12.15.10 Calm and Quiet

12.15.10
0630

Wake up in my own bed for the first time in what feels like forever.  Every bone hurts.

I reach for a bottle of ibuprofen and tylenol and the other stuff that makes it safe for other people to be round me.

Left the dragon dyin 5 days ago.  Gets harder each time but feel somwhat normal again.  Just the usual ache, not the ache of it leavin my system.

It's quiet and calm and grey outside.  And cold.

Nothin to throw myself into today.

But like Chuck Buk said, it doesn't have to be war all the time.


Weekend update comin soonish.

-HMout

Riding in the Wasteland

"My friend HM works a few jobs.  His full name is Seth Henry Miller Grey, but everyone just calls him HM.  It sounds kind of like “Aych-um” the way we pronounce it.    He tends bar a few nights a week.  Some nights he hosts therapy sessions for other war vets.  He's produced some internet porn under a pseudonym, but that misadventure was shutdown when his director/cameraman/editor/talent wrangler was found out by the head of the university film department and was threatened with expulsion. He also works as a bondsman…and bounty hunter.

A bounty hunter. When I think of that term, I envision grizzled old cowboys, sleek and witty cinematic villainous, or guys who are just one step above being criminals themselves.  None are really accurate, and I’m sure there is as much variation as any other job. He tells me that his job is mostly boring and that he doesn’t “do all that stuff you see on that dumbshit tv show”. But he finds himself in a lot of... odd situations.  Like this morning.  The morning I told him I wanted to ride along.

I work in social services, and my job as a case manager isn’t that much different from his job as a "counselor" and collection agent.  We end up in many of the same neighborhoods -- part of the reason I asked to ride along with him.  My car is in the shop (the other reason), and I wanted to save a little gas money.  Today, we both have some rough areas on schedule, and we both feel a little better going in with someone else.

I should have known better when he asked me to bring my revolver.

“Oh, hey, pack your .357. You any good with that thing?” he says with his hard Arkansas-meets-Texas-meets-Tennessee twang.

I always carry, especially when in the badlands of New Orleans, and I’m a pretty decent shot.  I went to the range with my brother a few weeks ago.  At “realistic” handgun ranges, I’m a pretty good shooter.  Now, there’s this pseudo, urban legend FBI report that supposedly states that most incidents involving shootings and handguns in urban areas happen within a ten-foot area.  I don’t know how accurate that claim is or what the data looks like, but I can believe it.  With a few exceptions, most of the shooting stories I hear about in Nola involve close-range, ambush-type attacks.  And that’s about what I consider realistic; anything over 10-or-so feet, I’m going to haul ass outta Dodge, quick.

So, at a “realistic” range, I can put five shots in an area that could be covered by a coffee cup without using my sights.  It’s not too difficult. But this is just shooting; it’s not gunfighting.  It’s a new ball game keeping your hand steady when you’re up against a living target that might be shooting back. So I hear anyway.

In any case, I’m not bad putting bullets on target, and I’m comfortable carrying. But I’ve never needed to draw down in a life-or-death situation, and having someone specifically request that I’m armed…it puts my nerves in a funny state of affairs.

HM pulls up in front of my house around 6:15.  His jeep is still covered in mud from his last time off-roading, but other than that it looks like it could withstand a direct hit from an RPG. He loves this car.  His ex wife tried to take it in the divorce.  “She wants half, she’ll get half.  I got a friend with a miter saw that’ll cut this thing right in half, down to the millimeter.  I’d rather see it scrap than her driving that fuckhead or her miserable lil dog around in it.”  It never came to that.  She took just about everything else, but he kept the jeep and put months of love, metal, and grease into it. Reinforced roll bar, independent suspension, 4-wheel-drive, mud tires, and all sorts of other stuff that I can never remember (I’ve occasionally delved into “gun nut”, but I’ve never been a gear head).  I climb in as he’s clearing some paperwork and a grocery bag full of Red Bull and cigarettes off the seat.

“Hey, mornin, man. Let’s get some coffee. Play DJ for a bit while I finish mappin our course out.”

