The Girl Who Talks to Haunts Part 1--An E.Q. Halloween Special

It was her favorite time of the year, mostly because holding in America was certainly a lot different during different seasons. While she loved the sun-kissed, dry heat of California, and the snowy enchantment of places like upstate New York, there was something about autumn that made the whole country feel and smell and even taste different than England. Certainly it was the population, where more people often crammed together in large cities, whereas her hometown was small and cozy. But maybe it was just the exotic feeling she had traveling to different countries.

Reginald was rather proud of the design of this ride. The track and engineering for the actual ride was constructed by another contracted company, but the rest of it, from the exterior design to the interior, was all through HatBox. The exterior was made to look exactly like the front of a seaside amusement park ride, run down by time and work. Parts of the corrugated metal exterior was mocked up to look like it was rusted through, and the cars were all painted to look dilapidated and dented.

The inside, as Reginald, Roland and Roxanne walked through the service entrance, was dimly lit and contained literally the exterior park in miniature, and as if the park was built onto a boardwalk pier. Using forced perspective and clever foreshortening, the cars would take riders through a microcosm of the Essex Falls Amusement Park as if it was taken over by fun-loving spirits. It wasn't anything too horrifying, and in fact, many of the spooks and zombies were playfully cheap looking with very stiff animations.

Most of the suggestions for toning everything down was from the youngest Rose, whom made it her job to vet things if they were too scary.

"The blood needs to be orange. And the green should be more phosphorescent under black lights. And make the spider with only 2 eyes. If there's 8, then it looks too real."

Not bad for a 10 year old.

With a penlight sized UV light, Roxanne and Roland went around the animatronics, checking to see if the phosphorescent colors were true to Rose's suggestions.

"Man. It looks like a kid's television programming block threw up in here," Roland joked as he swung the light around. "Orange and green."

"You know Rose…its gotta be just right." Roxanne followed a path from the background set pieces to where the track came along the path. She looked at the false skyline, where a miniature version of a wild mouse roller coaster was being ridden by doll-sized witches. Roland checked the coaster by overriding the panel and started it up independent of the ride itself. The little car zipped in a tight square down in a spiral. It made Roxanne a little dizzy.

"Are you going to try a ride-thru before we go?" he asked.

"Yeah…where's Rose?"

"She's with Dad. She said she wants to be first."

They both laughed as they stepped over the miniature stands of the midway and food stalls. They walked along the tracks, and it reminded her of those old American movies with kids walking along train tracks. Did they realize how dangerous that was, she always wondered. But right now, she didn't worry about it, balancing herself on the raised rails, navigating easily despite the dim lights.

"Roxy, what are you thinking of doing once you're done with school?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "I'm still not sure yet."

Roland paused. "How about CalArts?"

She laughed again. "You think I could with my grades?"

"Well, you have recommendation…."

"Rose'll miss me….and who will do all your painting and set designs?"

Roland laughed too, though its quieter. "Well. I'd…miss you too."

His sister turned and waved her hands at him, wriggling her fingers, and he did the same, this little teasing motion they often did when they displayed any sort of familial affection.

"Bleeeehhh," they said together, sticking their tongues out.

Reginald came down the rail path. "Ok, kids, let's practice the animatronic movement in the light….when you guys do that in the dark, its creepy."

They turned their attention on him until they were all laughing.

~~

The ride cars were rounded like giant strawberries, painted black with a matte paint so they would't throw undue reflections when lights shined in the set pieces. The path started from a sort of disorientating inside-out transition from the inside of a loading area to a ride, to coming outside a facsimile of the outside of the ride, into a dimly, blue lit version of the amusement park, following the most common path along the more famous attractions in the park: an old wooden roller coaster now painted and dripping in florescent green, a drop tower that shed fake bolts and screws like rain as it rose and fell, bumper cars driven by invisible men and their hats, a sky gondola with flying witches circling around them, a ferris wheel whose lights were now arranged to look like a laughing skull, the wild mouse coaster, and more. As Roxanne admired her and her family's work, something felt missing to her. The sounds of the ride were silent outside of the sounds of mechanics, the sounds of metal rain from the drop ride, or the creaks of animatronics as ghouls leaped out from behind tombstones and trash cans. Its sounded like she was inside a giant clockwork toy.

Exiting the ride, Reginald took in the front facade with a sigh of contentment. His arms around the kids he smiled.

"Good job everyone."

"Tell everyone at the company too," Roxanne said, smiling.

"Christmas bonus."

That night, the family was staying on a hotel on the park property, courtesy of the park. It overlooked the main park from an oblique angle to the center of the park. Roland and Reginald had one room, and the girls had the other next door. Rose was sitting in her bed with her sister at the window until late.

"Roxy, what's your favorite kinda ride?" her little sister asked, hugging a pillow.

Roxanne leaned back in her plushy chair. "I dunno. The kind with a lot of neat things to look at?"

Rose rolled her eyes.

"The shooting ones…remember the one dad helped do in California? The one with the virtual ringtoss and the unicorns."

Her little sister laughed. "Tell me about that."

"Mom designed that one." That was one of Rose and Roxanne's favorite topics; talking about their late mother and her contributions to the job. It was in fact how their father met her, before they married and started their own company. Rose finally fell asleep after a very enthusiastic discussion on rides, still hugging her big fluffy pillow.

Roxanne sat and watched the deep dark park until she rose quietly, grabbed a dark blue hoodie and quietly left the room. She snuck her way through employee only entrances and tunnels and halls until she found herself in the park again. It was a terrible habit, she admitted, and she'd been scolded by her brother for trespassing. But there was something about being in amusement park rides after dark, when no one was around. It felt like the whole place was hers.

She would occasionally okay with the animatronics, like giant dolls, or talk to them. Part of her did it to keep herself busy, or as a child's charm to keep away the bad things, but it was mostly habit. Rose would talk to the animatronics too, even in the presence of other people. Roxanne preferred to only do it when she was alone.

It was also, as she learned from her father once, how her parents met. Her mother had the penchant to check rides after closing hours, in the middle of the night, and her father happened to be working on an electrical panel at the time. Love at first site? Or sight?

Roxanne didn't expect to meet anyone on her middle of the night visits. She just wanted to play with the set pieces, sometimes adding in details or tinkering around.

That's why, when she opened the back entrance, she was surprised to hear something quiet different from silence, or the hum of machines on stand-by.

It was music, and it wasn't anything Roxanne has ever heard in her 13 years of life.

--Dio (10/9/15)

Photos taken by me.