We walked away, Ava holding the bear out in front of her. “At least I don’t think I’ve ever had one.”
“You told me once that your dad mailed you one for your birthday,” I said. “Your mother trashed it, but you rescued it. It disappeared later.”
“She probably erased my memory just so I wouldn’t know about it anymore.” Her tone was bitter. Did she think her mother could do that? I flashed to that final night, her mother calling the cops, locking them in the bathroom.
Yeah. Maybe.
“You were eight when you got that bear. That was probably a lot of memory erases ago.”
She bumped her shoulder into mine. “You really do know everything about me.”
“Everything you ever shared.”
She held my gaze a moment, and I didn’t let it go. She needed to remember who I was to her. Who I wanted to be.
“Okay, Mr. Loser of Whack-a-Mole. Does this big win makemethe master?”
“Seems I’ve met my match.”
Our hands collided, and she accepted mine. My heartsqueezed. For the first time in a year, I got to hold Ava’s hand.
“What’s that?” she asked, using the bear to point ahead.
“It’s a Fun House.”
“That sounds amazing!” She hurried toward it, pulling me along.
Her behavior was a complete turnaround from anything I’d seen since she went away. This was working. She was coming back to me.
I handed over tickets, and we stomped up the metal ramp.
“Ack!” she said when the floor started slanting at a sideways angle. And “Ack!” again when we approached a room full of mirrors, distorting us in every direction.
“This is wild!” she said.
We approached a turning tunnel with spiral walls.
“This is really disorienting,” she said.
I hadn’t even thought of that. The Fun House was a horrible choice and now we were deep into it. I wasn’t photosensitive, so flashing lights didn’t bother me. But she certainly was.
“Close your eyes,” I said. “I’ll lead you.”
She did as I suggested, and I walked her down the tube. We turned a corner.
And it happened.
A strobe light.
My hands moved fast, clapping over her eyes.
“It’s so bright and blinky!” she said. “Let me see!”
“No, Ava, it’s a strobe!”
The strobe turned off, only to activate again when we moved.
“Shit! Somebody shut that off!” I shouted.
