6. Fun and mystery at Water City.

A strong shout of excitement sounded from a wet little girl, who was holding tight on a doughnut shaped

air blown float, sliding from the top of a really long wavy slide. The swimming pool inside which she was

going to land soon, contained four ancient Greek columns, and two big mushrooms, one in light blue

color with white spots, and another one in white color and red spots. A number of orange umbrellas had

been placed along a part of its perimeter, and the addition of palm trees made the pool look more

exotic, along with the presence of an area that had been covered by green grass, for people to sit on.

Right above the long yellow slide, was a wooden bridge where people either walked on the opposite

side, or they stood on it and took photos or stared at the persons who slid on their doughnut shaped

floats. Some of the people on the bridge, carried their own colorful floats. Right under the yellow slide

that had been divided into three sliding parts, had been built another long curvy slide, from which

people would be ejected into the pool. Some of its parts had been hidden by big green trees.

-‘Anemona! Here I come!’ Another very young girl shouted from the top of the slide, and started sliding

right after her friend, on the adjacent lane. They both held tight on their doughnut floats, as they were

carried away by the water uncontrollably. The pool started looking bigger and bigger in their eyes, when

Anemona’s float turned around itself with the girl being rotated three hundred and sixty degrees twice!!

In a few seconds, she landed on the water’s surface with a big splash. Her bumpy landing almost caused

her to fall off her doughnut. She floated in the pool’s center, while her friend was approaching the end

of the slide.

-‘Are you well? You almost fell off the float, I saw you. You need to lay down on the float, instead of

sitting on it.’ The lifeguard who was attending the swimmers at the first pool suggested.

Anemona smiled to him.

1

The girl with the blond silky hair that was caught in a ponytail, waded with her hands toward the pool’s

greenest area. She then looked backward, to see her friend’s big splash at the end of the ride. And there

it came. The latter one closed her eyes as thousands of drops were ejected in the air. Anemona laughed.

-‘Let’s go this way!’ Anemona prompted her friend, and headed toward an almost triangular corner of

the swimming pool, where the palm trees had been standing proudly along its perimeter, with a number

of short green bushes.

-‘That was great!!’ Her friend shouted to her, when a whistle sounded all of a sudden. It belonged to the

lifeguard who asked the girls to move away to the safe area with the mushrooms.

-‘And we can do it as many times as we want!’ Anemona said. ‘I just wish mom was here with us…’ she

expressed her thought in a melancholic way.

-‘She can come next time with my mom!’ Her friend said.

-‘I don’t think she would.’ Anemona replied. ‘She found out she could not afford a ticket of her own …’

-‘Oh…’ Her friend said. ‘But WE are here! And we may have an adventure today! There are all these

slides to explore!’ She managed to bring a smile back on Anemona’s cheeks. ‘So what are we waiting

for? Let’s go again!’

-‘Why don’t we try the next slide this time?’ Anemona suggested.

-‘The next slide? Is that ‘the Crazy River’?

-‘I think it is.’ Anemona replied.

All of a sudden, Anemona’s friend looked thoughtful.

2

-‘It would have been great if ‘Mapa’ was here with us!’

-‘Mapa? You call him Mapa?’ Anemona asked all astonished. ‘That cutie little one?’ She imagined her

friend’s pug.

-‘My dad does. I call him Alexander, but he’s gotten used to the name that my dad has given him.’ The

girl explained, while Anemona was still surprised with her friend’s dad’s decision to call their little doggie

‘frowned face’. ‘He would have loved the rides! It is a shame that dogs are not allowed in here.’

Alexander’s owner said.

-‘It really is a shame.’ Anemona agreed and imagined the little pug sitting on her doughnut float, while

they slid all the way down to the pool. She could not help herself but laugh.

-‘Let’s go to the ‘Crazy River’ then!’ Her friend prompted her, and started wading the water with her

hands. Anemona followed. Some kids that had slid down the pool with their own floats, had been trying

to get back on them. They would jump again and again, but their floats would be pushed forward. As

soon as the girls had found themselves in front of the big slide, three more kids landed onto the watery

surface with a big splash. The ejected floating drops, fell onto the girls, and the lifeguard’s whistle

sounded for once again, waving at the girls to move out of the way. Another three children were getting

ready to ride on the top of the slide. Anemona’s friend kept wading using her hands, toward the Minoan

columns that stood in front of a series of the pool’s interior stairs. A few people had gathered there,

collecting their own doughnut floats in their hands, from the persons who had already slid, and had to

get out of the pool.

-‘Careful!’ Anemona shouted to her friend. A teenage boy was just ejected by the Crazy River slide, and

crashed into her friend’s float. The latter one was pushed violently and almost lost her balance.

