Shaggin' on the Boulevard
Part 5
Flip
Josh stood in his hotel room, practicing his swing. "Donna!" he called.
"What?" she asked, plugging her ears. "I'm right here."
"You're going to caddie for me today, right?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Fine," Josh said, sighing. "Where's Sam?"
"In his room as far as I know."
~~~
Sam looked at the yellow band on his wrist and the matching one on Mallory's.
"What do you want to ride first?" he asked.
A mischievous look slowly spread over her face as she looked up at the wooden
roller coaster—The Swamp Fox. "That," she said.
Sam looked at the wood lattice and swallowed hard. "You do?"
"Yes," she said. "C'mon!" She took his hand and they raced up the ramp to
the line. "Where do you want to ride? Front? Middle? Back?"
"You pick," Sam said. The coaster thundered down a hill in front of them; the
riders all screamed, either in delight or in fear. Sam felt his heart beat
faster just at the prospect of riding. He wasn't sure he wanted to ride the
roller coaster, but Mallory did, so he would.
Mallory chose to enter the line near the front, two seats back from the very
front. "It's not very crowded today, that's a good thing," she said. "We
probably won't have to wait very long to ride any of the rides here today."
"Yeah," he said with a nod.
The coaster stopped at the exit and allowed the passengers to get off before
slowly making its way up to where the next set of riders were eagerly (or not
in some cases) waiting to board.
"I love roller coasters," Mallory said with a smile as she was allowed to move
the chain and climb into the car. Sam replaced the chain before climbing in
next to her. They buckled the seat belt and the safety bar came down. The
worker checked each bar methodically while taking tickets or checking for ride
wristbands.
"Remember to secure all lose items—the Family Kingdom is not responsible for
any lost or damaged items. Keep all arms and legs inside the ride at all
times. Enjoy the Swamp Fox."
Mallory smiled as the car started to move slowly along the track. As they
started up the first big hill, Mallory put her arms in the air. The
clickity-clack sound of the chain lifting the coaster was enough to make Sam
wonder if he should have written his will before coming.
"They said keep all hands arms inside the ride," Sam said nervously.
"You scared, Skipper?"
"Um... Yes," he said. "Are you sure this thing is safe?" he asked, looking
down at the track.
"Positive. They check these things all the time," she said. She watched him
for a moment, noting with some concern the anxiousness etched in his features.
"You're really scared?" she asked, lowering her arms.
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Well... Possibly because I've never been on a roller coaster before," he
said, looking at her.
"Are you serious?" she asked.
"Y-yeah," he said.
"You should have said something."
"Guess it's too late to bail out now, isn't it?"
"Yeah," she said. "I'm sorry. If I had known—"
"Oh, no. If I die, I'll die with you, happy," he said with a forced smile.
"It'll be okay, Sam. Promise."
"Really?"
"Hold on tight," she said as they crested the hill.
Sam saw how high off the ground they were. "Omigod," he said as they started
down the hill. He dug his short fingernails into the safety bar and started
screaming. Mallory placed one hand over his as they traveled down. Sam felt
himself come up off the seat as they made it to the bottom of the hill and
started climbing another one.
After living through the first hill, Sam realized that he was going to make it
to the end of the ride. In fact, he started to enjoy the ride somewhere along
the line. His white-knuckled grip loosened and, by the time it was over and he
and Mallory were exiting the ride, he looked at her. He could hardly walk—his
knees were still weak from the ride, he was experiencing something new,
unexpected, and, in his opinion, delightful: a roller coaster adrenaline high.
"Can we ride it again?"
"Skipper?"
"The roller coaster?" he asked eagerly.
"You want to ride it again?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Now?"
"Yeah!"
She nodded and took his hand, reveling in his boyish expression. They entered
the short line again and rode in the very front on their second run. He wasn't
ready to put his arms in the air as they soared down the hills, but he allowed
Mallory to raise her arms. The "aargh" screams that had dominated the first
ride had been replaced by something more along the lines of "wooo."
Sam stumbled on the asphalt ground after they disembarked the coaster the
second time. "That has to be the most amazing thing," he said.
