Chapter Seven: Hippie is as Hippie Does?

 

Chapter Seven: Hippie is as Hippie Does?

2:00 p.m. Sunday July 2

            …Another close friend of mine is Haley Mayenson. We were close friends through high school. However, I fear we lost contact and I am not sure how she feels about me. The one time I tried to initiate contact with her she brushed me off coldly. If I’ve done something wrong, then she would be a great person for insight into my flaws. If not, well, its just that much more perspective into my personality. Maybe you will be able to find out what I couldn’t for myself. Maybe you could find out just why she said she hated me…

            So there I was, heading out of Arab to a few towns over to get to Guntersville. It was a lakeside town, with a marina and seafood restaurants. And apparently it also contained my next stop on this weird journey of mine into the past of Frank Derahno. I was supposed to find this Haley person and try to find out what her deal was. I was hoping I wouldn’t just get shunted out as soon as I mentioned his name.

            On the edge of Arab I saw a decent looking gas station sitting on the side of the highway. My stomach was mildly complaining that I had been up for a bit and hadn’t consumed the second meal yet. I succumbed to the hunger and pulled over and into the gas station. I parked close to the door and got out.

            A few minutes and a few bucks later, I was coming back out of the gas station with a bag of chips and a Vault soda. I knew the green beverage was hell on my insides and body in general, but damn was it tasty! I got into the car and opened the bag of chips and set it on the passenger seat propped up from easy access to the tasty treats inside. I strapped myself in and opened up the soda to take a big swig to quench my thirst and began pulling forward. That was when I heard a dull thud coming from the front of my car. I immediately hit the brake and set my drink down. I looked ahead just in time to see what seemed like a woman-like shape fall down in front of my car. I cursed loudly and got out of my seat belt and rushed out of the car to the front end.

            Looking down I saw what was indeed a woman, and a rather odd looking one. She had shoulder length brown hair that looked a bit dry, for lack of a better word, and a decent looking face. She wore several necklaces of beads, a flowing brown skirt that reached her ankles, and, and I s**t ye not, a tie-dye shirt with yellow being the predominant color among the spiral rainbow.

I had just hit a hippie with my car.

Wow… I guess I wasn’t kidding when I said it was going to be a weird vacation. But now I had to check to see how bad I had just screwed up. I kneeled down next to her and tried to talk to her.

            “Excuse me, ma’am? I’m so sorry! Are you okay? Are you conscious?” After spouting off this rapid fire barrage, I realized that I should have said them in the wrong order completely. I acted like just any other stupid schmuck on the road instead of being the paramedic I was trained to be and asking the important questions first. I needed to get to work again quickly before I lost my edge and it cost someone their life while I was on the job.

            The woman opened her previously closed eyes and looked up at me with confusion in her eyes. I checked to make sure her pupils responded correctly to ensure that she didn’t have a concussion. All was clear there. With luck, all I did was clip her leg and while she fell she naturally rolled with it and didn’t hit her head to hard. She slowly began to get up and looked at me with a quite justified look of indignation. She brushed herself off while talking to me.

            “Man, I don’t know what your deal is man, but why did you hit me with your car? Most dudes just roll up beside me to get my attention. Why did you just hit me man?”

            As if the clothing wasn’t enough, the inordinate amount of times she used the word ‘man’ was a bit over the top. Oh, Heaven above help me. I really did just hit a bona fide hippie with my car. And said hippie didn’t seem mad. Just confused and bemused, as only a hippie could pull off.

            “Um, excuse me,” I started lamely. I seemed to have a large store of lame in me lately. “But are you okay?”
            She nodded, her face locked into that faraway look that most stereotypical hippies had. I checked her eyes to see if she was just high. Oddly enough, I didn’t find anything. I didn’t smell the telltale scent of marijuana on her, either. As far as I could tell, she was perfectly sober.

            “Yeah, man. I’m cool. But you shouldn’t go around hitting people with your car man. The universe tends to look down on that,” she said in a lilting manner.

            “Yes, I know. I am very sorry. I just wasn’t looking and I didn’t think that another person came out of the door there. Can I walk you to your car to make sure you’re okay? I am a paramedic,” I offered to her.

            She shook her head, still with the smile plastered on her face.

            “Nah, man. I don’t have a car. If I’m by myself, I don’t mind using what Mother Earth gave me to get around.”

            “Well, where were you going? The least I can do is let you walk on the leg I just hit.”

            She looked me up and down for a moment and then nodded.

            “I feel some good vibes off you, man. They’re a little shaky, but hey, most people are these days. You’re a cool one, so yeah you can take me. I was heading up to the Hill in Guntersville. You know it?” She said, her faraway eyes all of a sudden seeming to peer into mine with the intensity of a laser beam. A very strong laser beam.

            I shook my head. “I don’t, but I am headed to Guntersville anyway. I can take you miss…?”

            She laughed a bit when I called her ‘miss’, and then answered me.

            “You can call me Sunflower, man. And thanks for the lift. Let’s go! Time is infinite, but we can spend more of it loving it so let’s get to it!”

