THE GRAND TOUR OF OKLAHOMA
Chapter Thirteen While they stood in the queue, the man brought out another trolley and set a cooler on top of it that had cans of several different brands of pop in ice. He also set out a small jar of dried hot peppers for the pizza along with a can of parmesan cheese. When the Doctor and Rose got to the pizza, they looked at the choices. They had cheese, pepperoni and sausage. Rose chose cheese and received two slices while the Doctor got two slices of pepperoni. The Doctor refused the salad while Rose got a bit of it and they looked over the cookies before the Doctor picked up some small tongs and got one chocolate chip cookie. Rose did the same and put a bit of parmesan cheese on her salad along with a bit of ranch dressing. The Doctor put some of the hot peppers on his pizza with a bit of parmesan cheese. They looked in the cooler, pull out two Cokes and went back to their seats. "No salad for you?" Rose said to him. "No! Salads are for sissies," the Doctor said. Rose pulled a bit of sliced tomato out of her salad and fed it to him. The Doctor grinned and ate it. Rose tried her pizza. "Mmm, this is good," she said after taking a bite. The Doctor tried his and licked his lips after swallowing a bite. "Okay, this night might not be a total loss," he whispered to Rose while she nodded in agreement. When everyone got their food and sat back down, Mary started the film. Rose chewed her pizza while the film began. She raised her eyebrow when she saw an American football team playing on screen. "Oh no, I know nothing about American football," Rose muttered to the Doctor. "I hope the whole film isn't about this. And I've never heard of Facing The Giants. You?" The Doctor shook his head. They ate their food while they watched the movie. But in the first five minutes, Rose began to suspect it was a Christian film when the main character came home and began a religious discussion with his wife. "Oh Lord, here we go," Rose muttered while the Doctor sniggered. "Thought it wasn't supposed to be a Christian film." "And it's about American football too," the Doctor pointed out. "I know, don't remind me," Rose said, rolling her eyes. While she watched, she noticed a man and woman tried to leave early and she did a double take when Mary told them they had to stay. She looked at the Doctor. "D'ya hear that? She's not letting them leave," Rose whispered to the Doctor. "Are we prisoners here?" "We must watch the Christian film," the Doctor muttered with a blank look on his face. "We must believe." Rose snickered and swatted his arm. She turned her attention back to the film but quickly got bored with it. The main character was a coach who came to a small town high school and was trying to turn around the losing football team. She frowned when they showed a scene of the coach preaching to the players during practice. "Isn't that forbidden?" Rose muttered to the Doctor. "Separation of church and state in America, right? And no prayer in school?" "This is a Christian film, we must believe," the Doctor said in a robotic voice. Rose giggled and poked his arm. The Doctor poked her arm back and winked as he took a bite of his cookie. He finished his food and went back for a couple more slices of pizza but Rose pushed her empty plate away and sipped her water. She watched the film and looked at the Doctor who was finishing putting some pizza on his plate. She pointed to the film when he turned and caught her eye. "What now?" the Doctor asked, sitting back down. "Okay, there was one kid on his team who wasn't a Christian and told him that and the coach prayed for a revival and suddenly this kid believes and now the whole team is sitting there during practice talking about Jesus to each other. On a scale of one to ten, how believable is that?" "Rose, Rose, Rose, don't you know where you are?" the Doctor muttered to her. "You're smack dab on the belt buckle of the Bible belt of the United States of America. You notice how no one else in here is making comments about this film like you are. It's because you're in Jesusville, my dear." "And I'm the one that pointed to Oklahoma on the map." "Yup, it's your fault we're here," the Doctor said, poking her arm repeatedly. "Wait…" He pointed to Mary who went out the side door into the other room. "Now!" the Doctor said, pointing to the front door. "Hey!" Suri said as the Doctor and Rose leapt up and hurried to the door. They burst outside and ran across the parking lot laughing. "FREE!" Rose yelled while the Doctor laughed. "Yes! Free to go to Bricktown and have some good old fashioned fun!" the Doctor yelled as they hurried down the stairs and across the other section of the parking lot. Rose looked back over her shoulder and laughed. "Yes! And that nutjob didn't follow us! We're free of him as well!" she yelled. "Whoohoo!" the Doctor howled while Rose laughed. They rounded the corner of the church and sprinted