Vernon's Waterworks

My hands vibrate as I grasp the cable. The water ripples below me. Even though the cliff I’m standing on is only 20 feet high, it feels like a mile.

A part of me isn’t scared. I know I’m going to injure myself today. Every single person I’ve talked to that’s been to Vernon’s Waterworks has the scars to prove it. Broken bones, dislocations, burn marks, fractures, sprains, concussions.

If I make it out with a pair of broken glasses, that’ll be a victory.

“Come on, you little bitch!”

“Fucking pussy! Jump already!”

I pay no attention to the crowd of drunken teenagers gathered around the edge of the pool. Some are giving me the finger. One of them has his trunks down. He smacks his butt cheeks like a baboon as he moons me.

Even if the lifeguard seat was occupied, it wouldn’t make a difference. Blowing a whistle doesn’t stop a drunk from acting like a drunk.

“Stephen! It’s now or never!”

Chad calls to me from below. I’ll kill him for talking me into this. So much for big brothers setting a good example.

“How’s the water?” I ask.

“Feels great!” he says. “Just do it!”

I stay motionless. Sure, the water feels great, but smashing your cranium against the water and getting a concussion doesn’t appeal to me. There are more pleasant ways of killing yourself than the Suicide Swing.

“If you won’t go,” Zephyr says, “I will. You want to be shown up by a girl?”

I turn around. My cheeks burn, and not from embarrassment.

Even though Zephyr lives three doors down, this is the first time I’ve hung out with her without her parents being around. She’s making up for lost time today. Her black bikini looks ready to snap under the pressure, like the strings on a violin. She’s got a dynamite body, and she wants everybody to know.

“Do it, baby.” Her beer breath shoots into my nostrils. I wince in disgust and almost fall backward over the cliff.

“If you say so.”

I turn back toward the pool. I take a deep breath and exhale. My hands crush the cable. Without thinking, I close my eyes and jump.

Gravity takes over. My hands almost pry apart. Wind rushes past me as I soar toward the pool. Now I understand why people ride the Suicide Swing. This is exciting.

I let go of the cable at the top of the arc. The moment my feet touch the water, I know I’m in trouble.

It’s fucking freezing.

I splash into the pool. A million tiny needles pierce my body. I gasp in shock and let ice-cold water into my lungs. Stars flicker in my eyes. I know how to swim, but my technique goes out the window. My arms and legs flail around. Somehow, I surface. Oxygen rushes in. I cough the water out. My hands shiver as I grasp the ladder rungs and pull myself out. I double over as I catch my breath.

“God… holy shit.”

The Suicide Swing. What an apt name.

“How was it?” Chad asks. “Your balls shrivel up?”

What an ass. He’s got to be the biggest liar in New Jersey. I shove him as hard as I can. He stumbles backward.

“Fucking water was ice-cold! I couldn’t breathe! I thought I was going to die!”

“We come here to die,” Chad says. “Here, there aren’t any rules. We can do whatever we want. What happens at Vernon’s Waterworks stays at Vernon’s Waterworks. That’s the fun of it.”

Zephyr is up now. She waves to the crowd. She bobs the cable up and down like a jump rope. Her grin stretches from ear to ear. She looks like she’s having the time of her life.

“Banzai!” she yells.

I hold my breath as she jumps off the cliff. Her mouth forms an O shape as she flies down toward the water.

The moment that she comes to the bottom of the arc, her hands open. She can’t support her own body weight. She screams as she falls into the water on her back.

No one yells for a lifeguard. She could have broken her neck.

“Oh my God…”

A canyon forms in my stomach. I start to panic. I debate jumping in and going after her. If the pool wasn’t so cold and murky, I’d have pulled her out by now.

A few seconds later, a black bikini top floats to the surface. The crowd goes silent.

“No way,” Chad says.

It feels like an eternity as we wait for Zephyr. Maybe she’s debating drowning versus giving a hundred horny teenagers a partial frontal.

At last, she surfaces. My eyes almost pop out of my head and into the pool.

Oh fuck me…

Her breasts defy explanation. They’re like two bowls of vanilla ice cream sitting side by side with cherries on top, waiting to be devoured.

She rubs water out of her eyes. Her head darts around as she looks for her top. The crowd bursts into applause.

“What a rack!”

“Nice raisins!”

Zephyr flips off the crowd as she snatches her top and swims toward the edge of the pool. I thrust my hand out and help her up. She feels like an icicle.

“Zephyr! Are you alright?” I ask.

“Never better,” she says as she puts her top back on. “So! What do you want to ride now?”

“Ole Skipper!” Chad says. “Skip-per! Skip-per!”

“Sounds good!” Zephyr says.

I’m flabbergasted. It’s like the past five minutes never happened and none of us almost lost our lives… or our modesty.

We walk across the park. I can’t believe I forgot to pack sandals. The asphalt makes me feel like I’m walking on the surface of the sun. I hop up and down like a monkey.

“What time do you guys have to be home by?” Zephyr asks.

“Nope,” Chad says. “Folks are on vacation. We can stay as late as we want!”

