Pick Me!

A weblog by Laura Moncur

8/8/2004

Lagoon: Hall of Mirrors (Part 1 of 2)

Filed under: Personal History — Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am

I remember being lost. I was with my dad and he was lost too. At first, it seemed like he was in control, but the further we went, the more I realized that he didn’t know how to get us out. I think I was four years old and suddenly I was in charge of rescuing my dad and myself because we were lost.

When we started out, I was confused, but he was still in control. Every time I thought I found a way out, I ended up staring at my own face. My dad explained that he knew that there was a way out. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about, but then he couldn’t find the way out and he was touching the mirrors just as I was, trying to find the path. That was when I understood that I was in charge. I had to find the passageway because, once again, my dad was bullshitting me.

I refused to panic. My dad didn’t deal well with crying kids, so I kept my fear tucked in my gut. I tried to keep my eyes on the floor because that was the only thing that made sense to me. It was the only part of this hall of mirrors thing that seemed connected to reality, but it didn’t help me. We wandered. Sometimes I found the path. Sometimes he found the path. He was wandering away from me when I saw it. It was that monkey thing that was clapping. It had been clapping while I waited in line to get in and I wondered if it was the baby of the big monkey out front with the red eyes. If I could see the clapping monkey, then we must be close to getting out.

He had wandered off, so I had to retrace my steps back to him. I told him that I found the way out. I took his big hand and pulled him toward the clapping monkey. He touched the mirror, “See, it’s just a reflection. Now I think I found the way out back here.” He tried to head backward, but I insisted that we were close to being free. I tried to think about where the exit would be if this mirror was reflecting the monkey and looked behind us. He had already started heading the wrong way again when I called to him. “Dad, I found it.” The exit was hidden around a slim mirrored corridor and I could see the feet of the big monkey and the guy who took our tickets when we came in.

My dad didn’t come when I called him. I considered for a moment that I should go back and get him, but the fear of being lost again after finally finding my way was too intense. I ran out of the hall of mirrors, finally allowing the tears to flow. My mom was waiting for the two of us out there and asked where Dad was, but I couldn’t tell her. All the terror of being the only one able to get us out of there had been released and I couldn’t tell her what happened. I considered going back in to save him, but the man who took our tickets wouldn’t let me back in. We just had to wait until he found his own way out.

I had calmed down and stopped crying by the time that my dad finally found his way out. My mom was livid, “See, I told you she wasn’t old enough for this. She came out crying.” My dad looked at me and I could tell that he knew. He knew that I had found the way out when he didn’t. He knew that he should have listened to me. He knew that he shouldn’t have let me get separated from him. He knew that HE was the reason that I was so upset, not the ride. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Maybe next year she’ll like it.”

Read Part 2

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1 Comment »

  1. Yeah, I remember the thing. And it might not be the real name but we called it the Haunted Shack. It was weird and spooky. Last time I was at Lagoon, the big gorilla was still in the Terroride with his red lightbulb eyes. I assume he’s been there since the weird haunted shack mirror thing closed all those years ago.

    Comment by aloyzius — 3/8/2008 @ 4:12 pm

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