The Festival

 

The Festival

 

When I awoke the sun was up and Billy Haney was banging on the door. “Mama says come down for breakfast before she drives us to the festival.”

 

“Give me a minute. I’ll be right out.” It only took me a minute. I went to the festival in the same jeans I had worn to the Thanksgiving dinner. When Billy and I walked past the dogs, they didn’t even bark. “Maybe they’re getting used to me.”

 

Perry was clearly a little nervous about letter her 13-year-old son go to a rock festival. When she let us out at the gates of the Palm Beach Fairgrounds I could see she was having second thoughts.

 

“Don’t worry, Perry. We’ll be fine.”

 

“I’ll pick you up right here when it’s over.”

 

It was a two-day festival. A lot can happen in two days. I never saw Perry again. I lost Billy in the first hour. I wandered around for a while looking for him and then lost myself in the music, the crowd and the drugs.

The next two days are a blur. I woke up once on the ground near the stage, Janis Joplin was singing. I tried to stand up and dance but kept falling down. I gave up and lay back down on the ground. When I woke up again someone was passing around a bong. I took a hit and passed out again. I woke up in the “trip tent”.

 

“What did you take?” asked a man in a white t-shirt. Before I could answer his attention was drawn to the next cot.

 

“I think this one has OD’d”

 

I leaned up on one elbow and looked through the blur as they worked on the boy next to me. The room came harshly into focus. My head cleared a little and I wondered if I was going to see the stranger next to me die.

 

“S**t! I wonder where he got that stuff. Must have been really good.”

 

I looked to my left to see a longhaired boy about my age. “Hi, I’m David. What did you take?” he asked. That was the second time I’d been asked that question in five minutes.

 

I shook my head. “I’m not sure. Some pot. Some pills. I think I slept through most of the festival – and I lost my landlady’s son. She is going to kill me.”

 

They were still working on the boy on my right. I sat up and looked down at my arms. They were scratched and muddy. My blouse was torn. My jeans were covered in mud and urine. I remembered then standing in the middle of the crowd and pissing in my jeans while the rain turned the fairgrounds into a mud pit.

 

The festival ended on Sunday morning. Everyone went home except for the dozen or so kids in the trip tent. I was like a fucked up game of musical chairs. The music ended and we were left there in the cruel morning light.

 

The man in the white t-shirt came back. “We’re going to run you all over to Good Samaritan Hospital in that bus out there…just for evaluation.”

 

They loaded the boy on my right into the back of an ambulance. He was still breathing. David and I sat together on the ride to the hospital. When we got there, they cleaned us up a little, gave us some juice and asked us lots of questions.

 

“Where are you from, young man?”

 

“Athens, Georgia” David replied.

 

“Long way from home, aren’t you?”

 

“Yeah, man. A long, long way.”

 

“What about you, miss? Are you from Georgia too?”

 

“No. I live here…with my Aunt.” I lied.

 

“What’s her name?”

 

I told them. I gave them her telephone number and her address. She told me later for years she received anti-drug literature. Aunt Pearl came to the hospital to pick me up. When she started to yell at me I yelled back. “It’s all your fault. You left me in that awful trailer.” I told her about Frank’s pass and how I was nearly raped after the dance at the VFW. I told her how the dogs kept me trapped in the trailer. “You chose Paul over me. You didn’t care what happened to me.” I cried. She cried too. That made me feel better.

 

“David need a ride back to his car.”

 

David looked at me in amazement. He was even more amazed when she said okay. We drove to the deserted fairgrounds and found David’s car without much trouble. “I’ll drive her back to her place. It’s on my way.” Aunt Pearl seems relieved.

 

“I’ll call you tomorrow at work,” she called as David and I walked toward his car. “Tomorrow? Work?” I mouthed the words to myself. Did she really expect me to clean myself up and show up for work tomorrow like nothing had happened?

 

When we pulled up next to the trailer, I was relieved to see Billy come out of the house to greet us. “Wow! What happened to you? I was worried when I couldn’t find you. Then I ran into some kids from school. We had a blast!”

 

He started to follow us into the trailer but I waved him back. “Just going to clean up. I’ll see you later. Is your mom home?”

 

“No. She and dad went out.”

 

“Good” I thought. I wasn’t ready to face Perry yet.

 

I felt better after taking a shower and putting on clean clothes. I threw my soiled jeans and torn blouse into the garbage and turned to David. “Take me back to Athens with you. I can’t stay here. I have no where else to go.”

 

“Sure, but we have to leave now. Get your stuff together.”

 

I threw a few things into my bag. At the last minute I grabbed Grandmama’s quilt then took one last look around the trailer and followed David down the steps to his car. My life was about to change – again. I pushed my fears aside as we drove north.

Reviews

[Erudite]

It's a good story, and I think it really picks up in the middle. From the time you wake up in the trip tent until when you get a ride home from your aunt, you write about an experience that most people haven't had. It's a bit shocking in a great way that makes the story interesting and pulls in the reader. I truly wanted to find out if the guy next to you lived or not, and finding out you had peed your pants made me realize how much of an 'out-there' experience this really was. The story could use some revising, and you could fix some grammatical mistakes such as "Perry was clearly a little nervous about letter her...", but all in all it's a good story :)