It was a long line. Looking up, you could see the many flights of stairs spiraling up to the waterslides. Looking down, you could see the whole indoor waterpark, see people swimming and running and laughing. Sunlight from the glass ceiling pleasantly warmed my back.
I saw a little boy making his way up the stairs to join the back of the line where I was, pulling with him a blue double tube that seemed comically large compared to his small body. He was wearing a turquoise swim shirt and he had dark chocolate hair, and large innocent brown eyes. Coming up behind me, he asked me, "Can you please hold my place in line for me? I need to go get someone." So I said sure and I took his tube in addition to my own so he could dash back down the stairs.
The line slowly moved forward, and the boy soon came back to reclaim his tube, still alone as he didn't appear to have found the person he was looking for. He waited impatiently in line for a bit before he had me take his tube again, running back down the stairs to find whoever it was he was looking for.
Soon I was nearing the front of the line, and I was beginning to worry that the kid wouldn't make it back in time to go on the slide. Finally I saw his face as he made his way back to our place in line, still the other person was nowhere to be seen.
"Did you find who you were looking for?" I asked.
He nodded, but I saw that he kept looking over the stair railing down at the ground, anxiously searching for someone, hoping to see them making their way up the steps so they could go on the slide together.
We got to the top, but still no one had showed up. As I was about to go down the slide, I looked back to see that the lifeguard had taken the boy's double tube, exchanging it for a single tube.
The lifeguard said I could go, so I pushed off and down the slide, crashing out of the bottom of the slide into a wave of water and laughs.
But when I looked back to see the boy come out of the slide after me, his face looked absolutely crestfallen. My heart fell.
I didn't see him after that but I hope he's having a good life.
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