Piping Hot
I was working as a lumper on a construction site with my buddy Anglo. His name is Thomas but being so pale with his white hair, a stint in prison for 4 months got him dubbed " Anglo" and it stuck. We started doing illegal drugs for those early morning hours and we were doing good, hustling, on time, making that cash. My girlfriend is against drugs so I kept it on the down-low and had that job for close to 6 months. I never had anything on me, and we used Anglos pipe in the morning so it was cool. It was our secret… our morning ritual, and it was no big deal. Crazy how one mistake can change your whole life.
We were on the job and I don't mean to brag but I'm a decent-looking guy and I have gotten pretty buff and tan doing this job. At 31, I have filled out nicely and have nice broad shoulders. One day at work these chicks were whistling at me and I was being flirty, not paying attention and I stepped clean onto a board that had the nails sticking through it and the nails went through my shoe right up into the ball of my foot. I screamed, fell, and then had to pull it out. Certainly not my finest moment but what could I do? The Supervisor on the job had me call my girl to come to take me to the medical clinic. Anglo had to stay and keep working, and he looked worried. I was in so much pain I couldn't even see straight and we drove straight to the clinic.
At the medical clinic, they gave me a U.A. to test for tetanus, so I thought, and they cleaned and bandaged my foot. They gave me some Percocet for my pain and had me sit in the waiting room. The doctor made a phone call and I heard him say " Yes, I am calling on behalf of Jason Kolter- who am I speaking with? Oh, hello yes it came back positive. Illegal substance. I will send you a copy- your address is here in his paperwork. Ok, Doug! Thanks a lot. Here- he wants to speak with you-" My girlfriend couldn't hold back.
" WHAT? JASON? ILLEGAL? OH MY GOD.." She stormed out of the office and it felt like I was in slow motion. The receiver to the phone seemed to grow to the size of my head as I limped towards it on my crutches. My heart started pounding and my mouth was dry. " Hello?"
" You tested positive bro. So not only do you not have a Workman's comp claim, but I've gotta let you go. It's our policy. Good luck to you man! You can pick up your check tomorrow."
" Ok".
I handed the phone back to the nurse and she said, " You will be billed for this visit. Just give it to your insurance company."
" Ok.". I hobbled outside. My girl sat in the car and was already on the phone with her mom. I got in the car…" I don't know yet. He just got done. Let me call you back." We sat in silence for an eternity. I was waiting for it. Screaming? Yelling? The dreaded silent treatment? See, we had been through this before and I had promised.
" If you lose your job, I'm done." She half-whispered. Well, there it was. My foot was throbbing, and I could tell it was bleeding. "Please Biancha. Do we have to do this now? My foot is killing me." " No, no we don't." With that, she chilled out and didn't say much to me for two weeks. Just when I was starting to feel better and could put my weight on my foot again, I woke up to all my stuff bagged and boxed up and sitting outside. " I'm sorry. It isn't working for me. I need some space. I love you, but you need to decide what you want in life and so do I." This didn't feel like love. I called Anglo. " Hey, man can you come to get me?"
" So what are you going to do man? You can stay at my place tonight but me and Lara are already cramped in my studio bro…" " It's cool. I won't impose." We packed up my life into his truck and I got a storage unit. I tried to call my girl but my calls were blocked. She was serious. I sat on Anglo's loveseat staring at the tv but looking through it. What was I going to do now? Anglo walked over and handed me a pipe. I wondered how he could hand me the reason I was in this mess like it was nothing. I just looked at it " No thanks, man. I'm good." " No, you're not. Just hit it, man. It's not like it can hurt you any more than it has."
'Good point". I take it and smoke up. Anglo and his girl get into a big fight and he gives me the keys to his truck to get out of there for a few. I go get in his truck and just drive. It is the middle of summer in Phoenix and there is no AC in the truck. Even at night, it's still 107° out and it's hot. I decide to go to a water park up the road and cool off but I have to scale the fence because it is closed. It takes me a few, but I manage and I jump down landing hard on my foot. It hurts like hell but I'm over now. I swim around a little bit and take in the big pool, the cool water, and the sky. It feels like living the dream only without a life or a dream right now. I am not going to worry about it for ten minutes and just enjoy my time here for a few. I get up to the top of the slide to go down it and I realize I've still got Anglos pipe on me. I take it out and then I see lights. A cop is making his rounds and if he sees me, I will get arrested for trespassing and possession, so I panicked. I see that the support holding up the slide is open. It is a narrow metal pipe, about 38 inches in diameter, and I figure I can hold myself up inside it with my feet along the sides if I put my arms up over my head so my fingers are holding on to the top but I didn't realize how hot the pipe was going to be inside it and I immediately start sweating profusely.The cop drives by and doesn't see me, and now I am trying to get out but I can't get my footing on the inside of the pipe and I had completely forgotten about my foot being hurt in my panic. My feet keep sliding because they are wet and sweat is pouring behind my kneecaps while my fingers are slipping. I can't hold on, I try with all I have but it's just too slick and I slide down the inside of the pipe with my arms over my head. I reach the bottom and there are webs in here. I can feel shit crawling on me and it is instantly stifling hot. This is bad. Real bad. I am in trouble and start to panic. I start yelling and screaming trying to bang on the pipe but I can't really get my knees up and now I am pouring sweat. It must be at least 120° inside this damn pipe and I am at least 4 feet down inside it. I start to yell and bang on the inside of the pipe and the echo of my voice makes my ears ring. I am having trouble breathing, and I am getting really dizzy and more nauseated by