Hairpin Jack

Wild Ride, by Canvas on Demand

He was wild looking, with red light hair and unkempt beard. He was wiry and tanned, and only ever wore his swim trunks. He loved his extreme sports, and he loved the water. And so begins the legend of crazy hairpin Jack. He started working for Extreme Water Sports, where he would take people on thrilling, death-defying motor boat rides - pulling them along like skiers one by one,  dipping them underwater, and flipping them back up upside down while he laughed soundly. He weaved along the waterways among the transfer trucks of boats, saying “it’s not too close!” He would take the sideways tram trains held by cables to the edge of bridges where the turnabout was, and, amid crashing waves, let it slam to turn. Then, "everyone back on the boat for the return ride, this side of the yellow caution tape, please!" Once he had everyone on dry land he would teach them intense dance moves like the Volta.

I was shaking from the experience when I took the elevator back up to the restaurant above the dock. I could see people eating on each level, and I  checked for people I knew through the glass door so I could tell them my insane story. I was eating when I discovered I still had my locker keys. When I came out onto the street, suddenly there was no way to find Hairpin Jack again. There were just rows and rows of flashy restaurants as far as the eyes could see, as well as food trucks and street vendors.

I tried to find the company, even by overhearing tells of him downtown by the street vendors - "did you hear that Charlie got out of the hospital and took one of Hairpin's tours?" "OH my! Did he survive?" "Yes, but barely!" And then they would start pointing in every direction that didn't help at all in finding the location. My MapQuest said 49 miles, but that couldn't be true! I'd just come from there!

As fate would have it, he ended up in the hotel room across from mine. I picked up the keys. He went to his door frame, outside his door, and pressed his head against a button to hear his messages, but I interrupted.

"Hairpin Jack?" I said. He turned to look at me. "Since you’re right here and all..." I held the keys out. "Thanks," he said. "I tried to find you," I said, "but I ended up only being able to find that other company."

"What other company?!"

"Don’t worry," I explained, "it didn’t even compare, but it WAS on the map.”

The last I saw of Hairpin, he was hanging upside down from the roof railing of the hotel, ready to take a dare-devil free-fall parachute jump to the ground.