Blast Off

  I rose up from my seat under the canopy to investigate the camp fire and Scooter rose with me.  When I first walked up I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me but the fire seemed to be burning, blue, green, and yellow in color.  As I neared the colorful flame, I realized this was indeed true.  The fire danced in the damp air and provided an array of colors, Joe had followed me out to take a look as well.  He explained that they bring different oxidized metal powders to throw onto the fire to make it burn different hues.  Very cool, but what was this for? It was at that point, I was beginning to put two and two together to give four… before I could finish my thoughts, Joe spoke up and said “Yea, I’ve been tripping on acid all night.  I love tripping out in the woods, but Derrick doesn’t like the feeling he gets when he’s on it.  It’s been lonely this evening traveling alone… You wouldn’t want to join me for a journey would you?” 

Now it made sense, the weird, spacey stares, the comments out of left field, and the colored flames.  Man the flames must give a great effect to the trip.  Now I had done a lot more cocaine then I  had done acid and the few times that I had done it, all I can say is “enlightening.”  But to truly blast off on a trip, you have to be committed to the cause, once you get on this roller coaster there was no getting off.  I would be giving up control over what I was seeing, hearing, even believing at points.  “Have you ever done acid before?” questioned Joe.  “Sure, I have and if you’re looking for someone to travel with, I’m your man… hook me up brother!”  I said with confidence.  Sure it was going to be a wild ride, but once again on Friday evenings after midnight, I can never turn down a good adventure.  As I looked at Joe, it was like seeing a young boy coming downstairs to find an array of toys on Christmas morning.  Poor guy had been alone in his mind, hallucinating for so long, by himself, I could only imagine how bad he wanted someone to share in his vision.  Joe ran off to his tent to grab the narcotic as I looked down at Scooter, you could almost see his eyes rolling back in his head.  He looked at me with a look of distaste, his ears were back, and snout pointed towards the ground.  I could read his mind “Veronika will not be very pleased!”

   Sure, my wife may be mad, but you can never pass up an opportunity to trip, especially for free!  I walked back to where Derrick and Donnie were talking.  I interrupted there conversation “Donnie, you up for a good acid trip?  Joe said he has a few more doses, just wondering if your down to blast off this evening?”  He looked at me with a smirk, “No man, I think I’m going to pass on that one.”  I knew what he was thinking as well, “Gabe, you’re an idiot.”  I said, “Look Donnie, just make sure I make it home safe, who knows where my mind is going to be at in an hour or so.”  He reached out his hand and gave me a firm handshake, and with a deep, low tone, he said, “I got you man!”  I knew in my heart he did, which made me even more excited to truly let go and let the acid expand my inner thoughts and feelings into livable breathable objectives. 

  I walked underneath the canopy once again with Scooter by my side.  As I arrived, Joe was holding a Ziploc bag with two foil squares.  He gently took out the foil squares and unfolded one, there within the midst of the crinkled aluminum sat a small white paper square.  “Here you go!” Joe said, I reached for the square and put it firmly under my tongue.  Here goes nothing! Joe reached for his as well, and swallowed it immediately.  I let mine site for several minutes before eventually swallowing the small bit of paper.  Let’s see how far this rabbit hole goes…

 I took my seat beside Joe on the lounge chairs, as I kicked the chair back I almost flipped right out.  “Damn, antigravity chairs!” I cursed.  Joe laughed “I’ve never heard them called that before, but your right they do feel that way.”  Pretty soon, the conversation was off and rolling again, sports, music, women, sports again, women again, typical male conversation.  By this time, Scooter was all but exhausted and since I had established a seat of residence, he took seat at my left side.  He gently put his head to the cool dirt and drifted off for a nap.  The rest of us… quite the opposite. 

Derrick had been missing for some time now, and I realized why as the dollar bill got shoved into my face.  “Go ahead! You got one more in you!”  Damn right I did, two lines lines ain’t nothing for an old pro like myself.   I stood and headed over to the table where four more lines were drawn.  Indeed this would be a long night.  I put my head to the table and once again in one swift snort the line was gone.  One… two… three… long inhales just to make sure everything made it in safely.  As I handed the bill to Donnie, we simply shared smiles.  No words needed to be said, we had struck it lucky tonight. 

It was around this time that I looked at my watch to see what time it was… 1:10 AM.  OK, it had probably been fifteen to twenty minutes since I took that acid, by my internal calculation this crap should be kicking in, in about thirty minutes or so.  By 2:00 AM I would be well on my way.  It is important to note the time when you’re tripping, an hour can feel like a minute, and a minute an hour sometimes.  Time can become distorted.  As I took my seat once again, Donnie stepped to the middle of the circle and said “Sorry to say this guys, but I need to take a s**t… you boys got anything that can help me with that?”  The group laughed, and Joe stood up and pointed to a five gallon bucket with a small makeshift toilet seat attached to the top.  “Take this bag,” he said, “Just makes sure you tie it off when you’re done.” I can’t believe that nasty b*****d is going to s**t right in their campsite!  The conversation continued and as Donnie came back to the circle we shared a sly gaze.  How funny, come to my campsite, do my drugs, s**t by our tents, what’s next? 

It was all fun and laughs but as I looked down at my watch, I could see the time was nearing 1:30 AM, as I kicked back my chair I began to gaze into the fire.  It looked so beautiful with the different flashes of yellow, green, and blue emerging from the center of the flame.  As my gaze went skyward, I saw it.  Slowly the trees began to give a golden sheen.  Like great Atlantis emerging from the depths of the sea an amazing landscape was being produced.  I looked over at Joe and said, “I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore!”