“Commiserate.”
“Fair enough. It’s a touch choice, Candace, and we can discuss the pros and cons later. Right now, though, look on the bright side. You’ve got options. Some kids are getting rejection letters, but not you.”
“That’s true,” she said.
“You should take the letters to school and rub them in the nose of that guidance counselor.”
Candace smiled. “I guess I did show him,” she said.
“I’ll say! This is exciting. Either way you’re going to have fun, meet new people, and prepare for the future. UCLA or Florida Coast. Lots of people would kill to have that decision.”
“I can always count on you to put things in perspective,” she said.
“That’s what I’m here for. Well, that and to convince you that Florida Coast is the right choice.”
She rolled her eyes. “No decision-making today.”
“No, I know, just clarifying my position.”
“I think your position is already crystal clear.”
“Is it?” he asked, with a sudden intensity in his voice that caught her off guard.
“I mean, I know you want me to go to Florida,” Candace said, trying not to stammer.
There was silence for a moment. When Josh spoke again his voice was more relaxed. “Totally. It’s time to shake up Zone World, and I think you’re just the girl to do it.”
“I appreciate the vote of confidence.”
“What can I say?” he teased. “It’s a no-brainer.”
The next day at the Candy Counter, she mostly worked at the cash register, but they also let her help make the candied and caramel apples. She hoped to work her way up to fudge by Easter. She also wanted to make the decorated candy eggs that the shop sold.
At least the work was a good distraction from thinking about the future. She still hadn’t told Tamara about getting accepted to Florida Coast. She knew Tamara wasn’t going to be happy about it, and Candace didn’t want to talk to her until she made a decision about it.
Around her, other refs worked and chatted; they were far more experienced in what they were doing. She remembered her first several days as a cotton candy operator. She couldn’t make a neat cone, and she ended up with sticky sugary stuff everywhere. At least the apples were a little more containable, even if the toppings were not.
She had just finished a batch of candy apples when Traci appeared with a tray filled with fudge and still more candy apples.
“Candace, can you run this tray out to the cart in the Kids Zone?” Traci asked.
“Sure,” Candace said, taking the tray from her. Suspicion suddenly filled her. “I just take it there, right?”
“That’s it.”
“I don’t have to stay there and sell it?”
“No, one of the cart vendors does that. We just have to make sure they have treats to sell,” Traci said, looking at Candace like she was paranoid.
Maybe she was paranoid, but she had earned her place at the store and off cart duty. She didn’t plan on going back. She took the tray and headed for the Kids Zone. Fortunately, there weren’t very many players around, so she didn’t worry about being bumped and jostled.
She found the cart quickly and handed the vendor her tray of goodies.
“Thanks, I was starting to run low,” the girl said, eyes wide. “Listen, could you do me a huge favor?”
“What is it?” Candace asked. Nearly a year in The Zone had taught her to ask questions first, agree to help second. It was sad, but true.
“I really need to go to the bathroom, but I can’t leave the cart. I’m not going to get my break for another hour. I just need three minutes, please.”
No!
Candace said in her head. Out loud, though, she heard herself say, “Okay, but please hurry.”
“I will,” the girl promised, racing off.
Candace sighed and took up position behind the cart. She could at least unload the tray she had brought. That finished, she walked around the cart and discovered that it was number five, the one she had spent so much time with in the past.
“We meet again,” she said under her breath.
She glanced at her watch. It had been five minutes, and the vendor wasn’t back yet. A boy walked up and, after walking around to the front of the cart to look at the price menu, Candace sold him a candy apple.
Seven minutes.
She better not have used this opportunity to take her break,
Candace thought.
I can’t be out here eight more minutes.
As the clock ticked, she became more agitated. She sold two more candy apples and a chunk of fudge.
Twelve minutes.
She craned her neck, trying to see if she could spot the other girl coming back. She didn’t see her, though.
“What are you looking for?” a little girl asked Candace.
“The girl who works this cart.”
“But that’s you!”
“No, it’s not. I was just giving her a break.”
“But you look like you work here,” the little girl said.
“I do work here, but over in the Candy Counter in the Home Stretch.”
“Then why are you over here?”
“Because I was trying to be nice and help someone out,”
Candace said.
Fifteen minutes.
The little girl’s questions weren’t helping any with her own agitation. She glanced at her watch. Even if the other girl had taken her whole break, she was late coming back. Candace reached under the counter for the radio, ready to call for help.
She pressed the intercom. “Hi, this is Candace. I’m over in the Kids Zone babysitting cart five for a minute, and the referee hasn’t come back. Please send someone to take care of the cart or have it return to base.”
She waited, but there was no answer. After about twenty seconds, she hit the intercom again. “Okay, this is not funny. This is Candace from the Candy Counter, and I need you to send someone to take care of cart five here in the Kids Zone.”
Again there was nothing. Candace could feel herself start to panic. “This is so not good,” she muttered, as horrific vendor-cart experiences came back to her.
She hit the intercom again. “I cannot be stranded here. I’m due back at my actual job. Someone tell me what’s going on.”
Again silence. It was possible that the intercom wasn’t working for some reason. If that was the case, they might never have heard her calling for help in the first place. Candace did the next logical thing. She hit the red panic button.
Hitting the red panic button was a guarantee that security would descend within fifteen seconds. At least it should have been. It always had. Yet she stood there, and the seconds ticked by with no sign of a security guard anywhere around.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said.
She began looking around wildly. Thanks to the position of the cart she wasn’t actually in line of sight of any of the ride referees. In fact she couldn’t see a single Zone employee of any kind anywhere.
I have entered the Twilight Zone.
Sooner or later someone would miss her and come looking. Then again, maybe they were swamped at the Candy Counter. Maybe by the time they even realized she was still gone, they would think she was on her dinner break or her shift had ended and she’d gone home. So not cool.
