"Crazy Jenny has gone totally nuts this time! She’s over the edge, out of control, completely insane! She not only sic'ed the cops on us, but the DEA and child protection too! And what did we ever do? We fed her, we let her hang out and we even defended her when other's talked bad about her. Man, I tell you, that BITCH had better never show her fuckin’ face around here anymore! No one will ever have anything to do with her ever again!" Bus Bob tells me.
Crazy Jenny has been coming out to bus village for 3 years now. She hangs around mooching food for a couple weeks at a time then goes loony tunes and splits for awhile but she always comes back. Well, maybe not this time.
Bus village is a collection of Rainbow People who spend their summers in Washington and Oregon then winter out here in the desert at the hot springs. There’s a core of about 30 people living in an assortment of old school buses, vans and campers. A few of the buses are old and plain looking but most of them are real works of art both inside and out. There's always extra folks hanging around them too. Sometimes just a few but sometimes, like at winter solstice, a thousand or more. Some, like the core group are true Rainbows who share everything they have and try not to judge those that don't.
However some who hang around are pure Drainbow. When they see you the first words out of their mouths are, "Hey brother (or sister) can you spare a _____? " Fill in the blank yourself; “dollar?” “joint?” “beer?” “cigarette?” “food?” “ride?” “blanket?” “your old lady?” etc. etc. etc... Some are truly crazy like Jenny but most are just too lazy to wipe their own ass which in my opinion, is where their brains are located, that is if they have any. I myself dislike these leeches since I've been really poor for my entire life and have never begged for anything from anyone so I almost never give them anything. In fact, I tell them quite bluntly to get away and to stay away from me, but the Rainbows are much more understanding and tolerant then I am.
Jenny's a real downer though, being crazy she has only one rap and it goes like this, "Men are all scum sucking assholes. Real rat bastards whose only real pleasure in life is beating, raping and killing poor defenseless women and children. Men are nothing but a bunch of lying thieving heartless murdering motherfuckers who should all be castrated, killed and then cremated with their ashes scattered to the wind so they can’t hurt any more innocents souls. I mean just look what they've done to ME!" she'll shriek.
There are variations on this theme but it's always the same old tired song. The folks I hang out with will not listen to this bullshit. As soon as we see her coming, we tell her that we do not want to hear her crap so if she can't shut up then to get to the hell away from us. She always goes away yelling about how horrible we (MEN!) are. I don't know how bus village put up with her as long as they did especially since she's a Drainbow too. Well, after this last incident they won't.
It all started when bus village was having a party to which my friends and I were invited. All of us were sitting under a tarp that Bus Bob had rigged up for shade sharing a joint, talking and waiting for the food to be ready. Crazy Jenny drives up in her beat up old white window van, parks then comes over to the circle. She's not even there one minute before she starts in on her man hating rap. The Rainbows just listen and nod their heads in sympathy. She is after all, totally nuts.
After a couple minutes of this, my friend Paul says to her, "Ya know Jenny, we were having a real nice time until you came along and opened your yap. So why don't you just shut up with all that crazy talk cuz we don't want to hear it."
Jenny is incensed, "Can you believe what that insensitive son of a bitch just said to ME? Only a man would be so heartless not to see how much pain I'm in! Can you believe that shit?" she asks Sarah, one of the Rainbow women.
Sarah then makes a fatal mistake, she sides with a man saying, "Well Jenny, we were all having a really mellow time and we'd rather not hear your negative talk right now."
Jenny cannot believe it! A woman siding with a man, and against her! She starts screaming at Sarah about the murdered and the raped and the oppressed women and children of the world blab, blah, blah...
Paul’s had enough. He tells her to get the fuck out of here. That nobody likes her, wants her or needs to hear her bullshit! And if she never came around again then everyone here would be real happy!
This gets her even madder. She screams to the other women, "Is This TRUE? Is This TRUE?"
The other women don't say anything. They just look at her with pity.
And Jenny knows it is TRUE.
Jenny starts crying then runs over to her van. The women follow her trying to soothe her but she won't hear it. Screaming and crying she says we will never see her again and that we'll all be sorry because she's going get even with all of us. She punches the gas and is gone. Well, that sure put the kibosh on this happy gathering.
Except my friends and I are all laughing and saying, "Fuck her!” “Good riddance to that bitch.” “She’s nothing but a downer anyway."
The Rainbows however, are all bummed out so after the meal my friends and me go back to our camp to drink beer and smoke pot. The Rainbows form a drum circle to drum away the bad vibes.
