When Daisy arrived at the Island on that second Saturday, she sensed immediately that something was different. Hovering by the door of the big front room, she could hear the same sitar music twanging in the background, and the place still smelled of pot, joss sticks and unwashed bodies, but there seemed to be some tension in the air. It felt like walking into a room after there has been some bickering going on. You were struck by a kind of embarrassed silence. Daisy wondered, “Were they having a row?”
She stepped forward and made a point of calling out light-heartedly, “Hullo? May I come in?”
The reactions were mixed; she was greeted by many voices at once. There were friendly voices welcoming her, “Hey-hey, blind lady! You back?” There were demonstrative groans as well, as was to be expected, “Oh, no! Not you again!” A mocking boyish voice (Piglet?) joked, “Still looking for Lions’ tea shop, lady?” A couple of other kids sniggered at that. Daisy stayed put in the doorway, noncommittal, smiling blandly. Surely they were not going to throw her out? She listened carefully for the voices of the kids she knew.
Then a more hectoring male voice that she had never heard before challenged her. “What do you want, anyway?”
“Oh, erm… actually, I’d like to speak to Dragon… Is he around somewhere? Dragon!?”
Daisy hadn’t heard her great friend’s voice yet, but then again he was not the most talkative of the kids. Suddenly she felt a feminine presence at her side: patchouli and pungent hair. “I’m glad you’re here, Daisy,” a soft voice murmured. “Dragon is freaking out. He’s in a funk.”
“Roxanne?” Daisy involuntarily made a welcoming gesture with her arms, and the girl fell into an embrace with her and held her tight for a few seconds.
“Where is he? Can I see him?”
“Yes, yes, he’s in one of the pads upstairs, I’ll show you the way.” Taking her hand and leading her up the narrow, steep staircase at the end of the corridor, Roxanne said, “I recognized your voice from upstairs. What a relief!”
Daisy said nothing: what on earth was going on?
She was led to a small room with an overwhelming musty stench to it: stifling, and reeking of unwashed bodies and clothes, of perennially unchanged bedding. Sometimes you can smell despair just as plainly as you can see it. Roxanne pulled Daisy down and made her sit at the edge of a mattress on the floor. Groping around her, Daisy felt a clammy, unresponsive body lying there on its side. “Dragon? Is that you?”
The mumbling that answered her made her think that sometimes you can hear despair as plainly as you can see it, too. But it was Dragon all right, unmistakably. “What’s the matter, darling? What’s wrong?”
There was no answer. Daisy turned her face towards where Roxanne was standing and mouthed “Thank you”; and with a slight nod she motioned her to leave them alone. Roxanne shuffled out and closed the door quietly. Then Daisy put her hands on Dragon’s tense shoulder and neck, brushed his long hair aside and started massaging softly.
“You know, darling, I have the feeling that there’s a dragon with us in this room, and I’m not going to leave you before we’ve slain it together…”
Still no answer. “Turn over… Lie on your belly so I can massage both shoulders… Try to relax.” Daisy went on kneading the tense flesh.
“What is it, Dragon? What’s bothering you? You know that you can trust me, don’t you?”
“Yeah…”
“So? What on earth is going on?”
“I’m in love.” Almost a whisper.
“Well, isn’t that supposed to be a source of happiness?”
“No!” A despairing wail, this time. “It’s no good, because we believe in free love!” The boy tensed under her fingers and Daisy kneaded harder.
“Yes… yes… that does complicate things, huh? And who are you in love with?”
“Amber…”
“Amber, right. I remember Amber. And what does she have to say about this?”
“Well, that’s the thing. She’s not here. They took her away…”
“Took her away? Who took her away?”
“Tiger and Piglet.”
“Are those two in charge around here?”
“No! In a commune no one is in charge!”
“But still, Amber has to do what those two say?”
“Well… yes. But only if she wants to.”
“And what if she doesn’t?”
“Then we won’t get any pot and acid and stuff…”
“What stuff?”
“You know, like food, money to pay the rent?”
“Okay… So Tiger and Piglet took Amber away, but only because she wanted to. So where did she go? I believe Tiger and Piglet are downstairs right now…”
“Yeah, I know, but Amber will be back later…”
“But where did she go? Where is she now?”
