Hugger had studied the directions on the internet and knew they’d be off the paved roads soon. A minute later he pulled into a gas station, Teresa right behind him. While the cars were filling up Hugger, Teresa, and DW stood between them and talked.
“Anybody hungry besides me?” said DW.
“I am,” said Hugger.
“Me too,” said Teresa. “There’s a hamburger joint right across the street.”
“Let’s do it.”
When the vehicles were gassed up Hugger and Teresa drove across the street while DW walked. Next to the restaurant was a small grocery store. Teresa noticed a hand written sign in the window that said “Only one Rainbow person in the store at a time. No backpacks allowed in the store.” She waited until they got their food before she asked about it.
“They’re afraid,” said Hugger. “All these freaky people invading their town, they don’t know what to make of it. They’re afraid people will steal from them and a small percentage will. But the rest of the invaders, the thousands who will hit that place over the course of the Gathering, will spend money; a lot of money when you add it all together.”
DW said, “You’d think they’d figure that out, but if they don’t want the business, they don’t want the business.”
When they got to their cars a large bus pulled into the gas station and up to the diesel pump. It was brown and it had a raised roof with stained glass windows coming down at a 45 degree angle in the front and rear of the bus. The door of the bus opened and half a dozen young men stepped out. They were dressed from another era: bellbottoms, vests, scarves, tie dyed T-shirts, black boots and enough rings to stock a small jewelry store. Half of them were smoking cigarettes until another customer reminded them that they were in a gas station where smoking was both illegal and unwise. One of the smokers apologized and they all moved across the street and check out the market.
For some reason they reminded Teresa of the Rolling Stones back when they were young, about a hundred years ago.
Three smokers from the bus, who’d finished their cigarettes, stopped and read the sign on the store window. One of them said, “That’s going to complicate things man. We’ve got to buy what we need and get out of here, we don’t have time to go in one at a time.”
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll go in and get some stuff and try to be my usual nice, polite, mellow self. When I pay I’ll talk to them and ask them if we can come in two at a time.”
Larry, the man who’d read the sign and said it wouldn’t do, spoke up again. “Sounds like a plan, Joe. You’ve always been a great ass kisser.”
Joe gave Larry a disgust conveying look and walked into the store. Seven or eight minutes later he came out with his purchases in a paper bag. “You guys can go in.”
“What did you tell them?” asked Larry.
“I’ll tell you when you come out.”
Larry and the guy with him, whose name was Mark, walked in and a couple of other guys and two wildly dressed young women walked over to Joe. Joe told them, “They have a rule that only one person at a time can go into the store but they extended it to two. When Larry and Mark come out why don’t you guys go in and a couple of minutes later you ladies slide through. I’ll bet they’ll let it go.”
Awhile later Larry and Mark came out with their goods and the two guys entered. “So Joe, what did you say to them to get us in?”
“I told them you were 19 with the brain of a 2 year old and that you had to have someone to get you to the bathroom at a moment’s notice.”
Larry frowned, “You told them that?”
“It worked didn’t it?”
A few other people from the bus went into the store and Hugger and DW decided they could use a few things as well. Teresa leaned against the van and watched the Rainbow people come and go. One of the wildly dressed women, with a cigarette between her fingers, asked Teresa if she had a light. Teresa went over to the Explorer and opened the glove compartment. There were a couple of dollar lighters lying on a stack of maps. Teresa took one and gave it to the girl who little the cigarette.
“Keep it,” said Teresa when the girl tried to give it back.
The girl thanked her and put the lighter in a cloth draw string bag with her cigarettes.
DW and Hugger each picked out a few things. DW bought a two liter bottle of Sutter House merlot and went up to the counter to pay for it. The couple who ran the store were probably in their late forties. Hugger noticed a shot gun leaning against the wall behind the man. After they paid they went back to the cars.
When Teresa saw the wine she said, “Are you going to stay at A Camp, DW?”
“No way, babe, I couldn’t handle that.”
“Then why do you have wine? I thought anyone with alcohol is supposed to stay in A Camp.”
“Well, that’s the rule but if you don’t flash it around and don’t get out of line yourself, it’s usually not a problem.”
“Is that right Hugger?”
Hugger pulled a pint of Jim Beam out of his bag and said, “Yes it is.”
Teresa shook her head and said, “Let’s go.”
As they pulled out Teresa looked over at the brown bus with the stained glass windows that looked like it was ready to roll, everyone in, the diesel engine shaking the whole bus.
“They’re from Texas,” said Teresa. “That’s what their plates say. What are they, hippies? Gypsies? Whatever they are I wouldn’t expect them to be from Texas.”
“Texas is a big place,” said DW, “lots of people. They can’t all be cowboys.”
“Apparently not.”
Not far out of Alturas they came to a turn that eventually brought them to a wooden sign on a large post that said ‘Rainbow Gathering.’ Hugger stopped and talked to the guy manning the spot.
“Where’s Bus Village?”
“About half a mile up take a left and go another 200 yards. You can’t miss it, but you don’t have to stay there in your VW bus, Bus Village is for the forty footers.”