Anemona managed to reach her, while her friend wobbled on her yellow doughnut, and helped her

3

stabilize as her own float touched her companion’s float. The lifeguard looked quite annoyed with the

girls from where he was standing.

-‘Got you!’ Anemona said and held her friend from her hand. When the girl found her balance back, she

smiled to her companion and kept using her hands wading toward the red-blue columns. They were

almost next to them, when the two big mushrooms started throwing water in great pressure, which

gave the girls a boost closer to the stairs. They stepped out of their doughnuts, and onto the steps. They

grabbed them from their handles on which they got hold of themselves, and walked toward the left side

where the main trail for the visitors had been. This trail was surrounded by small parks with palm trees

and other kinds of trees, like olive trees, pine trees, eucalyptus, with their ground covered by green

grass.

-’Which way leads to the Crazy River?’ Anemona asked.

-‘This must be the only way, straight up the hill.’

After a few steps further ahead, they passed by a pitch black closed slide that looked like a tube. It was

long, with a number of twists and curves. Screams could be heard from within, by people who slid along

them.

-‘Here are the red and black holes!’ Anemona’s friend said.

-‘I find them creepy…’ Anemona replied.

-‘Of-course they are! That’s the point.’

They kept walking when Anemona stopped all of a sudden, and looked toward the black and red holes.

-‘What is it? Do you want us to go there?’ Her friend asked when she saw her staring.

4

-‘I think I saw somebody.’ Anemona replied.

-‘Of-course you did. The park is full of people.’

-‘No. This was an outsider.’ Anemona said with certainty.

-‘An outsider? Were they wearing their clothes on?’

-‘I don’t know. It felt more like a shadow at the corner of my eye.’ The girl described her experience.

-‘A shadow? Could it have been a tree’s shadow?’

-‘No. It was a human being. One with long hair.’

-‘I don’t see anybody.’ Her friend said after she looked carefully at the curvy tubes, and at the trees they

were in between them.

-‘That’s strange. I felt as if somebody was trying to hide quickly.’

-‘Some people may be playing hide and seek.’ Her friend said.

-‘I don’t know.’

-‘Come on! There is always a reasonable explanation. Let’s just move on to the next ride!’ Her friend

suggested, so they moved on until they reached a turn to the left. They kept walking, while Anemona

kept looking on her left side to the trees, whereas her friend’s attention was drawn to their next target.

They walked past a room under the ‘black hole’, with the sign ‘lifeguards’, and they arrived soon at the

next turn leading to the right side up. They kept walking, until they found themselves in front of a big

round building, a rotunda with a dome like roof that was consisted of twelve corners.

-‘Is that the souvenir shop on the left of us?

5

-‘Yes, that’s the one. And on the right building are the dressing rooms where we changed. Anemona

pointed at the longer extension to the right side that was also covered by orange tiles, as well as the

first one. They found the queue that had been formed in front of the slide, and waited for their turn.

Anemona looked behind her, with worry in her face.

-‘Where does the slide start? I can’t see it.’ Her friend looked ahead at all these people who were

carrying their own doughnut floats. ‘Oh well. I am sure it is close enough.’ She said.

After ten minutes of waiting, Anemona’s friend looked anxious.

-‘If I knew it would take that long, I would have brought ‘The treasure of the Golden Kingdom’, to

continue the game that we started.’

Anemona laughed.

-‘It is a great game, isn’t it? It was a good idea of yours to bring it at home. What a shame my first dice

rolling was two Aces…’ Anemona told her friend.

-‘I am sure I will get a few Aces myself!’ Her friend replied. ‘We are still at the Start. It is not too big a

damage.’

-‘Well…it could have started with better numbers. Just for good luck…’ Anemona expressed her thought.

-‘We shall have it, no matter how we started!’ Her friend replied in a cheerful way. ‘So, after we leave

the Water Park, we return to South America!!’ She concluded.

-‘Yes!! There will be more fun after this! We will continue from where we stopped.’ Anemona said. ‘I did

not read the card, I wonder what punishment awaits me.’

6

-‘We’ll find out next time we meet. For now, we can enjoy our crazy ride!’ She said and pointed at the

one end of the white slide. ‘We are almost there!’ She felt excited, then after a few seconds she started

admiring two foreign girls in front of her, who looked very pretty with their brown even tan, their blond

hair, and the pink macramé bracelets one wore on her hand. The purple macramé necklace with the tiny

bells attached on the girl’s neck, offered the girls a few seconds of mesmerizing sounds. Anemona’s

mind felt relaxed for once again. It was a light sound that could just be noticed by somebody’s sensitive

ears. Joy returned in Anemona’s heart. She tried to stay as close to the girls in front of them, as possible.

