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Parallel

PuristLove

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 11, 2000
Messages
1,694
Birthday
"Chad, its your birthday man, what do you want to do when we get out of here?"
"Dude, I thought we were gonna take some beer out to the lake."
"Naww man, sorry. My cousin went out of town," Ted stopped in the hall staring at the ground for a moment, "Hey, can't you get some acid?"
"I'll make some phone calls when we get out of here. Come over to my house about four o' clock and we'll go pick it up."
"Alright, do you still want to go out to the lake?"
"I hate tripping when we don't have somebody's house to stay at. Sometimes it gets too intense outside. Isn't there anybody else who can get us alcohol?"
"Sorry dude, nobody I know," Ted slapped his friend on the shoulder, "I know this girl that might fuck us both if we get her some acid. Consider it a birthday present from me, and we can crash over there. Her dad doesn't live there anymore."
"It's been so long since I had any I can taste it already."
"Acid? Yeah it's been a while since we've tripped."
"Not acid my friend, not acid," Chad grinned devilishly at his friend.
"But didn't you and Lauren…?" The question hung in the air like a paratrooper who just realized he was afraid of heights.
"Those were just the rumors," the smile dropped away from his face, "I wanted too but she's too stuck on her boyfriend."
"But he's in jail though."
"I know. Apparently she hasn't realized that yet."
"Well man I've gotta get to class. I'll be at your house at four."
"Later."
Chad headed off to class excited. He'd been looking forward to his seventeenth birthday for weeks now. Ever since his mom caught him smoking weed he'd been grounded. Tonight would be the end of his imprisonment, and he was determined to go out and get fucked up.
********************
Honking horn. Slamming car door. Excited banging on door.
Chad opened the door up. Ted's overflowing eagerness made his disappointment worse.
"Dude, I paged him five times and he isn't calling me back. He always calls back right away. He has a cell phone. We aren't getting any acid," Chad couldn't believe what he was saying. It was his seventeenth birthday and he was going to be spending it on the couch watching rented movies. How lame.
"Forget it dude. I've got something better," Ted patted his pocket and motioned with his eyes for Chad to let him inside.
"What did you get man? You didn't find some E somewhere did you? Its been dry for months…" Chad hoped it was ecstasy. He wanted to roll so badly.
"Look," he pulled a small bag from his pocket. Chad couldn't tell what was inside. It looked like some kind of powder.
"What is that shit?" Chad was curious, but wary.
"Its crystal man," Ted said it like it was the holy grail.
"What? Crystal? Where did you get that from?"
"Well, I was talking to Ashley after class. Dude, she is so hot. But anyways, she said that her and Lauren hadn't gotten tweaked since Lauren's boyfriend got busted, and that they were feigning so bad. And I remembered my neighbor had offered to let me try some once. So I got Ashley's number and then when I went home I asked my neighbor if he could get some. So we're gonna hang out and snort with Ashley and Lauren tonight."
"Dude, I don't know man. I've never done anything like crystal before," Chad felt his stomach grow queasy. But he wanted to party so badly.
"Man, I've heard girls can fuck like machines on this stuff. I bet they'll get all horny and Lauren's boyfriend has been gone a long time."
"Alright, let me tell my mom we're leaving."
Chad disappeared into the house and was back in a short time.
"Let's go."
Half an hour later Ashley was cutting lines out on a mirror in her bedroom. "Chad, you go first. It's your birthday."
His stomach was jittery. He couldn't tell if it was from being around these girls he liked, or because he was so scared of the drug. He had always associated crystal meth with junkies. The tweekers who lived in the dirty apartments in the city, not working, just getting high and starving. Rail thin. Black bags under eyes. Scabs. Brain deterioration. The whole drug addict image.
He approached her and leaned in towards the mirror.
"Not like that," Ashley stopped him.
"What?" He didn't understand.
"You'll waste it like that. Do you have a dollar?"
"A dollar? Why?" He felt like an idiot.
"Never mind, I think I've got one." She dug through her pockets until she found one. Rolling it up so that it formed a tube, she handed it to him.
"Shove that up your nose and snort through it. Try to get the whole line."
He took it from her and leaned towards the mirror again, trembling. He was afraid he was going to knock it over and waste all of it.
A little suction and some of the line disappeared up his nose. He got about halfway through when he realized his nose was on fire. He jerked back and wrinkled his eyebrows. Clutching his nose, he waited for the pain to subside.
"Are you done?" Ashley looked at him, wanting him to hurry up.
"No," He was embarrassed by the disdain in her voice. He put the dollar bill into his other nostril and snorted the rest of the line laid out for him.
A few minutes passed and he had begun to feel pretty good. This was nothing like the dirty junky drugs they used in the ghetto.
********************
Lauren and Chad were riding in the back of Ted's car. The rest of the school year and most of the summer had passed.
Ashley turned around, "Hey Chad, are you still thinking about taking your GED?"
