Hot Tubs, Slides, and Gangs, Oh My!

“Our brother loves water rides!” One of the girls says, smiling. I turn as a guy next to them is standing up. He has a ratio of skin to tattoos of about fifty-fifty, is well over six and a half feet tall, and looks muscular enough to be able to defeat Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, and Bruce Lee in a fight in under two minutes. He towers over 15-year-old, 130-140 pound me. “I love water rides! Want to go on one?” He says, smiling. I smile awkwardly, I glance, scared, at the two girls nearby. I had asked the two girls because I wanted someone to go with on water slides. Preferably one of them and not having my plus one look like they eat puppies for breakfast. Then I feel bad, just because he looks like he could rip me in half like a piece of paper doesn’t mean he will. I don’t want to seem rude. It’s only one water slide, what could go wrong? Even in the most family-friendly places, dark and dangerous people may be lurking around.

He looks at me expectantly, still smiling. “Sure!” I say, pretending to be excited. The guy looks like he’s 35, why did I go from talking to two girls in a hot tub to going on a water slide with the Terminator? As I follow him, I’m not totally scared of him, but I am wondering how to get out of the situation without it being awkward.

We wait in line and it’s kind of quiet after a few minutes. He points down several flights of stairs and has me check out some girls. I glance over the edge. “I actually have really bad eyesight so I can’t see them clearly down there.” He frowns. “Oh, okay, I have great eyesight. I joined the military to become a sniper but then...” He stops talking and points to his head. I say, “Oh cool, but then what?” He replies, “I lost it.” I look at him, confused. “Lost what?” He looks at me seriously, taps his head, and says “It, and then they kicked me out.” I’m quiet for a few seconds as I reevaluate the situation I’m in. I take a deep breath and reply. “Oh… I’m sorry that happened, I’m happy you’re good now!” “Yeah.” He replies unconvincingly and the conversation ends.

Finally, our turn comes to go down the very long, winding, pitch-black slide. We get on the two-person yellow tube that is the same kind used to float around the lazy river. I climb in the front hole and he sits in the back hole. The holes are separated by a band of rubber. It’s not that awkward, it’s not like I’m sitting on his lap. I try to reassure myself, as his calves rub up against my arms. My heart is beating very fast. I don’t think he means he’s completely good. I cautiously glance at the guy I’m going on the ride with as the lifeguard grabs our tube to line it up and waits for the all clear from the lifeguard at the bottom. As soon as the other tube comes out of the slide, he pushes us down. I assumed that we were about to go into a slide that has internal lighting because some of them do at that water park, this one doesn’t. As we plunge into pitch black darkness he leans forward and whispers, “I’m going to kill you.” I say nothing back, my eyes start tearing up, and I wait to die. As we reach the end of the slide an agonizing 45 seconds later, I quickly jump off of the tube and attempt to leave. He follows me and in an excited tone of voice and says, “That was fun! Want to go on another one?” I feel pressured to agree. I sigh “Sure, let’s go.” His face lights up. “Alright!” He turns to me. “You know, you can pass for younger than you are. You’re like what? 14? You could pass as 12.” I can’t hide how annoyed that makes me. “I’m 15.” His face lights up again. “Even better… I might have a gig for you later, depending where you live.” I look at him questioningly, but he doesn’t say anything else and we continue. I follow behind him one step at a time, letting him lead the way to the next slide and my looming fate.

Finally, after going down the slides several more times, I say, “You know I'm getting pretty tired, I'm ready to call it quits.” “Okay! Want to go back to the hot tub?” “Sure,” I reply very unenthusiastically. He doesn't pick up on my lack of enthusiasm. I roll my eyes at myself. “What are you doing, Matthew?” We get back to the hot tub and meet up with his sisters. He and I start talking again. I try to make it not awkward. “So what do you do for fun?” He pauses for a little while. “I'm not sure you're old enough to know about this kind of stuff." Now I’m genuinely curious. “What stuff?” He sighs and then lowers his voice. “I smoke a lot of weed, do some other stuff…” I don’t know how to respond and settle with, “Oh. Maybe you shouldn’t do that stuff. It’s really bad for you, and against the law.” He looks sad. “If I don’t I wouldn’t have any friends.” I start to feel bad for him. “I’m sure they’d understand.” He looks at me directly in the eyes and abruptly changes the subject. Something in his voice changes and becomes intense and raspy. “Back in high school I didn't have any friends, but I don’t think normally.” “Oh.” I reply, nervously. “I got all the people together that didn't have any friends and formed the first high school mafia.” He puts an emphasis on the words high, school, and mafia. I pause for about five seconds and give my classic intellectual answer. “Oh.” He continues staring at me intensely and it starts getting awkward, and I mean really awkward. I wait a little while longer to reply, and then ask him another question. “Are those your friends now that smoke weed and do… Stuff?” “Yes.” He replies, immediately. “Okay.”

