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A bead of sweat dripped off Scott Bailey's forehead onto the screen of his blackberry, blotching out part of the calendar display.

September 15th. He had thought of nothing but that day for the last four months. It was back in May when his seven-year-old son, Sean, begged him to promise to ride just one roller coaster on their vacation to Orlando. He shouldn't have promised. Scott was coaster-phobic. A stupid sounding name for his fear of roller coasters, he thought, but his psychologist assured him that he was exactly that. He was petrified of roller coasters. Just the thought of riding one caused him to gnaw his fingernails to the quick. Four months of sweaty palms, sleepless nights, and anxiety attacks, all in anticipation of that horrible day that now, God help him, had arrived.

His heart was already racing, and he had done nothing all day at the theme park except sit and wait on his wife and son as they rode all the rides. Ironically he flew in a plane and drove a car to get to the theme park, knowing both were statistically more dangerous than a roller coaster. But he wasn't afraid of cars and planes, he was afraid of coasters falling off their rails or smashing out of control into another string of cars at the end of the ride.

To assure himself that the Double Dragon was safe, he spent the last four months researching every aspect of the ride. He checked out the company that built the ride, even to the point of checking their P.E. ratio in the financial pages. Scott now knew that the coaster had ten loops, reached speeds of sixty-five miles per hour, dropped at one point to 115 feet, and took exactly two minutes and six seconds to ride.

He became obsessed with the time. 126 seconds. As he walked from his car to his office he would count backwards from 126 to get an idea what the time felt like. He knew that thirty of the seconds would be a slow ascent in tandem with a parallel coaster up to the top of the track to its first perilous drop. So in reality, the ride would be only 96 seconds of twisting, stomach churning hell. Each day he practiced counting down from 126 with his eyes closed, the same way he planned to ride the Double Dragons, with eyes closed.

By God, he was a grown man. There is no danger. The ride provides an illusion of danger. That’s why people love to ride it. He just had to suck it up and prove to his son that he’s a man. He can do it, and it’s only 126 seconds long. 126 seconds of sheer terror.

The sweat began dripping off his face again. He waved to Sean and Cindy as they exited the water plume ride, a camouflaged roller coaster as far as he was concerned, still capable of careening off the rails and killing every one on board.

His son ran up to him, still dripping water from the last ride.

“Are you ready, Dad?” he asked. “Are you ready for the Double Dragons?”

Scott’s eyes drifted up to the huge coasters as they twisted and turned, sometimes within a foot of each other. His teeth chattered and he suddenly felt cold. Cyndi placed her hand on his shoulder.

“You don’t have to do this, Scott. Sean and I won’t think any worse of you if you don’t ride it.”

“Ah… c’mon, Dad, you’ve got to. You said you would. Please?”

He did have to do it. How could he face Sean later at dinner if the boy thought he was a coward? 126 seconds. A little over two minutes.

“I’m okay Cyndi, really, I’m okay.”

He put his shaking hands in his pockets, so as not to alarm her, but now he had no way to wipe the sweat off his face. When she wasn’t looking he turned his head quickly and wiped his face on his shoulder.

Ten minutes, the electronic sign flashed to announce the time left in line for the ride. Scott calculated the coaster could be ridden 4.76 times in that amount of time. He was okay with the 4 part of it, but the .76 worried him. What if the ride just wore out from overuse!

There were 45 people ahead of him in line. With ten seats, four abreast, it meant he would be on the next coaster after this one. His coaster was green. He watched a small child board one of the cars and reach up to pull the plastic harness over him. An attendant walked up and snapped the seat belt that joined the harness to the seat. A few seconds later, the floor lowered beneath their feet and the coaster jerked forward and slowly turned the corner out of the building. 126 seconds later, according to Scott’s watch, the coaster returned.

The line rushed forward and Scott felt himself being pushed toward the empty seats of the coaster. As he sat in the chair he looked up to see how each chair was individually attached to the rail. Was the gap between his roller and the rail bigger than the others?

The shaking in his hands was getting worse and he was having trouble breathing. The attendant pulled Scott’s harness down and checked it to be locked before attaching the seat belt. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths.

Cyndi was in the seat next to him and Sean was four rows ahead in the front seat of the coaster. Cyndi grabbed his hand.

“Are you alright, Scott?”

