A Life in the Day (2023)

Copyright 2023 by S. Thomas Kaza

Ed watched the amusement park workers arriving at the front gate. One of them began unlocking the turnstiles, while the others stood nearby in a group waiting. He checked his watch. Ten minutes to eight. It was still a little early to open the park. But he and his friends were lined up just in front of one of the ticket booths which still had its window shuttered. They had been waiting for almost an hour, because they wanted to be among the first to get into the park. There were two people standing in line in front of them. And another thirty or forty behind them.

Ed recalled his mother and father bringing him and his sister to the amusement park when they were small. They had been so excited that they had trouble getting to sleep the night before. Back in those days the whole park seemed magical. Everything from the steam train to the cable cars over the midway to the old merry-go-round. He remembered as a child watching the roller coasters rush by with people screaming. Roller coasters terrified him. He never thought he would be tall enough or brave enough to ride them. But his father told him that one day he would be big enough to ride every ride in the park. Back then it was enough to get soaked on the log ride, to try and throw plastic rings onto old soda bottles and win a stuffed animal, or take the space needle to the top.

But now it seemed like it was all about the roller coasters. It was all about big drops, speed, sharp turns, and loops. None of his friends were disappointed when the park removed the double ferris wheel. Nobody cared that they took out the fun house to make room for another giant roller coaster. But Ed did. Riding the double ferris wheel was the first big ride he remembered riding with his late mother. He could still remember how she smiled and held his hand. How the wind coming in off the lake blew her hair. She had been so young then. And how could he forget he and his sister laughing when they saw their reflections in the curved mirrors of the fun house. He smiled.

“Did you guys remember to bring quarters for the arcade?” Ian asked.

“They probably use tokens,” Dan said, adjusting his glasses.

“I’m not planning on spending that much time in the arcade,” Jerry said, “I want to get back on the rides after lunch as soon as possible.”

“You’ll puke if you don’t take a break after one of those King Kong shakes,” Dan said.

Jerry laughed. “How do you know?

“They’re like fifty-six ounces, right?” Ian asked.

“Sixty-four,” Dan corrected him.

“Maybe we can split two of them between the four of us?” Ian suggested.

“No,” Jerry said, “I want my own. And I want to ride the Fire Dragon. Front row seats.”

“I’m thinking about going on the Slingshot,” Dan said.

“You got to pay separate for that,” Jerry said.

“So?” Dan replied.

“I don’t want to pay any more than the entrance fee. And I’m not waiting if you go on that,” Jerry said, “the line is short, but it takes forever.”

“So what do we do if we get separated?” Ian asked.

“We all have cell phones,” Dan said, adjusting his glasses.

“I’m not going to answer my phone when I’m on a ride,” Jerry said.

Ed frowned. “You can just group text everybody while you’re waiting in line and let us know where you are.”

They all agreed that this would be the best way to communicate if they got separated.

“But we’re all going to the concert together, right?” Ian asked.

“Yeah,” Dan said, “if we get separated, that is definitely the one place where we can all meet up.”

A few minutes more and the ticket booths were manned and opened up. The turnstiles began spinning as the crowd surged into the park. The four friends shouted at each other to run to the back of the park where there would be less people and shorter lines. But Ed suddenly realized he would not be able to run. He needed to use the restroom pretty bad. He had downed two energy drinks on the hour ride to the park. He told Ian where he was going before he ran off toward the nearest restroom. Ed didn’t want to hold up the others. But he expected at least Ian would be waiting for him. However, when he came out, even Ian was gone. He quickly checked his phone, but there were no messages.

“Really?!” Ed couldn’t believe that they had not even bothered to text him where they were heading.

“Is everything alright?” somebody asked him.

Ed turned around.

It was a park worker, short brown hair, about the same height as he was, probably in his late twenties. He was carrying a broom.

“Yeah, ummm….. my friends took off while I was in the restroom. I don’t know where they went.”

“Bummer,” the worker said.

Ed looked at the park worker. He couldn’t remember anybody younger than his father using the word ‘bummer’.

“Hey,” the worker said, “since you’re on your own, do you want to see something cool?”