Both Anemona and her friend did not say a word until they reached the slide. The water’s current on

this slide, seemed to be the same like the current on the yellow slide. A little boy slid down, forgetting to

sit onto his float. He looked behind him with a questioning look on his face, while the lifeguard at this

post, pushed the boy’s float down the slides as the little one disappeared around the first turn. The girls

sat onto their doughnut floats, and were drawn by the water downward. Anemona’s float slid onto the

side of the slide, and she felt that she was almost about to be ejected into space the way her float

turned sideward. They screamed all excited AND scared as they were being carried along the slide’s

snaky route, among the tall trees. The girls laughed with their bumpy ride, causing them a few

spontaneous reactions. After a short time, they found themselves within a water tank, along with other

adventurers, being attended and helped out by another lifeguard to slide further down along the second

part of the slide. Anemona fell off her float and swam quickly toward the exit point, before the next

person fell onto her from the first part of the slide. She jumped onto the low wall she had in front of her,

and the lifeguard held her float for her. She sat on it, and slid further down. The uncontrollable ride

continued onto the doughnut, and a few twists later, she found herself within a second tank that was

full of water. An overweight lady landed right behind them, pushing the girls toward the corner. She

apologized in her Russian language. For a few seconds, they tried to float toward the tank’s exit where

the wild adventurous slide would continue. Another lifeguard was there, to offer his services. For once

7

again, they jumped onto the low wall in front of them that was rising up to their shoulders, and sat onto

their floats, using the young man’s help. They slid past a group of orange umbrellas that had been

placed somewhere on their right side, they slid under the wooden bridge, and got ejected into the same

swimming pool, next to the red Minoan columns.

-‘That was really good!’ Anemona said all excited.

-‘It was amazing!!’ Her friend said.

-‘Shall we go again?’ Anemona suggested.

-‘Yes!!’ Her friend replied at once with her eyes opening wide, all glowing. They floated toward the red

columns, and walked up the stairs. What they did next, was NOT walk up the trail. They RAN up the trail!

They ran barefoot past the black and red holes without Anemona paying much attention to them, and

they arrived for once again at the queue.

-‘Oh, I forgot we would have to wait at the queue again.’ Anemona’s friend said.

-‘I know there is a Photographer here somewhere. Why don’t we go and have our picture taken, until it

is our turn to slide down?’

-‘That’s a great idea!’ Her friend agreed. ‘Where is the Photographer?’

Before Anemona had the chance to reply, a man with a camera appeared right next to them, looking at

them. He happened to have a close resemblance to Sir Hipparchus!

-‘Would you like me to take a photo of you? You are not obliged to buy in case you don’t like it.’ The

man said.

8

The girls nodded their heads in a consenting way, and smiled. The Photographer took the picture,

making sure the girls would look relaxed, having taken a natural pose, then he proceeded to other

people who were waiting on the same queue, and made them the same question.

-‘He feels so familiar…’ Anemona thought silently.

-‘I am sure the photo looks really good! I just feel it.’ Her friend said.

-‘Yes!’ Anemona agreed with a smile. They both looked at other people who were now being captured

within the camera, and noticed how their facial expressions changed to a more friendly and relaxing

image. After a few minutes time of observing people’s transformation into pleasant approachable

characters, the girls arrived for a second time in front of the Crazy River. After they had been staring at a

man with a very hairy chest, who was wearing a really unusual swimming suit that seemed to be

covering his front private area only, and with two stripes being worn over his shoulders, holding it

therefore tight to its place, they sat onto their doughnuts with Anemona going first this time, and they

allowed the current to transfer them for a second time. More laughs sounded for once again coming

from the girls on the Crazy River, and also from persons who slid at the same time right above them, on

the ‘Hyper Race’ slide. Within a few minutes of adrenaline rising adventure, the girls got spit out by the

slide, back into the pool. Anemona looked for her friend behind her. Their eyes met each other, and

they smiled. Then they floated toward the Minoan Ionic columns with the dark blue tops, and walked

onto the steps out of the pool.

-‘Which way?’ Anemona asked.

-‘Let’s try the trail on the left.’ Her friend replied. ‘I think it leads to the other slides.’

They both walked up the stone built ground, carrying their floats, and after a few seconds they turned to

the left. They walked along a trail that had been built next to a small swimming pool, with a row of

9

ancient Greek Ionic columns appearing along a bridge, and they stopped right in front of the little bridge.

They were now standing among the ‘red and black holes’, and a pair of very long, high, white slides.

-‘How about trying those ones?’ Anemona’s friend asked.

-‘They look too high to me. What other slides are there?’

-‘Well, I don’t have the map with me now…’ her friend said.

