Re: Alvin Ever After: Alvin in the Fourth
Day 13
I had no comprehension of time and had no idea that I’d slept through the evening and night. I was still sound asleep when a loud noise suddenly woke me. It was the sound of the rear door began to open. The blinding light from outside flooded into the moving truck making my eyes feel as though someone had poured salt into them. In retrospect, the light wasn’t very bright, but having been in pure darkness for so long, even the first rays of dawns early light were enough to temporarily blind me. I threw my hands over my eyes to shield them as I heard someone speaking Spanish. It took a second for my brain to recognize the language.
Straining to peek through my fingers, I managed just enough to spot two men standing and talking. It didn’t seem they had seen me yet.
I lifted myself to my feet and even amazed myself when I began to run. I leapt from the now open moving truck, and over the two Mexicans who both made funny sounds of surprise. I think they may have thought I was the El Chupacabra leaping form the dark to devour them.
I would like to say I landed on my feet and continued to run, but the morning sun combined with my injured leg got the better of me. I hit the ground hard. I didn’t even roll but sort of skidded and tumbled.
One of the two men asked in very poor English, which I will clean up for you, “Holy shit kid, are you alright?”
The second one asked, “Where you in there all night?”
Somehow, I got back up and began to run. I was a good six blocks from that moving truck before I realized that my board shorts were soaking wet and plastered to my backside. Stopping to catch my breath and let my leg rest, I saw that my right arm was covered in dried blood. One look at my elbow and I knew why.
“Well now! That’s not good!”
There were bits of gravel embedded in my elbow, which had scabbed over. I tried to pick them out but it hurt too much so I left them in as began to wonder just what time it was and if I had time to make it back to the cave to check on Meek.
Then I had a dreadful thought. What if they had found him too? I didn’t even know if Grandfather and the cops were still in the area or if they had gone back to combing the beach for me. Having had little to eat since moving to the cave, sleeping on the trailer of a moving truck last night and smelling like a backed up toilet… needless to say, I wasn’t in very good spirits.
As I lipped and walked as fast as I could my nose kept picking up the scent of restaurants cooking up morning meals. It made my belly growl.
A block from the boardwalk and beach there was some young Mexican person, on the corner selling oranges out of a cart that was attached to the back of a bicycle. I would guess he was somewhere around sixteen or seventeen at the most. When he was not looking, I snagged a bag and ran around the corner before he could figure out I’d just robbed him.
My, those oranges were good. I peeled and ate five of them, seeds and all in less than two minutes.
“HEY YOU!” the man I had stolen the oranges from had come around the corner and spotted me.
I dropped the rest of the oranges and ran. Thankfully the guy didn’t chase after me. He probably could have cought me as I wasn’t able to move very fast.
By the time I made it to the boardwalk, it was almost 8:30AM. Thank goodness, the last day of competition starts later as there are fewer competitors. On the last day, only the six top surfers get to advance to the final competition. I had no idea where Meek might be or if he was okay. Heck, I didn’t even know where my surfboard was. I could only hope and pray Meek found it and took it to the cave.
“Wow kid you look like hell and oh you stink!” Some woman said to me.
I don’t know where the lie came from that came out of my mouth next. “Yeah, well this is what happens when bullies push you into an un-flushed toilet!”
“Oh you poor thing!” She said compassionately, having suddenly become paternal, “Did they hurt you too? You are all scraped up and… OH MY LOOK AT YOUR POOR ARM!”
I nodded, “Uh… Yeah! That’s what happened! Yep!”
When she turned away from me, I knew she was going to summon one of the boardwalk security persons or worse yet, a regular city cop, so I took that chance to disappear into the growing morning crowd.
It took some doing, but I got down to the beach and was staying up under the boardwalk so if someone was above me looking down, they couldn’t see me.
“ALVIN!”
I turned to see a man I recognized as Meek’s father.
Just before I turned to run I exclaimed, “CRAP!” Only I used the other variation of the word.
The announcer guy began to bring everyone up to speed on the rankings of all the surfers. It was only then, while running and weaving my way through the crowd that I learned that Meek was currently the lead surfer.
