Who knew high school could be so much fun? I’m a great student and I’m involved in the school band. I’m not actually in marching band, but the concert band class I’m in does provide a few special occasions. I remember the first fun trip I experienced in that class. It felt like it lasted forever. We had scheduled to go to Cliff's Amusement Park and stay at the Radisson Water-Park hotel the first night in Albuquerque. As soon as school got out on that Friday afternoon, all the band kids going on the trip met in the band room at 4 P.M. With everything set, everybody got packed and we headed off.
We arrived at the hotel at around 5:30 P.M the same evening. The band parents put us in groups of four with no boys and girls in the same room. We noticed that for an expensive hotel that it was dirty and had a few things out of the ordinary, but it would do. When everyone had gotten settled in to their rooms, we all decided to check out the water park. My friends and I went swimming for a few hours and then came up to eat at 9 P.M. I still can't get the taste of pizza out of my mouth. In band, you always bring more than enough food for everyone. After an hour of family guy and relaxing with my bus buddy Erika, it was time to leave to my real room and spend the night with my roomies. Other than the fact that the sleeping position I was in was extremely uncomfortable combined with being located right next to the ice cold AC, the night was still fun. We did pointless stuff like burping and keeping straight faces while watching humorous TV shows like jackass and Robot Chicken, but there was one thing that I really enjoyed.
The person with seniority over us younger band kids was a man by the name of Osvaldo Garcia. Earlier he was showing us a song he performed called Vesuvius. It wasn't the song that got me intrigued, but rather how you can sync up the song to almost any bad television show or commercial and watch how the actions fit the song perfectly when you least expect it! I don’t know why doing this for an hour never got old, but it made the time pass like lightning. After we were done doing what-not, we finally went to bed at around 2 in the morning which is funny because Osvaldo planned to stay up all night.
I had woken up at six and had to wait another hour for everyone to wake up. Surprisingly no one got a good-night sleep because all the pillows in our room were stolen by a girl named Emma. Osvaldo was the first to wake up after me at around 7:30 A.M. My two other roommates, Ken and Gabe, woke up shortly after him.
We had put on the TV while I was out on the balcony talking with the girls from the other room. Something seemed familiar...They called the band teacher to ask if they could go out of there room and he had said yes, and that was basically our confirmation too. Ken and Gabe left with me to get food while Osvaldo was in the shower. After we got a snack, we waited for him and went down to get breakfast after he got dressed.
Unlike most hotels I've been to, the breakfast in this one was actually served to us, and it was the same for everyone: A pile of eggs, two or three pieces of bacon, and fried potatoes, not counting the toast that the waiters seemed to forget to serve. Even my friend got a glass of orange juice spilled all over his pants, and the waiter made up for it with only a piece of free bacon.
After we ate, we went back upstairs and watched more TV on mute while listening to Vesuvius. We had brought one girl in our room with us. Her name was Olivia.
After thirty minutes of more Vesuvius combined with TV, we were done fooling around. We packed up and left to Cliffs at around Noon. We got there and were instructed to go through the gates first, and then come back to get our instruments so we could get our wrist bands. When we got back, we formed in the middle of the park and began to perform pep-tunes, which I didn't know much of, but I wasn't in marching band anyways.
After half an hour of dancing and playing music that I've never played before, we finally got released through a dance. We literally had to dance our way into a single file line. Before long, Erika and I had already returned to the bus and put back our instruments while the others were still catching up. We returned to the front gate and proceeded to go on our first ride: The Cliffhanger.
This ride consists of a box shaped seat that goes up a hundred feet and then drops you straight down. We went on it and came to the agreement that it was a waste of time. After riding the cliffhanger we ate at about 2 P.M. After we finished eating we decided to go on the best roller coaster at the park: The Rattler. In fact even though I got sick, the rattler with all its twists and turns didn't even make me dizzy. The next ride was one of those pendulum boat type rides. This one was my absolute favorite. After this one my friend Joseph and I went to the bumper cars. After that, we went to a roller coaster carousel type ride. It was small, but it contained a lot of force, and the entire time Joseph had to obliterate my leg because I was sitting on the outside part. Now that's the ride that got me dizzy.