-‘Do you need some help?’ A lifeguard approached.

-‘Thank you. We are trying to decide on which slide to go.’ Anemona replied.

-‘Let me bring you a map. There are too many slides here to recall all of them.’ The young man said and

walked to the lifeguards’ post. He grabbed a map that was lying onto a table under an orange umbrella,

and gave it to the girls. Then he walked away.

-‘Thank you!’ The girls said in one voice, while Anemona unfolded the map. ‘So now we are HERE. At

number ‘sixteen’. These are the…let me check the number ninenteen here…’ she said and looked on the

map’s left side at a list of names next to their adjacent numbers, the latter ones being printed all over

the map. ‘So, that’s the ‘Kamikaze’ ride. These slides in front of us. Right next to them are the…’ She

checked out number ‘eighteen’ that had been printed next to the slides on the list. ‘The Multi Race

slides…’

-‘The colored ones?’ Her friend asked.

-‘Yes. That’s them…’ Anemona answered, and looked again on the map.

10

-‘Then we have number nine, which is those closed tube slides over here…’ She pointed at two colored

slides of blue and light yellow, along with a white open slide right next to them. So that’s the ‘Hydro

tubes and free fall.’ She read their main name on the list.

-‘Number ten looks very mysterious! It looks like a bowl!’ Her friend said.

-‘Number ten is the ‘Body Slide Cyclone’. They both studied the closed tube that had been decorated in

colored stripes of yellow and light blue, ending to a big bowl like structure.

-‘That looks a bit scary. I wonder how dark it is in there…’

-‘Are you afraid of the dark?’ Her friend asked her.

-‘I am. Very much…I did tell you so one day at home.’ Anemona reminded her friend.

-‘Then we don’t need to go there.’ Her companion appeared understanding. ‘What pools are those ones

on the top side?’

-‘Five and six? Those are the ‘five children’s slides’ at six, and the ‘Jacuzzi, Whirlpool’ at five. Anemona

read on the left side. ‘Oh! And number four is the ‘Children’s Pool 2’.’

-‘The ones that WE are supposed to be in, but we are too crazy to be staying in that area!’ The girl

laughed, and so did Anemona.

-‘It looks like a nice area to be though. See the grass all around?’ Anemona noticed. ‘And the slides look

nice too.’

-‘What is that building over here?’

-‘Number eight? Let’s see…it is an ‘Algida snack bar’.’ Anemona replied.

-‘Miom, miom!! We will definitely try that one later on! And how about this one in the trees?’

11

-‘Number twenty four is the Reception where we got inside from.’

-‘Oh. I forgot. And how about this one?’ Her friend pointed lower, at the right side of the map.

-‘Number thirteen is where we can buy ‘hot-dogs’ and ‘creppes’.’

-‘Oh, that’s a good one!’

-‘And let me check out number fifteen…this one offers fast food and grill.’

-‘So this is the one right behind us!’ She looked at the space with the tables available. We will return

here when we are hungry. Look at this area here.’ Anemona’s friend showed the grass covered, long

spread area toward the lower left side of the map, which also looked covered by many orange and red

umbrellas at the same time, an area that had been planted by a number of palm trees. All around this

long island, was a long narrow river.

-‘And number twelve, is the ‘Lazy River’!

-‘The Lazy River? We could go there and relax after lunch!’ Her friend suggested with enthusiasm. ‘But

first we need to try that amazing pool here!’ she showed a really big pool on the left side of the map.

-‘Number one is the ‘Wave pool’. And there is something more here at number two. They have ‘Tarzan’s

game’. That must be fun!’

-‘Tarzan’s game…we will definitely check it out!’ Her friend said with a smile. ‘Look at all those

umbrellas…’ she pointed at some more orange umbrellas that had been placed around the pool. ‘And is

that a separate pool here?’ She pointed at a smaller circular space that was ingrained within the big

pool.

-‘Number three is the ‘Children’s Pool 1 with playground and kiddie slides.’

12

-‘So…where do we go next? Shall we try the ‘kamikaze slide’, since we are standing right in front of it?

Anemona’s friend asked for her opinion.

-‘It does look a little high…’ She thought for a few seconds, and looked toward the pair of white slides,

then she admired the bright white Ancient Greek statues that stood proudly at the sides of the slides,

along the pool.

-‘Come on! Let’s do it! We are here for an adventure!’ Her friend urged her.