I start cycling through some CDs and MP3s, and we head out around 6:22.  HM likes to get people in the morning, when they’re tired and sluggish.  Sometimes they’re still asleep or they’ve just eaten.  Either way, they are less likely to run.  They are less likely to, as he says, “have their nuts up or get too clever”.

Our morning is pretty uneventful (this job’s boring, remember).  We spend most of the time driving around the worst neighborhoods in this city, the areas that might have been permanently lost to Katrina, or getting cups of coffee and checking out the young hipster and college girls on Magazine St. We make a stop at the Rue coffee shop on Magazine St., and while I take care of my cream and sugar, HM manages to get a date with a barista and a customer.  I just do a bit of window-shopping.  We debate black vs white coffee.  We eat a bacon-eggs-grits breakfast at Slim Goodies and try to eavesdrop on congressman Bill “Cold Cash” Jefferson who’s sitting at the table next to us. 

Back in the jeep, we continue to cruise.  We follow a column of smoke to a blazing house near Napoleon and Carrollton. As we pass the police and firemen in the street, bits of ash fall like dirty snow all across the windshield. We can feel the heat through the windows.  We roll them down, and light a few cigarettes.  A cop barks at us to move on.  Earlier today, we saw two cops pull a man out of a gunmetal grey Nissan.  One cop pushed the guy’s head to the hood with the barrel of his Glock.  We didn’t even look at the officer; we just moved on. 

Our soundtrack for the entire morning has been most Pantera’s “Far Beyond Driven” and the wail of police sirens.  I put on a mix of the Sundays, much to his chagrin. I only get out one song, but it’s fitting. “Feel this city inside me. Feel this city define me.  Leave this city behind me.” Harriet Wheeler…her voice is so ethereal and soothing that I forget where I am and barely notice the jeep slow to a halt. HM has his eyes set dead ahead, fixed on a slate-grey double down the street.

HM talks to me without taking his eyes off the house. “Put that new Tomahawk on…the ‘skin-walker’ song.  I need you to get your head back here for a few.”

“I haven’t gone anywhere.  If anything, I am reminding myself exactly where I am.” I reply.

“Well, that don’t matter right now.  Just back me up.  You don’t have to say anything, just look serious.  Not angry.  Just serious.  Look like you wanna get this over so you can go back home and fight with the wife before trying to go back to sleep.”  He takes a huge plug of chewing tobacco out of his mouth and spits out the window.

“I don’t think that will be too much trouble.”

He nods.  “Put your blazer on, and stick your gun into the pocket.  Let’s go.”

I glance at him. “Where we goin?”

He looks back with a grin and just says, “We’ll find out when we get there.”

………………

Just as street signs are missing all over this town, so too are the numbers on houses.  We took our best guess, and HM rapped on the door with his swollen knuckles.  A watery-eyed, mouth-breathing kid with a look of MR of about 16 answered the door. He had on tighty whitey briefs, and to my extreme discomfort, he was standing a few feet above us so that his groin was almost eye level with us.  He had a raging erection, pointing right at my face.  HM couldn’t hold his laugh back once it started.  The more he tried to hold it in, the worse it got.  He finally threw his hands in front of his face and turned back towards the street.

I turned around, “What the fuck, man?!”

“No, sorry, man.  It mus be nex’ door.”

We both turned toward the other half of the shotgun, and the door was already opening.  I couldn’t see through the threshold, but HM had stopped laughing.  His face looked pretty serious and paled a little bit. My stomach dropped and I could almost taste bacon and eggs planning a revolt.

……………

You ever been in a car accident?  Doesn’t have to be anything too grand.  Even a fender bender will do.  You’re driving along all calm and collected.  You are practically meditating behind the wheel.  Then BAM!  Everything slows down to an impossible time.  Your organs feel like they are suspended in jelly.  You can actually feel the surge of adrenaline as it passes though your blood vessels.

You feel about the same thing when somebody fires a gun at you.