After that ride, things got weird. I got so motion sickly that I was delirious. The next ride we went on was a yellow one that is basically a swing that spins you around as you rotate around it, like the old fashioned tea cups but with swings. While waiting in line with Joseph, Osvaldo and Olivia, we noticed a girl, probably around seven or eight years old with a purple peace sign shirt. She had the coolest but scariest face paint on that we had ever seen. She pulled off a good skeleton look. We were so intrigued by her face paint that Joseph got out his phone and took a photo of her as she passed by when she left. Well, we thought she left.
It was our turn for the ride so the four of us went to find seats on one of the double seats. Joseph and I couldn't get in our seat at first, but then we realized the door wasn't open. I must have been sick. Olivia and Osvaldo sat in the seat behind us. Once everyone got settled, we finally began to go off.
It seemed almost instantly when we noticed what was wrong. The ride was fine and I began to feel less nauseated. Everything about the ride was in check, but it was what Joseph and I saw when the ride began to move that wasn't ordinary. As the ride began spinning, I noticed something that looked familiar...the purple shirt. The same shirt the girl was wearing.
The girl had returned, but there was something strange about her this time. She was...staring at us. I told Joseph and he took a glance to where I was pointing. As the ride spun around and around, she only got closer and closer...this is when we realized that she wasn't just looking at us for any reason. The longer I stared into her eyes, the more distorted everything around me became. I was locked into her line of sight, unable to get a grasp of the exterior world around me. I noticed the ride began to spin faster and faster making it much harder to turn my head to stare at her. The wind hitting my eyes became so forceful that tears were smothering my face. Blink.
My eyes re-opened to the same spot I was in. It wasn't spinning anymore and nobody was moving, except for Joseph who I could feel moving beside of me. I immediately looked at him to find that he was gone; the little girl had taken his place. I jumped up out of my seat out of shock and with that came another surprise. Blink.
Splash! I opened my eyes to the sight of Joseph in the hot tub with me back at the hotel. I was in swim trunks and instead of jumping I decided to close my eyes and go under the water. You can't hold your breath for too long. Blink.
This was different. I was in a chair, a chair in my grandparent’s room. "Grandpa?”, I asked. I knew exactly where I was. I was watching the death of my grandpa. He had dialysis but he had suddenly decided to quit a few weeks before the band trip took place. It was right before the point of his liquid morphine injections given by my grandmother used for calming him into a peaceful death, only the woman giving them wasn’t my grandmother. The girl was back holding the tube of brown fluid into his mouth while staring at me with her huge satisfied grin. I began to tear up from the painful re-experience. Blink.
I was in a room. The girl was gone, but that didn't help. The room around me was very dark and comfortably warm. I heard a lot of commotion going on, but I couldn't tell what was being said, I couldn't even move for God sake! Suddenly a slit of light pierced my eye and out of curiosity I wiggled closer to it. It got brighter and brighter while at the same time the noise outside got louder and louder. I heard screaming. Mom is that you?
I felt a hand grab me by my armpits but it was too big to be real. I suddenly felt a horrible sharp pain in my groin. Was I being tortured? I quickly looked up only to be greeted with a friendly faced doctor. He faced me towards what looked like my mother. It couldn't be her, the woman was too young. I finally came to the obscure realization of where I was but then I felt another jolt of pain on my butt. Slap! Blink.
I awoke in a room with four others. It was six o'clock in the morning and surprisingly no one got a good-night sleep because all the pillows in our room were stolen by a girl named Emma. Osvaldo was the first to wake up after me at around 7:30 A.M. My two other roommates, Ken and Gabe, woke up shortly after him.
We had put on the TV while I was out on the balcony talking with the girls from the other room. Something seems familiar...