Kenzie felt bark biting into her palms as she pulled
herself onto the top of the fallen redwood tree blocking her path. Her muscles
ached from the climb. She wiped her hands on her pants, brushing off the
splinters of wood pressing into her skin, and helped her friend Adrian up after
her.
“Why do you
always insist on going on these adventures, Kenz,” asked Adrian groaning as he
hoisted himself into a sitting position on the tree trunk, “We always seem to
give up part way on the way back and have to call someone for help.”
“I needed time to unwind from classes—you know, get
some fresh air, get away from studying for midterms,” she said. “If you didn’t
want to come, you could have stayed back at the dorms. Nobody told you that you
had to come with me.”
“If I didn’t, you would have gone alone. We both know
what would happen if you went by yourself,” he said.
“What? I would get lost coming back like those other
people?” she asked, laughing off the suggestion. “I have an excellent sense of
direction, Adrian. And anyway, who’s to say I don’t get lost on purpose to add
to the adventure!”
To her, he didn’t seem to understand the need for adventure
like she did. She felt at home in the woods, even if she had never grown up
around them herself. She even chose Humboldt State University so she could have
nature around her, something she never got to have when she lived in Los
Angeles. She loved the fresh smell of the forest air. It felt cleaner than the
city, more pure. The trees soared high, their branches making patterns in the
sunlight. It was a warm spring morning with a gentle breeze to keep them cool,
great for a hike. It was an unusually sunny day, not like the usual fog that
hung around the county. She just wanted to get away from the stress of it all.
School, work, it was all too much. When she went out into the forest, she felt
the peace that was missing from her life. She felt safe in a world where safety
wasn’t certain anymore.
Kenzie jumped down from the tree, onto the soft ground
below her feet. After he tossed the backpack he was carrying to Kenzie, Adrian
tried to follow suit. His grip on the tree trunk slipped and he landed on the
ground with a loud groan, the tiny branches he broke on the way down fell into
his hair. Kenzie let out a loud laugh, disturbing some of the birds in a tree
near them. She watched them as they soared through the trees into the sunny
morning sky.
“Stop laughing and help me up,” said Adrian.
“You really are hopeless out here, aren’t you?” said Kenzie
grabbing his outstretched hand and pulling him up next to her. He grabbed the
backpack from Kenzie’s hands and started quickly toward the fork in the path.
Kenzie had to run to catch up to him as they got closer to the split.
The path on the left looked like it had been used many
times by hikers, grass worn down to dust and dirt, no doubt circling back
around to the cars in the parking lot about a mile back. It was a clear, but
rocky path, a lot like the one they had been on for the last half hour. The
path on the right had tall grass growing on either side. It looked like it had
been used mainly by the forest animals. It went deeper into the forest and
didn’t look like it would take them back anytime soon. Kenzie started to head toward
the left path.
“Let’s go right,” Adrian said as he grabbed the back
of her shirt and pulled her toward the other path. Kenzie almost tripped
walking backwards, but recovered quickly.
“I thought we should start heading back. We have our
history midterm to study for,” she said. He shrugged her off and started
walking down the path ahead of her.
“We didn’t come all the way out here for an hour long
hike, did we?” he asked, “No. We came here to do something different. So, let’s
do something different. And since we’re out here, there’s something I want you
to see.”
They walked in silence for a while, taking in the
forest as Adrian picked up the lead. The sun peeked through the branches,
lighting their way. Suddenly, the trees opened up into a peaceful meadow filled
with tall grass and red and violet flowers scattered all around. Kenzie heard a
rustling in the brush ahead of them and motioned for Adrian to stop. As they
stood there, a deer and two fauns fed on the grass. They ate without a care,
not noticing Kenzie or Adrian.
Adrian shifted his weight behind Kenzie and a hidden
twig snapped, startling the deer that then looked up from their afternoon meal
to stare at Kenzie and Adrian. All of them stared at one another, willing the
other to move, standing completely still as if the stillness would make them
become invisible. The deer took their chance and ran, their hoof beats getting
softer the farther they ran away.
