Dare to Scare

Six flags! I assume you know what it is, how it is, but I doubt why it is. So we went to explore it last Friday to the New England Six Flags. I heard that it is not as good or scary as in New Jersey, even though I have had enough of it. We were six of us, among them two sisters would firmly oppose me.

It was our University summer tour, so the entry fee was mere $10, one fifth of its actual. $50 is also, I would say, quite worth; the reason being it needs enormous amount of labors and efforts as well as money to maintain the Roller Coasters (or Jet Coasters) and others, as thousands of people are risking their lives everyday for uncanny fun. Evin had a previous experience of coming here while rest of us had no practical knowledge. Naturally Evin with her sister, visiting US for a couple of months only, had already made a plan of what might be missed and what must not be, and told us that as we reached here quite early, we could use the advantage of taking the rides which could be crowded later in the day. We started from the far right side, where we first encountered a relatively easier ride (a roller coaster but I have forgot its name). The speed of the ride was relatively small and also turns and jumps were lesser than others too. We, me and Anish, having no previous experience became very excited to go for it, but Susmita did not show any courage excusing her tendency of vomiting in such circumstances, which I discovered later probably untrue.

Anish, Baris and me, three courageous man sat in the same car, eagerly waiting for the starting our journey for an un-mysterious adventure. In the start itself the car made a huge rotation and due to the physical law of rotation, we all felt thrown outward. Baris murmured "Shit" couple of times. His chicks became red with fear immediately. He looked at me and smiled. Anish's face became red too with fear and discomfort. My condition was worse. I never thought before that these rides could be so uncomfortable and irritating. I immediately lost all my desire of enjoying the ride. I started to feel insecure and became afraid of the safety belt that it might tear at any moment. Due to the frequent up-down motion and the swift rotational outward force, I felt little vomiting too. I did not realize when I closed my eyes. Now I dared slightly to see the world but it merely lasted for a fraction of second. I saw Baris had been still laughing with fear (not at fear) and Anish's head was still downward. None of us were stretching our hands outward as most of the others do. I packed myself as compactly as I could, holding something very reliable, I don't remember what that was. I only freed my hand couple of times to check whether my seatbelts were fastened tightly, which I was afraid of most. The car stopped after our so long urge (time wise after only few seconds). Baris was still smiling but now it revealed opposite. Anish said "I felt afraid, first time in my life, of death". We looked at each other and said happily but silently that "We are alive" and I said loudly "Its good to be alive". "I was almost dead", as I said to the crew who was unfastening my seatbelt, she gave me a mere smile, it meant nothing. Evin and her sister, Elif (please check the spelling if you know), were waiting for us after finishing the ride and uttered equally "It was very exciting". I murmured "It was madness". Susmita took several pictures of the ride, but none of them captured our expressions. We did not express our joy or fear, we felt them dangerously.

Now the time for next ride which was another roller coaster, once again I have forgot its name. I am really very bad with names. It looked relatively simple and smooth. All of us, including Baris and Anish also, agreed to go for it. Susmita now did not show much reluctance and with our little push, agreed to come with us. We, six of us, now sitting in the same car. Anish and Susmita were before me but none of us were in the front seat; the single frightening experience in previous ride had been (and will be) enough to refrain ourselves from the front seat for our entire life. Me and Baris were sitting after them and the two brave sisters were one blank seat behind us. We were very hopeful and confident of enjoying this ride, like other normal beings until the car started; and right after it accelerated to its moderate speed, not even to its highest value, I closed my eyes, like a rabbit moron who thinks by closing his eyes that as he can not see others no one else can see him too and thus fill safe. I did not dare to listen or look at others. I started cursing and abusing myself as badly as I can: "Tanmoy, you had such a bad experience in the previous one, still you are here. You are stupid. Don't be so stylish or over-smart, when you are absolutely incapable of that. You are a coward; just accept it and go back home. These are not made for you. And blah blah blah!" My mind did not spare me for a single second. Am I the only one who is so frightened? What about Susmita? I opened my right eyes a bit and saw everybody was like me. Susmita's head was down, holding something as tightly as she could, and probably her eyes were closed too. Anish and Baris were doing the same what did in the last ride. I am ashamed to admit that I felt no intention to look back at the two courageous sisters. We learnt before that the ride lasts for one minutes. The one minute seemed to me like one hundred of thousand of million of billion of light years or slightly more. "I will be dead by that time; I can't stand like this anymore." The car finally stopped after 20-30 seconds. Once again I whispered "It's good to be alive". I asked Susmita "How was it". She screamed angrily at us "I will kill everybody". Susmita did not take anymore ride, and I guess she will continue doing so in her entire life.

The excitement of two sisters did not diminish even a little, rather multiplied by the number of rides they were taken one after one. They took "batman" (another scary roller coaster). Anish and I became friends of Susmita thereafter. Baris joined them and later described his experience as it was not as bad as our last one because the gravity pull was always downward in the latter one, with no rotation outward push was present. Even today, I still don't believe this. After that, the sisters were the only bond to continue in enjoying roller coasters. We were separated since then until we finally met together to come back home.

We did some gambling. Susmita won a doll. I am never interested in gambling; in fact I hate it, even though I played couple of them, and lost everywhere. We took the sky ride (ropeway) to go to the other side of the park. I have never been scared a bit to be in a ropeway before except today. It was because of the hang over of my last hour's annoying and terrified experience. Anish said later that he was afraid because he was expecting that "the sky ride can start accelerating at any moment"; fortunately that did not happen. After that four of us together took two water-rides, they have been smooth and enjoyable. We were planning to repeat them.

Last couple of hours had been peaceful and enjoyable. It helped me to "gather some courage", as I said several times at that time and as a result with Baris I went to Scream ride, it takes you to a great distance upward and let you fall freely. I had been able to do that for two major reasons; I saw there was a whole body-protection provided to everybody and as I said before I already collected some courage by then. Baris asked me hundred times "Are you sure?" before the ride, and I always replied confidently "yes". I was sitting in between two muscular and bold guys, who were initially holding a camera to take pictures during the ride. That gave me some more confident, "I think, this time I will enjoy the ride." The crew asked us "Are you guys ready?" The crazy riders screamed out "yes". "Ok, 5 4 3 " The ride started before going through "2 1" and in a fraction of second we were at 200 meters up. My eyes are open as I said before, I felt much secured there with a reliable protections I found and now I was looking down the world sitting on top of it. The incredible feeling in being there can only be perceived by experience, not by expression.

Anish now joined us for the "Superman Roller Coaster", the craziest ride to us, after fifteen or twenty minutes of effort to convince each others. At the last second, Baris got an idea to escape from the forthcoming danger "We can still go back and announce falsely that we did it". Anish agreed and said "we can do more gambling instead." Even after generating so many excuses to escape, we did "Superman" miraculously. I closed my eyes much before it started to move until it stopped completely. I did not dare and care at all to see how the others were doing.The only movement I did was balancing my head up and downwards according to the slope. There were several almost-free falls.

In our way back, when the toy train started to drop us at the parking slot, I felt like it was going to accelerate like the rides. Others also shared the same feelings. We again had the equal feelings of being in ride when our bus was taking several swift turnings in a zigzag road inside a tunnel. All the time in the bus I had the timorous feelings whether my seatbelt was fastened tightly.

Now you may complain about the title of this article, instead of "Dare to Scare", you may say it should be "Scare to Dare". I think there are plenty of bases for either of them.