Chapter 41

“So, how was your hot dog?” Liz asked, trying to break the silence that had fallen between them while they were eating.

“Good, how about your.... what was that again?”

She laughed. “An elephant ear, and it was very good.”

“Elephant ear... only at a carnival. Well, do you want to go on more rides, or play some games?”

“I think I need to let my food digest before going on any rides. Why don’t we go to the arcade? I haven’t played Skee-Ball in ages!”

They went over to the gaming area and Liz played Skee-Ball while Lucky played some of the other arcade games. After about twenty minutes of beating “Street Fighter,” he began to get bored, and went to find her. She was still playing, so he stood back and watched. There was a huge stream of tickets coming out of her game, and the lights were flashing. ‘She must be good,’ he thought to himself as she threw her last ball. It went right into the “50” hole, the hardest one to get. Liz cheered and grabbed her tickets. She turned around to go find Lucky, nad nearly ran right into him, not realizing he had been watching her.

“Oh, hey, there you are.”

He laughed. “Yeah, here I am. It looks like you’re pretty good at that.”

She shurgged. “It’s all in the wrist. Anyway, it’s the only arcade game I like, so whenever I’m at a place like this, it’s all I play. I guess I’ve got a lot of practice. I’m going to go see what I can trade these in for.” She skipped off to the prize counter, and Lucky slowly followed.

A few minutes later, they came out of the arcade. Liz was grumbling about how her huge pile of tickets only got her a cheesy keychain.

“What did you expect to get?” Lucky asked, laughing.

She shrugged. “I don’t know, a little stuffed animal or something. Anything would have been better than this ugly thing!”

“A stuffed animal, huh? I think I can do that. Here, watch the master at work!” he said walking up to the shooting game. Liz rolled her eyes at his confidence and stood back to watch. He won the first round and got a tiny bear, so he played a seond game, winning again. He traded the first bear for a medium-sized cat that looked kind of like Gatsby. He turned around and grinned. “Want me to keep going?”

She rolled her eyes, trying to look unimpressed. “No, anything bigger than that won’t fit in the car with your head!”

“Oh, I kicked butt on that game, admit it!” She shook her head and reached for the cat, but he held it away. “Uh-uh, tell me I’m the master, or no cat!”

“What? That’s ridiculous! Just give me the stupid cat,” she said, grabbing for it again.

He held it over his head and laughed. “If it’s so stupid, then why do you want it so badly?”

“Fine, I don’t want it then. Give it to your sister or something,” she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and turning away from him.

Lucky walked up behind her and reached around in front of her to wiggle the cat in her face. Liz tried to grab it, but he pulled it away too fast.

“Lucky, stop that!” She squealed, as she spun around to face him. He hid it behind his back, so she reached both arms around him, and after a couple of grabs, finally got a hold of its ear.

“Ha!” she said proudly, as he started to pull it away. Suddenly, they realized how close they were, and that Liz’s arms were wrapped around his waist. Lucky quickly let go of the cat, and she backed up. “Thanks,” she said quietly, trying to regain her copmosure and slow down her pulse.

Lucky cleared his throat. “Um, are you up for some more rides?”

“Sure, but nothing too fast. I digest slowly.”

He looked around for a moment, trying to find something more mild. “How about the ferris wheel? You can’t go to a carnival without riding the ferris wheel at least once!”

“Sure, that sounds slow enough!” she said and followed him over to the line.

~*~

Luke parked Laura’s car and they got out, surveying the parking lot for his pink Caddy. “Over there!” he said, pointing it out.

“I guess they’re still here,” Laura said, following Luke to the ticket window. They paid their admission and went through the gates, looking around for the kids.

“Luke, how are we suppoed to find them in this? There must be hundreds of people here!”

“Have faith, darlin’. I’m feeling lucky tonight. No pun intended of course!”

They wandered around for a few minutes and came upon the gaming area. “Keep an eye out, Lucky can never resist these things,” Luke muttered.

“This is a lost cause, we’re never going to find them in this mess!” Laura yelled over the din of the games surrounding them.

“Lucky! Stop that!”

Luke turned to Laura and grinned. “Oh, ye of litle faith. I do believe we’ve found them,” he said smugly, pointing in the direction of Liz’s voice.

Laura just shook her head as they crept closer to see what was going on. Neither of them were prepared to find the two in an embrace, or at least, what looked like one.

“Well, well, lookie there,” Luke whistled.

“Does that count as the first move?” Laura asked, noticing how Liz was the one with her arms around Lucky, and not the other way around.

“Oh no, you’re not winning that easily! First move is admitting feelings to the other. They haven’t reached that point yet. See? They’ve already jumped apart.”

Sure enough, as soon as they realized how they were standing, the two jumped back from each other. A moment later they began to walk away.

“Now where are they going?” Laura asked.

Luke grinned. “There’s only one way to find out, let’s go.”

“What if they catch us?”

“Oh come on, baby. After all those years on the run, are you trying to tell me you can’t trail someone without them noticing?”

“That’s not the point. Luke, we’re stalking our son! Don’t you find this a little crazy?”

He shrugged. “Fine, but if Liz makes the first move while we’re keeping our distance, you may never know.”

She thinks for a moment and laughs. “All right, you win. Let’s go, before they get too far away!”

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