………………

I’m down on the ground in rainwater and piss, scrambling frantically away from the front steps.  I hear people shouting all around me, but I can’t make out the words.  I don’t think I can breathe.  I think of a woman’s face, looking at me longingly.  The image is inappropriate and horribly unrealistic security blanket.  I wish I were holding her in her bed right now under the soft blue glow of light radiating from walls painted white.  Instead, I can hear the guns bark and the bullets whizz overhead.  All this as I try to will my body into the wet ground alongside the old Mazda on the broken remnants of a driveway.

HM calls out from somewhere hundreds of miles away in a guttural bark.  “We’re not fucking cops…we just want to talk!”  His voice sounds possessed and like it’s been filtered through an old record player at a low RPM. Another pair of deafeningly loud shots bangs out, and the air screams a hiss as it’s pulled into the vortex behind the speeding, spiraling lead. With the house fire a few blocks away, there are enough cops around, but with all the racket of sirens and people, I wouldn’t be surprised if no one heard the barks from the guns, even though it sounds like tank fire this close to me.  I could have been in the office today.

 “OK, OK, fuck talking!  We just wanna go back to the car and leave!!”  HM is laughing like a movie villain who’s enjoying his spiral into manic depravity.  He fires a quick set of shots at the front door.  His gun roars like a Howitzer fired by Thor.  His hollow-point .44 mag rounds explode into the house and tear enormous, fist-sized chunks from the front steps and doorframe. I have no idea who is in the house; I can’t see anyone.  I’m not sure if HM is shooting at someone or just letting loose for the hell of it.

My own gun is somehow in my hand, and it might as well weigh a ton.  I feel like it could drop from my hand at any moment.  My grip feels weak, but I clutch it like a protective talisman.  Each raindrop that strikes my face feels like an open hand slap. I could age twenty years in the next fifteen seconds, and I wouldn’t notice.  I raise my face, fearing that it could get wiped off my skull with less effort than it takes to draw a breath.  I crawl on my belly towards the tires of the jeep.  A home is still burning somewhere.  I need to let my cat back in.  My parking tickets are going to go up by $40 each if I don’t pay them by Thursday.

………………..

“Hey, man!! You ok?!!” HM calls out to me.

“Yeah, I’m ok…I pissed my pants.”

There is a slight pause. 

“I’m gonna toss you my keys.  Start her up so we can get out of here.  I’ll cover you.  Keep your head down.  Got it?”

“Yeah, man.  I got it.  Ready.”  My voice doesn’t sound like my own; it sounds like my father’s voice talking to my playground football coaches when I was little – too deep and bigger than my body feels.

There is no movement or sound from the front door.  In all likeliness, the guy has probably run out the back door.  HM yells out "CHECKING", and I respond the same.  His keys land in the puddle next to me.  I grab them and crawl through the passenger door and onto the driver seat. HM lets off two more shots.  Inside the car, I realize that I can’t hear anything out of my left ear.  When that front door opened, I had turned my face back towards the gunman's loaded .357 snub.  I dove right almost immediately, and that first shot could have easily taken my head off.  I’m lucky to only be deaf.  I think that’s when I pissed myself.  As the adrenaline levels out, I realized I jammed a few fingers and sprained my elbow when I dove off the stoop.  I fumble with the keys, drop them once, then start the jeep and pull up behind the Pontiac HM is crouching behind.  I’m laid across the seat, using my hands to shift, push the peddles, and steer.  I could not do this again if paid, and I will never know where this ability came from.  I grab the wheel with my left hand and pull myself across the slick pleather seats; the rainwater soaking my clothes makes the slide easy.  I pull myself upright in the driver’s seat.  HM crawls in, and with my head still tucked almost beneath the dashboard, I floor it down the street.

I drive about five blocks and turn right.  I go about three more blocks, and HM says “Pull over.”  He opens the door and vomits onto the street.  I’d been waiting to do the same, and I open my door and let loose.

“You ok?” I croak.

“Yeah, you?”

“I’m alright. I think I broke some fingers.”  My right hand is throbbing and both are trembling like I’m detoxing.

