Page 65 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
She seemed genuinely panicked about it so Lucky said, “Sure. That’s actually how it’s supposed to be, I think. Starting to tell people what I’ve read again is kind of a new thing. Before Maverick, I hadn’t done it in years.”
“Why did you stop?”
“People didn’t like it.” She slid on her shoes. “Once, in high school, I had this art teacher who asked if anyone wanted her to sketch their portrait. When no one responded, she started calling on us. She asked me. I said no. And she said, ‘Not ready to see the truth, eh?’ ”
Georgia’s jaw dropped. “The fuck was she implying?”
“Take a guess. For a long time, whenever I read someone and considered translating for them, I’d think of that moment. She really thought it was okay to use her talents to insult a confident teenager in front of the whole class,” she said. “I think people used to react badly to me because I must have been insulting them too.”
“No. No way. I don’t believe that. You’re not that kind of person.”
“I might’ve been. It’s also possible I made them feel like I was. Both have the same result. All that to say, I respect your decision. If you don’t want to know, I won’t tell you.”
“People are the worst. Not you. That raggedy bitch who had no business being a teacher.”
“All right.” Maverick met them near the front door. “Are we ready?”
Lucky grinned at Georgia before sliding on her glasses. “Ready.”
“Let’s go! Come on!” Rebel yelled from outside, standing near their rental car.
Penny Place Amusement Park’s main selling point was that it was one of the last standing and fully operational vintage parks. A family business since the early 1980s, Georgia’s uncle had taken it over in the mid-2000s with hopes of modern renovations but ended up leaving it as is, following in every one of his predecessors’ footsteps.
Tourists reportedly came from all over the world to enjoy the nostalgia. It helped that the park’s aesthetic looked fantastic on social media because it wasn’t run-down. Georgia’s family treated the park as a historic site, maintaining it with the utmost care.
“It’s tradition at this point,” she explained. “Only fix what’s broken. Touch up the paint here and there. Any new rides orattractions have to be in line with the spirit of the park. That kind of thing.”
Lucky didn’t know what living in the 1980s was like, but the staff dressing in decade-appropriate clothes certainly enhanced the experience. They even wore buttons noting the year their look was based on.
The majority of their production schedule consisted of…Rebel being a kid with a camera having fun at an amusement park.
Now that, Lucky could do. She effortlessly slipped into nanny mode, ready to make this day everything Rebel wanted and more. She wasn’t privy to the budget forShortcake. She’d thought it’d been shoestring-tight since they were staying with Georgia’s family, but prior to their departure Stephen handed her a credit card with instructions to “buy Rebel whatever she wants, courtesy of Xander.”
They trekked around the park, running through the hall of mirrors, bouncing through a questionably challenging funhouse, riding the giant swings, and yelling (and praying) on rickety roller coasters that clicked a little too often for Lucky’s liking. They ate thickly battered corn dogs, salty giant pickles, crunchy brick fries, sweet funnel cakes dripping with ice cream on top, and enough cotton candy to get Lucky in trouble with Maverick later. All the while, Georgia trailed them, filming shots from an outsider POV as if they were being watched. That set of footage would have a distinct editing style and would be spliced with Rebel’s.
The anonymous vlog style tripped Rebel up a little at first. Lucky ended up stopping her multiple times from turning the camera around out of habit, often with a sharp “Shortcake. No.”
That was a part of the script. Lucky was only supposed to refer to Rebel as Shortcake on camera. Rebel’s vision entailed her nanny being calm and mysterious like a tour guide full of secrets. They settled on her using a moderate tone in Lucky’s chest voice, but she would speak slower and more deliberately.
“But why?”
“Because it’s not for us.” Which also was in the script.
She managed to say every one of her lines at random moments as a natural response to something Rebel was doing.
In the afternoon, they found a large tree to sit under while waiting for Maverick to pick them up.
“I’m wiped. How did you do that full-time?” Georgia lay flat on the grass, arm thrown across her eyes.
“Not getting drunk the night before a shift helped immensely.”
Georgia snorted. “I am a consummate professional who can also hold her liquor. This has nothing to do with that. It’s her.”
“It’s the sugar.”
Rebel, still revved up on cotton candy and maybe the chocolate-dipped pretzels Lucky caved and bought her on the way out, spun in circles while staring at the sky until she collapsed, laughing.
Georgia continued, “I didn’t realize how much energy a ten-year-old truly had. How does Super Dad do it?”
