight ahead. From still to one hundred kilometres per hour in two seconds flat, Superman launches us skyward, out of the dark building and into the bright Queensland sunshine.
Elliot was right: it’s really smooth. Adrenaline soars through my veins and my hair blows wildly in the wind. I scream but not out of fear. The engineering is perfect and makes sure we get all the thrills and excitement of a rough ride without the throbbing headache and nausea. I’m not sure why I was scared in the first place. And I feel like I should’ve known the breaking cogs were part of the ride.
After the Superman Escape, we head to one of the Batman rides, which is a bit of a let-down as it has been advertised as a new ride but is mechanically identical to this old ride they used to have, the Lethal Weapon. They just painted it and changed the theme. It seems a little like cheating. My head thumps and I feel like passing out after that one, so I watch while the others try the Green Lantern ride (which, according to Teddy, has the steepest inverted drop in the southern hemisphere) and the other Batman-themed ride. Even though my entire body aches, I want to ride the Superman again.