Louis noticed Elisa’s distraction and assumed she was still in fear. He spoke up to comfort her, “It was just an accident…”
“That was no accident!” Elisa had a strong intuition. It wasn’t an accident. The staff there were trained, and they always double-checked the seatbelts. It’s impossible for them to carelessly overlook it.
Louis hadn’t anticipated Elisa’s intense reaction. He stood there, at a loss, as he looked into her reddened eyes.
At this moment, all words of comfort seemed futile. He understood Elisa’s feelings too well. If it were Elisa in the accident this time, he might lose control of his emotions even more than she did. He’d go mad.
Louis had cleared a whole day to accompany Elisa on their first date since getting married. He didn’t want to bring any negative feelings to her. “Let’s go. We can do something else. Let’s not do anything risky this time. I’ll ride the carousel with you.”
Elisa lowered her head. “I want to go to the restroom.”
Louis escorted her to the restroom. Elisa went in and, despite the cold weather, splashed her face with cold water. She only went to the restroom to calm herself down. She wanted to think of it as an accident, just as Louis did. But the text message from yesterday lingered in her mind.
She knew Hamish too well. Hamish was like a wild beast. When pushed to the limit, he could do anything. That was why he had been so reckless lately.
Her phone, placed in her bag, made a sound. Elisa opened her bag and saw the message. Upon reading its contents, she clenched the phone tightly, her whole body trembling uncontrollably once again.
She deleted the message directly and left the restroom. She saw Louis standing outside, holding several strings of candy apples-strawberry, kiwi, hawthorn, and apple.
Louis was earnestly tearing off the candy wrappers. When he saw Elisa coming out, he smiled brightly. Despite the overcast sky, he seemed like a little sun.
He handed her the candy apples. “They’re selling candy apples even on such a cold day?”
“Plenty of them.”
The snacks in the amusement park were more expensive than those outside. A string of candy apples, usually priced at ten dollars, was being sold for thirty dollars here.
Elisa licked one and found it as sweet as it used to be in her childhood. Of course… no matter how sweet the hawthorn was, it would still be sour inside.
“Is it delicious?” Louis asked.
Elisa took a bite of the candy apple, chewed, and said, “Delicious.” The hawthorn’s seeds were removed, making it convenient to eat.
“It tastes just like it used to.” After Elisa spoke, the two of them smiled at each other, as if they were reminiscing about the past.
In the past, Elisa couldn’t eat candy apples because she was allergic to hawthorn. No matter how delicious and reminiscent they were, in the end, she could only watch others eat.
Once, she had misunderstood Hamish as the person who gave her the candy apple. She used her allergic reaction to hawthorn as a metaphor for their relationship. Knowing she shouldn’t touch it, she still did.
Fortunately… she was no longer allergic to hawthorn, and the person who truly gave her candy apples had returned.
“Let’s go on that one,” Louis suddenly pointed, and Elisa looked up. It was the Ferris wheel.
Most people lining up for the Ferris wheel were couples. There wasn’t much fun to it, just going around and then coming down. At best, you could see the entire amusement park from above.
The best time to ride the Ferris wheel was at night when you could see the brilliant lights below.
Louis couldn’t hide his excitement. Like her, he didn’t have much of a childhood, so coming to the amusement park always made him inexplicably excited.
Elisa followed him to line up, and when they got in and the doors closed, the Ferris wheel slowly ascended, with a slight sway.
Elisa looked out the window and murmured, “If I were to disappear one day, what would you do…”
“Why would you suddenly think of that?” Elisa turned to meet Louis’s concerned gaze. Her emotions instantly plummeted, beyond her control. She croaked, “I’ve died once, and my soul resides in this body. What if… Aoife wants to come back?”
After all, this body wasn’t originally hers. Elisa had never thought about these issues before. Now, suddenly considering it, she only felt a hollow ache in her heart. If someone who had died once returned, sometimes she felt that this world wouldn’t have a place for her.
Meeting Louis wasthe luck of her two lifetimes coming together. Louis had become her home, her safe haven.
She thought… maybe because she had married him and finally obtained the wish she had longed for, she had momentarily become apprehensive.
It was just a supposition, but Louis took it seriously. He didn’t speak, just quietly watched Elisa.
“I will find you, preserve the traces you left behind.”
“What if you can’t find me?”
“If I can’t find you, then…” The Ferris wheel reached a high point. Elisa leaned over and touched Louis’s lips with her hand. They kissed, their lips meeting, without delving deeper. Their gazes collided at this brief distance, feeling each other’s breath.
Shadows and light danced in Elisa’s eyes, and she blocked the words Louis hadn’t spoken. She probably knew what Louis would say.
If one day, she truly disappeared by accident, she didn’t want Louis to live in pain.
Louis’s life, his world, and his future shouldn’t be about just her. He was not like her, borrowing someone else’s body.
Louis held her tightly. They toured the amusement park, avoiding the dangerous rides.
“It’s already noon. What do you want to eat?” Elisa thought for a moment. “I’ll take you somewhere.”
They contacted the driver and followed the GPS to a street filled with food stalls near Hirola University, where Elisa had attended college. Elisa brought Louis to the place where she used to eat wontons.
It was Louis’s first time at this kind of place. He asked, “What’s good here?”
“I’ll take you to eat wontons. When I was in high school and college, I almost came here for lunch every day.” She liked the taste here, and Mrs. Schoellman was one of the few people who remembered her birthday.
Whenever it was her birthday, aside from a system-generated blessing on her phone, Elisa would also receive an extra fried egg from Mrs. Schoellman.
Elisa didn’t like extravagance. Each year, she quietly celebrated her birthday alone. In her family, if they were to truly hold a birthday celebration, it wouldn’t just be a simple party; it would become a commercial exchange, involving various interests.
The wontons didn’t take long to cook. Mrs. Schoellman brought two large bowls of wontons, each topped with a golden, fragrant, and simple egg.
Mrs. Schoellman first served them both lemon water, then went into the kitchen to work. Louis looked around, the place seemed a bit old, like an old store, but it was well-maintained, with no grease stains on the tables.
As Mrs. Schoellman cooked the wontons inside, Louis could already smell the fragrance. He couldn’t help but swallow, caught red-faced by Elisa catching him in the act.
“Did you often come here before?” Louis asked.
“Yeah, when I was in school, if I didn’t go home for lunch, I’d come here.” She liked the taste and Mrs. Schoellman was one of the few people who remembered her birthday.
After Mrs. Schoellman brought out the wontons, Elisa and Louis enjoyed their meal.