Dear Zoe

By mid-July, Tess suspects her dad knows that she and Jimmy hang out together at the park, but he doesn’t say anything. A heatwave hits in the park, and Travis reappears at the lemonade stand looking terrible, “like a dead body that had been dug up” (137). He is sexually inappropriate with Vicky, pulling his jeans down to reveal a line of pubic hair, and Vicky baits him into chugging a frozen lemonade for the prize of riding on a tunnel ride with her or Tess. Travis gets an intense headache from the cold and screams and threatens to kill Tess and Vicky. Jimmy, drawn by the screaming, holds Travis back and tells him to leave or he’ll call security, asking if he’s still on parole. Jimmy tells Vicky and Tess to watch out for him, and they lock up the lemonade stand and leave work early.

One day Tess is walking back from lunch with Jimmy, a little stoned, when she spots David and Em in “Lost Kennywood,” the section of park where all the old rides are. David and Em are on a ride called The Whip, and seeing them, Tess feels like they’ve “crossed over into this other world I’d created for myself” (143).