-‘O.k. then. Let’s try this one. Anemona was affected by her friend’s enthusiasm and walked over the

bridge to the opposite side, while her friend brought the map back to the little table where the lifeguard

had taken it from. As soon as Anemona walked past the little bridge, through the bright white short Ionic

ancient Greek columns, she stepped onto the three stairs ahead, and kept walking with her friend trying

to catch up behind her. They walked up the stone built trail, past a number of palm trees from their left

side, and a row of different trees on their right side. After a minute or less, they arrived at the stairs that

led up to the starting point of the slide. Another queue of people had been waiting for their turn to slide

down. The girls waited on the tall stairs patiently, and as they waited, they noticed a big blue bubble

floating onto the water’s surface, with a man inside it, at one of the pools far below them. The man was

trying to find his balance, but with great difficulty. The see-through air filled bubble would slide with the

slightest move, and he had to use his feet running backward very quickly, before he would eventually

fall onto his back.

-‘He looks as if he is running on a treadmill, but backward!!’ Anemona’s friend said.

-‘He looks like a string puppet that learns how to walk!!’ Anemona expressed her opinion, and they both

laughed in amuzement. They were so drawn by the show that they hardly noticed the queue had

proceeded far ahead of them. Two young boys took advantage of their being distracted, and took their

13

turn. They ran up the ladder, as quietly as they could. After a few seconds, the girls looked ahead, just

on the time the boys had reached the end of the queue.

-‘Come on! The queue has proceeded.’ Anemona’s friend walked further up, and Anemona followed,

holding her big blue doughnut float from its one handle. As soon as the two mischievous boys slid down,

the girls prepared their own floats. They sat on them at the starting point, and three, two, one…the

lifeguard whistled his whistle, they pushed their floats forward onto the slide, and off they went down in

great speed! Anemona slid from their left side, whereas her friend slid from their right side. As soon as

Anemona had reached the point right above the first two palm trees they had walked past, she turned

her head to the left side where the ‘red and black holes’ were, feeling distracted by the existence of big

water bubbles in the air. Her eyesight caught a floating skeleton that belonged to a lady with black long

hair, within an area that was filled with water all around her. Anemona’s expression changed to a scared

one, and while her friend was screaming by enthusiasm, Anemona was screaming by sheer terror. What

was it she had just seen? Was it a projection of a dead lady somewhere in the water? A lot of water

sprinkled onto them as their feet slid quicker than the sliding water. The screams hardly stopped, until

they both landed into the pool with a big, noisy splash that made them look like mermaids.

-‘Did you see it? Did you see it?’ Anemona asked her friend with much worry depicted on her face.

-‘What?’ Her friend had no clue what Anemona was talking about. She waded with her hands, in her

effort to approach the girl.

-‘The skeleton! She hovered there DEAD!!...within the water…’ Anemona almost cried.

-‘Anemona, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.’ Her friend looked at her all puzzled.

-‘She was there. Right over the red and black holes.’ She pointed with her finger. ‘And she was dead.’

14

-‘Anemona you are scaring me now. All that is up there, is the tubes. There is no water anywhere. Apart

from ‘within’ the tubes.’ Her friend said to her. ‘Have you seen something that may be caused by

hunger? Are you hungry?’ She asked Anemona showing her concern. ‘I think it is time we had some hot-

dogs, don’t you think? Let’s get out of here and fill our stomachs. You will feel a lot better with a filled

up stomach. Let’s go!’ The girl prompted her and tried to float toward the pool’s stairs. So did Anemona.

They walked toward the place with the hot-dogs and creppes that was built just next to them, at

number ‘thirteen’.

-‘You look as white as a Ghost.’ You’ll see how much better you’ll feel after we have eaten something.’

She went to the counter and asked the seller for two hot-dogs. ‘Is there some mustard? Thank you.

Anemona would you like some mustard in your hot-dog?’

-‘Yes, I’d love some.’ She smiled. The girl poured in both hot-dogs some mustard, and gave Anemona her

own portion.

-‘Thank you Latania.’ She said feeling grateful, while her friend spread her wrist to the seller, in order to

have her special paper bracelet scanned in, one that every visitor had to wear on their wrists, for the

sellers to charge the price on the computer. In the end, they would have to pay all of their expenses

made at the exit, where the lady at the till would eventually cut the bracelets off their wrists. This way

they did not need to run to the safety lockers where they had stored their things, to collect money

constantly.

-‘There we go! Shall we go over and eat them under an umbrella? It is nice and peaceful there.’ Latania

suggested. Anemona nodded her head in a consenting way. They walked over the arched bridge that

had been decorated with short white Ionic columns, with their floats on their left hand, and their hot-

dogs on their right hand. Latania walked among the umbrellas that had already been taken.

15

-‘There is one available over there.’ She ran toward it, and laid her float onto the second available

armchair, keeping it for her friend before anyone else snatched it all of a sudden under her nose. ‘It is

really nice here!’ She admired the environment all around her, being surrounded by the fresh green

grass, with a limited number of small square plaques imbedded on the ground, and two trees that had

been planted in the middle, one of them being a palm tree.

