Fiends

Chapter 1

Traveling cross country by Greyhound bus is not for the faint of heart. It is probably the most annoying and uncomfortable way to travel in the United States but it does have its advantages, especially for a guy like me. With the heightened security at the airport since the 9/11 attacks, boarding a plane with a quarter pound of high dollar marijuana and two ounces of crystal meth in your suitcase isn't a very good idea.
I knew it would be no problem carrying dope on the bus though.
I had once travelled by Greyhound from L.A. to Salt Lake City with a three foot long samurai sword wrapped in newspaper and duct tape. Nobody even gave me a second glance. That sword could just as easily have been a loaded assault rifle but I was never hassled by anyone so I knew carrying weed and speed would be easy.
Besides, if I traveled by plane, I would miss the freak show that you can only experience by going Greyhound.
On this particular trip from Los Angeles to Little Rock however I was in no mood for freaks, geeks, or idle conversation with strangers.
My girlfriend of two years had just dumped me and I hadn't slept a wink in four days. Or was it five?
Michelle wasn't quite as bright as the others before her. Either that or she truly loved me. It took her a whole two years to realize that I was a dipshit pothead and a lost cause. Most of my ex lovers had figured me out and dumped me in only a month or two but I had to give her credit, she didn't give up easily. The poor girl couldn't save me no matter how hard she tried but by God, she tried. I put her through hell. Michelle put up with more bullshit than any woman should ever have to put up with but it wasn't until I went ballistic and destroyed her entire home that she finally said goodbye for good.
Who could blame her?
I was depraved back then, twisted on drugs and probably quite dangerous, at least to myself, but I loved her in my own warped way. She was my angel.
I missed her and I couldn't stand the thought of being without her. I became so depressed that I couldn't eat or sleep...or was it just the speed?
I was zorched out of my mind from smoking meth out of a glass pipe for the past four days with a crazy tweaker I had met at the Los Angeles Swap Meet. I didn't know what his real name was, but he called himself "Chunks". Chunks was a vendor at the swap meet and sold pipes, waterbongs, and various devices for smoking or consuming marijuana and other drugs.

I often go to pawn shops, swap meets and flea markets. I like to smoke a big spliff and then walk around the swap meet imagining that I'm in a Bazaar in Morocco or Egypt. Most of the stuff they sell at these places is junk but if you visit them often enough and if you look carefully, you may find some mysterious and unexpected treasures.
These are the types of places in which you might expect to someday find some kind of Ancient Chinese Secret, Aladdin's Lamp, or a mystical creature like the Mogwai in "Gremlins".
I had once discovered two pairs of elephant skin boots and a genuine shrunken head from Borneo all for a hundred bucks at a filthy roadside flea market somewhere near a little hick town called Toad Suck, Arkansas.
I sold the boots on EBay but I kept the shrunken head and hung it from the rearview mirror of my Volkswagen Vanagon.
My friends all thought that the head was the coolest thing they had ever seen, but it ruined my chances of getting laid more than once.
It isn't easy to convince a girl that you had just met in a bar to go home with you when the first thing she sees as she sits down in your van is a shrunken head hanging from your rearview.

This day I wasn't buying though. I was selling. I needed to get the hell out of California for a while. Too many memories. Everything in Cali reminded me of Michelle, made me think of her. I needed a change of scenery and fast. Besides that, after the way I demolished her condo, the cops were probably going to be looking for me and my van.
I had a couple of old surfboards that I wanted to sell so that I would have enough money to buy a bus ticket to Arkansas where my brother Nick lives. I wanted to lay low at his place for a month or two until this whole thing blew over.
I had just unloaded my boards and was strolling down the crowded aisles of the swap meet when I heard a high pitched sqauwking behind me, "AAACH! AAACH !"
The sound was horrible. It was like the shriek of a wounded vulture and sent shivers up my spine like fingernails on a chalkboard....."AAAAACH!!! "Huh huh hey man! Hey man! AAAACH "! "Take a look at this man!" "AAACH!!!
I turned to look at where the sound was coming from just in time to see a thin, foul looking man spit out a mass of slimy grey phlegm onto the ground. "Hey there!" the dude said, "I'm Chunks!"
A few bits of mucus and spittle glistened on his lower lip. He wiped off the slime casually with the sleeve of his ragged blue denim jacket and said, "They call me Chunks because I used to be fat."
Looking at him now, you'd never know it. He was close to six feet tall but nothing but skin and bones. He must have weighed around 100 lbs. His jet black hair was slicked back in a greasy pompadour like one of those cheesy Las Vegas Elvis impersonators. His skin was sunburned and cherry red and the veins in his face and neck were distended and pulsing rhythmically like dancing snakes. He grinned, revealing a mouth full of black and decaying stumps that were once teeth. With his pencil thin mustache and goatee, he looked like the Devil on a crack binge.
"AAACH"! "AAACH!, AAAAAACH!" His body heaved and convulsed violently as he wheezed and gasped. The man sounded like a cat coughing up a hairball. He hawked and spat out another massive glob of goo. It hit the ground with and audible splat.
"Sorry man, nasty lung butter. It's from smoking so much good dope!" He laughed loudly and then fell into another fit of coughing.
"Hey man, take a look at this pipe!" He screeched loudly, "It changes colors when you smoke it man and it's only twenty bucks!" He held out a small glass pipe. It had swirls of various colors etched inside the glass.
"No thanks man, just looking." I said. I had plenty of pipes at home and preferred to make my own pipes anyway.
"Ok man, ok.....no problem, forget about the pipe, I got something better, something special just for you. I close up shop at 6PM. Come back around that time man. I have something I want to show you, something good man. Trust me, you won't be sorry and uh, come alone."

I looked at my watch. 5:15. What could this gnarly old skeezer want to show me? , I thought, and why did he want me to come alone? The whole thing seemed pretty shady but I was a shady guy and, like I said before, you never know what you might find at the swap meet. I wasn't leaving until tomorrow night anyway. I had plenty of time to kill and I didn't want to be driving around on the street with the cops looking for me so I went out to the parking lot where my van was parked to smoke a joint and wait for 6PM.

To Be Continued

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