chapter three................

passed the spot i found Andy hangin’ from a tree. been clearcut now, the sun shining in places it hasn’t seen in years. recognized the stump and sat down on it.

“how are the kids doin’?”, i asked Chung, master gardener and Tai-Chi monk. he considers the trees his children.

“MAGIC”, he said, “is the ability of nature to channel and direct sunlight from a star 8 billion miles away, to grow new life where once there was none.” oh brother, here we go on one of Chung’s mystical mental imaginings. “like these seedlings that make the most of all available resources, the time to act is at hand.”


dam rite...San Francisco is so drunk on itself, people die on the streets and nobody notices. so i stick my thumb out on hwy 1, where Playland by the Sea used to be, and hitch a ride outta here. it’s drizzlin’ out and the wind is pickin’ up. left my tent set up to confuse the issue for anyone watching.

an old Volvo pulls up. it’s Heather from the pot club. if i was getting paid by the word, I'd tell ya the whole sorry ass story about how we wound up back at my tent having sex, that was mistake number one. mistake number two was tellin’ her her kid is better off in protective custody. that’sˆwhen she yells, “so you don’t think i’m a fit mother either!!!!!.....maybe i should just kill myself...”

then she pulls out this 8inch bowie knife, “I'll cut myself rite where i did last time”.....showing me the scar from her last suicide attempt. rite now i’m feelin’ like that guy in the psycho-bitch with a knife movie and i’m freakin’ out....you’ve heard the term “his bark is worse than his byte”, well i don’t have a byte, so i run like hell screamin’ for the cops!!

when i get back to the site with the police, we find my tent shredded and my pocketPC in the lake. spent that nite, Sunday the 8th, sewing my tent in the rain. turns out that’s kid number four she’s lost to child protective custody for violence and abuse. number FOUR!! another beat-up little boy. just what the world needs, rite? good luck kid, you’re gonna need it. and a good therapist too.

it was quite a storm. thunder reigned with the tumultuous sound of drums, bugles, trumpets and this intense buzz combined likeˆ the roar of a lion vibrating in the sky and on earth. my head started spinning when i realized that people who know me and call me friend, want to hurt and harass me. How could i be happy in the crime of destroying friends and family, even in self-defense? these hearts overtaken by greed, see no fault in killing for profit.

“snap out of it!”, barked Chung like a marine drill sergeant with a Chinese accent, “how have these impurities come upon you?”, “it is true, some have come to fight you to please the evil-minded son of an east coast businessman because you possess the only object linking this person to robbery and murder.”

great!.....dunno what the hell Chung is talkin’ about. all my stuff fits in a
28lb duffel bag, and I've already been cleared of murder.