Matthew SJ.

The Hulk

            The hot Orlando sun shone down on Universal Studios. The hum of fans filled the air as they blew ice cold air on the employees working at the gate. “Four tickets please,” my dad said cheerfully. The man selling tickets sighed and handed us our tickets.

          As we walked into the park we were all silent. “Wow!” my sister, Katherine, exclaimed. “I want to do ALL the rides,” I said as I looked at the colossal rides.

          WHEEEEEEEEEE! Screams echoed overhead as a lime green  coaster shot by. “Wow! I want to do that!” I shouted in amazement. “No Matthew, you don’t want to do that,” Mom warned “You’ll be terrified.”

 Dad thought for a moment and said with a smile “Nah, he’ll be fine.”

 My mom, pale as a ghost at the thought of me going on the ride, said “Fine, but you have to go with him.”

          I darted across the park, carefully avoiding all the other people at the crowded park. “I can’t wait to do this ride,” I thought to myself. I quickly left Dad behind me and reached the entrance. I looked up the faded green sign, “THE HULK,” the sign read.  Finally, my dad made it to the entrance too. “Are you sure you want to do this, Matthew?” he asked. I thought for a moment and said “Definitely.” I stepped into the dark entrance…

 I was welcomed by a laboratory full of dozens of blinking lights, screens and strange, glowing tubes. Signs all around the room read “DANGER: RADIOACTIVE AREA, DO NOT ENTER.” We inched our way up the labyrinth-like line. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I jumped in the air and shouted, “What was that?”

 “I don’t know,” my dad replied. The alarm continued announcing “Danger! Overheating reactor, faluire possible.”   

We reached a TV monitor playing an informational video on repeat. “Hulk, we have all heard of him,” the video began. “Today, we will do an experiment by exposing you to gamma radiation. Do not participate if you have a weak heart, allergy to smoke or fog, or are prone to heart attacks or strokes.”

A man in a green shirt led us down a hallway and to the carts. The seats were made of black, rock-hard plastic. The man pushed a neck restraint down on us and it gripped us like a boa constrictor. Then he buckled our seatbelts. “Are you sure you want to do this?” I thought to myself. But it was too late...

“ 3, 2, 1! ” the announcer yelled. WOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! We launched out of the dark tube like a missile. A blast of icy air blew in our faces. We shot up in the air. As I looked down, I could see the whole park. Suddenly, I was looking at the clouds as we spinned upside down and then we twisted again. We dropped and raced through a steam-filled tunnel in a lake. We shot out of the tunnel and into the air.  Suddenly, I could feel my body want to fall as I was upside down in a loop. We shot to the side and did another loop. Suddenly we started to slow down as we approached an exit.

          I stepped out of the cart and yelled, “That was awesome! I want do that again!”

“No, you can’t do that again,” my dad said, looking like he was about to get sick.

          As I stepped outside, I could see a gigantic red ride in the distance. “I will do that ride,” I thought to myself, “but not now.”

 I sprinted passed the lake to where my mom,and my sister were sitting in the shade. “Were you scared on the ride?” my mom asked.

“It was AWESOME!” I replied.

As I stared at the ride I had done, I thought of all the rides I have done in the past. The Hulk towered above all of them and was the most intimidating of them all. But the gigatic red ride loomed in the distance...