The Inner Tube Man
Splash. The Inner Tube Man was at it again. Ever since that summer had hit the little town of Manteca, California a lot of weird things had begun to happen. Take for instance this man, dubbed the Inner Tube Man by herself back then, who had always seemed to jump into the lake with his old black inner tube (hence the creative nickname) with all his clothes on; shoes and goofy hat included. Her three friends, Sally, Lisa, and Toni always made fun of this man, well so had she at first, but then her curiosity of why he did this everyday got the best of her. Of course her friends made constant fun of her for this.
“Hey Sus, your Inner Tube Man is at it again.” Lisa and Toni snickered at Sally’s loud comment and she was sure the man had heard Sally’s coment. She had ignored the comment and continued to draw flowers into the hot cement. ‘Why does he jump in with all his clothes on?’ She couldn’t believe it was more comfortable to swim with all your clothes on rather than just having a bathing suit on, but then again she’s never tried it.
“Toni you shouldn’t do that. What if your moms comes and see’s you?” She looked over at her three friends to discover Toni was holding a piece of thin white chalk between index and middle fingers looking as if the chalk was not chalk at all, but a cigarette. It really did look, even to Susie, as if Toni was smoking.
“Wow that looks so real Toni. You look like our mom’s.” This was from Sally who picked up her piece of chalk and mimicked Toni. It didn’t seem to have the same effect of coolness that Toni’s did, probably due to the fact that Sally’s chalk was a bright blue instead of a pearly white.
Lisa and me had watched while the two of them had pranced around and pretended to smoke. Another splash. She had looked over and saw the Inner Tube Man floating and staring kicking his legs to move him over the lake. It looked to her as if he had lost one of his shoes, but as she had looked at his face he either didn’t notice or didn’t care, probably both. Lisa had joined in with them prancing around and her chalk was a bright yellow. Lisa had soon called over to her trying to join her in on the fun.
“Come on Sus, its pretty fun.” Lisa had been the youngest of the group of us, only eight, with the curliest blonde hair she’s ever seen. Sally had brownish red hair cut in a bob style and freckles that always seemed to magically appear during the summer on her nose, but she had just turned nine last week, so she had stolen some of her mom’s cover up and plastered it over her nose so that not everything was blended in. For some reason nine was the age where little girls lost the little part and became just girls or at least that’s what Sally had told her. Now Toni had brown chocolate hair and was ten, but got held back a year in second grade cause she had gotten really sick, so she was in the same grade as Sally was.
“Okay, okay. Let me find my chalk.” She searched for her chalk she had set down wondering where it could have gone. She got on her hands and knees now searching through the grass in which tickled her bare knees. Her white blonde hair had kept flinging into her face making it hard to see if the chalk was there. Then she saw it. She must have dropped it while watching Toni the first time. She had picked it up and held it like her mother always had. She was only ten at the time and going to junior high after that summer had ended, she knew she needed to know stuff like this because she was now into the double digits, the big one-o. Holding the heavy chalk between her fingers was actually pretty easy and felt comfortable. Sally pranced by her doing a sashay as they had once seen on cartoons, where the hands were on their hips and you purposely move your hips from side to side. She knew the chalk was heavier than an actual cigarette because her mom and dad had asked her time and time again to go get them a cigarette from their pack. They had always smelled horrible to her, but maybe that was just a disguise for children to keep away. Maybe once you’re an adult the disgusting smell vanishes, like a magic trick. She brought the chalk up to her lips.
“Hey, you girls shouldn’t be playing around with cigarettes.” She froze. ‘Oh my god, were going to get arrested.’ Her mind played these cruel games on what could actually happen to her. She looked to her left at Toni who stuck her tongue out at the man who called us out on our wrong doings. She couldn’t believe Toni stuck her tongue out at the man, but as she turned she saw why Toni’s tongue was protruded. It was the Inner Tube Man. He was dripping wet and coming closer to them. She heard Lisa behind her.
“He’s coming closer. What if he tells our parents? I won’t be able to have desert for a week!” She could hear the squish of the water as he walked in his one shoe. She realized he still had the inner tube on. As he got close enough to them he saw that all of the cigarettes we were holding weren’t cigarettes at all, just chalk. Up close he reminded her of a bird with his long beaky nose and weird round wired glasses that were so black you couldn’t see if he even had actual eyes behind them.
“Oh, so its chalk. Still you shouldn’t mess around with drugs like that even for pretend. I’m sure your parents wouldn’t agree with it either.” He was actually talking to them. He sounded to her as if his nose was plugged. Toni turned away and Sally followed. Lisa looked from her to the Inner Tube Man and ran to catch up with the others. She was about to follow her friends, but as she turned she saw in the lake a shoe floating near the top of the surface.
“I think your shoe is in the lake.” She turned and ran for her friends leaving the Inner Tube Man behind.
That was the last day she saw the Inner Tube Man. Her friends continued to play pretend with the chalk, but she never did it again and was glad she never tried the real thing as her friends soon did. They of course didn’t stay together much longer after that. People moved and got new friends, it was the way of life. Her mother had ended up getting lung cancer and dying six months after her initial diagnosis, which was 4 years after that strange summer. Cigarettes, she knew, can kill. Maybe it wasn’t the summer that had been weird all along maybe it had been her changing, she had felt it, that shift when she had hesitated on playing games that had once seemed so fun.
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