I’m trying to plan my escape and am about to go for it, when a boy that looks around 8-11 years old bumps into my gang leader friend, I’ve nicknamed Danger Zone, who doesn't look that affected by it, However, a man grabs the boy and yanks him away hurriedly. The man begins apologizing. “I’m s-so sorry about that, he just wasn’t watching where he was going, excuse us p-please.” The man stutters something I can't hear, and Danger Zone laughs, saying “It's okay.” The man nods and hurries away with his child. By now I know I'm not the only one who thinks Danger Zone is scary. I’m right, I need to leave right now. So, of course, I continue that conversation. “I don't think you should be doing that stuff with your friends. It's really bad. He laughs. “It's not that bad." “Okay.” I continue sitting in the hot tub for a while longer, tuning out what he’s saying as I process everything that's happened in the last two hours. I’m concerned that I haven’t left and begin planning my escape. “There is no way to get away that will not be awkward, he already told me he was going to kill me, that he got kicked out of the military for going insane, runs what I think is a gang, and again, told me he was going to kill me. I’m just going to run so it doesn’t last long.” Still not processing what he’s saying because I just learned too much information that is out of the realm of what’s possible to me at the time.

I take a deep breath and sprint away. Or at least try to. It turns out it’s difficult to run through water higher than your waist. I underestimated the resistance of the water and trip over myself somehow. Danger Zone catches me by my arm, and laughs. “Wow, you almost tripped.” I sit back down in the hot tub. “Yeah, my bad,” I gulp. He laughs. He continues talking but now I’m paying attention. “Anyway, as I was saying, if you’re up for it, we can pay you.” “What?” I ask. He sighs. “Listen, where do you live?” Feeling pressured, I answer him. He nods. “That’s a stopping point between Chicago and Minneapolis, Lots of clients nearby.” I look confused. He says “We sell weed and real drugs.” My eyes bug out of my head. “You in?” He’s squeezing my arm. I gulp. “I’m in.” He laughs. “Good, follow me.” Internally I’m screaming. “WHAT DID I JUST AGREE TO? I DIDN’T REGISTER ANYTHING HE SAID!” I get out of the hot tub and he leads me past several groups of people to a table about 60 feet away.

As we’re walking, people jump out of his way. When we get to the table one of his sisters is there. She looks at us, Danger Zone smiles. “He’s going to help us move supplies.” She looks at me. “Isn’t he 12?” I purse my lips together, then open my mouth to speak. Danger Zone quickly answers. “No, 15. It wouldn’t matter anyway. All he has to do is tell anyone that thinks someone in the crew is sketchy that he’s a relative.” She glances at me. “That would work.” He pulls a small black book out of his pool bag. “When you get home, call the number on line 56 for instructions. You’ll receive confirmation for $20,000, your base pay for the year. You’ll get bonuses on every gig.” My jaw drops as I start thinking about it. “$20,000 what would I even do with that much money?” He hands me the book, winks and walks away. I smile back, awkwardly and walk back to my family’s table in a state of shock. I quickly hide the book in a pool bag. “Hey Mom, there was a gang leader here and-” she cuts me off. “Matthew, we’ve been waiting for you for more than half an hour, we need to leave. Pack up your things.” I grimace. “I’m sorry, but there WAS a gang leader, he-” “Matthew, save your stories for the ride home.” My Mom cuts me off again. “Okay.” I sigh.

In the car I grab the book and hide it in my shirt, until we arrive home. I take the book to my room and call the number Danger Zone said to. On the second ring someone picks up. “Hello?” An unfamiliar and gruff male voice says.

“H-hi, I’m Matthew. I was told to call this number earlier.” There’s a two second pause. “Get a pen ready.” He says in a rough voice. “Okay.” I reply. He gives me an address. “I hope you got all that, I’m not repeating myself.” He says, gruffly. “I got it.” I reply, nervously. He continues, “When we give you a time, be there an hour early.” I hope you have a safe place to store 20 grand.” He hangs up, ending the call.

Two days later, a small package comes in the mail. I grab it before my mom can see it, and then open it in my room. Inside are two burner phones, $20,000, and a pager disguised as a watch. Up until now I wasn’t sure if this was a huge practical joke or not. I look up and just stare at the wall. “How did they even get my address?” I frown as I realize the weight of the situation I’ve gotten myself into. Even in the most innocent places, dangerous people can be lurking around. I really need to learn to pick my water slide partners better.