Adrian and Kenzie decided to stay and eat an early
lunch in the meadow since they didn’t know where the path would take them
later. Kenzie turned Adrian around to get into the backpack she made him carry
and pulled out two turkey sandwiches, granola bars, and two water bottles. She
led them over to a group of rocks in the middle of the meadow ideal for eating
without having to sit on the dirt floor. It was like the forest had created the
perfect picnic spot just for them. They sat together, eating and talking, not
thinking about the homework they left behind in their dorm rooms.
Kenzie looked around the meadow. It looked like
everything about that place had been undisturbed by humans for years. It was
like no life existed there other than themselves and the nature around them. If
civilization had been here before, nature made sure to erase any traces of it.
The animals were at peace, the plants grew where they wanted, not just in
special pots or dirt square patches in concrete sidewalks surrounded by gates
like they did back in town. There were no restraints there only the possibility
for more.
Kenzie compared herself with Adrian. They looked like
polar opposites. Where she was short and athletically built, Adrian was lean,
but not skinny. He was tall, but his muscle hadn’t quite caught up with his
growth spurt. His dark hair offset the paleness of his skin he got from staying
indoors playing video games all day. He didn’t look like he belonged in the
forest; he didn’t have the right make for it. She, on the other hand, had
tanned skin and brown hair streaked with golden highlight from the sun
exposure. She looked like she was meant to be there.
They finished eating and Adrian put their trash and
water bottles into the backpack and pulled out his Nikon camera. He slung the
backpack onto his back and the strap of the camera over his neck, the weight
comfortable on his shoulders. Kenzie stuck out her hand to Adrian who grabbed
it and helped her up. They were always there for each other, as different as
they appeared to be, and would always help each other no matter what. After
their short break, they realized their legs were starting to get tired, but they
both wanted to keep going. There was so much they still wanted to see.
Along the path, they saw the rabbits and squirrels
running and playing with each other as if Kenzie and Adrian didn’t exist. They
were in the animals’ domain. Kenzie pointed out a spider weaving a web between
two trees. Adrian snapped a picture. The sunlight fell on it perfectly so each
strand glowed in the light. They made sure to dodge the spider’s new home as
they walked by.
As the two continued on their journey, they talked
about their latest theories on what the universe is actually made of to what
their favorite food was to make. His was making lasagna, hers was making
pancakes. It was as if they had the world to themselves to do whatever they
wanted. Talking made the time fly by and soon, the morning sun rose higher in
the sky. Adrian made Kenzie stop so he could take pictures of the sun peering
through the trees, birds sitting on branches, and sometimes, he even made her
pose for a picture or two.
“I didn’t know you liked taking pictures so much,”
said Kenzie. “I mean, I have seen you take some every now and then at school,
but it seems like you are really into it.”
“I used to do this kind of stuff for my high school
paper,” he said hanging the camera back around his neck. “I stopped for a
while, but I forgot how much fun it is. It’s nice getting back into it.”
Not paying attention, Kenzie’s foot caught on
something making her lose her balance and fall. Her hands took the brunt of the
impact as she tried to catch herself from the fall. Adrian raced to her side to
help her. As he lifted her back to her feet, Kenzie assessed the damage.
“Holy crap. Are you okay?” Adrian asked.
“Yeah,” she said, “Just a couple of scratches.”
Kenzie looked around to see what she had stumbled on
and found what appeared to be and old road splitting the forest around them. Asphalt,
cracked and crumbled, covered that strip of the forest floor. The forgotten
road appeared to head from north to south. South would take them back toward
the town. Kenzie and Adrian looked to the north and saw the road curving deeper
into the forest.
Kenzie looked up and saw something odd in the line of trees.
She saw a structure in the distance that looked too narrow and rounded to be a
tree but didn’t know what it could be. A patch of sun was shining on the upper
curve of the structure lighting a green, white, and brown patch on the top. It
was too far away to really tell what it was, but she knew it didn’t belong in
the forest. When she pointed it out to Adrian, he brushed it off saying,
“You’ll see. Come on.”
