Not in Benidorm

Not in Benidorm 25Mar03 25/3/03 12:36 am A Story by Draco Drella
Draco@washingtonweb.co.uk

I had taken some acid and was about as high as it is possible to be
without actually using the Space Shuttle. I do not know where I was or
even if I was there at all, Does the place exist ? I wish I knew. I
have employed the services of a private detective agency and they
charged me over a thousand pounds to tell me that they can't find out
if it exists or not.

It was two years ago when we had our number one record and we all
thought that we were "Rock Stars" who could be and do anything.
Everyone knows we blew it and everyone claims that they could see it
coming but, if they did, they kept it to themselves, at the time. I
remember taking the acid in Manchester and Steve saying:
"Let's get a taxi out to the Airport."
And we probably did because I remember Jack saying that we had to stop
because:
"The driver is blind ! Look he is 'Peters', out of 'Peters and
Lee'."
But no one really cared. We were bigger stars than them anyway. Our
record had been Number one last week and
"When did Peters and Lee have their last number One ?"
I remember the Airport and that is when I got seperated from Steve and
Jack. "I have the acid though so what does it matter ?"
And then I went outside the airport to sit down on the grass and smoke
a joint and then I went back in and I must have bought a ticket and got
on a plane because I remember the clouds and looking down at the sea
and thinking that I was king of the world and the stewardess
saying
"There is no smoking allowed on the plane sir ! You must put the
cigarette out !"
And I put it out and looked out and saw that we were landing.

Here is a big gap in my memory of it. The next thing I remember I was
in a street in a continental city and people were speaking another
language which was not French but could have been German or Dutch or
Swedish but I didn't care. A lot of people spoke English but with an
accent and most of the signs were in two languages. I gave all the
details I could to the detective agency so you can get more details if
you like, but really there are not very many that I know. By then I had
taken more acid and had lost count of the joints I had smoked.

It was early evening. There was a smell of rain which was left over
from earlier and I was sitting on a bench eating ice cream. I felt as
though I had been eating it forever and yet I could not bring myself to
throw it away. I was at the stage where, I was beginning to understand
the tragedy which was life, and I could have followed this train of
thought and I knew that it would lead to the ultimate wisdom. I was not
ready for this. I was a Rock Star after all. Perhaps the 'Rock Star'.
Wisdom was for those who couldn't afford to have a good time. I had
been breakfasting on kippers and acid that morning in Manchester and
now I would enjoy this city. The only time that I had been on a plane
before this was on our one family holiday in Benidorm eight years
before. Wherever I was, I knew that I was not in Benidorm.

The city was just gearing up for the evening. Like all cities, early
evening is the time when the entertainment industry is just starting
work. I knew, because I was part of that industry. I saw a man going
past who looked to me, as though he was going to work, so I followed
him. This seemed a good idea then. He walked down a big shopping street
to a street where there were lots of bars. He cut down an alley and I
thought I had lost him but when I got to the end it was as though he
had been waiting for me. To me it seemed as though the whole world was
waiting for me.

Then he hailed a taxi and started to get in. He turned and called to
me. I ran over and he got in the front, with the driver, while I got in
the back. The jouney is hazy. I tend to get this journey confused with
the ride to the airport in Manchester. My image is of the same driver,
who was the blind half of "Peters and Lee" and while I know this cannot
be accurate, it is all I have to go on. When we arrived at our
destination, the man got out and left me to pay. I remember the
driver's voice
"Engish money no good !"
I saw that we had stopped right ouside a curency exchange bureau and
the driver waited while I changed some English money. He counted out
his money and then when I offered him a tip he laughed and said
"I have already taken it."
He drove away and the man I had followed was nowhere to be seen. Apart
from the Bureau-de-Change it was quite a busy street. Music was coming
from the doors of some buildings and I guessed that they were bars.
There was an element of the seedy and this interested me. I started to
walk along the street and I came to some tables. I asked for coffee but
the waiter brought me beer. I started to protest but then I caught
sight of the man I had followed in the doorway of the building
opposite. I gulped down the rest of the acid and took a mouthful of
beer. It was the first time that I had tasted beer in Europe and was
struck that it was so cold. The bubbles made the inside of my mouth
tingle and I saw that the glass was almost empty.
There is another time gap here. It might have been an hour that I sat
at the table of the bar. I looked over the road once and I saw the man
that I had followed beckon to me. He waved at me to come and join him
and my heart turned stone cold.
The fear was something that I could taste. Then I was saying to
myself
"You're tripping !
It's OK
Remember when the toilet bowl turned to blood, that time ?"
It worked. I got up from the table and I made my way over the road.
When I tried to describe each cobblestone individually, I knew that I
was boring the detective but I thought it might have helped. I guess it
must have been an ordinary time that it took to cross the road but it
felt like weeks.