"See what you've been missing all these years?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Want to go again?"
He looked up at the coaster as another group whooshed down the hill. "Maybe
in a minute," he said.
"Right," she said. "We don't want to overdo it."
"Right," he said.
"Something slow?" she asked.
"Yeah..." They looked around and saw the Ferris Wheel. Looking at each
other, they grinned and started for it.
As they waited in line, Sam noticed the ring toss near by. He made a mental
note to stop by there before they left. They climbed into a red gondola and
sat down facing the ocean. They couldn't see the water yet, just the line of
hotels on the beach. After several more people were loaded into other
gondolas, the ride started to move at a nice, easy clip. Sam put his arm
around Mallory's shoulders as they reached the top. She leaned into him,
resting her head on his shoulder and her hand on his knee.
"As much fun as the roller coaster was, I'm thinking this is nicer," he said.
She smiled, closing her eyes. "That's just because this is gentle, slow...
peaceful. That, and you can hold me here."
"Maybe more that last reason, yes," he said.
~~~
C.J. paced nervously in the golf clubhouse. "Leo, hold on," she said,
catching the Chief of Staff.
"Yeah?"
"Where's Sam?"
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I mean I've talked to Josh and Toby and nobody knows where Sam is."
President Bartlet overheard the conversation and quickly stepped in. "Oh, I
sent him to do something."
"You did, sir?" asked Leo. "What was that?"
"The thing, you know."
"What thing, Mr. President?" asked C.J. "This is a media madhouse. White
House Press Corps, local press... I was really counting on Sam's being here to
help me out."
"C.J., you can't handle some seventy-five, one hundred reporters by yourself?"
asked Bartlet.
"Not with any degree of decorum, no, sir," she said.
"We left the new Deputy in D.C., didn't we?" Bartlet asked.
"Henry? Yes, sir," said C.J.
"Well, that wasn't a bright move, was it?" asked the President.
"Well, if Sam had been here, it would have been a fine move, sir," said Leo.
"What thing did you send him on?"
"Oh, you know. The aquarium thing. He's making sure we can all get in
tomorrow..."
"Yeah?" asked Leo.
"Yeah," said Bartlet. "Come on. It's time for tee."
~~~
The gondola came to a stop at the very top of the wheel. "This is rather
cliché, isn't it?" asked Sam.
"Oh, you think you're going to get a kiss now, Skipper?" asked Mallory.
"Wha-I... Of course not," he said.
"Because I have no intention of kissing you on top of the Ferris Wheel. In
the Mural Room, well, sure. And how could you try to set that room on fire?
You didn't want to remember our first kiss?"
"I treasure that memory," he said.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Then why'd you try to burn down the White House starting with the Mural
Room?"
"It was cold."
"So you decided to warm the place... By burning it down?"
"We had *no* intention of burning the place down, Mal. None. We were just
trying to look out for everyone else, make them more comfortable..."
"By burning it down?"
"We weren't going to burn it down—"
"You very nearly did."
"Accidentally."
"Yeah, sure," Mallory said.
Sam frowned. Things had been going so well. He wasn't sure how the day had
soured so early in the afternoon.
The truth of the matter was that Mallory didn't want to be put into that
cliché position. She kept talking so that she wouldn't wind up kissing him.
"You know, we're higher than the roller coaster now."
He turned to see that they were dangling a few feet above the roller coaster
track. "So we are," he said as the ride started moving again. Mallory let out
a quiet sigh of relief. "Are you mad at me?"
She looked at him quickly. "What makes you think that?"
"I don't know... The way you talked about the fire in the Mural Room made me
wonder if you were... upset?"
"Why would I be upset that you tried to burn down a national treasure? Hell,"
she said, "the British did once."
"It wasn't entirely my idea..."
"You and Josh."
"Yes."
"I understand that the President was on the Truman balcony for a while."
"Believe me, I had a delightful lecture on the Truman balcony after that," Sam
said. "Especially after Josh blamed me for the entire thing."
"He blamed you for all of it?"