“Yee-haw!” Zephyr shouts. She waves her arms above her head in excitement. If opposites really do attract, then me and Zephyr were made for each other. She doesn’t care what anybody thinks.

“You know,” Zephyr says, “I didn’t think you had it in you, Stephen. You showed some guts back there.”

“And you showed your tits,” Chad says. “I know Stephen really appreciated it. He’s had a crush on you since we moved to Jersey.”

Zephyr’s cheeks color. She bites her bottom lip.

 “Oh, really?” she says.

I roll my eyes as I try to mask my embarrassment. There’s no good way to respond. If I say No, I’d be lying. If I say Yes, well…

“Whatever,” I say as I shake my head.

After crossing a bridge that goes over the Lazy River, we make it to Ole Skipper. I don’t know how it’s possible, but this one looks more dangerous than the Suicide Swing.

Three U-shaped slides are set up next to each other. The good news is that they’re only 30 feet long. Not like the Zero G Slide or the Turf Slide.

The bad news is that you have to go down on a sled. Once you hit the water, you’re supposed to skip across like a rock thrown at a pond.

In theory.

“Holy shit!” Zephyr says. “Can any of you fine gentlemen help a girl out? This thing weighs a ton.”

The sled is taller than Zephyr. Four rinky-dink wheels are attached to the bottom. There are no handles to grip it.

“I got it,” Chad says. He carries a sled under each arm.

Fuck. This sled is heavy. I only make it up a few steps before I have to set it down. Eventually, we make it up the flight of stairs.

“Ladies first,” Chad says. He drops a sled on the slide. Zephyr lays down on her stomach.

“See you at the bottom!” she says. She pushes herself forward. The wheels screech against the slide. The sled rockets down and hits the water. She slides across like she’s on a bed of ice. Eventually, her sled loses speed.

“Jesus!” Chad says. “She almost made it to the end of the pool!”

I gape in terror. Zephyr got lucky. I’ve heard so many stories of people leaning forward and face-planting on this fucking slide.

“You’re up, little brother!” Chad says. “Make sure you lean back, or you’ll split your noggin open!”

“Chad,” I say, “this is nuts. You can get hurt. There’s a million things that can go wrong. I mean… look at this slide. You see all those crevices where the metal pieces connect? You can get your toes caught!”

My pleas fall on drunk ears.

“Zephyr’s got the hots for you,” he says. “She can’t keep her eyes off you.”

I look at the ground below. Zephyr’s waving at me. Her smile is intoxicating.

Come to think of it, she didn’t have to tag along with us. She’s got her own car. She can come down here with her girlfriends whenever she wants.

She chose to come with us.

“Are you serious?” I ask.

He nods.

“You lied to me earlier about the Suicide Swing,” I say. “That water felt like Antarctica.”

“I wouldn’t lie about this,” he says. “Trust me, she’s into you.”

He pats my shoulder.

“Now stop being a little bitch and get going!” he says.

 I can’t help but grin. Chad’s got his flaws, but he does know how to build somebody up.

I sit down on the sled. My knuckles turn white as I grip the sides. I heave forward. Like a bullet fired out of a gun, my sled tears down the slide. I bounce on the water. I keep my balance. I bounce again. I remember to lean backward…

I stay up. The sled skips all the way across the pool before it runs out of steam. I almost scream in excitement. I fucking did it. My legs feel like jelly as I step out of the pool.

Zephyr’s mouth hangs open.

“That was nuts!” she says. “You went farther than me! Fuckin’ A!”

She high-fives me. Her hand lingers against mine. My heart skips a beat. Does she actually like me? Maybe Chad was right…

“Oh my God!” Zephyr says. “Look!”

I turn around. My stomach disappears from my chest. I close my eyes and open them just to make sure that I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing.

Chad is standing on top of his sled like a surfer. Both middle fingers are raised. He pushes himself forward with his foot.

My jaw falls on the ground. Chad’s lost his mind.

“WOO-HOO!” he says.

He flies down the slide like a bat out of hell. His arms are outstretched for balance. Somehow, he makes it down the slide without killing himself. I dare myself to think that he’ll get by with a few bruises.

The moment his sled touches the water, he winces. He knows he screwed up.

I see it happen in slow motion. He falls backward. The sled comes out from under him and shoots forward like a missile. His back slams into the water.

“CHAD!”

I sprint forward and jump into the pool. Miraculously, he emerges. I grab his arm and hoist him up.

“Fuck… ouch.”

“Dude!” I say. “You’re nuts! You could’ve died!”

“Had to try it,” he says. “No one said I couldn’t.”

That reminds me. I look around for the lifeguard’s chair. Once again, it’s empty. Where the fuck are they?

“Oh man…” Chad cradles the back of his head. “I need a break. That one hurt. You guys know where the infirmary is?”

“It’s back by the entrance,” I say. “You want me to go with you?”

“Nah, you guys have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Chad walks away. I grimace as I notice the blood on his hand.

Maybe that’s the best thing that could’ve happened to him. Now he won’t be riding anything else for the rest of the day. At least he’ll be going home alive and not in a body bag.

“So, what do you want to do now?” I ask.