Ed looked around once more. His friends were nowhere to be seen. He shrugged his shoulders. “Sure. Why not?”

He followed the worker behind the restroom building. There was a door there. The worker opened it with a key.

“Come on,” he said, waving for Ed to follow him.

Ed hesitated before following the worker. It looked like a door to a utility room. He thought maybe the guy was going to try and sell him some drugs or something worse. But inside the door there were stairs leading down. As soon as they entered, the door behind Ed clicked shut. And the worker started down the stairs. Ed remembered reading somewhere that Disney had doors like this all over their parks. Places where staff could disappear or appear suddenly if needed. He decided it might be worth it to check out what the worker was going to show him. He followed him down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs there was a well-lit hallway that ran in two directions. The worker went left.

“If anyone asks you what you’re doing,” he said over his shoulder, “just say you’re in training with me. My name is Bennie.”

Ed nodded. “I’m Ed.”

“Alright Ed, let’s go. Everybody‘s already waiting.

“Everybody?” Ed started to ask.

But Bennie was already hustling down the tunnel. Ed had to hurry to keep up with him. He wasn’t sure who “everybody” was. But he figured he might as well go along and see what he could see. The one thing he knew was that his friends Ian, Dan, and Jerry were not going to see what he was about to see. And there was something about Benny. He seemed like a pretty cool guy, and cool guys usually did not want to hang out with Ed and his friends.   

“Umm, are you working now?” Ed asked once he managed to catch up.

“Kind of,” Bennie said, “I am usually here on weekdays, but they asked me to be around today just in case.”

Ed nodded. “Just in case. Alright.”

“Don’t worry,” Bennie said, “You’re not going to get in any trouble. And if I got to run, I know plenty of people who can look after you.”

“Look after me?” Ed thought.

Ed was now really not sure that he was getting into something that he wanted to be a part of. But they had already made a couple turns in the tunnel. It was too late. He wasn’t sure if he could find his way back to where they started. He realized at the moment his only option was to stick with Bennie. The tunnels kept going on and on. Then much to his relief they came to stairs and started up them. They emerged from another utility door beneath a roller coaster. Ed recognized it. They were beneath the Silver Streak, the oldest steel coaster in the park. There were rows of empty picnic tables. Ed saw four people sitting and talking at one of the tables. He followed Bennie over to them.

“Who’s this?” a young woman asked, looking Ed over. She had long blond hair tied back in a pony tail and was the only one not dressed in a park uniform, just jeans and a halter top.

“This is Ed,” Bennie said, “He’s our VIP for the day. his friends ditched him when he went to the restroom.”

“Well, they didn’t actually….” Ed started to say.

But one of the guys sitting on the table and smoking a cigarette said, “bummer.”

Ed stopped and took a step back. That was the second time he heard that word.

“Very uncool,” a skinny guy with long, greasy hair and bangs that covered the sunglasses he wore said.”

“I think they were just a little excited about getting on some of the roller coasters,” Ed said.

“Don’t make excuses for them,” the guy with the cigarette said, “they abandoned you.”

“Have a seat,” the woman with the pony tail said. Ed sat down on the bench of the picnic table. Now all these new people were all around him. He felt a little uncomfortable.

“Tell us about yourself.”

“Yeah,” the greasy haired guy said, “we have to know something about our VIP.”

Ed wasn’t sure if he wanted to be their VIP. What did it involve? What would he have to do? But he decided it wouldn’t hurt to humor them a little.

“Me? Well, I’m just your average guy from Toledo,” he said, “I’m going into my senior year in high school.”

“You play any sports?” Bennie asked.

Ed noticed Bennie was no longer carrying a broom. But he didn’t remember seeing him putting it down anywhere.

“No, just band. Marching band.”

“Wait a minute,” the guy with the cigarette said, “I’ll bet you play trumpet. But in your free time you’re learning guitar.”

Ed was taken by surprise. “How….. how did you know?”

The guy took a puff on his cigarette, smiled, and slowly blew out the smoke.

“Daniel can be a little psychic now and then,” Bennie said.

“You mean psycho,” the young woman said.

The others laughed. Ed just smiled.