“I don’t know! That’s the thing: I’m worried sick about her!”
“Well, you just said that she’ll be back later. The girls that are ‘taken away’ always come back, don’t they?”
“Smm’vthmdunnt…”
“What’s that? I didn’t hear you.”
“Some Of Them Don’t!”
“Oh! Well. But that means that most of them do! Amber will soon be back, believe me. And you know what you’re going to do when she does? You’re just going to tell her that you love her, okay?”
“No! I can’t! We don’t believe in possessive love anymore! Amber would hate me…”
“Well, that’s where you’re completely wrong, darling. There’s no girl on earth that hates a bloke for saying nicely that he loves her! She may not love you back, okay, but she definitely won’t hate you.”
“Oh, but that’s so square!”
“Yes, but you are swallowing an awful lot of rubbish in order not to be square. You love a girl but you’re not supposed to. You’re being bossed around by Tiger and Piglet, but you don’t follow leaders. And apparently you lot will do anything to get high on drugs!”
“Well, but, what about your old friend Huxley? Isn’t all this what he’s about, too?”
“Yes, well, I’m afraid my old friend Huxley was talking a lot of rot at the end of his life. Old men will do that you know. I have the feeling the man has a lot to answer for these days…”
They were silent for a long while. Daisy kept on softly massaging the boy’s neck and shoulders, then she asked, “Are you feeling any better now, Dragon?”
“Well…”
“Listen, it’s not for me to give you advice, but there are a couple of things I want you to consider. You have to look at your options, right? When Amber comes back you could tell her that you love her…”
“Hmm?”
“And if she loves you too, you could, just could ask her to come away with you; elope from this place; go back to your family, or hers.”
“And if she doesn’t love me?”
“Well, here’s another thing: Roxanne is very much in love with you, I think. Why not consider her?”
“And elope with Roxanne, huh?”
“Sure. I don’t like this place. I think you should get out anyway.”
“And what if Amber doesn’t come back?”
“You go to the police with Roxanne and you report it.”
“You have all the answers, huh?”
“I’m showing you the options, that’s all. You will have to make your own decisions.”
Again they remained silent for a while, until Daisy finally asked, “Are we good now? Did we clear out a couple of dragons or not?”
“Yeah. I guess we did… Thanks for your help.”
“All right. I’ll leave you now. Take care…”
When Daisy emerged from the stuffy dorm room, Roxanne was sitting at the top of the stairs, waiting for her. She took her arm and helped her down the steep flight of stairs. Then she marched her straight through the corridor and out of the building, on to the street. “Better not hang around right now, Daisy.”
“I agree. What a difference with my first visit! What has been going on? Did you people have a row or something?”
“Yeah, there’s been some bickering about money and things like that…”
“Money. What about it?”
“Well, you know there are always some differences about how to spend it and who decides about that?”
“Well, who decides? I would expect that everything in a hippie commune is shared equitably and that decisions are made democratically and in complete harmony…”
“Yeah, well, that’s how it should be, but sometimes Tiger and Piglet get a bit bossy, especially about money.”
“Those two again, huh? Is it Tiger who was growling at me when you came down to fetch me?”
“Yeah, you’ve got that in one. He was not there the last time you came, but when he heard about your visit, His Majesty was not pleased. So we bickered about that as well… and also everyone is all of a flutter due to the fact that darling little Amber has gone missing, especially Dragon.”
“You’re right, Dragon is worried sick about Amber…”
“Did you get any wiser about what’s eating Dragon? Is he in love or something?”
“Yes, and he’s not supposed to be, according to the hippie ethos! But what’s going on with her?”
“Well, she’s been away for a while. We’re all a bit worried, even Tiger and Piglet are getting worried by now…”
“But they’re the ones who took her away!”
“Yes, but even they would rather get her back: their precious little Amber…”
“And where did they take her? Where is she supposed to be?”