-‘This is a really nice spot!’ Anemona admired, while Latania was removing her yellow float from her

friend’s seat as soon as Anemona had arrived, and she rested it on her own armchair. They both sat on

an upright position, eating their hot-dogs. Anemona looked absent at times, eating mostly in a

mechanical way. Her friend Latania focused her attention on the intense taste on the other hand, as she

did not want to miss it for any weird experience in the world. Times had become particularly hard, so

she was feeling especially grateful for what she was enjoying at the moment. Other children hardly had

the opportunity to find themselves at a huge water park, and enjoy a nice hot-dog.

-‘I love this sausage. I just love it!’ Latania said. ‘It is so nice and tender!’

-‘Yes, it’s good!’ Anemona replied with a slight smile, and immersed herself back into her own thoughts.

She may had found herself at the nicest spot of the park, but she was there only physically. Her own self

was absent.

-‘I think it is a cruel name they have given to these sausage sandwiches. ‘Hot-dogs’…who was it that

gave this name to them? probably somebody who saw dogs as animals to be eaten. It is just terrible. Are

you feeling better now?’ Latania asked with concern.

-‘A little.’ Anemona replied in a melancholic way, feeling there was NO way she would be understood by

her close friend. It was not her afterall the one who had such a weird experience.

16

-‘Tell me again, what was it that you saw there?’ Latania wanted to hear the story for a second time, but

to also show some interest and concern toward her friend.

-‘It was a lady skeleton with black, long hair. She floated above the red and black holes, as a dead body.

But she was INSIDE the water. There WAS water all around.’ Anemona described the scene that had

shocked her.

-‘You saw water above the pipes? In the air?’ Latania looked surprised. Anemona nodded ‘yes’ with her

head. Her eyes still looked very worried.

-‘How strange…and a skeleton too. I wonder what that means.’ She pondered. ‘Did you have breakfast

this morning? She asked her.

-‘Yes. My mom never allows me to leave the house, unless I have had some good breakfast first.’

Anemona replied and her eyesight happened to fall onto an overweight boy of their age, whose short

pants had just been ripped in the middle of his behind, as he bent over. He tried to cover it quickly with

his T-shirt.

-‘Then it can’t have been caused by an empty stomach.’ Latania said. ‘Oh my Gosh…’ She said all of a

sudden. ‘What if…’ she pondered for a while. ‘What if a lady has been drowned in one of the pools and

you happened to see that? You know…as a vision?’

-‘But it can’t be…there are so many lifeguards around.’ Anemona said in disbelief.

-‘There are many people around too. Can they watch every single one of us?’

-‘I don’t know.’ Anemona replied.

-‘What if a poor lady is laying inside one of all those pools, and nobody has detected her?’

17

-‘In case you are right, we may have already swam above her…’ Anemona said. Both of the girls’ hair

stood up. ‘You may be right. People do get drowned, especially the foreigners who swim with a filled up

stomach. They have no clue they need to wait for two hours at least after lunch.’ She concluded. ‘That

could be an explanation. So what do we do now?’

-‘Well, the only thing we CAN do for the next few hours, is walk around and search the remaining pools.

We just ate, so we can’t swim. And we don’t want to become dead bodies ourselves. So, we will only

walk around, and see whether anything is visible in the pools. How about that?

-‘I think that’s a good idea.’ Anemona agreed. The color had now returned on her face. ‘I mean, what

else could it be?’

-‘We’ll find out. We can leave our floats here, and return later on and maybe enjoy the Lazy River here.’

Latania suggested. Her friend agreed, so they left their big floats on the armchairs, and walked among

the rest of the occupied umbrellas toward the arched bridge. They hardly noticed the presence of a

young lady with black, long hair, resting under one of the orange umbrellas, playing chess with her own

self. They reached the arched bridge, and walked over it.

-‘Which way?’ Latania asked.

-‘Shall we go to the left? The grownups swim at the pool on the left area mostly.’

-‘Was it the skeleton of a grown up lady you saw?’

-‘I think so.’ Anemona answered.

-‘To the left side it is.’ Latania agreed, and as they walked past the next little pool on their right side,

they both looked into the water. It was a small pool where the three closed tubes ended, the yellow and

18

light blue tubes, the white open slide, and the third closed tube of intense yellow and light blue

horizontal stripes that ended to a bowl like shape.

-‘The Body Slide Cyclone…’ Anemona said.

-‘You have a good memory!’ Latania admired. ‘I don’t see any body here…’

Anemona was looking on her left side at the same time as they walked, where the Lazy River was

expanding. They walked past the Body Slide Cyclone and a few palm trees on the right and left side, then

past the ‘massage salon with foot spa’, and headed to the big ‘Wave pool’.