across the street, slowing down when they were by the memorial. "Phew," the Doctor said as they slowed down and walked by the outer wall of the memorial. "Now…let's go back to the bus stop and wait for the trolley." As they passed by the memorial, they suddenly heard running water. They stopped by some steps going up from the sidewalk and saw a waterfall on the second level. The Doctor and Rose climbed up and walked over to it. There was a large granite pool on the third level and the water was flowing down a granite wall into some grates at the base of the waterfall. Rose took a photo of it and took one of the Doctor standing beside it. They then went up to the next level and gazed at the pool before Rose walked over to the far side where there was a brass and glass barrier wall. She leaned over it and saw they were at the back of the chairs' area. The Doctor came up beside her and looked down and then looked out over the memorial. "No one's pinched your gifts to Rebecca and Baylee," he said, pointing to their chairs. "Good, I hope they stay there," Rose said. "Well, let's get outta here before Suri starts a hunt for us," the Doctor said. The two of them turned and walked back down to street level. They walked back down the hill to the bus station. Rose walked over to the bus station so she could use the restroom and grunted when she pulled on the door and it didn't open. She looked inside and saw only a janitor. "Wait, they're closed?" Rose said as the Doctor walked up to her. The Doctor checked his watch. "It's just after 7," he said to her. Rose did a double take. She rapped on the glass and got the janitor's attention. "Excuse me, have the buses stopped running?" Rose said. "Yes, we're closed for the night." "What about the trolley?" the Doctor said. "It runs till 11. You can catch it over there," he said, pointing to the bus bay across from the station. They thanked him and walked across. "The buses stop running by 7 at night?" Rose said to the Doctor. "What if people want to do something?" "I s'pose they better do it before 7 p.m. then," the Doctor said as they sat down on the metal seats. The Doctor glanced at his TARDIS while they sat. Satisfied that it was alright, he let out a yawn and put his arm around Rose while they waited for the trolley. The air was still warm and there was a slight beading of sweat on Rose's brow but the sun was beginning to go down and she didn't look like she was in too much discomfort so he relaxed. He was concerned more for her than for himself since he could cope with everything except the most extreme of temperatures but he didn't want Rose getting heat stroke so he made sure she wasn't overheating in the 100 degree plus temperatures. He glanced back when he heard a rumbling and he and Rose saw the trolley turning the corner. They stood up and walked to the curb while the trolley slowed down and stopped for them. The doors opened out and they climbed three steps up inside it. There were a couple of wooden benches by the door with plump red cushions on them. Then a few seats that faced the driver and in the back were two more benches on the side beside a second door and in the very back was a bench that curved around the back of the trolley. The Doctor and Rose sat down on the first bench and the driver closed the door and went on. The Doctor looked up and saw some brochure holders beside him. He saw one that had a map of Oklahoma City and he pulled it open and he and Rose held it while they studied the map. The map was an arial view of downtown Oklahoma City with word balloons pointing to different things. "There's the canal ride," Rose said, pointing to it on the map. "Um…Sir, can you let us off at the canal ride?" she called to the driver. "Yup," the driver said. Rose thanked him and turned her attention back to the map. "Hey, Toby Keith has a restaurant," she said, pointing to one of the word balloons. "Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill, hmmm," the Doctor said. "Wonder what it's like?" "You just had four pieces of pizza," Rose said to him. "I know but I'm talking about in future we could go back," the Doctor said. He glanced up to see where they were at and leaned up to see out the front window. They were heading towards a bridge that had Bricktown across it in large letters. The driver pulled a cord and rang a bell as they went through the bridge. Rose leaned up with him and then they settled back while they watched him go by a U-Haul distribution center. "Hey, cinema," the Doctor said as they drove by the next thing. "We could go see something that isn't overtly Christian." "I don't know what's playing right now," Rose said. "Well, we could walk by it and check. Besides there are a lot of shops around it that we could have a dekko at." They looked behind them and saw a large baseball park. "Who is the local team here?" Rose asked the driver. "The Redhawks," he called to her. "Do