We sit on the side of the street for a few minutes.  HM takes a bottle of Jameson from the back seat and has a long pull.  I smoke a cigarette and puke once more.  Then I eat a handful of vicodin and wrap my fingers in medical tape. HM hands me a clean bar rag to wipe my face.  We sit with our legs hanging out the jeep for a few minutes, and then I let HM have the driver’s seat.  He glances at the seat briefly, makes a face, then shrugs with an “Aw fuck it” as he climbs in.

“I guess we should we report this?” I ask.

“Yeah.  I will. Later.”  He puts in a fresh plug of dip and stares off into nowhere.  “I gotta let Blake know bout this at least, and he’ll get some cops out here.  Guy’s prolly long gone, at least for now.  And fuck...I shot my gun. A lot. Even reloaded twice. Gotta report that.” He spits.  “But later.  You ready to call it a day?”

“Uh, yeah.  Can we get fucked up now?”

“I’m already on that.” He says, taking another pull of whiskey. “Them vicodin wasn’t a good start for ya?”

“I’m thinking a ‘bar’ would be a good idea…you got any Xanax?”

“Yeah, I got some a them lil purple footballs in the glove compartment… the pill bottle without the label.” He spits again.

With a pill between my lips, I fish for my water bottle and ask, “You think we did any good today?”

“Sure. I mean, I guess. But hell man, what’s good an’ bad here?  Ain’t that black and white. But yeah. Small victories man.  An’ fuck, we’re still alive. That always counts fer somethin.”

I'm smile, weakly, “Yeah. I feel it more now than I have in months.”

“Good. Ready to roll?”

 “Yep,” I say, “But I’m gonna need some new pants."

12.10.10 I'm in it then out

12.10.10
0800

I might be in for a pain in the ass.

My friend (and current boss) "Meg" is en route to the work site. She's not much of a micromanager, but she likes to drop by on occasion.  See, we've worked as partners more than we have boss and employee, so I know how she works.

Now, I know I caused a bit of a ruckus yesterday, but not enough for her to fly out just on account o that. But, I'm sure she'll take the chance to tear me a new one. She loves doin that, and I gave her an open invite.

On the plus side, an I know I'm wishful thinkin, she might bring her assistant Natalie with her.

I love Natalie.

I'd set the whole place on fire if it'd guarantee that she'd come out.

She's almost always in the Paris office though, and you might not believe it, but I don't exactly fit in well in Paris...

12.10.10
1030

Mr. Bum comes up to me, says "Grey, pack your gear. "Meg" called.  Chopper's picking you up in 20."

Uh...huh...

"I think it's a special assignment."

Ok...alright.

"Good working with ya. That shit with the squid and ipecac was hilarious.  I'll see ya back stateside."

And he takes off.

I pack my gear, say bye to Manoi and the Turk, an head to the improv helipad as I hear the whirly-bird comin in.

I never really seem to know where I'm goin but I always manage to get there.  And there's prolly a hot shower (I got mud in places I need two or three mirror to see) and definitely one hot woman waiting to see me...though it might be to beat me with a rake.  But I can dig that.

And I'm off, breakin a few international laws in the process.

Wait a second...squid and ipecac?

-HMout

12.9.10 Really?

12.9.10
1400

Spent a few hours this AM gettin patched up, then yelled at by Mr. Bum and Mr. Greasy.  Me an the Turk got put on a pretty...shit asignment for the rest of the day. We look like extras in a horror film.

Good news was the Turk had bout halfa pound of Turkish tobacco, some turkish hashish, and a bunch of rollin papers. Passed the afternoon just fine.

Turk ain't such a bad guy after all.

On break I went to my bunk to lie down for a few and find Lexi's copy of "Tropic of Capricorn" under my pillow. There's some writin on the inside cover, sayin "I'm really sorry Seth, I didn't mean to hurt you."

Hurt me? What? Girl ya really have no idea bout me do ya...

If I was into irony an all that, Id think it funny she left her copy of Henry Miller.  But I ain't so I don't.

