Connected (F1 Story)

Chapter Thirty One: Shards

It was overcast and rain was threatening, but that did not matter in the slightest. We were having a brilliant time, absolutely brilliant.

Lizzie and Natalie were relaxing in the appropriately named 'relaxation pool' whilst Daniel took Wilf on the Children's Adventure Park. It was a rainforest theme and I was slightly jealous that I wasn't twenty years younger so I could slide into the tiger's mouth. Actually, the more I thought about it, the more terrifying the idea became. Why would you want to get eaten by a tiger?

I took a deep breath and looked around. The water park was surprisingly quiet, which had multiple benefits- each slide had a non-existent queue. Unfortunately, that did however result in a lot of step climbing. And some of them had a lot of steps.

Laughter and chatter filled the air around me as Daniel held Wilf on his lap and they both went down one of the mini slides. I don't think adults were intended to go on it but what the hell. Daniel was just a big kid and he splashed around more in the water than Wilfred.

A warm feeling engulfed me as the two of them laughed...and blew raspberries. Clearly, they were loving it. I could see their enormous grins from where I was standing, next to an impatient Paul who was trying to drag me on the biggest slide in the whole of Texas. I was skeptical to say the least.

"Saskia, you aren't going to die. We'll be in a ringo thing together," Paul huffed, dragging me by the arm towards the signs for the 'Turbo Charger'. Stupid, stupid name.

"Because that will save us as we plummet to our deaths..." I replied, my feet welded to the concrete. "Why can't we wait for Dan?"

"Look, I'm not waiting ages...and you need two people to go on this..."

"The things I do for you!" I shrugged him off and breathed in, uttering a silent prayer. "First one to the top has to go on the front!"

So then we both ran like loons, up several hundred steps higher and higher to the top of the tower. It was a lot windier up here and the sky looked a lot darker- menacing in fact.

Just as I was about to reach the top first, Paul grabbed my wrist to prohibit me from setting foot in the 'Ready to ride zone'. The utter bastard.

"I won!" Paul declared, smug as a smug thing on extra smug tablets. His hair had flopped in front of his eyes and I was surprised that he hadn't fallen head first down the Turbo Charger. Now I was looking at the mop of hair, whilst trying to catch my breath and not call him a very naughty name, it had a slight resemblance to Boris Johnson. Worrying. I must mention this to Dan to see if he agreed with me (I knew the likelihood would be that I would have to explain to the Australian who the Mayor of London and creator of the infamous Boris bikes is). There were two things Daniel didn't really get- geography and politics.

"You cheated," I answered and flipped Paul my middle finger in disgust.

"Looks like you're on the front. Have fun," he said as the person at the top gave us a ringo and told us what to do. I quickly became aware that this was some serious shit when we were having an actual briefing before being allowed to ride. This was no little flume at the local leisure centre. This tube plunged you down metres at a time with its sheer vertical drops.

"Okay, guys, ready," said man said more as a statement than question. "It will be fun?" This was said as more of a question than statement. Hahaha funny, I told myself as I struggled to laugh it off.

I sat in the ring first and immediately gripped onto the handles as the baboon positioned himself behind me. His legs were so long that they extended past mine.

An automated countdown began and I held on tighter. I would much rather have my fiance sat behind me instead of Captain Exercise, who was already whooping.