As they were still holding hands on their way to the Tube station, Daisy could feel Roxanne shrugging. “Dunno. Some rich bloke’s place… fashion designer or rock musician or whatever… throwing a big party: sex ’n drugs ’n Rock ’n Roll… It can last a couple of days, and they like to have chicks like Amber there. And then, when the party is over, she may go off with someone for a while…”
“Dragon seems to think that Tiger and Piglet get something back in exchange for providing the chicks?”
“Yeah. You could look at it that way…”
“And he seems to think that the chicks don’t always come back…”
“Well, what if they find an interesting boyfriend? For all we know, Amber could be making out with Mick Jagger right now!”
“Or someone pretending to be Mick Jagger’s best friend…”
“Oh, but isn’t every one of them Mick Jagger’s best friend? But don’t you worry, Daisy, she’ll be back…”
Presently they reached the entrance to the Tube station and stopped by the side of it so that they could keep on talking. The Saturday crowds just passed them by without heeding them.
“You know, I told Dragon that when she does come back, he should just tell her that he loves her.”
“Well, he hasn’t got a chance in hell! She’s a smasher, Amber is, and Dragon’s definitely not the most good-looking bloke around…”
“But she sounded so sweet and shy, the other day… and very young!”
“Yes, and why do blokes always fall in love with much younger girls?”
“I know! And how about you, in the looks department?”
“Same as Dragon. Not a smasher. Too fat.”
“Well, there’s still hope, darling. I told him that you love him.”
“It’s that obvious, huh?”
“It is for me. And I’m sure Dragon will come around in the end.”
“We’ll see about that. Thanks for putting in a good word, anyway… even though you are one hell of a meddling blind lady!”
“I know, I know…” Daisy sighed. “The thing is, I’m looking for someone, that is: searching, of course. Loretta McCullough?”
“Never heard the name… She was at the Island?”
“Yes. A year ago. She disappeared.”
“That was before my time.”
“The thing is: if I give you my phone number, could you ask around and report back to me? Maybe Dragon knows what happened to her, but I couldn’t ask him now, in that state…”
“Yeah, Dragon was around from the start. Okay, give me your number… and some coins for the phone booth.”
“Oh yes, sure. Thanks, darling, I’m really grateful.” And for the second time they hugged, in front of the Shepherd’s Bush Market station.
Roxanne said, “Do you know that we call this the ‘Daisy-hug’ now? It’s Dragon who told us about it when he came back from the Tube station last Saturday. He showed us how it’s done, and for a week it’s been all the rage with those of us at the Island who are in favour of you.”
As soon as she got home, Daisy called the number that McCullough had given her. He answered the phone at once. “Daisy Hayes! I was waiting for your call. Is there anything new?”
“Yes, McCullough, I’ve found out disturbing things about this commune. There are some sordid transactions going on. Apparently, there are men from outside the commune who are seeking sex with young girls. In exchange, they provide the funds and the drugs that the commune requires. If this were some sleazy nightclub, we would be talking about a prostitution ring involving underage girls, and heavy trafficking in illegal substances. But just because it’s a hippie commune, the sex is provided under the mantle of ‘free love’, and the drugs are donated under the heading of ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’.”
“Jesus, you’ve been doing some good work there! So you’re saying that Loretta was farmed out for sex by these damn hippies?”
“I haven’t worked it out exactly yet. Most of the current bunch of kids were not there a year ago. That’s another thing: it seems to me that a high turnover rate is exactly what they need to keep their little traffic invisible… But obviously, as Loretta was fifteen at the time, and assuming she’s pretty, she must have been a prize catch for the ringleaders!”
“Who are they? Who are the ringleaders?”
“Well, as far as I could make out there are two blokes called Tiger and Piglet, not their real names of course, and there might be other people in charge outside of the commune. They might be exploiting other hippie communes as well, who knows?”
“Okay, good job; now you must try to find out these people’s real identities, especially if there are people from outside…”
“Well, have you any idea how hard that is for someone who’s blind?”
“Nonsense! You’re doing an outstanding job, just like I predicted you would.”
“Besides, my testimony wouldn’t even hold up in court.”
“Just try to find out more details about what happened to Loretta.”
“Well, a good day to you too, you oaf!” Daisy said to the dead phone.