“A little adventure never hurt anyone,” Bob says, gripping my mom’s hand and grinning. “Right, Kenny?” When Bob smiles at Kenny, the skin around the edges of his eyes crinkles like old aluminum foil.

The roller coaster, made of wooden boards painted white, looms over everything. It does not look sturdy enough for Kenny, much less Bob. It makes me nervous just looking at it. I follow a few steps behind the four straggly people who make up my new family. Kenny sticks a finger up his nose. Lucas picks up a lollipop off the ground and licks it. Bob sneaks a kiss on my mom’s neck. They’re all gross.

“Do I have to go?” I ask my mom.

“I wanna ride the Speeding Saucers!” shouts Lucas, his mouth blue from the used lollipop.

“Would you rather take Lucas on his ride instead?” my mom asks.

Hmmm… a terrifying high-speed stomach drop or a little-kid ride? Not a tough choice. “I’ll take Lucas,” I gladly volunteer.

“Okay, great, honey,” my mom says. I can tell she thinks this is proof that our new family is working out perfectly. “We’ll meet you back at the Speeding Saucers,” she calls as she follows Bob and Kenny toward the dangers of the roller coaster.

“Ready?” I ask Lucas.

“Let’s go!”

The Speeding Saucers ride is a bunch of seats in these things that are painted to look like spaceships that spin around in different directions. It’s one of the rides I actually don’t mind.

“Pick a ship, Lucas,” I say after we give the ride operator our tickets. Lucas runs to one that’s painted with orange and red flames. The man who took our tickets comes around and pulls the safety bar down over our laps. Lucas squeezes in close to me. His warm little body smells like grease and ketchup and blue raspberry. The ride starts slowly at first, the whirring of the engine echoing in my ears.

“Fun!”

“It hasn’t even really started yet,” I tell him. “Just wait.”

Pretty soon the saucers are rotating. The whole ride goes around in circles, spinning even faster. “Wheeee!” Lucas shouts and scoots closer to me. “This is SO fun, Mattie!”

We spin backward. The ride picks up speed. Around and around we go, like planets in orbit, swirling and twirling. The force of the turns pushes his little five-year-old body toward me. Lucas grabs my arm and whoops. My new world whips past: first the dark-green Santa Cruz Mountains, then the sparkly Pacific Ocean. We whirl around in pointless circles, laughing and shouting. I haven’t felt this free since we moved here. Maybe having a little brother isn’t going to be so bad, I think. That is, until we get off.