The Onion Has Grown

Can’t help wondering, what would it be like now, so many more layers to peel away, the onion has grown. It took maybe 15 minutes, to get back on the Boardwalk, Eric and I split up, after deciding not to split up the hits. It was amazing, catching up with him, after a year had passed, joined together again, for one more mission completed. The first time I ever smoked pot, was with this guy, I wonder now, if he’s still alive. By the time I hit the Boardwalk, the LSD 25 was hitting me, it was comming on clean, no confusion, quite a change, from the STP I dropped about five weeks before. A storm was out at sea, blowing up the East Coast, a Sunday, the Weekend, pretty much a washout, it was cold, a slight overcast, the waves were cracking big. The beach was empty, some people still milling up and down the boardwalk. A guy, I sorta knew, tells me to come with him, that he needs my help, I follow him down on the beach. I don’t have a clue, I’m feeling pretty good, walking on sand, is doing wonderful things, gulls are flying, Jonathan livingston had a lot of meaning back then. So this dude sits down on the sand, a little above the high water mark, I’m really beginning to get off good by now, he pulls a box from his jacket. Did I mention how good it was getting to be, did I mention, I didn’t have a clue, he starts mixing up stuff, he’s using fire, I’m just sitting back, taking it all in, I had no idea what was up, all I knew of junkies at that time, was not to trust them, I had no idea this guy was a junkie! I was at that point, where nothing was making any sense, the waves were breaking hollow, making lots of sound, whats going on with this guy, just one more piece, that ain’t making any sense at the time. He struggled with the fire, the wind was blowing hard, he was determined, there was only matches back then, I actually thought he might be doing all that stuff with fire for me, you know, my trip, then he pulls out a syringe from his box. This pure acid I took, is full on now, I’m having trouble processing what I see, the time distorts, he tells me to grasp his upper arm, his veins start to pop. When I see him taking aim, looking like he’s gonna to jab himself, I let go and run. I didn’t need to see that, I ran way up the beach, he screamed at me, I got far, far away. It was a kite day, there was a hot little kite shop on the Boardwalk, out in front, on the sand, I settled in, I’m sure, after my preceding prior experience, I was conversing with myself, I watched kites soaring with the birds, watched a ball tossed back and fourth across the beach, I’m sure, I was there a few hours, time sure flies, while your having fun, I was glad, I was able to put all that nasty stuff away, I learned a lot that day! After all had settled down, I laid out on the beach, it was past first light, they had already swept the sand. Mid afternoon, waking up to a pretty nice day, I have one thing on my mind, getting back to 9th street, it appears the tribe has shrunk, not as many kids hanging around, a lot of old familiar faces gone. I start talking around, remember, I woke up with a mission, I start asking about that dude with the brief case, I want to hunt him down, seems some people had some trouble with his stuff, one story was a guy trying to pick up lines on the highway, A beat cop told us later, as he flipped his beating baton on the leather strap, always careful not to bang his shin, oh yea, sorry, thought I’d just throw that in, oh yea, that some dude, tried to drive his cell at jail away. The dude who floated in through the weekend, was gone, there were some stories about him, just adding to his mystery, the town changed. More and more time spent, out on Assateaque, It took no more than week, for law enforcement to wrap it up, the experiment had ended. I guess I was in the last group to go, low priority I guess, we had a huge tent out on the island. A group of us had gone to town, getting some of this, a little of that, we’d took off, late afternoon, found what we wanted, it took some time, we all dropped, then headed back to camp. Well, all the rules had changed at the campground, as we were away, we’re stopped at the entrance, told that only families could camp, I think they were telling us, they were sick of us kids. They said we needed to be married, we said we were, this back and fourth stuff, went on for quite a while, we were all tripping. I was 15, at some point they realized, they weren’t getting through, waved us by, gave us one more night. The party was on, we had pulled it off, we thought it would be over, we were all very young. Just as everything was winding down, early in the morning, the Ranger shows up, he gonna explain the rules, we’re all still a little crispy. He talks, we listen, but he knows, we don’t understand. In his wisdom, I’ll give him credit, he just knew it be best, if we all went to sleep. So now everythings cool, we all rack out, 7 or so hours later, the cops show up, they load us up, then drive us off to Snow Hill, well I’m scared, I’ve never been in real jail before, when I get there, all my friends are there, all the people that seemed to vanish from the beach, I found them here.