Daniel stood up. “Alright, alright. Laugh all you want, but when I woke up this morning, I didn’t know why, but I knew I needed to bring this.”

He reached into his deep pockets which could probably hold a hammer or a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. But instead, he pulled out a leather strap, rolled up tightly. Ed thought it was a belt. But when Daniel unrolled it, Ed saw that it was a guitar strap.

“You probably don’t know who Roy Buchanan is?” Daniel asked him, flipping the butt of his cigarette ten feet away.

Ed shook his head.

“He was a pretty damn good guitar player. Some say he was one of the most underrated. I got this from him. He told me he didn’t need it anymore.”

Daniel handed the guitar strap to Ed.

“You’re giving it to me?”

“Sure,” Daniel said taking out a pack of cigarettes, and thumping it against his hand so that one cigarette came out of the pack. “You’re our VIP.”

Ed looked the strap over. It was pretty nice. It looked like real leather. And although he did not believe it belonged to a famous guitarist, he did find the name, Roy Buchanan, signed on the back of the strap.

“It’s yours, man. Don’t lose it.”

Ed smiled, “well, thanks.”

Bennie introduced the others to Ed. Susie was the girl with the pony tail. Levon was the guy with sun glasses. The other girl who hadn’t said anything was Lucy. They started talking to each other, and several conversations broke out. For a moment Ed was not the center of attention, and he started to feel that they were probably not playing some elaborate trick on him. But he told himself to be careful.   

After a couple minutes, Bennie tapped him on the shoulder, “come on, now that you met everyone, there’s more to see.”

Ed started to thank Daniel and say goodbye to the others, but Bennie told him not to worry, he would see them later.

“So, what should we do next?” Bennie asked once they were heading down the stairs back into the tunnels.

“Uhh, maybe find my friends.”

“Come on, Ed,” Bennie said, “those bozos dumped you. That was pretty bogus of them.”

“Bogus?”

“Yeah,” Bennie said, stopping and turning around. He pointed at Ed to make his point, “don’t let people walk all over you.”

“What?” Ed asked.

Bennie turned and started walking again. “Of course, once you start standing up for yourself, your life will change significantly. Some people you know might appreciate it. But others…..”

“Others what?” Ed asked.

“Let’s just say that some people who you thought were your friends might not turn out to be friends after all.”

Ed felt like Bennie was talking about Ian, Dan, and Jerry. He wanted to say that he was wrong. They had been friends since they were kids. Every year they made their annual summer pilgrimage to the amusement park. Twenty years from now they would still probably be hanging out together. Maybe taking their kids to the amusement park. But Ed also felt some doubt in his heart. He realized then that he had been feeling not as close to his buddies these last few years.

They followed the tunnels through several turns. Ed almost didn’t notice when they came to another set of stairs and started climbing up. But as soon as Bennie opened the utility door, Ed heard a roller coaster rushing above them and screams from excited riders. This was not the old Silver Streak. This was one of the new roller coasters. Its giant metal support beams rose up all around them.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“Lake Monster,” Bennie said, “used to be the tallest and fastest in the country until they built a new one in New Jersey. You want to ride it?”

“Do I want to ride it?” Ed thought. He felt a small pit of terror in his stomach.

“Of course you do,” Bennie said, “Come on!”

Ed followed Bennie up another set of stairs. Looking out from under the structure he saw that a long line was already forming. He searched for his friends’ face, but he did not find them. Two flights up the stairs came out on the platform where the park workers who ran the ride were loading and unloading riders. One of the workers approached them.

“I heard there’s a car that has a broken retaining bar,” Bennie said.

“Yeah, it’s on the next one coming in. All the way to the back. The last one.”

Bennie headed for the last car, and Ed followed. They stood out of the way as the coaster came to a stop and the riders jumped out to the left to make room for the next set of riders on the right. Ed noticed that nobody was lined up for the last car. There was a sign hanging that said “no riders”. But Bennie got into the last car and motioned for Ed to follow him.

“Sit down,” Bennie said.

“Isn’t the bar broken?” Ed asked.

“I’m going to fix it.”

Ed got in and sat down.