The man that I had followed said his name was Smidt. I started to hear
music. I knew the song. It was a song by Patti Smith from the "Easter"
Album called "We shall live again !". The song started to go round in
my head over and over again.
I called it a song but it is really more of a chant"
"We shall live again !
We shall live, again !"
Then she repeats it over and over again. I was beginning to be drawn
into it but Smidt wanted my attention and he introduced two
girls.
One was black and the other wasn't. The black one introduced herself
as
"My name is 'Nigger Bitch'. What is yours ?"
The white girl asked if there were any nice girls in England. To this I
feigned ignorance, and, to be fair to myself, my thoughts were not on
English girls. We were in some sort of Nightclub. This seemed to be
arranged with several private booths around the stage. My knowledge of
foreign nightclubs is a lot more comprehensive now than it was then,
but I thought that this must be normal.

I know that many readers will be aware of how ambiguous sex can be on
acid. Sometimes it seems as though the sexual experience is going to
melt you away but then you seem to lose concentration and you are
thinking about something else. This was a lot like that but with two
girls it was harder to lose concentration and between the three of us
we managed very well. I have, however, not had sex since.

I rolled a joint then and we shared it as we listened to the music and
laughed and joked together. I figured that they were prostitutes and I
had never known prostitutes before and I had the same prejudices as
most people. On the other hand they seemed to genuinely like their work
and they seemed like really nice girls. They told me about their
friends and how they used to like to go skiing. I've written down all
that I remember for the detectives.

After we had smoked another joint Elke (the black girl) said:
"Shall we try something else ?"
Agnetha (The white girl) looked at her and I saw something new in her
eyes. It was neither fear nor excitement. The closest thing I can think
of is a kind of resignation. She was just looking at each of us in this
strange way. I said:
"What have you in mind ?"
Elke said :
"It's a game." She laughed: "We kill Agnetha !"
I laughed and I looked at Agnetha who shrugged and stood up and started
to dress. She said:
"It's a game."
Then Elke said:
"Lets do it ! I've always wanted to."
There was a wildness in her which should have warned me, but this same
wildness was really attractive. She stood up then and started to fondle
Agnetha who was dressed by now. It was the most exciting thing I have
ever seen. Elke turned to me and put my hands into some manacles.
"No pain! No gain!" She said.
All the time she was laughing and I saw that Agnetha was laughing too.
Then she started touching herself in the most intimate way whileElke
started on me. Then Agnetha opened the curtain so that we could see the
stage. We were in a private booth but very close to the stage. There
were two girls on the stage both of them naked.

What followed is very difficult to talk about. I will be brief. Agnetha
was pulled from our booth by the two girls on the stage. She was
stripped and bound and gagged. Then they crucified her. You may
ask:
"Why did you not try to stop them ?"
And there is no answer. I was receiving oral sex from Elke at the time.
We watched Agnetha being killed and we got off on it. Elke seemed to
enjoy it more than I did, but there I go, straying into the territory
of excuses. I have no excuse.

Elke released the manacles and left. I got dressed and I left, into a
city in Europe and into the night.

Once again there are many memory lapses here. I can remember being sick
into a river from a bridge. I can remember sitting in a cafe drinking
coffee. My last memory is of arriving in Paris in a train. I had slept
most of the journey and I hope that I dreamt it all. I got a taxi to
the airport and I went home.