TIME FOLLOWS ME

CHAPTER FIVE - SPEAKER AND RICH

CHAPTER FIVE

SPEAKER AND RICH

Speaker was a mutt and Rich a dude from New York City.  He’d just quit his job in a department store.  He and Speaker were going to San Francisco where his Mom lived with a stop off along the way in Idaho to visit his brother and wife and their newborn baby.

Rich asked me almost immediately if I smoked, I smiled and said, “Sure do”.  He asked me to bring out a bag that he had in the glove compartment box and asked me to roll one.  I am a pretty good roller and could roll one thin but not too tight.

Rich, Speaker and I settled into a fine ride as we got really stoned and drove peacefully into the chasm of trees and rocks that seemed to swallow us out of any time and place.  I think Speaker was as stoned as us, and I would talk to him and pat him in the back seat.  I had left three dogs at home that I missed.  They were my constant companions much more than my older brother.

We talked as we drove, I found out a bit about Rich.  His brother had been in the Vietnam War and had gone off the grid and was living in a cabin in Idaho or Montana.  He said that he was fucked up and that a lot of guys like him had just got out and went to the mountains to live and to be left alone.  They were proud of their guns and stayed as self-sufficient as possible, growing their own weed, food and cutting wood for the winter stove fire.  To me this seemed amazing to have survived a war and then build a cabin and start a family.  Rich was single and ready for a transition back to the West Coast.

We stayed in provincial parks at night and made good time traveling about four or five hundred miles a day.  The Valiant was a beauty simple car with a slant six engine that seemed to just motor along effortlessly at a nice cruising speed of about fifty miles an hour.  On some of the big hills we had to switch to lower gears because the long steep climb up those northern Ontario hills would slow us down pretty much.  At times, I wondered whether we would make it.  We used to laugh and I would repeat the phrase that I thought was funny, especially if you’re stoned. “Run mice run”, as we crawled up the hills and coasted down the other side.

One night, one of the first we traveled together we set up camp and made a fire.  I think we had pork and beans right out of the tin that tasted delicious.  We cooked it over the fire and had a beer or two.  It was a beautiful peaceful northern night like only Ontario can be with stars sparkling in the hemisphere above us.  We relaxed and felt cool.  A brother and sister from another campsite came over to say hello.  They asked if we wanted to smoke with them?

We said sure, and joined them moving away from the fire to a more secluded area that wouldn’t attract much attention.  The moon was full with clouds crossing across them I remember.  They said they were traveling with their parents in a Winnebago and going out west.  The girl whose name I didn’t get said, “It’s pretty boring.”  I wondered what it was like traveling in a Winnebago and thought it must be nothing like camping.  It was a whole kitchen and bunks on wheels and you might as well as stayed home for all the roughing it you would get.

I liked the girl though, and I think she liked me.  With some people I just have an instant calmness and attraction too and others you couldn’t get me near them with a ten-foot pole.  That’s my nature I suppose.  The “Winnebago Girl” seemed like she wanted to get close to me.  She was kinda pretty and confident in an adolescent way that makes you think anything is possible.  I liked her but we didn’t really do anything except give each other “shotguns” where we put the joint inside our mouth and blew out into the other’s mouth shooting it down into the lungs in a way that is intimate and feels good.  You’re face to face looking into her eyes and she has her hand on your hip and back to hold you closer and you don’t want to be anywhere else.  I wanted to kiss her after that, but I was too stoned and inexperienced so we said, “good night, see you in the morning before you head off.”