When I was 19, I was living within the world of drugs, and it’s offspring. At the time I was dealing meth out of the apartment I shared with my two gay friends. I will thus refer to them as M & H. To be perfectly honest, I was not paying a cent, but keeping the inhabitants loaded. I am sure that it would have equated to far more than rent. M was a hair dresser, and at the time, my best friend. He kept me hooked up with the local beauty college, where I made a large percentage of my profits. Most people do not know this, but beauty colleges are full of drug users. For one thing you have your gay male population, and the majority of the students have come from very little money. Yes, I am stereotyping, but it was all true. Beauty college is one of those industries where training is affordable, and short term. The lower classes just don’t have time or the money for a lengthy education. So, here I was, taking advantage of the disadvantaged.
Down beneath my apartment, lived my dealer, who I shall call D. D, and his minions were in the Mafia, and sold large quantities of meth. D took a liking to me, and I was to be in the future, grateful for the Mafia’s protection. We lived on what was called drug dealer alley back then. Funny, as this alley was right behind the houses, that were directly across the street from the police department.
I had been shooting up probably a eight ball a day of meth at this point, and I do not think I had slept much for nigh on a month. I barely ever ate, and I had become quite thin. My self esteem was at an all time low, though I did my best to maintain my appearance. I had actually managed to get the job of a lifetime, working on a small cruise boat on the lake. As the appointment drew near, I began to feel unworthy of even deserving it. I wished that I did not have to go, and was really somewhat terrified. The night before I was to begin my new career, my friends and I went out on a mushroom trip. There was M & H, and another friend, I will call A. A was a hooker, that used to work for the mafia in L.A., but had managed to escape. She and I both at that point, had no clue that my dealer D, was in the Mafia. If we had, she probably would not been hanging out with me at the time. She was a wonderful person, and I had a really serious crush on her.
We all headed out that night to an old Native American burial ground, that was one of my favorite places to hang out. At one point in it’s history, a small amphitheater had been built upon it, and it was used as a park. Now it was private land, and there was no trespassing allowed. A group of Satanist connected with Anton LaVey, also liked this place, and they had claimed it as their own psychic territory. I actually had my life threatened by these people at one point due to my visiting this place, but I would not give into their threats. I loved the power of that place, and the psychic connection I felt with the ancient natives and land. I defended this place for them, and tried to protect it from the sacrilege of the Satanists. They would come and graffiti their symbols all over the concrete seats and stage, and leave evidence of their rituals. I will share more about this place in another story.
We had an awesome time there, at least I did, and after having satiated ourselves of this place, we decided to head home. H had picked up a lost puppy somewhere along the line, and it tagged along too. We began to traverse across the large field, that was part of a stretch called The Miracle Mile. It was at least a half a mile before you reached the bridge, and it was all open clear space, other than the grasses and weeds beneath our feet. This area had not been touched probably in the city’s history; no buildings had ever stood there. We all laughed, and tripped, and were just having a dandy time, when abruptly….I just disappeared. One of my companions suddenly realized, I was literally not there anymore. They alerted the others, and just as they did so…a voice could be heard. A muted “Help Me!!”, came up out of the ground. Then, to their added horror…a hand rose up out of the ground, and was waving at them! They came over, and looked down into the hole. There I was, down inside the ground, with the expression of someone with a fairly serious injury. One of them just bust a gut, and the rest followed in suit. Their hysteria and laughter made it quite difficult to enlist their aid, but I was finally able to get A to give me a hand up. She pulled me out without the help of the others, who were still having a difficulty containing their ill timed exuberance. I got down on my hands and knees, and looked down into the hole; it was amazing. There was a network of beams and cross beams, like a web underneath the ground…it was an old mine! After all of these years people had walked across this space, and no hole had ever previously appeared! What were the odds!? The lower half of my left leg had been caught between a couple of the beams, and I could feel there was deep bruising. There was no way I could walk home in this condition, the pain was too intolerable to walk. Unfortunately my friends were too stoned to be of any aid to me, so I had to take issues into my own hands. I hopped on one leg to the road, and waved my arms about in an effort to flag down help. Almost instantly there appeared a police car pulling over to the side of the road. Once again…what are the odds?? I explain to the officer that I fell down a hole, and disappeared into the ground, and that I was injured as a result. I could see clearly, and hear in his voice…he did not believe me. He told me there were no holes around there, and he had that look in his eyes that said…*what are you on*? The size of my dilated pupils probably told the officer what he figured he needed to know. He went to his car though, and got out his flashlight. He told me to stay put, and he headed off to look at the hole. Well, of course it was really there…real things can happen…even to people on hallucinogens. He said it went on farther than he could see, and that it definitely was a mine. He then wanted to know what he could do for me. I asked him if he could give myself and my friends a ride home. He tried to convince me into going to the hospital, but that didn’t sound like a very fun place for a mushroom trip. I declined, and he agreed to get us home. Well, us, as in the four of us standing on two legs. The officer said the dog couldn’t go. Poor H, he just went into hysteria….”No, no! We can’t leave the doggy!!!”. This of course in his very gay accent, and tripping on mushrooms to boot. The officer crumbled, and agreed to take the dog too. We had odd small talk with the officer on our way home, and I was blessed it was a short drive. He insisted he drop me off in front of my residence. I instructed him as to where we lived, and he pulled up into drug dealer alley. My dealer, D, as you remember, lived downstairs from me. So, the officer pulls up in front of D’s apartment, and we all piled out of the police car. The officer wished me well, and drove off. It was not but ten minutes later, that there was knocking at our door, and there stood D. I told him the story, and I was glad to see his reaction was nothing short of being very entertained and amused. It was good to be home, and we settled in for the night.
I never made it the next day to work, I called in and resigned *due to my injury* as I told them. I was careful after that, as to what I wished for. You just never expect that a hole will open up beneath you, and swallow you whole! The next day the city had someone come out, and put a big sheet of plywood over the hole. In time though it grew bigger, and there was a large sinkhole in the middle of the field. It has been many years since I have visited that place, but it is probably filled in by now…as if it were never there.
A dream within a dream, and I have no souvenir to bring back, other than my memories.
[tags]magic mushrooms, hallucinogens, drugs, meth, methamphetamines, mushroom trip, Satanic rituals, Satanist, Hookers, Mafia, police, mines, mine shafts, myths, mythos, entertainment, personal mythos, gay, beauty college, beauticians, lockergnome, shadowmyth[/tags]