“I don’t remember hearing about anything being out
here,” Kenzie said, “I would’ve thought someone in this tiny town would’ve
talked about it at some point, the way everyone gossips around here.” He
ignored her questions, the only acknowledgement was a smile that grew with each
pestering thought Kenzie threw at him.
They made their way toward the moss-covered structure
to see what it was. As they got closer, they could see bars in between two
metal rails. Moss and ivy covered parts of the tracks leaving the exposed parts
to rust completely. The bottom parts of what she now saw were loops of a roller
coaster were covered by the tall grass that had been allowed to grow wild. The
fence surrounding the ride was still upright, but it was in bad shape. Parts
were pushed up, probably by some kids who wanted to break into the park after
it closed to get their one last thrill. The rest of the area was blocked by a
green wall of plants.
The sudden change made Kenzie’s head spin. The two
worlds, the natural beauty of the forest and the industrialization of humanity
were so different, but there they sat, somehow working together to make
something eerily beautiful.
As Kenzie and Adrian walked around, she looked for the
gateway of the park to be able to get inside without risking the need for a
tetanus shot. They pushed through small bushes and trees to keep sight of the
fence. When there were too many shrubs, they had to find a way around. It took
a few minutes to find the entrance, fences hidden by the shrubs making them
lose their path a few times only to find it again when it cleared. Adrian was
still in the lead.
At the entry, they saw a sign that stood ten feet in
the air that read Sunset Forest: Fun for
the Whole Family! Some of the wooden letters on the sign were missing—they
probably fell off or were taken by people over the years. The places where the
fallen letters used to be were less faded than the rest of the sign. Cartoon trees
and smiling children were painted over the rest of the sign giving the faded
illusion of happiness, it kind of creeped Kenzie out.
Underneath the sign were five broken turnstiles, bars
dangling in their slots, waiting for their next guest to enter. Adrian led
Kenzie over to check one of them out. The turnstiles had number ticks bedded
into them to tell how many people entered with each turn of the bar—one
turnstile’s ticks were stuck in between 650 and 651. Ticket booths stood next
to each turnstile with glass so cracked and dusty, they could barely see
inside. There were the faint black shadows of the ticket price boards and
silhouettes of cash registers behind the foggy glass, but they couldn’t see any
details. The chain link fence that had once corralled visitors inside of the
amusement park had fallen over at some point, the grass weaved through each
metal link to make it that much harder to pull from its grasp.
Kenzie went back toward the trees to look at a small
metal sign that stood a few feet in front of the entry way hanging on a pole to
make sure all people could read it. Private
Property, Do Not Enter. Violators Will Be Prosecuted. She read it out loud
so Adrian could hear it back by the ticket booths.
“Do you think we should go in?” she said, gesturing to
the broken fence that lay in front of them, “I mean, the security on this place
is pretty tight. I don’t know if we
should risk it.”
“Ha, ha very funny,” Adrian said, “We both know you’re
dying to go in.”
He grabbed her hand for balance as they started
forward. They stepped over the fallen metal barricades, being careful of stray
rusty nails or wires and ventured into the theme park. Over the years, people
had thrown rocks at the windows and signs when the park closed, creating a spider
web of patterns in the glass windows all. The shattered glass and debris made it
dangerous to enter the once lively grounds.
She took in what the park had become: a refuge for
nature. It was taking back the land that had been stolen from it by men. Moss
and ivy grew up the metal structures, winding around them as if they were
trying to pull them down. Grass sprouted out from the cracks in the cement.
Trees grew in the open dirt patches.
Adrian and Kenzie could hear a high pitched groaning sound
coming from the center of the park and went to investigate. It sounded like a
person riding their brakes down a steep hill. They walked around, not wanting
to disturb the peace that had settled around abandoned site. They passed old
food stands, the food probably rotted or stolen long ago by woodland animals.
Kenzie wondered what it would have been like to be there when Sunset Forest was open in its prime.
They followed the sound into the park and looked at
all of the rides and attractions that had once entertained so many. On their
left, there was an electric bumper car arena haunted by dusty cars like
tombstones. Loose spider webs hanging from the building’s rafters blew softly
in the breeze. They walked down the gravel path and saw the old huts that held
the electrical panels and equipment that once controlled the rides. All
deserted and left to rot.
