Thursday, December 07, 2006

Growing Hope - Installment 10

kept the meme of the Fool's Path floating around in my head. Something about it managed to cling on to other ideas in the neuron soup. What was it that made us fools, as Shelly put it? I shook my head, drank my beer. Better to clear those vicious, unsightly thoughts from my cranium before it was too late. They might take over. Memes do that. They replicate within your brain, expand, begin to destroy other ideas and other thought processes till you're nothing but a vessel for them.

So I backed away slowly. And carefully. Metaphorically, of course. I walked out of the hallway, back into the slightly less surreal reality that was the camp. The clave. The guitar strumming had begun again. Chattering among the clavers picked back up, something I relished. Conversations from without to replace those within... I became lost instantly in the flood of voices, the double digit addition added in short pace to the four I'd been apart of earlier. ?Party??

?Yeah, party, man. A big fucking party. We got bands coming in from the city, trucking their shit right now.?

?Who told 'em??

?Hook, I think.?

?What's it for??

?Just to party. Need an excuse, Jakey Jake??

?Just sip it till till cools off, then slam her back, aye??

I turned the corner, and felt the rush. The exultation, the pre-endorphin high. The testosterone feel of fresh women on the way, the estrogenic love of things manly, the need to create. I could smell, feel, see it in the air, that electrical hum of the ecstatic union about to take place. It delivered weightlessness to my being, almost made me lift off my feet. This was what being alive felt like, at least as far as I was concerned. It was the feeling of mental foreplay. We were all flirting with the future, it seemed.

Fifteen or twenty people ranging from 16 to 30 sat or stood around, all in their own preparatory phases. No doubt that there were more throughout the camp, hidden away in their dormitories preparing themselves for the night to come. This was life for us. Work hard, try and make the world a better place, indulge. Some were applying makeup, others adjusting their instruments. A few were kicking back a couple pre-party shots or beers. I saw one group cooking up shroom tea on a hot plate.

I moved through the crowd easily, only getting a couple recognizing nods from those I'd dealt with in the past. Carol's pad was my destination, partially to collect Telson, partially to let them know I hadn't been knifed when I made it down to the studio. The need for chit chat, social bantering, didn't occur to me. A mission was what I was on. I needed tomatoes. Tomatoes to trade for aurative. Aurative to party. Partying to help me put away the the parts of my brain that screamed for being put away.

A few sharp raps on Carol's door. ?Yo, Carol, Telson. You guys decent??

?Yeah,? was the call from inside. I opened the door. They'd at least pulled a sheet over themselves.

?Telson, throw some clothes on,? I said as I walked in.

?Huh??

?Clothes. Put them on,? I replied, turning around. I had no desire to see Telson naked. Carol on the other hand... but she was passed out anyway.

?What are we doing?? he asked. I could hear him getting out of bed, the rustle of well worn work pants as he pulled them on. Carol stirred slightly at the weight shift.

?You dressed?? I asked the wall ahead of me.

?Yeh.?

I turned around. ?We got some aurative from one of the guys. Half a sack of tomatoes for a dose, maybe two if we can bring down three-quarters.?

?You sure?? he asked, eyes lit up.

?Pretty sure. But, come on, we gotta hurry. Party looks like it's getting ready to go, so we need to get back soon,? I said. I kept glancing at Carol's half-naked, passed out, stoned form. Telson didn't even notice. Or didn't care. One or the other.

?Right, right,? he said as he reached over to grab his shirt from the foot of the bed. ?Lead the way, Dorse.?

?You gonna wake her up?? I asked, gesturing at Carol.

?Huh? Oh, yeah,? he replied. Telson walked over and sat down where he'd been laying before, reached out a hand to her flank and gently shook her. ?Caaaarrrrroool,? he cooed softly till she began to stir. When she made a grunt of acknowledgment Telson told her we were leaving, that the party was starting soon. We waited till she was sitting up before heading out the door.

The trip through the camp was quick, to the point. We phoned Hook from a console to let down the grid for us, hit the courtyard. As soon as we made it to the guard station we rapidly informed him of our intention to come back as soon as possible and explained the urgency for reentry.

?Ah, no problem, guys. As soon as Hook sees you coming, he'll have his finger on the trigger, you know??

And then we made our way back into the real world, the place of dark and grime where beauty was just a random fractal created by nature.

Posted originally at Frequency23

You should read the stuff there. And then you should link to my site. Bitches.