I walk into the entrance of the line for the Tower of Terror ride in California Adventures. As I watch the line slowly inch toward the ride's elevator, I start to tap my feet and twiddle my thumbs, and I get those flittering, fluttering butterflies in my stomach, and I just want to barf my guts up. Ok, so I'm really nervous. So nervous that it makes me wonder why I even bothered to come to this ride. After all, I hate the rushing feeling I get whenever I go on a ride that has sudden drops and I usually got sick on them. As I ponder this thought, my friend brings me back to earth with a sharp jab between my shoulder blades to push me forward. I sigh dejectedly. I had allowed my friend to convince me that this ride wasn't very fast and I'd be fine. Now I'm regretting the choice as we pass the warning signs that were explaining the ride's speed and mentioning why people should not go on if they had any medical problems. Now my friend and I are passing the last emergency exit, and I have no chance of turning back now. OK, now the attendants are strapping us in. I'm doomed.

I poise my fingers above the handles that I'm supposed to hold onto so I don't fly up against my seat belt as the ride is falling, and, looking around, I see that the elevator is made to look like an old supply elevator. White sticky cobwebs cling like huge silvery spiders onto the walls, and the walls themselves are old and cracked and they're a weird dirt colored shade of brown. I turn to look at my friend I notice that she is grinning like a crazed madman and I can tell that she's going to start laughing like a mental lunatic once the ride starts falling. I sigh miserably and look up at the attendant. She is wearing an old concierge uniform that is a beautiful shade of burgundy with gold trim around the edges. The attendant has just stepped out of the elevator and the doors close. My friend nudges me and tells me to 'get ready for the thrill of a lifetime'. Yea right, I think as the doors close shut on my only portal to the sane world, and I begin to panic.

I try to think about what my mom used to tell me to do when I was afraid a few years ago when I was younger. 'Just concentrate on a really happy thought,' she would say, and I would ask her what her happy thought was. Strange, I can't remember what she said. I guess I'll just have to get my own happy thought. The ride is rising upward to the first stop, which happens to be an old, dusty, cracked, good-for-nothing mirror. I look at reflection for a moment. Chocolate brown eyes, midnight black wavy hair, sun burned tan skin. I manage a weak smile at my reflection, when suddenly, lightning hits the mirror, and the reflections of everyone on the ride disappear into thin air, leaving only the image of the seats behind. I scream in terror and the ride rises at an unearthly speed, and the lights seem to go out. Then I compose myself and realize that I have squeezed my eyes shut so hard that I'm seeing stars. I open my eyes and relax them a bit as a window opens up before us. It is showing the park outside where all the carefree people were. How I wished I could be outside. Then I saw all the fools who were in line for this heart-attack creator. Run you fools! I rage silently in my head. Run while you still can! Save yourselves! Then, the elevator drops into the gaping darkness below, and I scream 'Bloody-Murder'.

I close my eyes and try to keep my stomach from showing everyone what I had for lunch, all while gripping the handle-bars as if they were a precious prize that I had to keep, no matter what the cost. My friend was laughing like a mental lunatic while all this was happening, and that gave me NO comfort whatsoever. No wonder she loved this ride so much. She could express herself without anyone staring at her since half of the people on the ride were laughing and shouting along with her. How she manages to survive in the normal world I don't know. I'm drenched with sweat and I think I've wet my pants as the elevator rises for round two of 'Let's Make Everyone on this Ride Barf'. My friend is finally silent, but only because she's resting her voice for when we fall again. I screw my eyes shut once more

I open my eyes a few minutes later and I see an attendant smiling and clapping for us as the narrator warns us to never check into a deserted hotel again. Amen, I think gratefully as I take off the seat belt holding me down to the chair and I practically bound out of the elevator and into the gift shop where I find my parents smiling at me and my friend who asks me how I liked the ride. I pause a moment before I answered, and then I said, 'I could live without another ride on this doom machine.' Everyone laughed and I smiled in spite of myself. My parents gave my friend and me some money and we walk around the gift shop looking and the ghastly wares, most of which were sporting the slogan 'I survived' and showing the outside of the ride/hotel during a lighting storm. I ended up buying a t-shirt and a bag of candy. My friend laughed at my shirt and asked me if I was really that freaked out. I told her to check the bottom of my pants. My parents took us to the outside entrance of Tower of Terror and they asked what ride I wanted to go on next, since my friend had chosen last time. I looked around the part of the park we were in and I get an Idea.
I smile at my friend and I point to a ride. 'That one,' I said, and I burst out laughing as total dread filled up my friend's eyes like a bathtub filling up with water. 'NOOOOOOO!!!' she wailed, 'NOT THE MERRY GO 'ROUND! I HATE THE MERRY GO 'ROUND! It's soooooooooooooo slow, and that stupid song drives me nuts!' Well too bad, I think, and I drag her onto the ride. I laugh as I strap her onto the smooth, coral pink sea horse adorned with jewels that she hates, and I get onto a baby blue sea horse next to her. As the ride started, I told my friend that she was going to have to suffer as much as I did, and I almost felt sorry for her as she gave me her puppy dog face. Almost. Then, I laughed like a mental lunatic as my friend screamed Bloody-Murder. Revenge is so sweet.