As they got closer to the noise, they saw it came from
an old merry-go-round, still slowly turning on its own though there were no
children left to ride on it. The breeze pushed the framework just enough to get
it to move on its ungreased gears. The once red and white fabric on top of the
carousel was faded, ripped, and hanging in places, exposing the metal beams
underneath. Kenzie let go of Adrian’s hand as she walked toward the carousel.
The once gleaming horses had missing ears and legs and
chips in their paint. There were gaps on the ride where horses used to be. Some
had fallen onto the platform of the ride, no longer able to stand on their
poles. As she got closer, she could see the flecks of peeling paint on the wood
holding the ride together. The chains that were once used for the riders’ line
were now loose and swaying in the breeze. The only other sounds were of nature
singing and the clinking of metal hitting metal.
Kenzie took another step forward, the broken concrete
and gravel crunching beneath her heavy hiking boots. She reached out her hand
to touch the cool metal of the poles looking into the horse’s painted eyes. As
she ran her hand down the rough length of the horse, a shower of paint flakes
rained down onto the platform. She heard the shutter of Adrian’s camera click
as he took pictures of the forgotten park.
They walked around the ride as it spun slowly. The
horses looked like they were in a never-ending race, running toward the
imagined finish line they would never reach. She felt sad at that moment, for all
of the people who once enjoyed this park.
“I want to show you something,” said Adrian as he led
her deeper into the theme park.
“How many times have you been here?” she asked
suddenly.
“I grew up here,
Kenz,” he said as they walked, “All of the kids in this town have been up here
at least once. Our parents hated it, but we still came.”
“Why?” she asked.
“For the same reason you wanted to go on a hike,” he
said, “To get away. I used to come up here all the time. It’s been years now
and I haven’t ever been here with anyone else. Our parents wanted to get this
place demolished because some dumb kids decided to play around on some of the
rotted wooden platforms and got hurt, but City Hall wouldn’t budge. ‘This place
will stay standing until it falls on its own’ is what they keep saying. So to
fix their problem, parents just stopped telling their kids about it. That way,
nobody can get hurt anymore.”
“Why did you bring me here?” asked Kenzie.
“I thought you would like it,” he said quietly.
“Well,” she said. “You were right about that. This
place is amazing.”
They walked around taking everything in. All of the
rides looked like they were waiting for someone to start them up again, to
somehow bring back the past back to life. It was like someone put Sunset Forest on pause and then forgot
about it. When people pressed play again, things started falling apart. Although
the weeds grew up through the cracks in the cement, the moss and ivy grew on
buildings, and everything was unkempt to them, it couldn’t have been more
beautiful.
They followed the path down to the big, rusted, steel roller
coaster they had seen from the outside. Gold
Mines: The Fastest Steel Roller Coaster on the West Coast. They stepped
over the accumulation of leaves that had fallen from the trees above. The
wooden stairs up to the cars of the ride creaked as they stepped onto the
platform. Their footsteps left prints in the dust.
"Be careful,” said Adrian.
“Don’t worry
about me,” she said, “I’ve got this.”
Kenzie stepped lightly up to the cars. Inside, the
wooden seats were broken, leaving nowhere to sit. The bars that had been
lowered before the park closed were now stuck in that position after so many
years, rusted into that spot and unable to be budged.
Kenzie followed the tracks to the end of the platform
where they started to tilt upwards while Adrian went to the opposite side.
Adrian pointed out an off-white door that said Keep Out: Employees Only.
“Hey, want to check this out?” he asked gesturing to
the door.
“Sure, why not,” said Kenzie, “Seems interesting.
There may even be something we can take back from here as a souvenir.”
The cold door handle gave easily under Adrian’s hand,
as if it was welcoming him back. He swung the door open to reveal a dirty
control room. There were lights hanging from the ceiling that looked like they
were from the fifties. Floating dust flickered in the light pouring in through
the open door. Cobwebs hung from the corners of the room, their makers hiding from
sight.