the second. I am pretty sure I got bit by something.My head starts feeling weird and it starts to throb and a migraine is coming on. I start to hallucinate and hear a high-pitched ringing sound and then I vomit, and the force of it makes me slam my face into the pipe, and I really need air. It has been about 20 minutes. I can't fucking breathe and I am scared. I think of Biancha and how she will take the news of me being in the hospital and it dawns on me that I might die. I cannot stay this hot for very long. I keep yelling and the echo of my voice in this pipe is now throbbing in my head and I start seeing red flashes. The cop finds me and his questions are muffled. My eyes burn from the sweat pouring into them and I can't wipe them with my arms over my head. I've been in here about 40 minutes, and my heart is racing. I started cramping up everywhere and I get goosebumps and my skin goes completely dry. I completely stop sweating and my mouth loses all its moisture. I feel like my tongue is shrinking and it feels like sandpaper. I cannot even talk because I have no spit in my mouth and I am about to choke. My eyes are sticking I don't even think to pray because I don't know who I would be praying to, and I feel if I did that I would be a hypocrite. Being an Atheist all my life, I am waiting for the dark nothingness except I am fading back and forth from somewhere else, and the pipe. I can tell enough to know that there is something else after this. I will be going somewhere, I just don't know where, but I still exist. One thing I am certain of at this point is that I am not staying here. Some weird guys are telling me it's time to go. I go with them, and Oh My God they aren't guys. Then I see people I knew who have died. My grandmother and my Pappy, my friend from grade school who got hit by a car. I follow them and then they morph into these cackling grotesque beings.I have never been so terrified in all my life. I don't want to go. I need to find God or something before I go- I cannot survive over there without Him or SOMEONE. By myself is not enough. I had thought being bad was cool. I had embraced evil but I cannot see anything cool about any of this. I hear a muffled far away scream...and it is starting to stink bad. Is that me? I don't think it's me. I can hear blood-curdling screams from other people in the distance. I am so thirsty and where am I? What is going on? I scream again before I am attacked.
I made my normal rounds around the park when I heard a loud echo calling for help. It is amplified with acoustics, but I cannot tell where it is coming from. I go into the park and start yelling back, but am going in circles because the sound is bouncing in all directions. When I finally locate the voice, I learn that the individual is at least 4 feet down inside a metal water slide support and I quickly contact backup and we get the park manager to come down. We throw a rope down to him for him to grab onto to pull him out, but he cannot hold onto it because he is too sweaty and he is getting weak from heat exhaustion. We learn his hands are over his head so he can't even get the rope around him to pull him out. The park manager arranges for a crew to come to dismantle the water slide. We can hear the individual choking and vomiting inside the pipe but there is nothing we can do any faster to get him out. Suddenly he screams a blood-curdling scream that makes us all jump. Then he goes silent. We can't even hear him breathing. The maintenance crew brought in a crane to help dismantle it and it took about 4 hours to get him out. He is dead, covered in vomit and black widows, and his clothes are drenched in sweat and vomit. His arms were over his head and his eyes were open, bulging, and his mouth open as he was gasping for air. His face haunts me. He isn't even 33 years old, but he looks much older and the look embedded into his face is one of extreme horror like he has just seen something horrifying. " Damn, I hope I don't die looking like that." One of the maintenance guys mutters. " Bro, that's not a normal death expression." I couldn't get that image out of my mind. What the hell had scared him like that? When no one was looking I took a picture of him with my phone. The coroner arrived and I was instructed to tell his next of kin. I hate this part of my job. They list the cause of death: heatstroke with drug complications and arachnid exposure. Then I am told to wait for my captain.
When my captain arrives, I am asked some basic questions. Did you try to cool him off with water? Did you try to give him something to drink? No and No. I am dismissed on paid leave while they investigate. I think I am going to lose my job. As for the individual? I don't know. He looked terrified. I still wonder what he saw or what he thought. It is truly haunting.
When the cops called me, they told me they had recovered my truck and I was like," Oh no what did he do? Did he wreck it?" " No" they had said, and they had me pick it up and meet them at the Morgue downtown. Devastated, I prayed it wasn't him. I dreaded the drive down there. It may sound stupid but I had never seen a real dead body before. When I saw him, I was horrified. He looked about 60 years old and was all shriveled. I identified him and broke down. Jason was a good dude, I don't know if he was religious or not. Regardless, I say a prayer for him, but get a " too late" response and I remember that you cannot pray for the dead. Like nothing can come from it. They told me that he may have died from dehydration and heatstroke and that he was bit by black widows and he might lack moisture in his skin but I didn't expect what I saw. I called Biancha.
When Anglo called me and told me I lost it. " This is all your fault!" I yelled at him. If he hadn't given those drugs to him in the first place, Jason would be here. I know I kicked him out but, I didn't know he would go get himself stuck in a waterslide support tube. I guess Anglo didn't know either but, it's just so weird. Like you couldn't have told me that night " Jason will be dead in 4 hours" I wouldn't believe it. I still don't believe it. I lost myself after that and still haven't bounced back. I guess I blame myself. I do my best to forget it and move on, but it is hard. At least he is in a better place.
Two years have gone by and Jason Kolter's remains are still at the Medical Examiner's office in a cardboard box. They have never been claimed.
Comments