-Seth Henry Miller Grey out

12.9.10 Gods and Devils, Monkeys and Men

12.9.10

0830

We get back to the small town _____ near daybreak.  I been awake all through the night.

I am pretty sure Carlos the monkey returned with 20 or so of his brothers and attacked the caravan during the night drive. If ya never leaned out a bus window with an AK to fire at a gang of chimps, ya ain’t ever lived.

Now, the crew is reunited. Cept for a handful that left, for whatever reason.

Id like to know why Lexi left.  And the cook.  But I guess I already know that.

I check the area I had staked out as my bunk.  Find pack 6 on my rack, three cigarettes in it, w “I’m sorry” written on it w a Sharpie.

I take the cigs, stick two into pack 10, crumple pack 6 an toss it, and light up the other smoke. I sit on top a crate and stare at nothing, and I think I hear a chain rattle and the pop of a high tension wire, or barbed wire fence, snapping.

Movement. The Turk comes walking up to me.  He actually has his hat in his hands, I mean literally.

Sir, he says.

Jus Seth, man.

Seth, he says, I have two things to tell you...

I turn my gaze to him.

Your friend, with the blue hair...she left with the cook last night.  They left this behind...and he hands me the mystery fun bottle.  Empty.

My stomach does a little roll and I jus shake my head and wanna laugh.  What was the other thing?

An he drives his fist into my guts so hard he almost grabs holda my spine.  Feels like a freight train. Then his left hand crashes into my head above my ear.

Clever fucker.

Turk ain't a small guy.  6'1 and a good 2 ana half bills. When I first approached him bout his wanderin eyes, we had words, and I rammed my knee into his balls so hard I though I snapped his pelvis.  I was ready, he wasnt.

Guess I'm the sucker this time.  His left hand grabs the back of my neck and flings me to the ground.  The he’s on top me and smashes his fist into the side of my head, and I see all kinds a pretty lights. An I think I’m goin out, an then I’m out…

...an then I’m back and my vision clears and is crimson an Im on top the Turk, full mount, my left hand crushing his throat and my right pummeling his face.  My world is red an my blood pours from my mouth into his eyes. My hands turn to wood then into the clawed hooves of Minos.

An then I’m bein pulled off him from behind, an it’s three devils and they got me by the head and both arms. An Minos roars and bares his chest, but then the Monkey God screams out…

And I hear Manoi’s voice and see his face, an he’s sayin to me, ease down. Then see our mechanic, and one of the PSD guys, relaxing their grip some but still holding on.

Minos grunts and turns and pouts back into shadows, an I relax, go limp, an they drop me.  And the sky above turns blue and I’m still.

Security says a bunch a shit at both of us.  He ain't loud but he knows his command presence. I don really hear what he says but I nod when I'm sposed to. They leave. Manoi lingers, asks if I’m OK, and I ask for him to get 4 beers.

Lyin in the mud.  Fish out crumple pack of smokes. Light one. Inhale. Exhale. 

Manoi brings beer and I suck one down an tell him to crack one open for himself.

Then I crawl over to the Turk.  His face looks like somebody used it to drive tent stakes. He's comin to and sittin up.  I hand him a beer. He grasps at it twice an a heavy set of brass knuckles slips from his muddy fingers and plops into the mud. Then gets a hold of the beer.

I ask him his name and lean back against a crate next to him. I ask his name an take a drag.

He says, Amir, winces, then hits me across the forehead with the beer bottle. 

An we're back at it.

I can hear the security guy in the background yell somethin like, Jus make sure they don't kill each other.

He tries to bullrush me over, but I land a pair a elbow strikes into his nose an jaw, reverse him, and choke him out with his shirt collar. Im respectin this guy more by the second. 

I crumple to the ground next to him, breathin hard an wantin to puke. Fish out cigs. Light one.  Inhale. Fish for my bottle on the ground. Find it. Open it. Suck it down.  Exhale. 

Amir stirs. I say, hey man, truce?