He didn’t answer. His teeth chattered so violently he wasn’t able to answer her.

The coaster jerked forward. Scott kept his eyes closed and began counting backwards. 126, 125, 124 …

He heard the loud clicking of the chain as it pulled them alongside the other dragon coaster, up the 30 degree incline, where it would detach and allow the coaster to plummet in a freefall for 150 feet straight toward the ground.

He thought he heard the chain breaking. He wondered if he should yell out and demand they stop the ride. After all, the chain might be broken! Something’s wrong, he knew it.

Scott opened his eyes and first saw the adjacent coaster with its excited passengers, and then he saw they were nearing the first drop. He looked to the side and noticed there was a walkway that he could reach. There was still time. 100, 99, 98…

He pulled his hand away from Cyndi’s.

“I can’t do this Cyndi, I can’t!”

Cyndi touched his knee and yelled to him over the noise of the chain.

“It will be okay, Scott! The ride will be over before you know it! Don’t worry!”

She patted his knee to reassure him, but she worried about the panicked look on his face.

“No! I can’t! No, no, no, no, no!” he yelled, as he unbuckled the seatbelt. “I can’t do it, Cyndi!” and he pushed up on the harness with all his strength. The harness traveled only an inch, but it was enough of a gap to let him slide one of his legs out. Cyndi slapped at him and yelled for him to sit down. She pointed to the front of the coaster and he saw they were about to start the first drop. 91, 90, 89…

He slipped his other leg out and started to step out on the walkway, when suddenly, the coaster dropped straight down at sixty-miles-per hour.

The sudden rush of air and centrifugal force pushed him against his seat. He wrapped both arms tightly around the harness anticipating the first inverted loop of the ride. He continued the count, 84, 83, 82...

As the coaster whipped into the loop, his feet flailed out from the force and actually rested for a second on the shoulders of a stunned passenger of the other dragon coaster. Then his coaster banked hard to the left in a ninety-degree turn. The enormous torque in the turn flopped him onto Cyndi’s harness, which he immediately held as tight as he had his own. Cyndi’s eyes widened and she screamed as she saw Scott’s flushed face only inches from hers. He didn’t hear her scream over the gleeful screams of the other riders, but it was obvious she was yelling “Scott!”

40, 39, 38…

He prayed to God that he could just hold on for the remaining seconds, but he was quickly losing the strength in his arms. 30, 29, 28… he silently counted.

Only the final loop was left and Scott knew that both coasters would barrel toward each other, head-on at fifty miles-per-hour, and shoot straight up to the sky only seconds away from almost crashing into each other.

He tightened his grip on Cyndi’s harness just as the lower half of his body stretched out and slammed into the other coaster, as both Dragons hurtled straight up into the gorgeous Florida sky.

He felt his ankle snap and his foot turn almost completely around as it was now being held together only by tendons and ligaments. 15, 14, 13 …

The force of the sharp turn knocked him off Cyndi’s harness, and she watched helplessly as her husband catapulted fifty feet above the roller coasters. Scott felt the sensation of zero gravity as he reached the apex of his unintentional flight. He stared down at the scene below him and watched both coasters slow to a stop as the ride ended. 4, 3, 2 …

It felt like he was landing on concrete as his body slammed into the pond water next to the ride. He passed out momentarily while his battered body floated to the surface. When he woke, he first realized he wasn’t dead, then felt the excruciating pain in his right foot, and screamed. His scream was drowned out by the screams of the riders, as once again the Double Dragons were on their way.

Scott swam slowly to the shore and dragged himself up onto the bank. He saw Cyndi and Sean, along with some employees of the park, running toward him.

“Oh God, Scott! You’re alive,” Cyndi exclaimed, as she hugged him.

“Sir,” one park employee said. “The ambulance and paramedics will be here soon. Is your foot broken?”

Scott took deep breaths to try and offset the pain of his cockeyed foot.

“I think so. It feels like it’s broken.”

He looked up to Sean.

“I’m sorry Sean, I just couldn’t do it, I’m sorry.”

Sean reached over his mother and hugged his father. “It’s okay, Dad. You tried.” Then he leaned in close to his father’s ear and whispered. “Dad, while they’re helping you, can I go on the ride again?” 

Copyright 2007 J. J. White
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