The City Beautiful

Having lived in Orlando since it was built, I figured it was finally time to check it out. I came out after work which meant that I made it just as the sun was starting to set. While I was hoping for a quick in-and-out operation to check it out, my regrets have grown as I have dealt with a two-hour-long line for a twenty-minute experience.

Regardless, it is finally my turn and I plan to enjoy a bird’s eye of view of the city known as “The City Beautiful”. As I sit, I slide my small bookbag off my shoulders and place it on the bench seat next to me. With that off my back, I relax a little bit, listening to the spiel as my cabin begins its ascent.

Before it breaks the skyline and gives me a view, I check my reflection with my selfie camera. “Might as well get a cool photo out of this wait,” I grumble to myself. My dark brown pixie haircut had begun to stick to my head with the heat, but a little glide thru of the hands and it is back to its short and aloof nature. Tilting my camera, I check my outfit for any stains or marks that I should try to avoid on camera. My Doc Marten combat boots have a nice shine to them and match well with black skinny torn jeans. They fit the punky aesthetic I was aiming for and worked well with my blue tank-top and black bra. As far as I could tell, I look all good and ready for the photo.

And then, we broke the skyline.

Before I could even begin to whether I wanted my photo to face the crowded business district or towards the theme parks you, the sun made its way into the cabin. The sun making its way in accomplished two things. First, at the angle it was setting, it was absolutely blinding. Second, much like my car at any point where the weather isn’t already chilly, the cabin immediately began to heat up. Blinking and swearing, I turned away from the sunlight and regain my sight slowly.

Letting a few, final swears loose, I regain my composure and vision and decide to just take the selfie where I’m sitting and where you get little bits of both parts of the city in the background. I snap a few photos and pull up my gallery to check them out. Seeing that the few photos I took are all oversaturated by the sun, I let out an audible sigh. I put my head into my right hand with my phone in the left, and mutter to the empty cabin with all my frustrations, “Why Orlando? Why are you like this?”

“Like what?” replied the formerly empty air of the cabin in a deeply masculine voice.

Flipping my head out of my hand and dropping my phone clear across the cabin, I shriek and look for the source of the voice. As I look up, the first thing to come into my line of sight is my phone, which is being held in a tanned hand. As my gaze travels further up the hand and arm attached to my phone, I realize that I’m no longer alone.

Holding my phone out to me is a young man, likely in his early twenties, dressed in brown sandals, khaki shorts, an opened button-up floral shirt with a white tank top underneath, and aviator shades pulled back above his eyes supporting some slicked-back hair. His tanned skin populates every area the clothes don’t cover with most of it supporting a cast of muscles that would make most girls swoon. Fortunately for me, most girls are my preferred cup of tea, so I look past the muscles and ask in a slightly quick tone, “Who are you? How’d you get here?” I pause to catch my breathe and notice the cabin feels hotter than just a moment ago. “And why is it so damn hot in here?”

The man gestures for me to take my phone and takes a deep breath. “Let’s take these one at a time. Name’s Orlando. I got here because I’m always here. It is my town after all. And it's hot because of the humidity and the sun.” He gestures again with my phone before continuing. “Now for my question. Like what?”

I reach out and grab my phone as my brain tries to process through what he just said. I fiddle with my phone in my hands and try to coherently respond. “I mean like this as in crazy with the temperature and the crowds and everything else.” I take a quick breath and look him in his ocean blue eyes before continuing. “And to be clear, are you saying you are Orlando, the city?”

He stares back at me, looking into my green eyes, and answers, “I thought I gave a clear response, but yeah, it is me, Orlando. And as to your other question, it's all location, location, location.”

My face must have twisted into some confused look because he continues without waiting for a response. “You get that Orlando is in a naturally hotter area of the planet, right?”

“I get that, but in regard to heat, why is it so hot in this cabin?”

“Oh,” he exclaims, and as quickly as he does the cabin cools, and as it changes, so does he. Or should I say she. As suddenly as ‘Orlando’ had appeared, they changed from a college frat bro look-a-like to a long raven-haired young woman, who looked in her mid-twenties like me and looked ready for a night of clubbing in a short black dress and heels. She flashed me a quick smile before continuing that brought a blush to my cheeks. “It has been a minute since I’ve shown up like this, and I forgot that what you see from me is what you feel from me too.” She pauses, flashing another smile. “Thus, if I am showing off the climate, like before, you feel the heat even worse.”

I sit there on my bench, my phone still in hand, brain switching between dumbstruck and self-conscious. I look down at my phone then peek back up, smiling, before continuing. “So before was the climate of Orlando which I despise most of the year. It's either broiling hot or dramatically humid, and that is a lot to suffer through.” I take a harder look at her now. “So, if that was the case before, what are you supposed to represent now, and what else do you represent?”

As quickly as I finished talking, her words started flowing in response. “Right now, I’m the nightlife of the city. A fun club or bar where you can enjoy a good time with some friends.”

I do enjoy that; I think to myself as she continues.

“And,” she says as her form shifts again to a young girl decked out in gear for the theme parks with pins and a hat and a matching family t-shirt, “now I’m the fun that you get going to the parks. I mean, look at all the awesome rides and characters!” As she exclaims, I can feel the exciting buzz roll through the cabin and through me, which makes sense since I’m a huge parkgoer myself.

But as she keeps going to herself, the buzz continues to grow, like a bug in my ear, growing louder and louder until my head feels like it’s about to split. And then suddenly stops. She looks at me again and says “And that’s the roar of tourism. It's essential for us here.”

“But it can be too much at times,” I respond as I gesture outside the cabin to the busy area below.

“It is a matter of perspective. To you, it is a wild untamable beast, but to me, it is pretty much a part of the blood that flows through my body and keeps me moving.” Orlando keeps going, and their form begins to shift between the different forms as it continues, blending and separating all at the same time. “We may have different views, but this city is me, and you live here so this city is a part of you too. We may not always agree with each other or even like each other, but as The City Beautiful, I am a part of you and you’re a part of me. We grow together.”

As they continue, the cabin begins to reach the end of its journey, as it goes beneath the skyline, the visage of Orlando waves, smiles, and fades. I spend the rest of the ride in silence before grabbing my bag to exit. I smile, acknowledging the journey that ride had been. I step out, look towards the sky as the sunlight fades and the lights of the night flicker on. This is my city, The City Beautiful.