“Better put on your seatbelt,” Bennie said, “or they might complain.”

Ed reluctantly fastened his belt. He watched Bennie pull the bar up several times, noting how it did not catch. Suddenly the ride worker was there, next to their car, checking that Ed had his seat belt on. She smiled at him, stepped back, 3and gave the thumbs up to another worker at the controls. Then the cars were released to the wild cheers of the other riders.

“Wait!” Ed said as the cars started moving down the track, “I thought you were going to fix the bar.”

“Be patient, man,” Bennie said, “I’m working on it.”

Ed grabbed the front of the car while it ran around the first curve and started up the long hill with a jerk. He watched nervously as Bennie fussed and fiddled with some mechanism on the side of the retaining bar. As the car climbed up the giant hill the whole amusement park was on display before them. He felt a cool summer breeze coming in off Lake Erie. But it only made Ed shiver. They climbed higher and higher, higher than all the other rides except the old space needle. Ed gripped on to the bar in front of him. He felt like he was going to die. But he noticed that Bennie had not yet put on his seat belt.

“Your seat belt!” Ed shouted, “Put on your seatbelt!”

Bennie looked up.

“Oh yeah,” he said, and he quickly buckled up. But he was completely engrossed in the mechanism for the retaining bar. His hands slid under it and down along the side. Ed began praying that his seat belt would hold, because it looked like it was going to be the only thing keeping him flying out of the car to his death.

Then finally as the car tottered at the very top of the hill, Bennie said, “got it!”

He clicked something and lowered the bar onto their laps. It locked into place just as the coaster started down the first giant hill.

With sweat on his forehead and his heart racing, Ed was so relieved the bar was in place, that he barely noticed how fast they were going down the first drop. It did not feel exciting by comparison with the terror he had just felt of possibly riding without a safety bar. It was only by the second or third hill when he heard Bennie laughing and whooping it up, that Ed started to relax and enjoy the great sweeping rises and falls of the coaster as it raced along the lakeshore and shot over the midway. He realized he had been holding his breath. He started breathing and felt the air rushing across his face. By the last hill he was smiling. It hadn’t been that bad. He survived. Everybody clapped and cheered when they reached their starting point back at the station.

“Just imagine they’re all cheering for you,” Bennie said.

Ed nodded. He was surprised at how much he had enjoyed the ride. And he felt a little silly that he had always gone into a panic over riding big roller coasters before.

They went back down the stairs they had come up and headed back to the tunnels.

“Susie wants to show you something,” Bennie said.

Ed wanted to ask “what?” But instead, he sighed and followed Bennie. He was beginning to feel like he might be in this for the whole day, and he might never get to meet up with his friends. But then he also thought that maybe being a VIP was not such a bad thing. After all he got to ride the Lake Monster without waiting in line. And he got a guitar strap. After walking through tunnels for about five minutes, they climbed some stairs and arrived at a door. Bennie turned to him.

“Just go through this door. Susie’s in there. I have to go check on something. I’ll be back to get you in a little while.”

Ed nodded and watched Bennie walk off down the hall. He pushed open the door and found himself in a dressing room. There were a dozen people chattering and halfway through dressing themselves in costumes. He almost didn’t recognize Susie when she approached him. She had her hair up on top of her head, heavy eyeshadow and rouge on her cheeks. She also wore a short frilly dress which accented her bosom like the kind you might see in a wild west barroom.

“They’re two dancers short,” she said.

“Dancers?” Ed asked. He didn’t dance.

But Susie was shoving a costume into his hand.

 “Two minutes to curtain!” someone shouted.

 “Don’t worry,” Susie said, “we’ll be in the back. I’ll tell you what to do.”

“But…..”

“Hurry up,” Susie said, “there’s no time to argue!”

There was a long pair of black pants. Ed quickly slipped out of his own jeans and put them on. They were a little baggy at the waist, but he saw there was a belt. Next was a button cowboy shirt. All the buttons were already buttoned, so he just slid it on over his t-shirt. He tucked the shirt into the black pants, then cinched up the belt to hold everything in place.

“The boots!” Susie said, “put on the boots!”