His hand starts wanderin for his bottle but freezes when I unsnap my kabar. I say to him, I can do this all day...or be done in a second, one way or nother…you pick.   

He relaxes and sputters out, truce. 

Smoke, Amir?

He says yeah and takes one.

We lie there in silence for a few.  I look over at him an ask, so was it good for you, too?

He makes a face and groans and stirs.

Does this mean we’re datin now? I think I might love you.

An he tried to get up but sinks back down and falls against the only crate that we didn’t smash.

I pick up my empty pill bottle, shake it, let out a deep breath. An then I say to myself and Amir and anyone else, I wonder if none, one, or both of em took the ipecac I had in there.

I start laughin and my head and neck and face hurts but otherwise I’m feelin better than I have in a couple days. 


-HMout

12.8.10 On a Bus

12.8.10
1430

Sittin on the back seat of a crowded high school bus that's been mostly gutted and mod'ed to hold cargo and small livestock in pens. It's pissin rain again so all the windows are shut and its steamin up like a sauna. Evrythings wet. Ya can imagine what it smells like in here.  This things lurching along this "road" like a drunken pack animal, tilts and all the clay pots, wicker baskets, duct-taped luggage, and other shit hanging from the ceiling swings back n forth.  One of Jeeps "disappeared" during the day.  The one with the cargo rack on the back and roof. So, Mr. Bum talked to some locals and they came up with this bus.

Now, why am I on the bus an not the Land Rover? Mr. Bum's call. Think he mighta had a talk w Superman the security guard.

At least its not too crowded where I'm sittin.  Could be the LMTFA/GTFAFM look on my face, machete on my hip...and the 74 Krink in my lap.  Some reason today, the folks who are armed are all clearly armed, on display.  I'm not "on duty" but I'm always active, tryin to kill time lookin for ghosts in the trees along side the road. The ghosts in here are wet, hackin, desperate, and starvin.

I'm not in my best mood. Drugs dint help.

Almost out of cigs, thinkin bout the Scotch, but jus need to suck it up.

Just talked to a friend.  Might be leukemia. Test results back Friday.

In a minute, I'm gonna cut a hole in the fuckin roof and let the ghosts inside pour out like rancid steam.

10.8.10 Awake

12.8.10

0315

Course it'd be the longest day that'd have me staring at the tarp flappin over my head.  Can't sleep. I need to prove a point, again, and exhaustion usually helps that effort. Wide awake tho. 

Insomnia is one of the first signs fer me.

It sets in quick.  29 hours. 

My legs are starting to cramp up and I feel feverish. 

48 hours starts to feel like dyin. 

Scuse me while I have a Lfetime movie moment. 

It was always easiest to kick opiate addictions in the winter for me cuz the cold weather would have me freezin half to death anyway an I wouldn't notice the chills and shivers. The hot spells...well, I'd just go outside half nekkid for a bit and cool off. 

Worst part for me was always that feelin in my brain and base a my skull. Felt like my head was full o fiberglass insulation and superheated sand and put in a C clamp vise, one fulcrum between my eyes and the other right below the lil bump at the base a my skull. My eyes would itch.  My teeth felt like pressure was buildin in em like an airplane ride. I'd punch walls and headbutt stuff.  Put my Kabar on a gas grill and then brand my shins.  Pain to replace pain. 

It worked. Sometimes. 

Fuckin bullshit worthless fuckin W. Reed.

"Here, take these and these and soma these, an you'll be fine" fuck you. 

Vicoden is a shit sub for morphine. 

But always, it was I'm fine. I'm fine. Cuz people from where I'm from don't get crazy.  Just don't happen. Intolerant fuckheads mostly.  Ran Anna outta town cuz she read some books on Wicca. 

First "real" lock up was simple possession.  Jus prescription shit.  Nothin serious.  No jail time jus court ordered NA-AA.

Bad coffee and donuts at stupid little KC halls and VFWs and choir rooms at small churches with drive thru quality signs out front in nowhere little towns.  And I was always better off than the methheads, an crackheads, and the junkies.  But problem w AA an NA for someone like me...is I just saw a room full of future connects. 

