Cable Cars

It's beautiful up here.

I went to her house early in the morning, early enough that I knew she wasn't awake yet. It's that time of the year again, and I know she's excited.

Her parents opened the door with a smile and informed me she is yet to wake up. I took the stairs and went to her room. She was actually already awake, and she smiled as I entered.

"Happy Birthday Jenny!" I yelled as loud as I could. She ran towards me and gave me a hug.

"Thanks! But you should be getting ready! We'll be leaving soon!" she told me

"I already am." I replied, pointing at my new shirt and shoes.

She giggled. Her parents entered the room and told me to give her a few minutes to get ready.

"We're going to Disneyland." They told me with a wink. I sat on the living room chair, and watched the photos next to their television.

It seemed like yesterday when we met on our play date back when we were four. Now we're both ten years old. I don't know what love is, but if I could ever say I love someone it would be Jenny.

I could hear her running downstairs, and she laughed to get my attention. She wore a blue dress with a ribbon on the front.

"Ready?" she asked. I smiled, thinking to myself I must be so lucky to have a friend like her.

The car ride was exhausting, but when we finally arrived Jenny could barely contain her excitement.

Her head never stopped moving, always darting back and forth on the rides. Our parents will pay for everything, so she took my hand and lead me to the carousel.

Afterwards she'd ask her parents to buy a candy-sprinkled ice cream, which she ate in an unladylike fashion.

I wiped the white mustache the ice cream made on her lips, and she laughs in delight.

We rode a few more rides after that, and when lunch came it was time to break out my present.

She held the small box in her hand, pondering what it might be. She shook it, but it made no noise.

"What is it?" she asks. I told her to open it. When she did, the grin on her face was stuck in my head forever.

She held the necklace on her hands, a silver one, with a small blue pendant on the middle.

She looked at me, delighted.

I held out my hand, took the necklace from her, and helped her in putting it on. She kissed me on the cheek.

"Thank you. This is the best!" she says.

The afternoon came along quickly, and we were down to one last ride.

"The cable cars!" she exclaimed.

"When you reach the top, you could see the whole city! it'd be beautiful!" she says.

Her parents said that it might be too dangerous. The cable cars were old.

"But I want to! It's my birthday!" she bargained. Her parents sighed as they went to buy a ticket.

"You're coming right?" she asked.

"I don't know, I have to go find mom and dad." I told her, as I realized mom and dad were still at the gift shop.

She crossed her arms and gave me a disappointed face, in which I laughed.

"Well, see you on the other side dummy!" she said as she took her parents hands and rode the cable car.

I saw mom and dad on the gift shop, buying a sweater. They made me put it on, and it was embarrassing.

Then I told them that Jenny and her parents are already riding the cable car, and that we should hurry.

We neared the cable car station when I heard it. Groaning. Not human groans, the wires groaned, as if from stress.

Then SNAP!

Several people began to scream as I watched the ungodly sight. The wires snapping, plunging seven cable cars into the side of the mountains.

My parents came near me as her body descended into the ground. I can't cry anymore. the tears won't come out. They handed me something. It was her necklace.

They held my hand as the gravediggers went to work, piling dirt on her black coffin.

The years are hard and long. Everyday I still see her house. Empty. Devoid of life. The first few days of her death I would still come to her house and knock, hoping that if I knocked enough she might answer, but she's gone.

My friends did their best to comfort me, and to no avail. I did not just lose her. I lost everything.

8 years have passed since then. And I returned to Disneyland, in hope of some good memories of her. I bought candy-sprinkled ice cream, and rode the carousel. People glared at me like I was immature, but they don't know.

When afternoon came, I went to the cable car stations.

They had built a new one, and this one seems much more safer than the last. I bought a ticket.

"You going with anyone?" the ticket guy asked.

"No, just me." I replied.

He opened a very spacious cable car and told me to hop in.

The car glided up in the air, slowly and surely, ascending on the mountaintops.

Her face filled my head. The times we spent together, all those years, gone.

Everyday I would lie in bed, crying, thinking what would it be like to live with her around.

"See you on the other side, dummy!" her voice screamed in my head.

Tears filled my eyes as I whispered softly to the fading light-

"You're right Jenny, it is beautiful up here. At least here, no one can hear me cry."