Chapter 3: The Flying Tackle
The water park was only about five minutes away from CI's new office. We pulled up in the van and I saw the kids and their various guardians standing around in front. I was barely out the door before Carlos came running up and hugged me so hard that he almost knocked the breath out of me. I got down on one knee so I could hug him back and he held onto me for the longest time. Then he went over to his mother, got something and came back to present it to me and hug me again. They'd had a picture of him done at a portrait studio somewhere and gotten it framed for me. Rather appropriately, the picture frame featured the WB cartoon Tasmanian Devil character. The picture had his name on it, as well as the date it was taken. It was a total coincidence, but the day it was taken was my birthday - January 10th, so that made it extra special. He also gave me a bag full of tamales that his mum had made for me.
I saw Wilmer standing there with his grandmum and sister. Of course, I only got him last year, so we had not met before. I went over and said hello - he was a bit shy as I had suspected, so I was careful not to overwhelm him. I knew the kids were all ready to head into the park, so I went and paid and everybody got plastic bracelets. I was also expecting to have to buy a lot of swimsuits, but in fact everybody but Jon's brother Jimmy had one. Miriam explained that CI had made sure that the families got swimsuits out of the last set of money that I had sent down, so they would all be prepared. Most of the kids were already wearing them, so a minimal time was spent changing and then we went into the park itself.
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