Gómez Rodríguez Pablo, The Roller-Ship

THE ROLLERSHIP

Written By Pablo Gómez Rodríguez

It was July the 15 th of 1987. It was a sunny day; families were outside their houses, teenagers were in the park with their dogs and their girlfriends. It was almost 4 pm on the clock, and four little boys were sitting in a park that was just a few minutes away from their homes.

“What up, boys,” Fred said. “Hey Fred,” Sammy responded with a sweet tone.

“I’m so sorry I’m late, my mother was just arguing and arguing all the moment, you know what I’m saying?”, Fred said in a hard and powerful way.

“No man, what a mess in your house,” Eddy said. “Well, yeah… I know, bro, I know”. Fred repeated.

“We’re here for you, Freddy,” Anderson said in a convincing voice.

All four friends started to talk about Fred’s situation. They all knew that his friend was not in the best mood, so they wanted to have a good moment, but their decision was not the best one. Fred broke the silence and said;

“Bros, and what if we were to go on a cool adventure, huh?” Said Fred.

“What a nice idea, man!!!” said Anderson in an emotional way.

The boys decided to arrive the next day at the same park, almost at seven-thirty in the morning before school.

It was almost seven a.m when Fred, Anderson, and Sammy were already in the park, and they were all waiting for Eddy. He wasn’t the type to be late so they were wondering what could have happened to him, thirty-five minutes later and still hasn’t arrived yet, and they started to get worried and anxious, some of them even saying that maybe they should all go home. A few minutes after eight in the morning, Eddy showed up finally. His face was red, and he had a purple eye; his arms had some scratches, and he had a little line of blood

running out his mouth. He looked as if he had been mugged on his way to the park.

“Let’s get out of here now,” said Eddy with a quavering voice that alerted his friends to follow him immediately.

“Ok man, don’t worry, everything will be alright,” Sammy tried to calm him a little bit before they began their trip.

The four boys walked for almost one hour before they saw a big and beautiful poster that said, Welcome to Mambe Jungle. The sign was green like a frog and had yellow letters that shined like stars; it was all covered by exotic vines and long branches. The boys looked at each other’s face when they saw that big poster, and one of them said,

“Are we ready for this,” and Eddy answered, “More than ready, let’s go, boys.”

So all the crew began officially their adventure that will apart them from their homes.

A few minutes had passed, and the four boys began exploring the new place, they all knew that this jungle was full of life: birds, insects, reptiles, monkeys, gorillas, and other animals. Although, they also knew that it could be a dangerous place, even for the animals that live there. Plus, the Mambe Jungle had no tolerance for dishonorable. The boys were very much aware of that, but they were so blinded by the desire to leave their own homes that they forgot about the wildness of the place.

It was almost two in the afternoon wandering around the jungle when the boys started to get hungry, but for the surprise of everyone, Anderson, that was the little brain of the gang, thought that he had to bring some food in case they could not get anything else to eat. So, Sammy, Fred, and Anderson began to eat some cookies and drink some water that Anderson carried with him; but Eddy refused to eat or

talk because he was still angry about what had happened to him in the morning.

“Hey Eddy, come on, man, time for cookies, eat with us,” said Sammy.

“I’m not hungry, eat without me, eat without me,” Eddy repeated, “You know since we are in a jungle, we would have to eat jungle food, right?” Eddy added.

“What do you mean bro,” Fred said.

“Do you want us to hunt, are you crazy? that’s why we have food in Anderson’s backpack,” Sammy said dauntingly.

“Whatever boys. And yes, I’ll hunt, with you guys or alone, but I’ll do it”, said Eddy confidently, imitating a savage voice as if he was the king of the jungle.

They all laughed at him, then Eddy stood up and left the group walking by himself in the middle of the forest, and they all thought that it was a joke, after eating their snacks, they rested for a good while.

Eddy came back after a few hours. He seemed mad, his face was covered with mud, and he had a sharp stick in his right hand. The boys glanced at him, and they thought that his friend needed some help.

“Come here, man, sit down with us, it’s time to rest,” Sammy said with his soft voice that will make anyone comfortable.

“I’m not feeling good fellas, and I think that whatever the thing that I ate was not the best one,” Eddy responded.

Eddy seemed tired and pale, so Anderson took out his medical kit, where he had some medicines that could maybe help his friend.

“It’s getting dark bros, what if we start setting up the camping tents?”, Fred said.

“I believe that is a wonderful idea, Fred,” Anderson said meanwhile he takes out Eddy’s medicines.

The four boys had two camping tents, one was Anderson’s and Sammy’s, and the other one was Eddy’s and Fred’s. As Eddy knew some jungle rules, he had read how to make fire with rocks, so he made a little fire next to their camp. After a while, Anderson and Fred decided to go to sleep, while Eddy and Sammy spent some time talking.