            I was a bit confused by that little bit, but decided to ignore it for the betterment of my sane perspective. I led her to the passenger seat of my car to make sure she didn’t limp too badly or anything. I went back around to the driver’s side and got in. Making sure she had buckled up and doing the same for myself, we pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the highway. I figured some small talk was in order. She was creeping me right the hell out with those eyes sitting there in silence.

            “So, Sunflower… What do you do for a living?” I immediately made a mental twinge. That was probably not the best conversation starter when one is talking to a real hippie.

            She laughed softly before replying.

            “I don’t know if you would call it work man, but I just do my part to get my part from the universe. I feel like the world today is too lonely by far, man, so I do my part to fill that void in my brothers’ and sisters’ hearts.”

            Now I was intrigued. “How do you do that, Sunflower?”

            She smiled a bit wider and answered.

            “I make the world lovelier by making love to the world.”

            I raised my eyebrows, not quite understanding.

            “I’m sorry… I don’t quite follow you there,” I said, my voice laced heavily with guarded confusion.

            She just smirked and looked straight at me this time with her answer. “Remember the free love movement back in the sixties, man?” She asked. I nodded and she continued.

            “Well, I still do my part with the loving man, but it isn’t exactly free from me.”

            I was so shocked; I almost swerved out of my lane enough and hit a Buick who honked quite angrily at my trespass. I looked at her incredulously and I just couldn’t hold myself back from the classic foot-in-mouth male response system.

            “So you’re a prostitute?” I asked, immediately regretting it. I just couldn’t believe it though. Not only had I hit a prostitute hippie with my car, I then proceeded to pick her up for a ride. It wasn’t like that, but if she was known to the local authorities, my a*s was so toast if I got pulled over. Through my slight panic, she was chuckling softly.

            “Nah, man… I mean, I guess you dudes can look at it that way, but I don’t. My brothers and sisters simply give me food and showers before and afterwards in exchange for what I do for them. It’s a simple barter, man. Some have tried to give me money before, but I am above that, man! I take what I need and nothing more from my brethren. I answer to no rotten pimp. I only have to answer to myself, the Mother Earth, and the universe. I am helping people give off better vibes and that helps the universe be healthier, man.” Her eyes at this point were shining with a bright fervor, and staring intently at me. It was all I could do to keep one eye on the road and just one on her.

            “What about a real job?” I asked her. She merely scoffed at me.

            “What about it, man? That’s the problem with the world today! We rose up the establishment, and then enslaved ourselves to it! You, my man, are a slave to the establishment.”

            I simply stared ahead, sure that I wore one of the most dumbfounded expressions I had ever produced plainly on my face. I decided to just smile and nod.

            “You’re exactly right, Sunflower… Now where is this Hill you are heading to?” I asked her. She looked around at her surroundings and then pointed up to a road to the right. Taking the cue, I merged on over and took the right turn. She then looked around and nodded, seemingly satisfied with herself.

            “Hey man, you can let me out around here. I know this turf well, and I can do just fine here.”

            I nodded and pulled over to the curb. She got out and was about to close the door before she looked back into the car at me.

            “Hey man, just remember… It’s not what we do to live, it’s what we live to do for ourselves, our brethren, and the universe. The universe can’t really speak to us, so at the end of the day, it’s ourselves that we have to answer to. How will you reply? Later, man!”

            And with that, she closed the door and continued walking down the sidewalk. I just sat there absorbing her words and watching her walk. She got a few blocks down before another call pulled up beside her and after a brief exchange, she got in the car. I couldn’t really see that well, but I could have swore that she flashed the peace sign my way as she got in.

2:16 p.m.

            I rounded a corner in the road circling the lakeside properties and looked around. I soon saw a very nice looking house with a matching address as the one in Frank’s note. It seemed that he had friends from all different levels in society. I pulled into the long driveway and parked my car. Getting out, I could only hope that this Haley Mayenson had already heard of Frank’s passing. It would certainly make things quite a bit easier.

            I walked up the cobblestone walkway to the front door which was a black screen affair with a very solid looking white wooden door behind it. I opened the screen and knocked firmly on the door. Waiting for a few minutes and not hearing any sounds of footsteps coming from inside the house, I knocked once more, with a little more force behind each time I hit the door. Still nothing… I figured this was a lost cause and started walking down the steps of the porch to head back to my car.

            That’s when I heard the sounds of splashing coming from the other side of the house. At first I thought it might be from the lake, but this house was too far away from the actual lakeside for me to be able to hear any splashing. I walked around the edge of the house and saw a brown fence with a gate. The sounds were a bit easier to hear now, so I surmised I was going in the right direction. I opened the gate, hoping that no one would be angry for the intrusion, and looked at the rather lavish pool area. There was an area that had tiki torches and other Hawaiian themes features around it, an Olympic sized pool complete with a diving board, rows of chairs and umbrellas to shield the occupants of said chairs, and a shaded patio, obviously a place to relax with drinks. Ah… Once I got rich, I would have to remember what this looked like.

            Unfortunately, saving lives usually didn’t come with a generous paycheck.