I felt so proud of him. However, when I heard I was in third place, I wasn’t too happy but at least I was in the top six and I wasn’t dead last in the lineup.
“A-L-V-I-N!!! S-T-O-P! P-L-E-A-S-E!” Meek’s father shouted and he sounded much farther way.
Not even bothering to look back I zigged and zagged and even backtracked through the mass of people all in hopes of losing him. I was cussed at a number of times for knocking into people as well, but it couldn’t be helped.
Finally, I made it to the rear entrance of ‘The Shack’ where I was able to drop down into the sand beside a big red and yellow kayak strapped vertically to the back wall. I was sitting there when suddenly a shadow engulfed me. With a heavy and defeated heart, I looked up expecting to see Meek’s father or my grandfather, but instead I looked up into the worried eyes of Meek.
“Where were you?” He asked.
“Grandfather caught me yesterday, but I got away.” I started to say and then recounted everything that happened, including imprisoning myself in a moving truck.
Right then Meek saw my knee, how badly swollen it was and how skinned up I was all over; and then he saw my arm.
“ALVIN YOUR COVERED IN BLOOD!” he exclaimed as he propped both boards against the wall and started to kneel beside me.
“Oh man you have my board!” I exclaimed.
“Huh? What? Oh yeah! Those Mexican guys found some kids playing with it and brought it to me when they couldn’t find you.”
“YeaAAAAHHHHHHOOOUUUCCCHHHH!!!” I started out expressing my surprise in a normal tone, but then Meek had touched my knee.
“We need to get you to the hospital!” He suggested.
“Yeah and while you’re at it, why don’t you just cut my throat and save Grandfather the trouble!” I spat back angrily. I lost my tempter and blurted out, “There is no fucking way I’m going back now! Win or lose, I’m going to finish this competition or die trying!”
“Alvin! How are you going to surf with it like that?” Meek asked while his eyes filled with tears.
I took a breath and blew it out slowly.
“It looks worse than it is.” I lied, “Besides, it got me halfway across town didn’t it.”
I then had a thought.
“Speaking of surfing.” I began and punched him in the shoulder but not hard, “Way to go on getting First Place!”
He smiled even though his eyes were filled with tears. “I was so surprised too. I didn’t think I did that good; but then the judges all gave me high points… well, all but that Asian lady. Man there is no pleasing her!”
“Yeah tell me about it. She’s been hard on everyone thus far.” I agreed.
“Oh no! She loves Luisa and has given her perfect scores every time even when all of the other judges have given her low points.”
“Oh you mean that really cute Asian girl?” I asked.
“ALVIN!” Meek laughed, “You look like something a dog threw up and you smell even worst and yet you are still horny?”
I shook my head while trying not to grin too much.
“That is so wrong! Judges are not supposed to have favorites!”
“Well she seems too.” Meek agreed.
They announced the first heats competitors again, while also repeating their earlier announcement before saying that they had three minutes to get to check in.
“You better go.” I told Meek, “I’m going to stay here for a bit longer. Oh, and watch out. I already saw your father.”
Meek shook his head, “Me too. I stayed with them last night at their hotel. I’ll explain more about that later. But whatever you do, don’t go near the cave.”
He paused a moment, looking at me with this odd gaze. It was almost as if he was holding something else back. With that, he was up, grabbed his board, and ran off. I wanted to shout after him but he was already gone and besides, he needed to get to the starting area or risk being disqualified.
“STAYED WITH THEM IN A HOTEL?” I thought, no I screamed in my head.
Curiosity got the better of me and I slid my naked back up the roughly textured wall. When I tried to put my weight on my right leg the pain was blinding and I almost went down again. I couldn’t understand how I could have been walking and running on it just a few minutes ago and now it wouldn’t even let me put any weight on it. Using my board as a walking stick I started to move only to realize that at some point the mess that had been in the back of my shorts had begun to ooze down the backs of both of my legs and was now caked with sand.
“Wonderful!” I said aloud.
An idea suddenly came to me!
“What better place to hide then the Pacific Ocean?” I thought followed by another, “Out there I could clean out my shorts and myself and see Meek surf!”
So that is where I went!