I wasn't a junkie. Junkies were fuck ups who had bad skin and couldn't function normal.  I could punch in a 12 hour shift someplace. Then L10s weren't enough. Then Perks got weak. Then the roxies.  Then the OCs.

Then I had weeks where I couldn't wear short sleeves to work. 

No PTSD here tho. No sir. I'm fine. I was jus gon plow through that.

Then I plowed through a Taco Bell plate glass window on my bike.  Laid out fucked up on the dinning room floor for a few. Got up an crawled to a booth.  Cashier ran over to help me, asked if I was ok.

I spit a tooth across the table and was pickin glass outta my hands. Then I told her I needed two Supreme Burritos, a cheesy gordita crunch, Mountain Dew, an goddamn when did ya'll start waiting tables?  That's fuckin awesome ma'am!!

I was bleedin all over my Chucks. Said somethin like "God, I don't see ya yet.  You must not want me...yet...I hope. Meaning I hope ya want me someday...jus not today."

I'd eaten by time EMS showed up.  Tried given the rest of my lil cinnamon twists to the first medic on scene. Then I told him to radio for air support. NOW, corpsman!!

They wouldn't give me anything in the ambo. Said I wouldn't feel it anyway. 

Told the medic to keep my bike. 

Became a guest of the great State of Wisconsin. I'd like to say some shit like It was good for my street cred, but the reality of it was I was just another fuck up from some dipshit town that killed babies for a few years and came back with a sob story and drug addiction.  Jail ain't the place ya wanna dry out either. 

Out in 6 months. Parole waved if I left the state and didn't come back. Fuck Milwaukee anyway.

But I kicked it 3 times. Cold turkey.  No help.  3 times.  I'll tell ya bout the other two some other time. 

Course now there's suboxone, if ya can get it.  Hard to round up sometimes. 

Alright...that's enough.

Shift is startin in 15.  I made my point.  Went 30 hours with the short term answer in my pocket the whole time. 

Now scuse me while I shave down some milligrams. It's aight, I got this under control.

-HMout

12.8.10 Some Loose Ends

12.8.10

0030

Long day. Really long day. 12 hour shift on 3 hours sleep. Had one break, which I didn't get cuz I had to take care of somethin. 

Heard some story bout a "White Ghost" running mad through the jungle last night.  For once, Im thankful for the hangover (fuckin legendary) cuz it keeps me from laughin. Can't remember what was real or imagined. 

Manoi passes me a couple times and looks at me like ya'd look at someone ya slept with and regretted it. Maybe he thinks I'm the monkey.

Carlos...had to go on a lil journey. I took him for a lil walk today durin our break an uh, tested the 74u. To be honest, I couldn't look at him, so I might not a hit him. Felt like a scene from Predator. Don't think he'll be making another appearance either way.

I had only one pack of cigarettes left when I woke today and the happy fun bottle is still MIA. 

Got back to the worksite after the stroll and had a brief encounter with the sleepin beauty security guard. He came up mean but before he could get a word out I tossed the empty 74 mag at him.  He caught it, looked down at it, and I tapped him on the forehead. 

Told him, coulda been a hammer. 

He decided that he ain't really have nothin to say.

Didn't even break my stride. 

Missin Lexi.  Hope she's alright. We should be headen back north in a day or two.  

-HMout

12.6-7.10 Monkey God, Mischief, and Madness pt 2

12.7.10

0230ish

Walk back to campsite was kinda relaxing and the visions were down to a tolerable level….til the Eye o God opened up and roared at me.  Hit my knees and started prayin.

Til I realized it was one o the over eager security guards, running at me with a flashlight. 

Left him sleeping like a baby in the back of a pickup truck.

0300

I decide to play Sherlock Holmes and Case of the Missin Mystery Fun Bottle o Pills but I aint get too far. Instead, i'm wonderin bout the AK74u and crate o ammo in my tent. Um.

I got nothin. 