-‘Look at all those umbrellas! Amazing!’ Latania said. ‘I think it would be good to start searching from the

left side. Perhaps I could go this side onward, and you could keep walking straight ahead.’ Latania tried

to protect her friend from the possibility of a second shock, in case a body was found in the deep

waters. Anemona agreed, so their mission started. The latter one walked past a shed that seemed to be

some kind of Cretan tavern. She kept walking, while Latania headed toward the queue of ‘Tarzan’s

game’.

-‘What if this lady jumped from this moving hook, and got drowned within a big wave?’ She wondered

silently. She approached the row of red Minoan pillars that had been built along the pool’s perimeter,

and looked inside the water. Nothing was visible. She kept walking along the perimeter while Anemona

had found herself right between the big pool and the round children’s pool, having a look at the shallow

area. Her attention was attracted by the figure of a white elephant that had been added inside the

children’s pool. Latania was now looking at a darker area within the pool that had drawn her attention.

This darker area looked like a big dark blob of spilled ink from a distance.

-‘Just some different colored tiles.’ She thought.

19

Anemona was now walking around the children’s pool, where a big number of happy children were

having fun on its colorful slides. A big white structure that looked partly like a ship’s deck with balconies

and short columns, was in the pool’s center. A yellow, and a pink-purple slides were visible on the one

side, whereas a system of sprinklers was making a very little girl happy while she walked under them

again and again, as a brown slide appeared on the other side too.

Latania was now looking at her right side from the other end of the pool. She walked among the red

Minoan columns, until she ran into Anemona at the end of the row.

-‘Nothing…’ Anemona said.

-‘Let’s walk this way.’ Latania pointed at the children’s pool’s wall. The girls walked onto the flat wall,

looking within the big pool’s waters. Everything seemed to be clear. They reached the shallow ground of

the pool that could be distinguished by a series of deeper blue tiles that formed lines, and immersed

their legs inside them.

-‘Let’s go to the corner, there are far too many people in front of us.’ Latania suggested and her friend

followed to the area where they could walk under the umbrellas, back on the main trail. For once again,

they found themselves in front of the ‘Wave Bar’.

-‘Which way now?’ Anemona asked.

-‘What if we went to the ‘Jacuzzi’? It is right behind us, next to the second children’s pool.’ Latania

suggested. We can go either this way on the right, or from the trail on the left.’

-‘Let’s try the way on the left.’ Anemona said.

And so they did. They left the right trail with the two big Ancient Greek statues on its sides, they walked

past the ‘Wave Bar’, and turned on their right where the trail had been constructed between two rows

20

of green trees. After a minute’s walk, they arrived at the jacuzzi area. More orange umbrellas appeared

in front of them, with people resting on the armchairs, along with a black big crocodile, a white big

turtle, a white big crocodile and a black big turtle that were resting in front of the children’s pool. Right

inside the pool itself, was a big green frog with yellow spots on his back, and a big yellow butterfly with

multicolored spots. Latania ran to the jacuzzi, looking for a dead body. Anemona approached the

children’s pool. Another thing that was visible in the children’s pool, was a big iron mushroom in red

color, with white spots, along with many children enjoying the water. But no dead body around. The

girls proceeded at the point where the children’s slides started from, an area which was covered by

many trees and bushes.

-‘Bad luck. No dead body here either…’ Latania said, and walked toward Anemona.

-‘There is nothing here.’ Anemona said to her friend. ‘Is there any other pool that we may have missed?’

-‘I can’t remember. There is a big billboard of the map, a bit further up. Let’s go have a look.’ Latania

said and the girls walked up the stone built trail, until they found themselves in front of the long framed

guiding poster. ‘We started at the ‘Hyper Race pool’. But we did not try number thirty three, thirty two

and twenty eight. The only pool left is the one of twenty eight.

-‘Which is…’ Anemona looked at the list with the names next to the numbers being described. ‘…Turbo

Guns. It is a small pool though.’

-‘So what? Do you find it impossible for someone to get drowned inside a small pool?’ Latania asked her

friend.

-‘No. But in case there was a body there, would it not have been discovered already?’

21

-‘If everyone thought like you, no body would ever be discovered! We may be the first ones to see it.

‘Come on!’ Latania prompted her scared friend whose heart had started racing already.

-‘Alright, I am coming! Which way do we need to go?’

-‘Let me see which is the quickest way.’ Latania had a look back on the map. ‘Hey! We can take this trail

straight ahead, and we’ll be there in no time. We will reach the starting point of the ‘Turbo Guns’, and

then we’ll turn to the right trail all the way down to the pool. Good thing they have maps all around!’