Zephyr claps her hands. “Turf Slide! Let’s go!”

Oh no.

No no no no no.

Turf Slide is the most dangerous ride in the park. Almost all the injuries I’ve seen at school happened on the Turf Slide.

“Zephyr, are you sure about this?”

“Yes, I am!”

She grabs my hand and pulls me along. Immediately, my heart rate doubles. I don’t want to have anything to do with this ride… but I can’t refuse Zephyr. My feet move by themselves.

A ski lift goes up to the top of a hill where you enter the slide. There’s a pile of carts next to the lift. Each cart has a brake that you can pull up. I would bet my life that none of them work. Zephyr takes two of the carts and hangs them on a hook on the side of the lift. She sits down and beckons me on.

“Room for one more,” she says.

I don’t have a choice. This is probably the only chance I’ll ever get with her. I get onto the ski lift. The bar comes down and locks us in. With a jolt, the lift starts to rise. The ground falls away from us.

I glance down at the Turf Slide. For the life of me, I can’t understand what it’s doing in a water park. It’s a concrete slide that wasn’t even designed to keep you on it. It has more twists and turns than an obstacle course. And if you do fly off the track, there are rocks all around the hill to break your fall.

“What’s been your favorite part of the day?” Zephyr asks.

“Other than meeting the twins?” I say. “Lunch.”

Zephyr snorts with laughter. Her hand grazes mine. I know she can hear my heart thumping against my chest.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Zephyr says. “I had a really great time.”

She cups my thigh. Is she trying to give me a heart attack or something?

“You know,” she says, “you’re a really cute guy, Stephen…”

I can’t move. This is too much. She grazes her lips against my neck. They slowly move up to my cheeks.

“Kiss me, baby,” she whispers.

My lips meet hers. I’m going to die. This feels so good. She kisses me like she’s possessed or something. I don’t even have to do anything. She takes control. Her hands roam all over my body. I place mine on her hips. She doesn’t say anything…

Before anything else can happen, the lift halts at the top of the hill. The bar swings up. We get off the lift. I grab the carts from the hook and give one to her.

“Why don’t you go first, big boy?” She spanks me. I almost jump out of my skin. “Show me what ya got.”

Maybe I’ve worried too much about all this. I mean, you can die driving to school. There’s a risk to everything in life. And no matter what you do, you can’t escape it. Maybe I should try and be more like Zephyr and just accept it.

Before I set my cart on the ground, I spot a bulletin board out of the corner of my eye. It doesn’t list any rules or safety tips.

Instead, it’s filled to the brim with pictures of the slide’s victims. One of the pictures shows a girl with burn marks on her thigh and chest. Another shows a guy with casts on each arm.

I feel the color drain out of my face. This ride really is dangerous. No girl is worth losing your life over. There’s no way I’m doing this.

“No,” I say. “I’m not going on that thing, and you shouldn’t either.”

I take my cart and set it back on the ski lift.

“Really?” she says. “You’re not doing it?”

I cross my arms. My eyes burrow into hers. It takes her a few seconds to recognize that I’m being serious.

Her face falls. It’s like I hurt her feelings or something by choosing to not put my life at risk on a water park ride.

“Oh,” she says. “Okay. I can just go by myself then…”       

She drops her cart onto the slide with a clatter. Terrific. Now she’s upset.

“Zephyr, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or anything, but this is crazy. Why don’t we just forget about this and go get a bite? I’ll pay…”

“Don’t bother,” she says. “I really thought you were something.”

She doesn’t meet my eyes. She grasps the brake in the middle of the cart.

“Fucking hell… it wouldn’t have worked anyway,” she says. “We’re just too different.”

My heart breaks. Her cart descends. She doesn’t scream for joy like earlier.

I watch her pick up speed. She leans into the turns. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she’s done this before.

She approaches a sign telling her to slow down. She tugs on the brakes. Nothing happens. She pulls on the brakes as hard as she can. They still don’t work. She’s going faster than ever.

“Oh no,” I say out loud.

“STEPHEN!” she screams.

She hits the turn at full speed and flies right out of her cart. She soars through the air before crashing into a pile of rocks. Her cart continues down the slide.

I rush down the side of the hill. Rocks scrap against my feet. I don’t feel any pain. My eyes lock on Zephyr. She’s not moving.

I can’t explain it, but I already know it’s too late.

Before I see the blood stains on the rocks, I know it’s too late.

Before I reach her body and fail to resuscitate her, I know it’s too late.

Before I shout for help and they take her body down the hill and throw her into an ambulance and drive her to the hospital, I know it’s too late.

After all, it’s just like Chad said. We come here to die.

And she got her wish.

Author’s Biography

James graduated from Loyola University Chicago with degrees in business and music. He recently quit his job as a data analyst to write full-time. He enjoys reading and writing, piano, jiu jitsu, snuggling with his wife, and his self-appointed role as president of the Evgeny Kissin fan club. Several of his short stories have been picked up by publishers such as Gypsum Sound Tales, Hellbound Books, and Black Hare Press. You can find him on Instagram under the handle @james.fritz.writing