He had never worn cowboy boots before. Grabbing onto the wall and the back of a chair, he slid his left foot into one boot. He thought it was not a bad fit. He could wriggle his toes a little. Susie crouched down and held the other boot. Now he was looking straight down at her bosom. He turned a little red just as his right foot slid into the other boot. But there was no time for embarrassment as she jumped up and dragged him out onto a stage with all the others in wild west costumes. He was about to ask what he should do when a lively tune started and the curtain started up.

“Stomp to the beat,” Susie told him.

He did.

“Now lift your right foot up like this, and step forward.”

All the others began stomping and spinning to the music. Susie swung Ed around, a little slow at first, but then he got the hang of it, and the two of them stomped and spun along with the others. Ed repeated the little dance over and over. He got enough confidence to look out at the audience. He could hear people clapping along with the music, but the only thing he could see were the floodlights. Two more times around and Susie said “ready…..”

“Ready?” Ed wondered, “for what?”

She let go of his hands, and he fell backward onto a table which broke underneath him and cushioned his fall. The audience roared with laughter. Susie ran over and helped him up. But the stage was already a mass of confusion. It seemed the wild west dancing scene had descended into a barroom brawl with people throwing wild punches and breaking chairs and bottles over each other’s head. For a moment Ed felt like he should run. But then he noticed one of the guys lying on the floor who had just been hit with a chair wink at him. And he realized it was all part of the show.

The next thing he knew the curtain was coming down and everyone was rushing across the stage quickly picking up pieces of “broken” props. Susie dragged him over to a line of players that was forming just behind the curtain. A moment later the curtain was being raised to the cheers and applause of the audience. All the players in the line, including Ed bowed.

“Was it fun?” Susie asked him as they headed back to the dressing room.

“That was a real show!” Ed said.

She nodded. “I knew you had it in you.”

Ed looked at her.

“Maybe the cream puffs,” she said.

Ed stopped. He couldn’t believe it. He suddenly remembered back in the fourth grade how he had wanted to be in the school play, the King’s Cream Puffs. Mary Miller, a girl he had a gigantic crush on, was one of the leads. He had wanted to try out for one of the main parts. He waited in line after school to try out. But when it was his turn, he suddenly got cold feet and chickened out. He was so embarrassed, that he ran all the way home.

“How….. how did you know?” Ed asked.

Susie was handing him back his street clothes. “Know what?” she asked.

“You said ‘cream puffs’. How did you know about that? That was years ago.”

Susie shook her head, “I didn’t say anything about cream puffs. I said ‘maybe they’ll keep us’. That’s all.”

Ed should his head. What was happening? Was he imagining all this? Or maybe dreaming it? He was going to ask Susie how she even knew what size he was, because his costume and boots fit him perfectly, when Bennie appeared and hurried him off again. Ed had just a moment to wave goodbye.

Ed spent the rest of the morning with Bennie, moving from ride to ride, sometimes riding without having to wait in line. Other times just watching Bennie work his magic on the rides. Finally, after what seemed like several hours, they were standing just outside the arcade.

“Your friends are coming,” Bennie said, “I thought you might like to have lunch with them. Why don’t you tell them about your morning.”

Ed smiled, “they’ll never believe me.”

Bennie shrugged his shoulders as if it didn’t matter. But before he walked away, he said, “I wouldn’t have that King Kong shake if I were you. It’ll weigh you down the rest of the afternoon. You should try the watermelon smoothie.”

Dan, Ian, and Jerry were surprised to find Ed waiting for them.

“Where have you been?” Ian asked.

“Yeah,” Jerry said, “you just disappeared at the gate.”

Ed looked at Ian.

“I told them,” Ian said, “but they didn’t want to wait.”

It turned out that his friends had also gotten separated from each other twice. Once when Dan went on the giant slingshot ride, and once when Jerry insisted on riding in the front car on the Fire Dragon. They all ordered and sat down for lunch. Ed wanted to tell them about Susie and how he danced at the Wild West floor show, and about Bennie and how he rode the Lake Monster and a dozen other rides without waiting in line, but nobody asked him what he did. They just talked and talked about what they had done.

