My lover Kelly and I are hanging out in the woods with a bunch of other freeks near a beautiful little lake high in the Cascade’s for the summer. Martin, one of the hippies we’ve made friends with supports himself by dealing grass, acid and shrooms at a very reasonable price. This morning we’re all sitting around Martin’s green Ford van when 3 middle aged straight looking folks approach us. The 2 guys have short hair and are dressed like lumberjacks while the woman is wearing a cowboy shirt and jeans. They come up to us and one of the guys asks, “Hey are you the people with the LSD?”
Martin, after looking them over and deciding they’re not cops, tells them it’s him.
The guy asks what it is.
Martin tells him it’s 4-way blotter.
The guy asks the price for a full sheet (100 hits).
Martin gives it to him and the dude says fine, he’ll take it.
Martin hands him the sheet. The dude hands him the cash. The guy then tears the sheet in half and pockets one of the halves. The other half he rips into 3 pieces then hands each of his friends a piece. All 3 of them stick a piece in their mouths and sallow. Martin, Kelly and I all look at each other then at the straight folks.
Martin tells them, “Man, that was a pretty healthy dose you guys just took. Have you ever taken LSD before? Because one of those little squares would of been more than enough to get you off.”
The guy says, “Yeah, we’ve had it before and we know the tripp. We just want to get high, that’s all.”
I say, “Well, you’re gonna get high all right.” and laugh.
They shrug then laugh too. Kelly wishes them good luck as they walk away.
It’s afternoon, Kelly and I are sitting on a log in the shade on the path that leads down to the lake when we see the 2 guys coming down the trail. Right away we can see that they are loaded to the gills. They’re trippin’ hard barely able to walk as they stagger towards us while staring up through the trees at the sky. They’re laughing and crying at the same time. As they come even with us I say, “How’s it goin’, boys. Did ya get high?”
Whether they ignored us or simply didn’t know we existed at that place in time, I don’t know. I do know that they don’t acknowledge us in the slightest as they stumble on by each in his own little world. I turn to Kelly saying, “I guess they got off.”
Kelly smiles nodding her head then muses, “I wonder what happened to the woman?”
We don’t have to wait long for an answer. A couple minutes later here she comes. She not really walking. It’s more like she’s sliding her feet a few inches at a time in front of her. She not looking at the trees, the sky or anything else that’s surrounding her either. She’s staring straight down at the ground in front of her. As she glides up to us we can hear her saying over and over again to herself, “I’m okay. Yeah, I’m all right. I’m okay. Yeah, I’m all right. I’m okay. Yeah, I’m all right......”
As she passes I laugh and say, “Hey, are you okay?” But she just ignores me as she shuffles down the path repeating her mantra until she’s out of sight.