“It’s hard to be away from home; I think I miss my mother, Eddy,” said Sammy with a tone that seemed like he would like to go back.

“No way, man, this was the best decision of your life,” Eddy responded with a loud voice.

“Hmm, ok, well… ok, I hope so. I need to take a leak; I think I’ll go now to the back of the tents and pee Eddy, don’t wait for me, go and sleep bro, it’s time for bed, have a good night.”

“Alright man, good night and have a nice pee.”, Eddy said.

So Eddy went to his tent, and Sammy went a little bit into the woods to have a pee. Sammy was the most fearful boy of the team, so fear began consuming his body, starting with his hands going all over to his head. “Just pee, don’t overthink, it’s just a forest,” Sammy repeated four times in his head.

“BLOOOM,” “NOOOOO,” That’s the noise that Anderson heard in the middle of the night. He turned to see if Sammy was by his side, but he wasn’t, he stepped out of the tent, and Sammy wasn’t there either, so he ran to the other tent and looking for help;

“Guys!!! Where’s Sammy? Where is he, have you seen him?”.

“He went to take a leak in the woods, what happened?”, Eddy said with a sleeping voice.

“I heard a scream in the woods, and I know it sounded like Sammy’s voice. I know he is in trouble.” Anderson said.

“What!! Is that true? Let’s go now!!” Said Fred with a firm and powerful tone.

So the three friends went into the woods looking for his

friend, Anderson took a little lamp that he won in the science fair at school, Fred and Eddy carried a knife in case something attacked them. The boys began screaming Sammy’s name, but they received no answer. They started to become even more worried and trying to imagine the worst things that could have happened to Sammy.

“And what if he is dead boys, what could we do?”. Fred said. “You shut up little dummy, he is alright,” Eddy said.

An hour almost passed, and they couldn’t find any clue of Sammy until an intense scream came out of nowhere; “STOOOPPPP!!.”

The boys began running in the direction where the sound came from, and they found something that they would have never imagined happening. Sammy was laying down on the detritus, full of scratches and blood, Sammy’s arm seemed broken, and he was crying like a baby. When Eddy and Fred turned their faces to their left, they saw a Grizzly bear with some dark brown in his body hair. Eddy and Fred looked at each other, and only with the way they looked, they knew what the next step was, so they took off their knives and started running towards that big bear. Eddy jumped at the big bear and landed the knife in the center of the stomach, then Fred used his knife to stab the bear in the center of his head. Meanwhile, Anderson went directly to watch his friend Sammy.

“Come on, boys!!! Let’s take Sammy and run from here”, Anderson said in a frustrated way.

“Let’s run now!!! Eddy screamed.

So the three friends lifted Sammy and started running through the woods until they saw the fire camp.

“Bring my first-aid kit Fred, now!!!”, Anderson said.

Sammy moved a little his face and said; “Thank you guys, you’re my best friends,”

“We’re here for you all the time fella, but at this moment, just try to get some rest,” Eddy said.

Sammy seemed hurt, he was bleeding a lot, he was crying and saying with a sad voice;

“I knew this was not a good idea, and I told you, Eddy, I told you.”

“Bro, that doesn’t seem important now; we need to help you at this moment,” Fred said, trying to calm a little bit his friend Sammy.

“I want to go home; this is not for us boys; I could almost die. And now what, my arm is almost broken and look at my face, is this fair? Boys we are not ready to live in these conditions, we need to return home, this is not the moment to live by ourselves, and even worse in a jungle.” Sammy said to the group.

“That’s true bro; this is not the moment, do you guys agree?”, Anderson said.

“Agree,” Eddy and Fred repeated at the same time.

The four friends slept in their camping tents the rest of the night, and earlier the next day, they headed back home, they were all messed up and carrying a lousy smell in them.

The next morning, the four boys were sitting in the park. As usual, Eddy was late, and Sammy, Anderson, and Fred saw Eddy walking towards them.

“What did your father say about our trip Eddy, was he mad?” Anderson asked him.

“Not that much, I just invented some things,” Eddy answered.

“In my house, it was a complete mess,” Sammy said,

“My mother had to take me to the doctor, and they put a plaster on me, look,” He added.

“Well... well... now we know that it was not the best option”, Fred said.

“I told you, bros… but you know, I learned an important lesson from this crazy trip”, Sammy said.

“Go ahead, tell us,” Fred answered.

“I realized that we are a very united team, and we proved that we have a strong and nice fraternity, our relationship is like a rollercoaster, don’t you think hah? The forest was a mess, but I will remember that moment for the rest of my life, thank you guys”. Sammy said, with a big smile on his face.

“I share your thoughts men, we are the best team, and nothing can come between us,” Anderson said.

“Agree,” Eddy and Fred answered.