Jerry did notice that Ed did not order a Belly Buster Burger or a King Kong shake. When he asked about it, Ed lied and said he had an upset stomach. He got a Jr Belly Buster Burger and the watermelon smoothie that Bennie had recommended instead. He had to admit that it was enough for him, and he did not feel bloated like he usually did. And since he did not spend as much money for lunch, he had some left in his pocket. He considered buying something for his little sister back home, a souvenir, something which he had never done before.

As planned, they all went to the arcade after lunch and began playing all the old video games there. Ed tried a few, but not knowing the games well, he lost quickly. He watched Dan battle through a couple levels of Galaga before blowing up his last ship. He watched Ian insert quarter after quarter into Mrs. Packman until he ran out of quarters. Then he watched Jerry get beaten at Mortal Combat.

“Something’s wrong with this game,” Jerry said, and he walked away.

It was then that Ed noticed Lucy, the girl that he met earlier under the Silver Streak, playing a game by herself. He walked over and waited for a break in the action before he said, “hey, how’s it going?”

She didn’t turn to look at him. Instead she said, “keep to the left, left, leeeft, then right, left, riiiight, then right, left.”

Ed watched as she blew through the first level of the game.

As the second level started, she said, “keep to the left, left, leeeft, then right, left, riiiight, then right, left.”

Again, she blew through the level.

“Here you try it,” Lucy said, stepping out of the way.

Ed followed her advice, and he was quite surprised to see that he survived the third level without a scratch.

“At the challenge,” Lucy said, “you have to stay in the center until the red alien ship appears. Then get to the side as quickly as possible.”

Ed managed to get through the fifth level before the aliens got him, and the game ended.

“Can I try again?” he asked Lucy.

She didn’t say anything, but nodded.

Ed took a quarter out of his pocket, quickly deposited it, and hit the start button. He followed the instructions Lucy had given him, and he blew all the way through to the fifth level before he lost a ship, only to be destroyed on the 7^th level. Another quarter and he next found himself on the 10^th level.

“How do you know how to play this?” somebody asked him.

Ed did a quick look. It was Ian. He quickly looked over his other shoulder and realized that Lucy was no longer there. She had left. Jerry who had run out of quarters came over to watch. And so did Dan.

“Damn,” Jerry said when Ed broke level 20, “you are smoking on this game.”

“I never heard of it before,” Dan said.

“Do you guys want to try?” Ed asked when he finally succumbed to the alien invaders.

Jerry pushed his way to the controls. Ed took out a quarter and fed it to the machine for him. But within thirty seconds Jerry had lost his three ships.

“It looks hard,” Ian said.

“It’s not hard,” Jerry said, stepping away, “but my eyes are starting to hurt.”

Ian tried next, but he didn’t get past the third level.

“That is hard,” Ian said.

“Come on,” Jerry said, “Let’s get back to the rides.”

But Ed decided he wanted to try for a new record. Somebody named LuckySky had all the top scores. He wanted to break into at least the top ten. He deposited another coin and started another game. He breezed through the lower levels, lost a ship before he got to level twenty, struggled through the twenties, and finally had his last ship vaporized by aliens on level 32. That gave him the seventh highest score. As he put in his initials, he realized the person with the highest scores was not Lucky Sky, but Lucy Sky. He smiled thinking it must be Lucy.

As he turned to leave, he noticed Ian, Dan, and Jerry were all gone. But he saw Daniel standing nearby.

“You finished?”

“Yeah,” Ed nodded, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Good, Bennie wanted me to take you to him.”

“Where’s that?”

Daniel looked at him. “Where I’m going to take you, you don’t talk about with anybody. You understand?”

Ed nodded.

“Cool,” Daniel said, “follow me.”

And he led Ed through a utility door, down some stairs, and into the tunnels below the park. They walked and walked and walked. But this time they didn’t return to the surface. Daniel led Ed into a kind of underground warehouse. It was well-lit, and there were other people there, some carrying laptops. Daniel brought Ed right up to where Bennie was standing behind a rail. In front was what looked like a roller coaster, but instead of your traditional cars on a track, it was more like a shell. And he didn’t see any wheels on the car.