you wanna watch a game while we're here?" the Doctor asked her. "When do they play?" Rose asked the driver. "Tonight and tomorrow." "Tomorrow?" the Doctor asked her. "That sounds good, I wouldn't mind going to a baseball game, at least I know something about that," Rose said. The driver turned a corner up by a hotel and went under an overpass to a parking lot. He went across it, turned back and went by a large store. "Bass Pro," the Doctor said, reading the sign above the entrance while the driver slowed the trolley down and stopped in front of it. The Doctor folded the map and put it in his pocket while the driver waited a moment for passengers. He glanced up at the other brochures and pulled down one that was filled with coupons. Rose laid her head on his shoulder and looked through it with him while the driver closed the door and went on. The driver turned right and went about a block and turned right again. They watched while he drove past half finished overpasses. "Apparently, they're building a new motorway here," the Doctor said as they looked out the window. The driver drove towards a bridge and the Doctor saw a small sign that said Oklahoma River on it and a larger sign beside it that said Regatta Park. "What's Regatta Park?" the Doctor asked the driver. "You can rent boats and go down the Oklahoma River here." "Ooo, we could do that," the Doctor said to Rose. "Lovely little boat ride on the river." "Yeah, that sounds good," Rose said as the driver turned the trolley around in the parking lot and went back the way he came. The Doctor was confused. The driver was now going back the same way he came and he wondered where the canal ride was. "Excuse me, is the canal ride back at Regatta Park?" he asked the driver. "No, it's by the ballpark. I turn right when we get to it and the canal ride is across from it." "Okay, good." They followed the same route back to the ballpark and then the driver turned right at the corner of the ballpark. The Doctor pointed to several horse and carriages that were lined up along the curb. "Gotta check those out as well," the Doctor said to Rose as they went past. The trolley stopped at a small bus shelter, a metal chair that had a wooden structure built over it. Over the chair were lighted words that said Ballpark and Canal. "We're here," the driver said to him. "Canal is across the street." The Doctor and Rose thanked him and got out. The driver went on and they hurried across the street to a small hut where a woman was selling tickets for the ride. They paid 6.50 apiece and went down stairs to a lower level. When they were on the lower level, they saw a sign indicating the line for the canal ride started here and they stood beside it while they looked around. "Hey, they have a Hooters," the Doctor said, pointing to a restaurant on street level. "Yeah, they have a Coyote Ugly pub next to it," Rose said, pointing to it. "Is that significant?" the Doctor said to her. "You've never seen the film, Coyote Ugly?" The Doctor shook his head. "The film's about a bar where the women get up on the counter and dance around while the men watch them. They act all sexy and stuff while they serve drinks. I'm guessing they do that here as well," she said, pointing to the entrance. "Good job Jack isn't here, we'd never get him out of the place," the Doctor said while Rose giggled. "But never mind that, we could go to Hooters though and watch the owls. I like owls." "Um…Doctor, Hooters isn't about owls," Rose said. "Oh? What is it about?" the Doctor said innocently. Rose stared at his face and saw his muscles quiver while he tried not to laugh. "You know what Hooters is," she said, swatting his arm. "Yes, I do. Another place we'd never get Jack away from." "Tell me about it," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "Although…it might be funny seeing you dressed in one of those skimpy outfits the women wear." "How'd you know about that?" "I'm 902 years old, Rose; I have been around and seen things. I'm not that thick," the Doctor said while she giggled. "Well, you can dream about me dressing all slutty like they do but you won't ever see it." "Challenge accepted." "I'm sorry?" Rose said. "I won't ever see you in a Hooters outfit, Challenge accepted then. I love a challenge." "You better not make me pass out because if I do and and I wake up and I'm in one of their outfits, you'll be in big trouble!" "There's no way you can stop me," the Doctor said airily. "I'm a black belt in Venusian Aikido. My hands are registered because they're deadly weapons." "Ugh, don't start quoting him, okay? I don't even wanna think about that drunken git," she said while he giggled. They looked at the canal when a bright yellow pontoon boat came through a bridge and headed towards the dock. They waited until it stopped and the passengers in the boat left before the two of them got inside it.
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