Latania said with excitement.

The girls started walking back to the point where they had started from, they walked past the ‘Multi

Race’ gathering point, the ‘Kamikaze Slides’ where they had already been on, the Red and Black Holes

they had not dared experience, the rotunda ‘Souvenir shop’, the ‘Wild River’ they loved so much, the

‘Hyper Race’ they had tried first of all attractions, and they finally arrived at the trail that lead to the

right side, after a quick stride that last a few minutes. They turned to their right, and walked under the

trees. In about a minute’s time, they reached the pool and ran toward it. They walked up the stairs, and

as soon as they reached the upper part, they looked inside it. A white slide that was half open and half

covered ended there, along with a black tube.

-‘Nothing…’ Latania said with frustration.

-‘Is there any chance that somebody may have gotten stuck inside the closed tubes?’ Anemona

wondered.

-‘I doubt that. The water carries everyone outside.’ Latania said. ‘Unless… their float may have been

caught somewhere, or they may have been caught by their swimming suit. That could be a possibility,

especially at the closed tubes where few people go. Let’s go!’

22

-‘Where are we going?’ Anemona asked her with a slight suspicion in her mind that she did not dare

express.

-‘Back to the black and red holes.’ Latania replied.

-‘We did not look inside that pool, did we?’ Anemona asked.

-‘We did not look inside the tubes either.’ Latania replied.

-‘Wait a minute… you are not thinking of…’ Anemona did not dare complete her sentence.

-‘Of-course I am!’ We need to slide through the dark tubes.’

-‘Are you out of your mind? It is dark in there!’ Anemona said with much intensity in her tone.

-‘Of-course it is dark in there! This is why they are called the ‘black and red holes’. Latania replied.

-‘I am NOT going in there. The dark is paralyzing me.’ Anemona stated.

-‘You don’t need to move anyhow. All you need to do is hold on tight, and the current will drag you

around!’ Latania gave one of her simple to her solutions.

-‘I don’t care!’ Anemona persisted.

-‘Alright then, I will go in by myself, and you will see how simple it is.’

They turned on the left, and found themselves again outside the water park’s main building of the

changing rooms, the safety lockers, the reception, and the souvenir shops. They walked past more

people who had gathered at the slides’ starting points, and they saw the park’s Photographer taking

photos of other people for once again.

23

-‘You do what you want, but I am staying outside in the light. It is pitch black in there, and you KNOW

that I feel as if I cannot breathe every time we are having a power cut at home.’ Anemona said.

-‘Even for a few seconds?’ Latania asked.

-Even for a few seconds.’ Anemona stated and trembled with the idea of being carried uncontrollably

inside a dark tube, feeling that she could hardly breathe due to her phobia, and possibly crashing into a

dead body on top of everything. ‘That would have been the cherry on top of the cake…’ She thought

silently.

-‘We are almost there.’ Latania told her friend. ‘You can go to the pool and wait for me if you like. Unless

you don’t want to see a dead body either… in this case, you can go back to our umbrella and…’ The girl

said bravely, since somewhere deep inside her, she hardly believed she would crash against a dead

body.

-‘No. I will wait at the pool…’ Anemona interrupted her.

-‘O.k. great! So we now turn left and keep going straight ahead. The starting point must be here

somewhere. Let’s see…’ The girls were looking for it toward the trees, on their left side. After a few

seconds, they saw a queue of people on a trail on their left. Red walls appeared with Minoan frescos,

with the sign: ‘MINOTAUR’ in big letters, above their heads.

-‘That must be it.’ Anemona said. Are you absolutely certain you want to do it? There might be a dead

body in there.’

-‘Yes. I am absolutely sure.’ Latania said bravely and stood at the queue.

-‘Alright, then I am going to wait for you by the pool.’ Anemona took off and walked down the trail

toward the smaller pool. She walked past the ‘Kamikaze’ ride, and the ‘Red and Black holes’ that made

24

her freeze, just by their mere appearance. She reached the little bridge, and stepped down the three

stairs. She passed over the bridge, and found herself at the pool. People were being ejected from within

the tubes, screaming. Anemona stared at the tubes’ exits that were all dark from within. She could not

see Latania yet. She saw adults mostly landing outside, closing their eyes under the intense light of the

sun.

‘Would a dead body not be dragged by them out here?’ She wondered. ‘Unless it has been caught

somehow on the upper part of the tube…’ She thought. That attraction was their last hope of

discovering something. Her heart started pounding. Her friend could come out any second now, with the

company of a decomposing body. Especially from the black hole where few people dared slide down.

‘Any second now.’ She thought. ‘Any second…’

25