Friday, May 2, 2014

GOODBYES by Peter Nolan Smith

The night over Encinitas was obsessed with the cosmos. Stars spun in colors unknown to Man and the moon glowed green. When the LSD faded from my blood I joined my friends in the bungalow down on the grass behind the bungalow. AK, Pam, Helen, Cuchillo, and Victor were dancing to soul music and drinking wine. Pam poured me a big glass and AK lit a joint.

"That was a trip." Victor sat next to me on the couch. "But I'm confused about that scene at the parking lot. AK told me that he had thrown that hick out of the car in Boston and the two dykes with him were the same as the two from Big Sur."

"A funny coincidence."

Even more so since Bill had tried to rip me off in San Francisco with his junkie friends.

A rock in my hand had stopped the robbery.

"But not so ha-ha." Victor passed me the joint.

"No, not so ha-ha." I shook my head and he handed it to his handsome boyfriend.

"Floe freaked out big time."

"She isn't into violence."

"It as only one punch and that creep deserved it." Pam was sticking up for me. She had hated Bill from the second we picked him up on the Mass Pike

"Not in her mind.

"Let her sleep off the acid. She'll be fine in the morning." Pam reached over to pat my hand.

"I hope so." I downed the wine and filled my glass.

AK let me play DJ.

Every record sounded sad.

Blues, jazz, or rock.

I couldn't get Floe out of my head.

After midnight I went outside to crash on the lawn. The summer air was intoxicated by the fragrance from the nearby flower farms. I buried my face into the sleeping bag. Floe had slept on it for weeks. Her ghost haunted the shadows and I expected her to appear from the darkness.

I fell asleep certain of one simple truth.

Floe wasn't coming here.

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