Three days later bus village is besieged. There are a couple of sheriff cars, a CHP and half a dozen unmarked cars containing a whole shitload of county Narc’s and DEA. There's even a County Welfare Child Endangerment worker. They've received a complaint of sexual child abuse and drug dealing to minors. The Rainbows minds are blown! They can't believe their eyes. Jesus H. Christ! They're just a peaceful little tribe out in the middle of nowhere not bothering a soul. Who are all these cops and why are they here? After a moment of stunned disbelief they get pissed.
Bob wants to know who's in charge.
One of the Narc’s says that he is.
Bob wants to know if they have a warrant.
No, they just have a complaint.
Bob wants to know who signed the complaint.
The cop tells him it was a woman named Jennifer Roberts.
Bob thinks, ‘Who is...? Oh yeah!’ He describes Crazy Jenny to the cop.
The cop says yeah, that sounds like her.
Now Bob is really pissed and starts ragging on the cop, "You mean to tell me that you're here because of what some crazy woman told you?"
The cop tells Bob that they have to check out all complaints.
Bob tells him unless they have a warrant that no one will cooperate with them. This is private property (a good lie, it’s BLM land) and without a warrant they will have to leave.
The cop says they’re not leaving until they check out the complaint. Plus, he’d like their permission to search all of their vehicles and of course, the social worker will have to talk with all of the children.
Bob tells the cop there is no way anyone will give permission for a search. Bob then calls all the children together and tells them that under no circumstances are they to talk with the cops or the social worker. That no matter what these people say it will be a lie. If anyone tells the cops anything then the cops will take us all including you kids right to jail. Do not say even one single word to them.
The kids are all hip and will not talk.
The social worker tries to speak with them but the kids won't utter a word. The older ones just glare at her while the younger ones cry saying they want their Mommy.
The head Narc tells Bob that if the Rainbow’s do not consent to a search then he'll call for a dope sniffing dog. If the dog gives him the sign then he will have probable cause and won't need a warrant to search.
Bob tells him, "Go ahead and get your dog."
The cops radio for the dog and are told it will take an hour to get there so what can they do but stand around and wait.
The social worker tells Bob since everyone there is nude, including the children, that if Bob doesn't tell the kids to talk to her, she'll take them away anyway.
Bob tells her that if being naked around your own kids is a crime then she'd better go and arrest every single adult in all the nudist camps in all of California.
She wants to talk to him more trying to reason with him but he just walks away.
Bob tells all the Rainbows to form a drum circle, which they do. They start the drumming ignoring the cops.
The cops having nothing better to do wander around Bus village to check it out.
As I said, some of the vehicles are real works of art. All brightly painted, some with full murals on their sides. There are strange structures on top of some of them and arcane symbols on all of them. Hanging off them some have wind chimes ringing or flags flapping or mobiles twisting in the wind. Almost everybody is in the nude. Most of the men have big beards, some with things braided into them. All of them, men, women and children, have long hair and most are totally dreadlocked. They all sit naked in a big circle under the blazing desert sun each with his or her own homemade drum. They don’t say a single word. They’re just start drumming.
They go on drumming for over an hour until the K-9 unit shows up. The dog goes to work. Still they don't stop drumming even with the dog sniffing around them, their children and their vehicles. They just keep drumming, and it's not only driving the cops nuts but the dog as well. He can't concentrate on the job with all this drumming and all these strange new sights and smells. The cops tell the freeks to stop but the Rainbows just keep drumming.
The dog refuses to work. The cops yell at the dog then try to cajole it, but it’s way too distracted. The cops now have no warrant and no probable cause. The kids are obviously not being abused. They may be naked and dirty but they're also healthy and well fed with no marks or bruises on any of them.
And they won't stop that fucking drumming! The cops are frustrated. They know that there's dope in them thar vehicles but they now have no legal excuse to search them. They've wasted an entire afternoon with a bunch of nuts and all because they listened to what some crazy woman had told them. There's nothing they can do except make one more threat before they leave empty handed.
The head cop walks over to the drum circle and shouts at them for silence. The drummers don’t even pause. They just keep drumming. The cop tells them at the top of his voice that he knows they have dope on them and he will be back shortly with a warrant.
The Rainbows don’t listen, they just keep drumming, ignoring him.
As the cops walk away one of them was overheard to say, "Man, I've heard about shit like this, but I ain't never seen nothing like it before. It's like being in some kind of third world country."
His buddy nods saying, "Yeah, it's just like being in the fucking National Geographic."
The Rainbow drum circle keeps on drumming.
The cops never did come back.