“I’ll bet you don’t know what this is?” Bennie asked.

Ed started to shake his head, but then he guessed “mag lev?”

Instead of agreeing or disagreeing, Bennie just said, “watch.”

The car was lifted up a tower, almost to the ceiling of the warehouse. Then the back of the car flipped over and started down the track incline quickly. It moved so fast that Ed could tell it was not just gravity propelling the capsule down. Then it shot along a track before slowing at the far end of the warehouse. Just as soon as it stopped, the capsule started moving back toward the tower.

“Is it a new ride?” Ed asked.

“Someday,” Bennie said, “there are a lot of bugs to work out of the design.”

They watched as the capsule repeated the process, got pulled up the tower, then released as it raced down the track at an unnatural speed before it came to a stop.

“It seems to work,” Ed said.

Bennie nodded. “They’ve run this test thousands of times. Never had a problem yet.”

“Wow,” Ed said.

“You want to ride?” Bennie asked.

Ed thought for a moment, but then Bennie smiled.

“Sorry,” he said, “I’m just joking.”

Ed looked relieved.

“But you believed me for a second there.”

“I did,” Ed admitted.

From that moment through the rest of the afternoon, Ed felt extremely lucky to have met Bennie and his friends. He realized that he could not have imagined any of the things that happened to him. It was beyond his normal experience. And the day had a dreamlike quality to it. Like it was a montage of places and people, and he kept moving from one to the next, but not in a straight line like he normally did. Everything felt strange at first, but in the end it made sense, like another piece of a puzzle had been found. It did not feel like he was living his life that day in a way that he had ever lived in the past. It was more like he was passing through an experience that seemed to blossom and grow around him. He never realized life could feel this magical.

The afternoon blew by, and then he found himself sitting alone on a park bench on the side of the midway. It was getting dark. There was no Bennie or Daniel in sight. And he wondered if they were real or he had imagined them. But the memories were there. He knew he had lived those moments. But were they real in the way that normal life was real? He was just wondering if he hadn’t spent the whole day on the bench imagining everything, when he heard a band playing in the distance. And suddenly he remembered that he was supposed to meet his friends at the concert.

He hurried over to the pavilion where the band was playing. There were several hundred people in the crowd. He found Ian, Jerry, and Dan over to one side, and they did not seem surprised to see him. The band played a few songs, and the crowd warmed up to them. Then the lead singer spoke into the microphone and said it was the part of the show where they got somebody from the audience to help them out with their next number. Two dozen hands went up. People shouted to be chosen. But suddenly Ed recognized Levon from earlier that day. He walked across the stage to the lead singer and said something to him.

“Alright” the lead singer said to the audience, “I am looking for Ed.”

Before he knew it, Ed was first being pushed toward the stage by his friends and others in the crowd. Then he was being escorted onto stage. Someone handed him a guitar. Although he knew it was strange, but after all that happened that day, it did not seem strange. He had somehow grown accustomed to surprises, and he knew how to handle himself. He did not feel the trepidation that he normally did. He felt confident, less frightened of the world and what could happen. He watched in a daze as one of the guitarists in the band showed him the chords he would have to play. He realized he knew all of them. In fact in that moment, it seemed that he had played guitar since the beginning of time, and the chords were his friends that he had known forever.

As the song started the guitarist motioned for Ed to start playing. Ed followed along at first, but by the time they hit the first chorus, he was playing on his own without any prompting from the other band members, who were all smiles. The drummer beat out the rhythm. The bass player found his groove. The lead singer belted out the lyrics. And the guitarist lost himself while his fingers ran up the fretboard. The audience cheered wildly. Ed felt as if he had practiced his whole life for the moment.

And when the song ended, he looked up and caught sight of a falling star streaking across the sky. He suddenly recalled one summer evening long ago when he was very small and how he suddenly started crying when he caught sight of the vast expanse of stars above him. His mother had asked him what was wrong. He didn’t know. But now he felt the same emotion rising in him now as the band members came over to congratulate him. There was beauty in the stars. There was beauty in music. There was beauty in life. Even his life. He had just forgotten how to see it.