I walked around a bit then spotted a car that was completely out of place in Chula Vista. It was long, black and had darkly tented windows. However, that is not really, what drew my attention to it. On the top of it was a surfboard, which had been put on what appeared to be a rooftop bicycle rack. However, it wasn’t just any board! The board was on its side with the bottom facing me, and on it were two words scrawled in huge fancy blue and white letters that covered the entire bottom… well actually not words, but a name, ALVIN HOLLOWAY. So, I’m sure you understand why it caught my attention.
“NO WAY!?” I exclaimed with utter amazement.
I couldn’t fathom why Grandfather would have brought my surfboard all the way from Maine. Then I remembered that Mom had come too and knew that she was the one who must have insisted on bringing it.
I paused for a moment, hidden partially by a chopped and dropped minivan. I watched the car for a minute or two before I was sure no one was in it.
“Are you pissing on my ride?” I heard from behind me.
I spun around and saw four Mexican guys who all looked to be in their late teens and obviously from the southern part of town. They looked like the gang sort.
“No way!” I said quickly unaware that I had a puddle below me.
Then one of the guys recognized me from the competition.
“Hey, you’re that kid!” he said while pointing at me.
“Oh it’s that surfing kid Holloway!” The shorted of the four stated.
That told me that my blonde locks and pseudo name had not fooled anyone at all.
“Hey Holloway? Why you pissing on my ride?” the guy asked again.
I have no idea where it came from but suddenly my mouth opened and out came, “Listen! I can’t help that I have something wrong on the inside that makes this happen! You want to make fun of me? Go right ahead but be prepared to get your ever-loving-ass kicked from one end of this boardwalk to the other!”
They all held their hands up as if to mock me. A few of them even made “Ooo” and “Aaah” sounds like I’d really scared them.
“Hey! Y’all step back! I said step!” the guy who must have been their leader said to everyone.
“It’s cool Holloway! I’ve got a little sister with similar problems.” He then looked around, “There!” he pointed to the other end of the parking lot to a girl who from that distance appeared to be younger than myself was dancing with some other boys.
All the other guys stopped teasing me after that.
“Something with her kidneys or something.” The guy said, “but it’s all cool Holloway!”
He then stuck out a hand and proceeded to do some sort of weird street handshake.
“That old shit of yours that’s been talking shit about you on the news here?” Another of them asked and all four started looking around like inept spies in a bad low budget B-movie.
“See that car?” I pointed over my shoulder. “I don’t suppose you could help me get my surfboard? It’s strapped to the top of that car.”
I turned to point to the car only to see Grandfather, Mom, both of Meeks parents and two police officers.
Quickly, I ducked behind the Mexican gangs heavily modified minivan and prayed no one had spotted me. Thankfully, my newfound Mexican friends had done likewise.
“That’s the guy!” the one who hadn’t spoken yet said angrily.
“You want that board Esey?” The first guy, the one who’d pointed at me asked.
My heart was racing a thousand miles a minute and I had suddenly broken out in a huge sweat.
“Say, you know where devils drop is?” the pointer asked.
I nodded eagerly.
“Go there Esey. We’ll get your board and bring it to you. But you got to do us a favor homes.”
I looked at him quizzically.
“You have to win man! We have a lot of money on you Holloway!”
I don’t know why, but that struck me as funny. Maybe it was due to how scared I was, but they all seemed to catch my laughter.
“You got it!” I said and started to move to make my getaway but was stopped.
“Nooo, you can’t go yet. Everyone (he meant everyone there for the competition) knows what you look like, so good bet they (meaning mine and Meek’s folks) know to man.” The pointer said and then pulled off the bandana he had been wearing low on his forehead so that it almost completely hid his eyes.
He unfolded it, and then shaped it into a triangle before he laced it behind my neck. Quickly he had taken my blond locks and completely hid them under the bandana.
He then took the backwards baseball cap off the short guy and pressed it all the way down on my head with the visor around front the way it was meant to be but way down low to hid most of my face.
The tallest then removed a pair of sunglasses from the top of his head and placed them on me.
When one of them started to yank down his overly baggy board shorts, I got the idea that he was going to want to swap shorts with me. I had just enough time to again remember I’d only just peed myself.
“Put these on over your shorts too.”
“You look like my el hermano.” the pointer said. By the way, el hermano means little brother in Mexican.
His shorts were baggy on him, on me, they were huge, but once I tied the string tight around my waist, there was no way they’d fall off. since they were too big on me, they completely hid my bright board shorts.
“We’ll be at Devils Drop in fifteen.” The pointer said right before they sent me on my way.
Want to know what is cool; I walked away from that chopped and lowered van without any worry whatsoever. I was sure I could have walked right past my mother and she wouldn’t have given me a second glance.
It took them longer than the fifteen minutes to get to Devils Drop, which was cool because with my sore knee, it took me nearly thirty minutes to walk that far. I waited another fifteen before they arrived. However, when they did finally show up, they had my board and Meek too.
“Thought you might want your el hermano back.” They all joked.
Meek looked scared and relieved to see me at the same time. I guess they guys didn’t give him much choice about going with them. Meek later told me he thought they were kidnapping him or something.
They were all laughing and the four Mexican guys were now seven. On and the guy who gave me his shorts was now wearing a towel.
I’d already stripped off their stuff so when they began to poor from the van I offered the guy his shorts first with thanks.
“I rinsed them out for you.” I told him as I handed the wet shorts.
“Gracias” he said and I could have sworn I detected a bit of disappointment in his eyes when he took them. It was almost like he’d of rather received them back smelling of my pee.
“Told ’em you were hiding out in Taiwan!” the pointer, who I had begun to think was the leader of their gang, had said.
“Really?” I laughed.
“Those old de chicos actually gave us fifty dollars for sending ’em to Mexico.” The shortest guy pointed out while waving the money to fan himself and laughing like some maniacal cartoon villain.
Two of the guys I hadn’t seen before were carefully extracting my board from of the back of their van as well as Meek’s and my other board.
I thanked them repeatedly as I held my board like the awesome treasure that it is! Before they left, I renewed my promise to win the competition and even though I knew Gary would kill me for doing it, I signed the other board and gave it to the guys as a way of showing my appreciation. I told them to wait until I win tomorrow and then sell it. They will get lots of money for it then.