"If anything, I think we were both quite active in the plot and the execution
of it." They looked at each other. "And then he let me talk about my feelings
towards you while you were behind me, listening to the entire thing. Y'know,
I'm beginning to wonder just whose best friend he is."
The gondola came to a stop at the bottom and the worker opened the door. Sam
and Mallory climbed out and started walking around again. Mallory didn't say
anything; she was too busy wondering what *to* say after that.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"I don't want your pity, Mallory," he said. "I just... I don't know. I just
want to talk to you about what happens. But I don't want you to feel sorry for
me afterwards, especially not once it's water under the bridge."
"Okay."
"What now?" he asked.
Mallory glanced around, then grinned up at him. "Well, Skipper, I think you
need to take command of your boat."
"What boat?"
"That one," she said, pointing to the large, swinging pirate ship.
After a cruise on the pirate ship, Sam and Mallory were in better spirits. As
they swung back and forth, they sang "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" as loud as
they dared sing. Every time Sam spoke in his pirate-ese with one eye squinted
shut, he would send Mallory into giggles.
"Mind if we play?" Sam asked, nodding to the ring-toss booth.
"You want to?" she asked.
"Yeah," Sam said, reaching for his wallet.
"Okay."
He paid for two sets of five rings, handing one set to her. "Ladies first,"
he said.
Mallory tossed her rings one at a time, not really aiming. None of them
landed on a bottle. "They're rigged anyway," she said as her final ring
bounced off a bottle and landed on the ground.
Sam took a step away from the counter and took careful aim. His first three
rings missed, but his fourth ring landed on a grand prize bottle. Mallory
looked at him curiously. "How'd you do that?"
He grinned. "Same basic principal as sugar-packet tossing." He squinted his
left eye closed. "Pick yer prize, matie."
~~~
C.J. dialed her cellular phone and listened to the rings. "Pick up, Sam.
Pick up, Sam." She didn't know that he had left both his pager and cellular
phone in his hotel room for the afternoon. When no one answered, she dialed
Toby's cell phone.
"Yeah?" he barked.
"Toby, it's C.J."
"What's going on? You just messed up my putt."
"When did you hear from Sam last?"
"I don't know, since before we left for here. Why?"
"Because he's still not here. The President said he sent him to some meeting
with the aquarium people, but I've called over there and can't seem to get him.
I've tried his cell phone. I've paged him."
"Why do you need him for anyway?" asked Toby.
"Aha! Birdie!" said Josh triumphantly. Toby rolled his eyes.
"Just that he was supposed to be here to help me guide the press through the
photo-ops and Q&A sessions."
"And he's not there."
"No."
"Call Leo, I guess. He's with the President. I'm here with the flunkies from
the state senate and Josh, who is delighting in my golfing failures."
The door opened. C.J. couldn't see who had entered. "Oh, maybe this is him
now."
"If it is, kindly tell him that he needs to quit being so disruptive to my
golf game, would you?"
"Yeah, sure," C.J. said distractedly, terminating the call.
~~~
Mallory and her two-foot stuffed Scooby-Doo were buckled into a bumper car and
headed straight for Sam. "Gotcha!" Mallory called as she maneuvered her car
away from the spinning car that held Sam.
Sam pressed the gas pedal to the floor harder if that were possible to catch
up to her, pushing her along the track from behind. Soon, the power in both
their cars died. The ride was over. Unbuckling, the two climbed out and left
the little track.
"You should have seen your face when I spun you around," she said, glancing at
him.
"Bet it couldn't compare to your face when I lapped you," he said, grinning.
"You think you're such a hot-shot driver, do you?"
"Yeah," he said. "I do."
"You and me," she said. "Go-karts."
"You're on!"
"Actually, no, wait... What time is it?"
Sam checked his watch. "Three fifteen."
"We'll race after dinner. Right now we have to go back to the hotel and
change."
"What? Dinner at four?"
"No," she said, smiling impishly at him. "Shagging lessons at four. Dinner
at five thirty."
part 6
HOME |
TITLE |
AUTHOR |
CATEGORY