"Why should I? My mom lets me live there for free. I'll just stay there until her and dad die and I inherit the house."
"It's not fair that you don't have to have a job and I do. I have to find a new one. They told me I had to take a drug test yesterday and I split."
"Well I've been looking for a job, but I just can't seem to find one I want. I hate not having any money but I'm not gonna work some crappy job."
Lauren cut in, "But baby, I thought you were gonna take that job that paid $9 an hour. The telemarketing job…"
"I really can't see myself doing that kind of work." The excuses he invented grew less creative every day.
Ted pulled into a parking lot, outside of a convenience store. "We're here. Let's do this."
Chad and Ted pulled on ski masks. Ashley slid into the driver's seat. She turned the car around, backing into the parking lot, facing away from the building.
Chad and Ted put the water guns into their pockets. They convinced themselves it looked real.
They walked into their store, Chad looked the cashier in the eye, "Give us every penny in that cash…"
The explosion that interrupted him came from a twelve gauge shotgun. Neither Chad nor Ted ever saw the employee working in the supply closet at the back of the store.
For a long time there was no consciousness.
~o~o~0~o~o~
Reincarnation
Chad climbed out of the shower. He took an extra long time to shave, but didn't apply any after-shave. He dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that he liked and hurried downstairs. In a rush to begin his twenty-first birthday.
"Have a good night Mom."
"You be careful tonight son, ok?"
"I will Mom. I promise."
"I just worry. You're doing to well in school to screw it up. I wish you would just wait a few more years."
"I'll be just fine Mom. I've done my research. I know what I'm doing. I'm happy and mature and I'll be just fine."
"I know. I love you."
"Love you too Mom," he kissed her on the forehead and walked out of the door.
She was so proud of him. He'd do just fine tonight. That wouldn't help her sleep any better though.
Chad hopped into the car he had saved so hard for. It was a 72 Mustang and had been his dream car since he was a little boy.
He was anxious, nervous and eager. His first LSD trip was going to be tonight. He had sampled pot and alcohol a little when he was younger, but had been pretty careful about it. After everything he had been told in school, he'd made the decision to wait about exploring drugs until he'd developed a sense of moderation.
He'd kept his partying pretty spaced apart and always watched closely for the signs of habituation that they taught about in school.
It was too bad Ted hadn't listened as well. But at least he was in a good rehab. After several of his friends had talked to him about how dependent he'd gotten on pain-killers he had volunteered to go. Tax money made from the sales of recreational drugs had been used to research addiction, and the rehabs and education programs they had really did seem to help most people.
Chad imagined some parallel universe where drugs were illegal. He remembered reading about the Prohibition on Alcohol, and wondered how out of control the drug problem would have gotten if they had tried to criminalize them. Organized Crime had soared during the years of Prohibition, and alcohol produced so much more crime than it ever had with it legal.
Up ahead he saw a police officer with someone pulled over. Chad tried to resist the urge to rubber-neck but couldn't help it. The cop had the man out of his car taking the standard motor-coordination test. If he failed the test it would be years before he got behind the wheel of a car again. Irresponsible actions taken on drugs just weren't tolerated.
Chad exited the highway and pulled into the parking lot of the psychologist's office. He took a few deep breaths in his car to calm down and got up to go inside. He knew a lot about what to expect tonight, but from what he had read, every trip revealed something different.
Four other young people stood inside. None of them looked younger than eighteen. It was pretty uncommon for minors to use drugs besides weed and alcohol. They just weren't easily available to them. Sometimes an older person would buy them some, but the laws against this were so strict that very few adults would risk it. Maybe human beings were selfish after all. Chad chuckled a little.
Two older men stepped out of a door. One of them was dressed in khaki's and a polo shirt, the other in brown suede pants and no shirt. The doctor and the shaman. Chad studied the Shaman's tattoos and decorations. He was awed by the presence of both men.
"Well I hope everybody is ready. We'll take the sacraments, and then introduce ourselves to each other. After we have all said hello, DancingWind is going to lead us in ritual for the first half of the trip. After that the time is yours, talk play, dance, roll around naked. You've already been instructed on the ground rules. If at any time something makes you feel uncomfortable, please come talk to me about it."
They sat down on the floor in a circle and the doctor came around with an eyedropper. Chad stuck out his tongue and a few drops of liquid were placed on it. He closed his eyes and tried to relax. Ready for the universe to tell it's secrets to him.
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Intelligence is not best measured by the answers you have but by the questions that you ask
 
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