She couldn’t count on help showing up any more than she could count on the vendor girl returning. She couldn’t just wait it out until the next shift arrived; the girl she relieved could have been on the closing shift. Candace remembered all too well the night she and Kurt had spent trapped inside the theme park when her cart malfunctioned over the summer and no one came to help. She refused to do that again. Last time, she had ended up being part of an urban legend she couldn’t get away from. Who knew what could happen this time?
She determined then and there that, when it was all over, she was going to put together a handbook for cart referees and anyone else who might have an encounter with one. No one should have to go through the things that she had gone through. She also briefly considered lobbying for the retirement of cart five, but rationalized that they were probably all just as bad. She took a deep breath and made a decision.
She grabbed a doily from underneath one of the fudge squares and piled the remaining fudge back on the tray that started the whole mess. She picked up a pen and scribbled Out of Order on the doily and propped it in the front window of the cart. Then she punched in a code and removed the cash tray from the register.
She put the fudge tray on top of it and, after a brief internal debate, headed off for the cart parking area. First things first. She would alert the supervisor there to the problem, hand over the cash tray, and then take the food back to the Candy Counter and explain what had happened.
She made her way to the cart parking area without incident. She noticed that she didn’t pass a single security guard along the way. When she made it there, a supervisor she didn’t know looked at her quizzically over the tops of his glasses.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m Candace from the Candy Counter. I’m here to report a problem with cart five over in the Kids Zone.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Well, I brought fudge and candy apples from the Candy Counter to the cart. I agreed to spell the girl working it so she could run to the restroom, and she never came back. I tried the intercom but got no response. I also tried calling security but nothing happened. I grabbed the cash tray. Here you go,” she said, handing it over.
“You left the cart unattended?”
“I put an Out of Order sign on it and removed the food. I don’t think much is going to happen to it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to the Candy Counter.”
She turned and left, walking quickly back toward the front of the park. She burst into the Candy Counter and was surprised to see the referees clustered around Martha. She had a walkie-talkie in one hand and a stopwatch in the other.
“Twenty-five minutes,” Martha noted. “Not bad.”
“What’s going on?” Candace asked as she stared at Martha and her coworkers.
“It’s called a test,” Martha said with a smile. “And I’m pleased to say you passed.”
“Twenty-five minutes is an excellent time,” Traci said.
“Exactly. Not too fast, not too slow, but just right,” Martha said.
“I’m glad to be the baby bear in the Goldilocks story, but would someone tell me what is going on?”
“Sorry, Candace. It’s one version of a test we give to prospective management.”
“Then why give it to me?”
“It’s the final stage of the scholarship competition. Each of the five of you were given a test.”
Candace started to panic. “Nobody warned me about that.”
“That’s kinda the point. Don’t worry, you did fine.”
“So, what, everything that just happened, you knew?”
“Very good. I knew you’d catch on quick,” Martha said with a smile. “Yes, essentially. We arrange for you to be trapped with no support, and we observe how you solve the problem and how long it takes you.”
“Did I do the right things?” Candace asked, her mouth suddenly dry.
“Perfection. You gave enough time for the referee to return to the post. Then you tried to get help from a supervisor. Next you tried to alert security to the problem. Finally you resolved it yourself by safeguarding Zone property and players without too much fanfare or fearmongering. I couldn’t have done better myself.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” Candace said, still feeling a bit bewildered.
She handed her trays to one of her coworkers. “Was there anything else I should have done, tried?”
“Nope, you were perfect.”
“And my time was good?”
“Right between the goalposts,” Martha confirmed.
“So, we survive the interview with John Hanson and then whoever scores highest on this gets the scholarship?”
“Not exactly. The ultimate decision is still up to Mr. Hanson. We do provide him with the test data, though. In all but extreme cases, the two worst performers in the test are knocked out of the running. That’s more of a guideline, though, than a rule.”
“Great, now I’m really nervous,” Candace said.
“Don’t worry. You’re the last of the five to be tested.”
“And?”
“In the top three.”
Candace sagged against one of the counters in relief. If she had ever doubted that she wanted to win, she couldn’t doubt it any more. She wanted to win badly. She wanted to go to Florida Coast and study to be a ride designer. Most of all, she wanted to ride the Balloon Races. She was glad she’d had no idea, when she came to work, how much had been on the line.
“Okay, this was far more stress than I needed today,” she said.
Martha smiled. “Why don’t you take your break? Go look at all the new decorations in the Holiday Zone or something. Take a walk, breathe deeply. And remember, you’re going to be just fine.”
“Thanks, Martha,” Candace said.
Candace walked outside and breathed in deeply like Martha had suggested. As she breathed, she noticed how the green that had festooned every inch of the Home Stretch had given way to pinks, yellows, and purples.
She turned and walked toward the Holiday Zone and marveled at what she saw. As if by magic, the Saint Patrick’s Day theming had disappeared and been replaced by Easter. Spring had officially come to The Zone, complete with bunny rabbits, Easter eggs, and three giant crosses that presided over the Holiday Zone.
Candace found herself under the three crosses, staring up at them and thinking of their significance. Spring was a time of birth and rebirth, death and resurrection. As much as she loved winter, even Candace found that she was enjoying the lengthening days and the warmth of the sun. She couldn’t help but feel, too, that there was something wonderful just around the corner.
After a few minutes, she became aware of someone standing silently next to her under the crosses. She glanced over and saw that it was Josh. His face was lifted upward and his eyes were closed. She thought he was praying, and she turned to look away, not wanting to intrude on something so private.
She tried to pray, but too many thoughts crammed her mind. Over all of them, though, was a sense of thankfulness and profound awe. Stains on the dark wood of the center cross looked almost like blood, and a shiver went up her spine.