Page 58 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually
“Bad enough.”
“Hey, you’re shaking,” he said. “Goodness, youreallydon’t like rides, do you?”
It was true, I was shaking, but that may have been more to do with Sean’s hand-holding than the actual ride itself.
“Here,” he said, reaching into his back pocket. “Try some of this.” He pulled out a hip flask and poured a tot of something into the lid. “It’s whiskey. Go on, get it down you.”
“How have you got this? I thought Maddie said we weren’t allowed alcohol in here.”
“All the stags have them. Felix’s best man passed them out earlier.”
“You mean Will?”
“Yes, that’s the chap.”
I opened my bag and pulled out a mini bottle of champagne. “And all us hens have got these!” I laughed. “Want to swap?”
“Nah, but you can still have the whiskey. I already had a fair bit to drink in the bar earlier.”
I’d noticed. But I swigged the whiskey back anyway and gasped as it caught the back of my throat.
“Where to now?” Sean asked.
“What about that house thing over there?”
“You mean Phantom Manor? You sure you won’t be scaaarrred?” he tried to say in a spooky voice.
“As long as it doesn’t loop the loop at a hundred miles an hour, I’ll be just fine, thank you.”
There were a number of us “visiting” the manor, and the hospitality was very good as even more secret bottles were passed around in the waiting room before the main journey began around the supposedly haunted mansion. The purpose of this ride, I quickly discovered, was to unravel the mystery of a ghost bride who waited for her groom in vain. The spooky walls and pictures were supposed to recount their grisly tale, as you rode along in carriages called “Doombuggies.”
CanIcountthisasmythirdwedding?I wondered, watching the story of a marriage ceremony that never took place slowly unfold.
Sean and I had somehow got split up in the haunted house at the start of the ride, so I ended up sitting next to one of the girls Maddie worked with. But as we spun around the manor in our two-person Doombuggy, in between the ghosts and ghouls that popped up in our faces, I managed to catch sightof him a few times, and on one occasion he saw me watching him and winked.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the girl sitting next to me said. “I didn’t realize that was your boyfriend or I’d have let the two of you sit together.”
“No, not at all, please don’t worry,” I said a bit too hastily. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Is he anyone’s boyfriend, do you know?” she asked, as the ride came to an end and we prepared to hop off. “He’s quite good looking.”
I pretended I hadn’t heard her and hurried over to join Sean again as soon as I’d freed myself from the ride. “Let’s go this way,” I said, swiftly steering him in the opposite direction to my traveling companion.
We found ourselves walking toward Fantasyland. “This is the kiddies’ bit,” Sean said, and I noticed he was having trouble walking in a straight line. “Although after seeing you on Big Thunder Mountain back there, this might be more up your street.”
“Stop with the teasing, you,” I said, pleased we seemed to have lost Sean’s admirer. “This is what Disney is all about.”
“You arenotgetting me on one of those elephants,” Sean exclaimed as we approached the flying Dumbo ride. “No way!”
“I wouldn’t want to—strange as it may seem, flying elephants aren’t really my scene either.”
“Ah, I know what you’d like,” he said, a grin spreading across his face. “Come with me.”
Sean, for the second time tonight, grabbed hold of my hand, and I willingly let him lead me toward a sign that declaredIt’s a Small World.
“Now this ride isn’t scary at all,” Sean said as we walked together along a pastel-colored path toward the entrance. “Unless you’ve seen theChild’s Playmovies—which I very much doubt you have—because then the dolls can take on a whole different light.”
“We can’t go on this,” I protested. “We’re too old.”