“I know, I’ve got friends I want to see there. Hey, the car behind me, they’re with me.”
“Okay partner, I’ll wave them through.” As Hugger pulled away the guy yelled after him, “Welcome Home!”
Hugger put his arm out the window and waved it once.
A few minutes later both vehicles pulled into bus village. Teresa said, “This could be from a prequel to ‘Easy Rider.’ These people and their rides are wild.”
“That’s what makes the Gathering the Gathering,” said DW.
While Hugger situated his bus and DW pitched his tent Teresa took a walk through Bus Village to check things out and discreetly snap a few pictures. She estimated there were 20 busses painted in every imaginable color. Most of them were converted school busses, Crowns and Blue Birds, but she spotted a few MCI’s and a top of the line Prevost with a hydraulic slide out.
At least two of the buses belonged to hippy families with five or six kids between them. It was hard to determine who owned the rest as it could be any of the hippies between the ages of 18 and 60 who were walking among the buses. The most outrageous bus Teresa saw was a Crown with the roof partially cut away to accommodate a 30 foot sailboat. As Teresa gaped at the sailboat on top of the bus and old hippy came out and looked up with her.
“Is this your rig?”
“It is,” he said proudly.
“It’s quite impressive. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Well,” said the old guy, his eyes still on his work, “I tried to maintain the integrity of both the boat and the bus.”
Not knowing what to say Teresa nodded thoughtfully.
When she got back to the van she saw that Hugger had put a sign on the passenger side windshield. The sign was written with a black magic marker on white construction paper. It said, ‘Free Hugs For Sisters.’ A few feet away, on the side door window, was another sign that read, ‘The Hugger Is In.’
Hugger came up behind Teresa an
d said, “What do you think?”
“An original idea. You get any business yet?”
“Not yet but I just put up the signs.”
“Well now I know why you’re called the Hugger.”
“That’s right, I forgot I told you you’d have to be here to find out.”
“Which I’m glad I did.”
“Are you still leaving us?”
“I have to even though it looks like it would be fun to stay.”
DW walked over from behind the VW bus and said, “Did I hear you say you wanted to stay?”
“I said I thought it would be fun to stay but I can’t. You know that DW.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Will you ride down to the entrance with me?”
“Sure babe.”
“It was nice to meet you Hugger.”
Hugger walked over and gave her a squeeze. “It was nice to meet you to Teresa.”
Teresa slid into the driver’s seat and DW took the passenger side and they headed toward the entrance. They were silent for a minute until Teresa said, “I’ll see you in a week. Behave yourself until then.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Don’t get in trouble with the law and don’t come back with flees, lice, scabies or STD’s.”
“I’ll avoid them.”
“Good,” said Teresa as she rolled to a stop. “Here we are.”
The kissed, a fairly long one, and DW said, “See you babe. I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too DW. I can’t believe I’ve gotten used to calling you DW.”
“When you pick me up next week you won’t have to.”
“True.”
Another kiss, shorter this time, and DW popped out of the passenger door and watched Teresa drive toward Alturas. DW turned and headed back the way he’d come. A few hundred yards up, not far from where most of the Gatherings cars were parked, he saw a Prius with a flat left front tire. A man and woman were standing near the car looking at the tire and conversing.
“Well at least it didn’t go flat until we reached our destination,” said Gloria. “It could have blown out on the highway at 65mph.”
“That’s true,” said Rick, trying to see the silver lining.
When DW reached them he said, “Want me to help you push it to a level spot? If we get it up to the parking area and change the tire there you’ll be good for as long you want to be here.”
“Sure,” said Rick, “that sounds good. Thanks.”
Gloria climbed behind the wheel and the two men started pushing. There was still some air in the front tire so the car rolled smoothly to a level spot. Rick and Gloria pulled out their gear from the back and Rick retrieved the donut spare and the jack. Then he jacked the car up a bit but not high enough that the flat tire left the ground. He used the lug wrench to loosen the nuts, and jacked the car until the flat spun free, and he was able to remove the nuts and pull off the wheel.
DW was ready with the donut and slid it in place as soon as the flat was off. Rick screwed on the lugs and reversed the process until the spare was on the car and the car was jacked down to the ground.
Rick stuck out his hand and said, “Thanks for the help. My name’s Rick.”
DW shook his hand and said, “I’m DW, nice to meet you.”
“I’m Gloria.”
“Nice to meet you Gloria.”
After a minute DW said, “Do you know where you want to camp?”
“We haven’t the faintest idea,” said Rick.
“Well everything is in this direction. I’m going that way so if you want I’ll help you carry your gear and maybe you’ll see a camping spot you like.”
“Great, thanks.”
While Rick moved the car to a parked spot he liked better Gloria and DW stood by the gear and talked.
“Is this your first time at the Gathering?”
“It’s Rick’s first time and my first time as an adult. My parents brought me to a few Gatherings when I was a kid.”
“What made you decide to come to this one after all those years?”
“We needed to get out of San Diego to avoid someone who’s trying to kill us.”
“Oh.”
Gloria put her fist on her forehead and breathed deeply. “I can’t believe I just told you that.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t go any further.”
