Until the World Stops - L.A. Witt Page 0,38

the park, and they watched movies and did room service and stuff, but that still sucks when you really want to be at Disneyland.”

“That doesn’t sound like how I’d want to spend my vacation.”

“Not even a little. To this day, he won’t go. His wife really wanted to take their girls last year, but they couldn’t afford it, and he was glad because he has nothing but miserable memories of that place.”

“Ugh, that poor kid.” I thought for a moment. “You know, I have to wonder if my nephews would even enjoy Disneyland under the best of circumstances. Especially during peak season.”

Casey turned to me. “Yeah, now that you mention it… Carlin doesn’t handle crowds very well, does he?”

“And neither does Reuben, plus he has a really hard time with lights and noise.” I exhaled. “Man, now that I’m thinking about it—I don’t even mind crowds, and Disney was a bit much for me the last couple of times I went. Last time I was home on leave, some friends and I drove down to spend three days there. You know, since we’re all adults and can actually drink, have our own money, and can stay late.”

“Wasn’t as fun as you’d pictured it?”

“Oh. God.” I made a face. “We’d been there like two hours and felt like old people. So we kind of leaned into it. Complaining about these damn kids, all this noise, the high prices—”

Casey barked a laugh that startled Tilly and gave me a little shiver I couldn’t quite explain. Still laughing, he petted her to settle her back down in his lap. “Seriously? You and your buddies went all cranky Boomer all over Disneyland?”

“Kinda, yeah.” I chuckled at the memory. “I mean, we were standing in line for hours, paying fifty bucks for what was basically fast food, and getting sunburned. We might as well entertain ourselves, right?”

“Do I even want to know what kind of shit you did?”

“Well, my buddy Ali went full-on ‘get off my lawn.’ He saw some kid in a fancy stroller with ergonomic lumbar support and a shade over the top to keep her out of the sun.” I snickered. “I swear, he ranted for like ten minutes about how back in his day, kids were pushed around in wheelbarrows full of rocks. And when they got old enough, they had to push their younger siblings around in those heavy wheelbarrows.”

Casey laughed again. “Oh my God. I’d have paid to see that.”

“It was hysterical. He even hiked up his pants until the waistband was practically at his nipples, and he bought a fifty-dollar umbrella just so he could shake it like a cane at people.”

“Okay, that…” Casey chuckled, shaking his head. “I mean it—that kind of entertainment had to be worth the price of admission.”

“It definitely took the edge off all the bullshit.” Humor fading, I said, “But it was still hot, crowded, and loud, and we were standing in line forever even with fast passes. There were a lot of kids there who looked pretty miserable most of the time. Like they were obviously overwhelmed and tired and hungry, and then they’d have fun for a few minutes on a ride or meeting a character, but that was it. And you can’t even just walk up to the characters anymore. You need tickets and fast passes for that too.”

“Seriously?” Casey rolled his eyes. “That sounds, uh, fun. Especially for a little kid.”

“Right? So to be honest, I’m not sure how much my nephews would actually enjoy it.”

Casey’s lips quirked. “At the risk of sounding like I’m talking smack about your family…” He furrowed his brow. “Does your sister want to take them to Disneyland so they have a fun memory? Or so she can check off ‘took the kids to Disneyland’ on her supermom list?”

I laughed humorlessly. “Considering she’s mad she can’t take them during a pandemic…”

He exhaled. “Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that the park is closed.”

I considered it, then nodded slowly. “Yeah, now that you mention it. I mean, I would never in a million years say I’m glad there’s a pandemic happening, but I’m not all that broken up about it keeping the boys from going on that trip.”

“Exactly. And maybe in another year or so, they’ll be able to handle it better than they can now.”

“Right. So I’m not glad it happened at all, but I’ll take every silver lining I can get, you know?”

“I don’t blame you.” He grinned cautiously and raised his