Dwindling

The stressful Monday morning offered little time for decision-making.

The park map looked so big now. Katie couldn’t wait for the day when money wasn’t an issue and she could stay here for as long as she liked- looking at it only made her more depressed. In her paralysis, Frankie’s finger was the one that found their next destination.

“Here, maybe?”

“I don’t have a problem with that.”

The Wildland Expedition was right next to the grand Cinema City, as fate would have it, and they didn’t care to be picky.

Frankie and her sister skirted the edges of the zoo, avoiding distractions- not so easy a thing to do in an amusement park. Ignoring salesmen and carnies, averting their eyes to glowing signs and giant attractions… it just got tiresome after a while. The most they could do was try to distract each other instead.

“What’s your favorite thing we’ve seen here, Katie? At Kidneyland.”

“Um… I wish I’d taken more of it in. I really loved that dark tunnel though, remember?”

“The tunnel of love?”

“Yeah, that one. I’d never been on a ride like that before.”

“Wasn’t boring, was it?”

“Boring? Hm.” Katie tried to feel the breeze as they walked, but the atmosphere wasn’t budging. “I guess it was boring, sure.”

“But you still liked it.”

“I adored it.”

They sounded plenty cheery, but every word was a struggle to get out. Silence overcame the conversation the second their weakening brains faltered in coming up with anything to say.

“You… wanna get breakfast, maybe?” Frankie’s stomach spoke for her in this time of need.

“No.”

“Not hungry?”

“The thought of wasting more time and money kills my appetite…”

The girls made it out fine, eventually. All they left behind was a little bit more of the enjoyment you were supposed to be carrying in a place like this.

At nine o’clock, they found themselves at the gates of yet another disparate world.