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.
“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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