“Just so you know what it’s about, to keep you from thinking we brought it on ourselves and deserve it, the whole thing started when this guy cheated me out of $500 in a poker game and Rick out smarted him and got it back.”
“The guy wants to kill you over that? Five hundred bucks?”
Gloria thought about cutting Frank at ‘Joe’s Italian Cuisine’ and pulverizing the Cool Cad, and then said, “Yeah, more or less. A couple of days ago he shot at us with a 9mm pistol from a taxi cab in downtown San Diego in broad daylight. He hit Rick in the side but fortunately did cause any real damage.”
“He sounds like a maniac.”
“Yeah, he is.”
Rick returned from parking the car and they pulled on the backpacks and picked up the tent and began walking. Gloria was glad DW didn’t mention their conversation to Rick. Maybe he’d do what he said and would keep his mouth shut.
“A friend and I are staying in Bus Village which isn’t too far from here.”
“Do you have a bus? We saw a wild one on the way here,” said Gloria.
“No, my friend has a VW bus, which seems to qualify. No one has asked us to leave for lack of proper transportation.”
They walked a little further and DW said, “What kind of camping spot are you looking for? Do you want to camp with people or go more for a private spot?”
“Private,” Gloria and Rick said in unison.
“Look over there by that pine tree. There’s a slight rise but it looks like its flat by the tree. You want to take a look at it?”
“Sure.”
When they reached the pine tree they found that the ground in front of it was flat and decided it would be a good place to pitch their tent.
“Make sure the tent is far enough away from the tree so a pine cone doesn’t fall on you. I learned that the hard way at a previous Gathering.”
“What do you think Gloria?” said Rick.
“It looks good. Let’s stay here.”
“Okay,” said Rick. He turned to DW. “Thanks for your help, we really appreciate it. And we won’t pitch our tent too close to the tree.”
“Good. Come up to Bus Village for a visit if you get a chance. Otherwise maybe I’ll see you at the drum circle or the trading circle or the Granola Funk Theater.”
“What are...”
“I’ll explain later,” said Gloria. “DW I have a question before you go. What does DW stand for?”
DW was silent for a minute thinking about what to tell them. Finally he said, “You understand it’s a Rainbow name, I don’t use it any place else. It stands for Deep Water as in deep water bubblephonics which is a highly efficient method of growing marijuana, something I’m pretty involved in.”
“Oh,” said Rick.
“Oh,” said Gloria. “What do you say to people when you don’t want to bring up the growing marijuana thing?”
“My latest one is that when I was two years old a serial killer threw me off a cliff into the Pacific. A couple of dolphins rescued me and took me out to the deep water. I stayed with them for about a week and then they set me on the beach near the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, where the police found me and returned me to my parents.”
“And people believe that?”
“I doubt it. The probably figure I’m just another Rainbow crazy. But they don’t ask again.”
“Okay, you know where we are so drop by any time.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you later,” said DW as he walked down the incline and headed back to bus village.
“Seems like a nice guy,” said Gloria.
“Yeah, he
does.”
“Do you think he’s really a marijuana grower?”
“I have no reason to doubt him.”
On their second day of the Rainbow Gathering Rick woke up and said, “I think Salucci is determined to kill us He’s going to try again.”
Gloria looked up from a novel she was reading and said, “That’s what he’s been saying all along, right? You make it sound like you just found out.”
“Because I never really believed that he was going to do it. I guess I thought he was just blowing off steam.”
“You think he was just blowing off steam when he shot at us from a cab on a crowded street? What about when I talked to that retired cop Bob? He told me Salucci was a contract killer didn’t he?”
“Despite the fact that he shot at us and that he’s a sometime assassin I just found it hard to believe that he was going keep at it until he killed us. Killing people is a crime that can put you in jail for life. Why risk that?”
“I can think of a few reasons. One might be that you conned him out of $600 by threatening to tow his Cady away.”
“I didn’t con him – I would have towed him away.”
“Another might be that you destroyed his Cadillac.”
Rick thought for a minute. “That probably did piss him off.”
“Hey, it’s not just what you did. I might have gone too far by threatening to cut his femoral artery so he’d bleed to death in five minutes.”
“I’m glad you said that.”
“You think I did?”
“Yeah...maybe a little. And you did actually cut him, although not to the femoral artery.”
“I suppose I could have contained myself.”
“In any case I think he’ll continue to try and kill us until he succeeds or someone stops him.”
“You mean kills him.”
“Not necessarily. Maybe we could wound him bad enough that he stops.”
“He could eventually recover and come after us again. Or pay someone else to do it.”
“Well, killing him does have some advantages.”
“So what’s the plan?”
“Keep away from him I guess, like we’re doing now. I’m going to keep practicing drawing from my ankle holster.”
“Good. I’m sorry I was teasing you about it before.”
“No worries. Listen, if Salucci comes while we are together lets split up. If he comes at me I’ll deal with it and if he goes after you I’ll let you deal with it.”
“What! Sounds like a bad plan to me.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist. If he goes after you I’ll come at him from behind.”
“That sounds better. I hope he goes after you though.”
“I do too. It would be simpler that way.”
* * *
Chapter 18