The electrical panels with switches and lights filled
the left side of the room. There was a long window looking out over the park,
showing the controllers their domain. Faded labels stated what switches were
for which ride. Kenzie tried a couple, just to see if they would do anything.
“Like I thought,” she said. “No electricity.”
“Well it has been over fifty years, Kenz,” he said.
She walked over to the opposite side of the room.
Lockers and a desk stood waiting for someone to dare to look inside. They
opened up the lockers, one by one, looking at the trinkets left behind.
There was a shredded cloth doll in a faded blue dress
that looked like it had belonged to someone’s daughter and a name tag that read
Bill. An empty lunch pail sat beside the doll. All of the lockers were full of
little trinkets like that—reminiscent of what was left by their owners.
“So what’s up with this Bill guy?” asked Adrian.
“He took the doll from a pile of toys his daughter was
going to throw away—” she started.
“What’s her name?” he asked.
“Amanda,” she said. “He didn’t like talking to other
people, so he would talk to the doll while he ate his lunch. It reminded him of
her.”
“And what about this locker?” he asked as he opened a
locker filled with miniature unicorns.
“This woman, let’s call her Janice, was collecting
these unicorns because she thought if she collected them all, she would get a
wish from the unicorn fairy,” she said, laughing while she picked up one of the
larger unicorns from the locker. She put the figurine back into the locker as
Adrian opened up another.
The locker only had a note in it addressed to a woman
named Marge written in sloppy cursive on now cracked, yellowed paper. Adrian
read it out loud:
Marge,
I’m sorry I
wasn’t better to you. I thought that getting this job would make everything
better, but it didn’t I’m sorry. I know you wanted more from me. A proposal, a
family, but I can’t do that. I am leaving this here for you to find, but you
won’t find me. I am so sorry.
James
They both stared at the note for a few minutes after he
finished. Tears stained the ink, smudged from a time long past. Adrian put the
note back into the locker and then took pictures of each locker. He wanted to
capture the sadness that the note had left in the room. They decided not to go
through any more lockers, not wanting to disturb the ghosts of memories any
longer and moved on to the desk in the corner.
On the desk, there were blueprints for the park.
There’d been plans for a spinning cup ride, a mirror funhouse, a shooting
gallery, and even a freak show. It was as if time had just frozen.
Faded posters for the other attractions were hung on
the wall, old vintage posters with the cartoon drawings of people having fun on
the rides. Adrian took off one of the posters revealing a painting on the wall
behind the poster of the forest shining in the sunlight. There were miniature
versions of animals, the meadow they stopped in for lunch, even the entrance to
the park itself.
“How did you know about this?” she asked.
“Because I painted it,” he said, “When I said I came
here a lot, I meant it. I explored every inch of this place. I used to be
really into art, so I brought all of my paint up here and just went for it. I
painted what I saw.” He turned away from her, embarrassed, his ears turning
pink.
“It’s amazing,” she said, “I love the detail. The
meadow looks a lot like it does now.” She paused, looking between the painting
and Adrian. “Why did you stop?”
“Stop what?” he asked, “Coming up here or painting?”
“Both, I guess,” she said.
“Well, my mom found out that I had been coming up here
and she thought that it was too dangerous for her only son, so she put a stop
to that right away,” he said, “As for the painting, well, I got tired of being
picked on by the other guys, so I stopped and took up photography. They always
said that painting was for girls, but nobody complained when I took up taking
pictures, so that’s what stuck.”
She looked at him. She had only known him for a couple
of years, but what she thought knew about him was so wrong. She only knew the
superficial stuff, nothing with any meaning. He seemed to know everything about
her.
“You should get back to it,” she said, “You’re really
good.”
Adrian shrugged off the compliment, not knowing how to
respond, and got up. He put the poster back over his painting, either shielding
it from the sun or from other people’s criticism, she didn’t know. She grabbed
his hand and with one more look around the room, they walked back into the
warm, fresh air. The sun was low in the sky giving everything a hazy golden
hue. The shadows grew longer as they walked hand in hand around their forgotten
paradise.
