I Told You, Eli Oxley

Chapter Thirty-Five

We pulled into the church Al attended where a gaggle of tween boys and girls were waiting outside one of the church's side buildings. Some of the boys chased each other, dodging their pursuers' whacks to their heads, while the girls ignored them and chatted in their own 2-3 person cliques. I knew then that I wouldn't be running errands with Al like she said.

Al and I approached them, and they all stopped and oohed at us. "Look – Miss Rutherford has a boooyyfriend. Ooh, he's tall," one of the girls said.

"He's my enforcer for the day," Al said. "If you get out of line, he's going to take care of you."

"Uh-huh," another girl said with unbelief. "Sure."

"Are y'all ready for the funnest, yet most dangerous day of your lives?" Al said.

The kids (and I) were confused. Some yelled "Yeah!" while others had actually caught what Al had said. "Dangerous?"

Al ignored the question. "Does everyone have their permission slips and signed waivers?"

"What's a waiver?" A boy asked.

"It's where you sign your life away. So in case you die, no one will be liable but you," Al said.

"Liable?" The same boy asked.

"Responsible," Al said.

"Are we going to die?" Another boy asked excitedly.

"No, you idiot," a girl said. "She's just joshing."

"Okay, okay. No name calling. Pass up your permission slips."

After she collected all the slips, everyone piled into a passenger van. Al told me I could ride shotgun while she drove. This was yet another side of Al I had no idea even existed. She never told me about any of this, but I had also never asked what she did in her free time. Did I even know her? How could I say that I loved someone when I didn't truly know them?

***

Jump Street was an indoor trampoline park housed in a brick building that took up a city block. Inside, hundreds of trampolines built into the floors ran from wall to wall to wall to wall. And even up the walls like half-pipes.

A few areas didn't have trampolines; instead, they were giant pits overflowing with colorful foam blocks that you could jump safely into from the surrounding trampolines. The whole place was impressive.

We all had to sit through a thirty-minute safety brief. The kids (and I) were getting antsy. After the briefing, every single kid, even the shyest ones, ran to the nearest trampolines and began jumping to their heart's content.

"Well, aren't you going, too?" Al said to me.

"You mean . . ."

"I mean go have fun, you big goof."

"But shouldn't we watch them? You know, supervise them in case they do . . . something?"

"We're not leaving them unattended. Look around – there's at least fifty workers – lifeguards, if you will – watching over everyone. Plus, we are supervising them because we'll be playing with them."

"Okay, then. Let's do this," I said and ran and did a front flip on the first trampoline I came upon. Except I over-extended and ended up on my face and not my feet.

Al laughed her head off then helped me up. "Easy there, Evel Knievel."

***

After an hour or so of jumping to exhaustion, playfully bumping bodies with Al several times, we all took a lunch break in one of the break-out rooms in the corner of the building. The kids were upset they had to stop, but woofed down their food like they hadn't eaten in days. Al later told me that this would be the most food they would ever see on the weekends. That the only food they really got to eat was their school lunches during the week because their families couldn't always afford groceries.

"Who is this Al?" You may ask. "She's a freaking saint or something."

Yeah. Pretty much.

***

After another hour of jumping, we got all the kids together and played several games of trampoline dodgeball. Al and I were on separate teams, and she never failed to get me out. And out in the most embarrassing of ways. It wasn't bad enough that I "got beat by a girl", as the kids would taunt me, but she always seemed to find my face. By the end of the day, I felt like I had a broken nose, and my cheeks were just as red (from ball welts, not blushing) as the balls we used.

But my embarrassment was overshadowed by my overall joy at being able to spend an entire day seeing Al's beautiful, smiling face and hearing her uncontrollable laughter, even if it was at my expense.

***

"But how will you submit the payment?" David asked me regarding my plan to hack the bank.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"From what you've said, you're having us all withdraw cash from the ATMs, right?"

"Right," I said.

"But you aren't just going to mail thousands of dollars worth of cash to Colorado, are you?"

"Shit," I said. "I guess not. But what, then?"

"That's what I'm asking you," David said. "The school's going to ask you to give a bank account or credit card number, but you can't give them either of those from the fake accounts since you'll be deleting them as soon as we withdraw the cash."

"He could always do one of those prepaid visa cards," JT said.

"And you don't think it'll be suspicious if Eli walks into a grocery store, or wherever you get the cards, with a couple thousand dollars the same day or day after a bank gets robbed of the same amount?" David rebutted.

"But maybe he goes to different places and gets several cards," Brett said.

"And pay Colorado through ten different cards? Not likely," David said.

"Guys," Gabe said, "I've got this. Eli can just give the money to me, which I will deposit over several months. To pay for his college, Eli can use my bank account info."

"Wait," David said, "you have that much money in your account?"

"Yeah," JT said. "Remember, Gabe's the millionaire orphan. Like Richie Rich, just with dead parents."

Without hesitation, Gabe punched JT. Not a playful punch in the arm. But a full-on sock in the mouth. JT, after a split-second to realize what had just happened, took a swing at Gabe, but Gabe easily dodged the punch. Before JT could throw another one, Brett nearly tackled JT to hold him back.

"Get off me!" JT screamed.

"No way, man. Just calm down," Brett said.

"What did you expect, JT? You touched him in the touchy place," David said.

"Alright, alright. Fine," JT said. "I'm good."

"You sure?" Brett said.

"Sure," JT said.

And he was good. He apologized to Gabe after Brett let him go, and Gabe returned the apology.

"Well, I think Gabe's idea is probably the best, then," David said after it all.

We all agreed. Though, Gabe screwing me over did cross my mind. But I let it go. I trusted him.