Cept I'm down one carton of Marlboro Reds. Did I…do a little barterin’?  

Fuck it. Whadya know...first case closed. Time to celebrate. (and work on the problem of just having 3 packs of smokes left).

Ain’t feelin too hot. I gotta let the rst of this shit wear off. Feel like a fat mans undercarriage in august and smell about the same. Must be the Monkey God piss sweatin outta me. 

Puke once and get back to pack 7. Sittin in time out.  Thinkin bout life after my lil experiment overseas.

Started puttin in paperwork an job applications back in, hmm, I guess around aught six.  Then there were occasional interviews after.  A psych exam or two. Those were always fun (prolly the most fun I've ever had that didn't require xrays, kevlar, lawyers, antibiotics, epinephrine, or a fast bike and a prayer...or climbing down a tree naked for the matter)

My favorite question on the psych exams was "Do you have any hobbies or other interests?"

This one doc was like "Mr Grey...oxycontin is not a hobby." 

An I said, well you ain't ever lived in Missouri, have ya? 

Yeah, I didn't get that job.  I's hoping I woulda made it to the next round, just to see the results of the piss test, wether it came out technicolored or not. 

0400 or so

I guess I nodded off again cuz I wake up to Manoi chasing Carlos thru the campsite with my machete in one hand...an holdin his pants up w the other.

Yep, I gotta call Dr. Creed when I get back to the States.

I really hope this was all a dream. Might be. Guy can hope.

-HMout

12.6-7.10 Monkey God, Mischief, and Madness pt 1

12.6.10

2000

After chow, Mr. Bum calls an impromptu meeting.  Due to some blah blah blah technical jargon BS blah, we’re gonna be off the clock til noon tomorrow…cept for 4 members of the security team.

Mr. Bum says he’ll leave that to them to figure out.  Mr. Clipboard calls for everyone to circle up.

He asks for volunteers an gets em before the sentence is out.  Hilarious. Suckers.

Guess they all wanna “GET SOME!!”

Fuck all that.  I’m gon have me some fun and cause trouble.

12.6.10

2330

Ya can drink after a monkey.  Just don't drink out of a monkey. Lemme explain...

Remember what I said bout boredom. 

(Word of advice: don't listen to your "friends" when they start makin suggestions about how to spend a night out cuz they wanna hear bout it the next day). 

Mighta been the monkey (named him Carlos and taught him how to smoke cigarettes...I always heard bout it and thought it'd be fun. By 2200, he learned rudimentary poker…and how to cheat.) But, wait, yeah mighta been the monkey, but my mystery fun bottle o pills went missing.  I'm gonna flay someone. Anyone. I'll have it figured out by mornin. Carlos is off the radar. Suspect #1.

But I keep backups for emergencies like this. 

So I'm takin inventory (and doin inventory) when Manoi, one of the crew engineers, comes in w a black bottle that looks like a relic outta an Indiana Jones movie. Like a tribal statue of a Monkey God made of black wood. He said he read somewhere that he heard it had hallucinigenic properties.

Myth: Confirmed.

Me and Manoi ended up walkin round the jungle for an hour or so, talkin to jungle spirits.  Manoi puked for better part of an hour, and I don’t blame him.  The Monkey God tastes a lot like fermented mule piss (don’t ask).  

I had a conversation w Minos the Gatekeeper...I'll have to tell ya bout him sometime.  

Manoi didn't last long after that tho. Think I scared him a bit, playin w the machete. But then he laughed himself stupid and passed out from lack a oxygen in a mound o wet grass. Carlos went through his pockets.  I don't think he learnt that from me. I r'member thinking, if he starts undressin him, I'm havin myself committed.  Again.

Carlos runs off before I remember I’m s’posed to kill him.

I guess I didn't last long either...last thing I remember was wanting to take a swim.  Wasn't out too long. Couldn't a been. But, like so many times, I wake up nekkid and wonderin where I am.  

Getting down outta the tree was interestin.  

Ditto finding my pants, boots, and hat.  Still had my belt on tho.  Funny that.