The Deep End

Greg wakes early the next morning to the sounds of the campsite livening up and a man carving wood animals with a chainsaw outside his window. He dreads going to the quarter-operated showers with other people and, when he gets there, it’s even worse than he expected. The line is long, and the walls between each stall are low. Greg is stuck between a man and a woman while several others watch from the lineup. When his quarter runs out, he leaves the shower to put in another one, but a man steals his stall and his shampoo. Greg leaves with soapy hair and goes to rinse himself off at the laundromat sink. There, he finds that the man with the chainsaw has dumped his family’s clothes on the floor. Greg’s mom continues to insist on finding something fun to do and takes the family to the lake, but Greg finds it overcrowded and chaotic. Nobody seems to be using the lake to swim, instead using it to eat, shower, or bother one another. Greg imagines a sea monster lurking below the water’s surface, and after the piranha incident, decides not to swim. The Heffleys get in a canoe instead, but a group of teenagers hurls watermelons at them from a nearby hill.