            I looked into the pool and saw someone swimming from the far end of the pool near the diving board swimming towards the end closest to me, submerged the entire way. I watched the person come up at the end as they shook the long blonde hair away from their eyes to see, and then their eyes widen when they came across me.

            She was a blonde of about five foot five, with long blonde hair that had danced around her body as she swam, but hung down to her mid back in the open air. She had warm brown eyes and a kind face. She wore a black and white one-piece that was quite modest. I could tell she swam a lot though. She had the lithe, but muscular build attributed to most habitual swimmers. She looked at me in surprise and indignation; however she wasn’t really saying anything. I figured I would be the one to take the plunge and see just how angry I could get another surprised female at me.

            “Hello. My name is Leonard Garcia. I presume you are Miss Haley Mayenson?” I asked her. Her eyes narrowed at me, but I couldn’t blame her for the look. This whole thing was pretty weird myself, so I couldn’t expect anyone to just react to a random guy walking into your pool and knowing your name coolly. She looked me up and down with intense scrutiny and then went ahead with her own reply.

            “Yes, I’m Haley. And just who are you, Mr. Garcia, and why the hell are you in my pool area?” Her reply was terse, angry, and promised pain if I didn’t comply. It was also very cold. Maybe this was the tone she took with Frank the last time they talked? Oh well, I thought to myself. I would figure it out if I went on with my little mission from the messed up dead kid.

            “Well,” I started, “for lack of a better way, I’ve been asked to carry out the will of Frank Derahno. I trust you know this person?”

            At that, she reeled back as if she had been hit, and then sobbed suddenly for a bit, her head coming forward to stare down at the water she was still immersed in. She looked back up and shook her head.

            “I’m sorry. Yes, I knew Frank. Just let me get out of here so I can talk to you,” she said, sounding very distracted.

            A few minutes later, we were sitting in the patio area. She had toweled herself dry and put on a shirt over her swim suit. Her long blonde hair was in ponytail to keep it out of the way. She looked to be about nineteen or twenty, which fit Frank’s story of them going to school together. She eventually began to talk after a few moments of awkward silence between us.

            “Yes, Mr. Garcia, I knew Frank. I…I heard a Frank Derahno died a few days ago, but I had hoped that it wasn’t him. But that was silly of me, wasn’t it? Derahno isn’t exactly a common name. I never got to… Oh well. It’s too late now, I guess. So tell me, Mr. Garcia… Just what are you supposed to do here?” She seemed depressed, confused, and determined all at the same time. It was a very odd combination to be faced against.

            I began to explain to the young lady.

            “Well, he felt he wasn’t truly known by all of his friends, and he wanted that to be fixed. He wrote down a list of people to talk to about this, and had it on him when he was involved with the wreck. He said you two were close in school, but that you had seemed to…err…to dislike him recently. He felt you held some kind of hate towards him.”

            Her eyes flashed in anger and she slammed her fist down on the table.

            “Well, if he wasn’t such a sneaky b*****d then I wouldn’t have to hate him! It is his fault he didn’t tell me!” She seemed quite angry, and I felt like she needed to get something out.

            “What was it that he didn’t tell you that made you so angry?” I asked her in as soothing of a voice I could muster.

            She sat back and crossed her arms in front of her chest angrily.

            “Back in school, we would talk about a lot of thing, but mostly about our personal love lives. He would offer me advice on the a*****e guys I would date, and I would help to cheer him up when one of his girlfriends would dump him for a stupid reason. But one day, he gave me advice that didn’t quite make sense. He told me to leave this one guy I was dating, and he seemed great. Frank never gave me a reason why, but I trusted him. I heard that the guy I was dating until then became depressed, and he started stalking me, and bothering me. It was weird. But then I heard from one of his friends that Frank had a thing for me. That’s when I realized that he was trying to get me single so he could have a shot at me! He was no better than any other guy!” Her angry tirade at an end, she just glared angrily at me, as though I was Frank himself. However, I was intrigued enough to probe for more information.

            “So you would say Frank was manipulative, Miss Mayenson?” I asked her.

            She nodded. “Yeah! I mean, he obviously had that planned for years! Why else would he have done it?”

            I nodded as if I agreed, and then stood up.

            “I am sorry I wasted your time to talk about someone who you were so angry at. I wish you a good day, Miss Mayenson.”

            And with that, I walked out of the patio area and to the gate. I stopped for a moment and turned around.

            “Yeah, it was really horrid of him to try to protect you even when you didn’t think you needed it, and all the time hiding his feelings. Odd how he never tried anything and you had to find out from a friend of his. Sounds like he was just like any normal guy…Oh wait… Any normal guy wouldn’t have waited years and years. Too bad…Goodbye, Haley.”

            With that said, I turned around and walked out the gate. As I reached back to close it behind me, I saw Haley slumped over on the table in front of her, head buried in her arms. It seemed like she got the message. I hoped what I did helped to rest Frank’s soul just a little bit more…

Reviews

[Emily In Disguise]

The hippie named Sunflower part amused me greatly; nice balancing of the hippie section with the section with Haley.