When we reached the corkscrew part of the slide we actually made a complete one-eighty spin so that we were going down backwards. Sheller screamed and I’m not sure if he was screaming because he was scared or if he was having fun. We emerged from the slide like a couple human cannonballs and went airborne. My back hit the water first in a sort of skimming backward flop. We had been going so fast that, when we entered the water, the force of it pulled Sheller out of my arms. Thankfully he was a good swimmer. The instant my head came out of the water I knew something was wrong.

My back was stinging almost the way it might if I’d scrapped it across a coral reef. That is when I noticed that floating all around me were fragments of something whitish. Have you ever tried to flush the toilet only to have it just swirl around and shred the toilet paper without sucking it down? Well that is what it was like; it was as if someone had tossed in wads of toilet paper or something. Others in the pool started panicking and swimming for the sides because they didn’t know what the white stuff was either. Sheller pointed at me and exclaimed in a very loud voice, “Your diaper came apart!”

I became instantly aware that below the water’s surface I was completely nude; both my board shorts and the swim diaper were gone. The force of the water had not only pulled Sheller out of my arms, it had also pulled off what little I had been wearing.

Back in Chula Vista, running around naked wouldn’t have bothered me in the least and had I not just been identified as a diaper wearer, I probably wouldn’t have cared that I’d lost my board shorts. But Sheller was laughing and pointing while those around me looked at me with a mixture of horror and disgust.

Someone else came down the slide and when they hit the water, it scattered the bits of what was left of the swim diaper.

I spun around while treading water, trying to find my board shorts. That’s when yet another girl came out of the slide and nearly collided with me. Unfortunately it had caught me by surprises. The splash the girl made threw water over my head and I gasped in a lung full of water; I think maybe even some of the shredded diaper fill stuff had come in with the water.

“Alvin!” I heard someone shout my name.

I am so thankful that Daddy Phil had been there because I sure did swallow a lot of water. The instant he seen that I was in trouble he had dived in to help me. Once he had me at the side of the pool I coughed and choked up water in an attempt to clear my airway. It seemed like forever before I was able to get a halfway decent breath of air into my lungs again. By then a crowd had formed around us as well as several park attendants and two lifeguards had come over.

I don’t know who had thought to cover me with a towel; it wasn’t one of our towels but I am so glad someone thought to cover my shame. You know what is funny? I never did get my board shorts back. No kidding!

When I was able to get up, Daddy Phil had secured the towel around me and we walked to the changing room together with Joey worriedly holding my hand as I continued to cough and clear my throat.

“Thirsty?” Daddy Phil tried to tease me.

I gave him a dirty look as I coughed again followed by a small burp that tasted like pool water.

“That was so embarrassing!” I lamented.

He raked his fingers into the back of my hair and massaged my head, “Embarrassment is just a part of growing up.”

“You should have got changed when I did!” Joey commented.

“I am sorry but I didn’t even think about it.” Daddy Phil began as we neared the changing room. “After about four or five hours the chemicals, which some pools use, begin to break down the glues used in the construction of disposable swim diapers.”

Of course that had been news to me. I do, however remember that, when we had first entered the water park, I had noticed the distinct lack of chlorine in the air. I guess whatever Aquaboggin Water Park uses to keep the pool clean and germ free also dissolves swim diaper glues after several hours of continued exposure. I would think that the makers of swim diapers would be aware of this flaw in their design and come up with a solution for countering such potentially horrifyingly embarrassing situations for their customers. Or at the very least, put some kind of warning on the package. Then again, I have never in my life looked closely at the packing for swim diapers. For all I know there is just such a warning present. I will have to make it a point to check this out.

While Joey and I headed for the center of the changing room to shower off, Daddy Phil leaned my board against the far wall and then went to retrieve our clothes and things.

As soon as we finished washing, we both wrapped towels around ourselves and went over to sit by my board while we waited for Daddy Phil, who seemed to be taking an awfully long time.

“You feeling better?” Joey asked me.

“Yeah, I just forgot for a minute that I wasn’t a fish.” I joked while trying not to remember how embarrassing it was to have everyone looking at me and knowing that it had been my swim diaper that had disintegrated in the pool.

Joey made a weird sort of face, then asked, “Didn’t you say you have a friend named that?”

“Named what?” I asked.

“Fish,” Joey said while making a fish face.

Wow, Joey’s mind sure works fast! I hadn’t even picked up on that.

You know, I just had a disturbing thought. I wonder if they had to close the pool after my swim diaper fell apart, until they got the gunk cleaned up. Yeah, I bet that would make me a real popular guy if I were ever to return to the park. I can just hear them now. “Hey look, there goes the diaper boy who ruined our fun!”

Joey and I were sitting, minding our own business and talking about the sandcastle we and many other kids had made.

“Then two boys came and stomped it all.” Joey said. His upper lip curled up like a snarling dog as he said it too.

I felt a twinge of irritation at hearing that.

“Really?” I replied.

Sure, it was only a sandcastle and I know they are supposed to be a temporary thing but even still, I hate jerks that stomp on sandcastles just for the fun of it. My good friend Gary back in Chula Vista, felt the same way and would chase off anyone he seen doing that sort of thing.

Speaking of Gary, I hadn’t talked to him on the phone or wrote to him since before my dad passed away. I’d tried calling but hadn’t got through. While sitting there on the heated concrete bench I decided that when we got home, I was going to try calling again.

While Joey and I continued talking, I noticed that Daddy Phil was talking animatedly to the guy in charge of guarding everyone’s clothing and other personal effects. Though we couldn’t hear any of the conversation, Daddy Phil’s body language told us that he was upset about something. At the time, I wasn’t sure why, but I started to get a bad feeling in my stomach.