by Jay
So there we were, in Ricardo’s
Jeep, with a head carved out of coconut wedged onto the dashboard and grinning
wildly at us as we bounced along the dirt roads somewhere deep in Nayarit
, Mexico. My
ankle stung from my freshly-inked tattoo, and my body ached from the antics of
the night before. My roommate and partner-in-crime Patricia seemed fine.
And then the road stopped.
“Ready?” Ricardo asked. “For
what?” I didn’t know what we were about to do. “Wrong answer!” he shouted and
we dove right into the chunky dirt. I was almost knocked out of my seat. “Do
you know where we’re going?” I asked, thinking I probably should’ve asked that
before we’d even left Vallarta. “Well, we were here last week… hopefully we can
find it again…” Bruce noted. He already had an open beer in his hand. It wasn’t
even ten o'clock.
“What kinda shoes you got
on?” Ricardo asked. He looked at my thin sandals with disdain. “They’ll have to
do. Everyone out.”
It did occur to me that this might in fact be the end. Having just met Ricardo and Bruce the week before in Vallarta, I had no way of knowing if all of the niceness was just
a ploy to earn my trust for when they would sell me. A dirty, tattooed, and
hungover me surely wouldn’t fetch as much as I would’ve the previous week, but
being young and white was enough.
We trudged along behind
Ricardo, who did indeed seem to know where he was going. Bruce brought up the
rear with a case of beer under his arm. We came to a river and had to wade
through it – hence Ricardo’s disdain of my sandals – but he helped me keep
steady on the rocky bed. We ambled up the other side and came to what looked
like a mudpit. Patricia and I stared at each other as the guys dug in with
spades. Within minutes, there was, miraculously, a hot spring.
We all stripped down to our
skivvies and eased in. It was hot,
which may be obvious, but I’d never been in a hot spring before. The four of us
settled in slowly, my ankle stinging in pain from the fresh needle marks.
Ricardo looked at my wincing and told me it would heal all the faster because
of the minerals. A week later, his prophecy proved correct.
The heat got to me and Bruce
so we got out and jumped back into the ice cold river. I floated on my back,
looking up at the flawless blue sky and wondering how I ended up here. Ricardo
watched us throwing water at each other and belly flopped next to me. We got
out to dry off and lay in the sun to tan for a while. Bruce gave me a beer and
I finally gave in to my destiny. Patricia was still in the hot spring, so
Ricardo would whistle periodically to make sure she hadn’t passed out.
We suddenly heard a loud
engine revving in the distance. Out of nowhere, a Jeep painted like a
watermelon came crashing along the riverbank. Four teenagers were screeching
with pleasure as they bounced along the dusty bed. They drove in wild circles,
kicking up a cloud of dust. The Jeep repositioned itself straight at us. I sat
up, watching, getting a little nervous that they would run us over. Of course,
the river was between us, but they seemed bent on driving through it. And
suddenly, the Jeep lurched forth, flew in the air, and immediately got stuck in
the river. The kids burst out laughing.
We watched as they tried to
pry it out, but nothing worked. They pushed from the front and then from
the back, but it didn’t budge. Bruce got up to help them. “Fuck that,” said
Ricardo. “That’s the price of stupidity.” I thought it was sweet of Bruce to
help them. He found a huge branch that he fashioned as a lever to lift the
Jeep a bit. They shoved it just enough to get it moving again, and the kids
hopped in and drove away in the direction from which they’d come. Bruce walked
back up the bank and sprawled out on his towel next to me, both of us laughing
at the prospect of getting run over by a giant watermelon.
I drifted in and out of
sleep a little bit, feeling the sun bear down on my skin, feeling my youth,
feeling alive. Ricardo looked at me and smiled and said “Yep, kid. Just another
shitty day in paradise.”
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