Notes from the road 12

 

Chapter 12

 

Sounds of laughter and music emanated out of the house like radio waves broadcasting into the night. The suburban street was lit only by the faintly yellow streetlights and their reflections from the still wet tarmac below them. Aside from the house of noise it was a quiet little suburb in a quiet little corner of a quiet little town in a medium-boring state. Nothing, good or bad, ever seemed to happen here and as in most places Youth (with a capital Y) had to make its own fun.

 

For Vicki, Lola and Rachel being 15 this mostly involved going around to each others houses, laughing at bad TV and discussing the pressing school issues of the day. Too cool for the geeks and no where near pretty enough to be popular, they surfed the high school wave of invisibility, safe in their anonymity.

 

It was a hot Friday night in June when the air seems to prickle with the promise of something greater just around the next corner. They were sitting in the front room with all the windows open and the TV blaring out the latest marketing campaign disguised as music video. This one involved a new-wave punk band, too young to have sex, playing on a beach surrounded by impossibly attractive women in silver-sliver bikinis.

 

"As if!" Scoffed Lola, self consciously bringing her knees up to her chest on the couch.

 

"Fake band playing a fake song on a fake beach surrounded by fake women with fake tits," Opined Vicki "The only thing that's real is my hatred and loathing for all of them."

 

"Get a load of you!" exclaimed Rachael doing an impression of Vicki's self righteous face "Its just a crappy song, don't get so tangled about it."

 

"I'm not getting tangled, I'm just bemoaning the state of 'pop' music today. It meant to be our generation right? Its meant to reflect our hopes and desires, not some fat bald sweaty chairman's thoughts on what the youth market wants."

 

Lola leaned forward on the couch to grab a handful of popcorn.

 

"So what do we want? What's representative of our doomed generation apart from teenage pregnancy, bad music and capitalism run amok?"

 

"Cynicism?"

 

"Ha Ha."

 

The beach song finished and the next video came on. It was your usual rap video crap about how nice to was to go to a club, sell drugs, shoot the guy you sold them to, smoke the drugs you've just stolen from his corpse and beat up a hooker on the way to another club. It was so bad it was beneath even the Invisibles contempt and so did not warrant comment.

 

The house was Vicki's mums here she'd lived  ever since she was born. It wasn't large but with just the two of them there since her Dad left, it was comfortable and had enough space for a sleep over. Her mum was out with Tim again and probably wouldn't get back for another couple of hours when she'd come in and make them all cinnamon toast and hot chocolate with marshmallows before going to bed.

 

"So, " said Lola with a wicked glint in her eye "You want to get high?"

 

Rachael and Vicki stared at her.

 

"What?"
 
"Get high? You know? Puffing the L? Lighting up a sweet doobie? Smoking up the 'erb? Taking hits from the bong?

 

"Yes we understood what you meant we just couldn't believe you meant it Lo."

 

Lo smiled.

 

"Why not? Because I'm too sweet and innocent?"

 

"Only comparatively sweet and not at all innocent," Chimed in Rachael "You've known Vic far too long for that."

 

"Hey!" said Vic with a grin "That'd be quite offensive if it wasn't true."

 

"I couldn't believe you meant it because you only ever talk to us and we aren't selling." said Rachael moving closer to Lola on the couch "Who did you get it from?"

 

"Just this guy I know." Lola tried to look casual as if the TV still held her attention but inside she was thrumming, desperate to tell all.

 

Rachael and Vic shared a look, their interest piqued as they continued their questioning.

 

"This guy? You don't know any 'guys' ! Who is he?"

 

"Just a guy, in French class."

 

Vic jumped up and began in her best acting voice,
"Their eyes met across a declined verb. She could feel the weight of his pronouns as he began to speak..."

 

Rachael fell about laughing whilst Lola started to turn a further shade of red.
"Its not like that. He just sold me some weed, that's all there is to it."

 

"What's his name?"

 

"Not telling."

 

"Well if you won't give up his name there must be more of a story!"

 

"There isn't. I barely know him, he just asked if I wanted some dope and I said yes. That's all there was too it."

 

Vic pulled up short in her gentle mocking
"Hang on, he asked?"

 

"What?"

 

"He asked if you wanted some weed?"

 

"Yeah. So?"

 

"Let me take a look at the bag"

 

Wordlessly Lola handed over a small plastic pouch filled to bursting with chopped herb.   Vicki opened it and took a long smell like a wine connoisseur identifying a particularly obscure vintage. The other two looked on in breathless anticipation.

 

She opened her eyes and looked straight at her.

 

"Sorry Lola its the oldest trick in the book. What you've got here is a particularly fine blend of oregano."

 

Lola snatched the bag back from her spilling some of the now worthless contents on the floor.

 

"How would you know?" she snapped. "You're no expert!"

 

"Smoke it and get ill then, but I know dope and that is not it."

 

Lola looked gutted.

 

"I should really have known, one moment I don't exist the next second he's super friendly like he's selling me something special."

 

"Yeah, men can be a bit like that." Replied Rachael "At least you didn't fuck him for it."

 

All three started laughing.

 

"Look," Said Vicki " I can show you something but you've got to promise not to tell."

 

"Okay."

 

"I'm in"

 

They walked through into Vic's mums bedroom which was decorated in a very plain Mexican style with a poncho hung on one wall as a decoration and a lakeside scene on the other. The furniture was as Spartan as the room, except for the bed which took up most of the far wall.

 

Vic walked up to the huge bed and reached under it to pull out a large dark rosewood box. She placed it on the bed itself and the friends could all see the concentric circle pattern carved deep into the lid.

 

She looked at both her friends who were silent realising the magnitude of what they were about to see. With a little flourish Vick flung back the lid and began shuffling through the items contained within. There was her Mums wedding veil and long neglected rosary but she was looking for something on the other end of the moral scale.

 

"I know about weed," Said Vicki building up to a triumphal finish "Because," She held up her prize "My mum smokes it!".

 

She was brandishing a sandwich bag with a small amount of brown leaf clustered in one corner  more damming however was the well used wooden hash pipe inside the baggie.

 

The girls looked vaguely disappointed.

 

"I was expecting a couple of ounces worth at least!" Said Lola.

 

"Yeah at least enough to steal a little bit!" Added Rachael."

 

"I think my mums hippie days of smoking are well over." said Vic," She's had the same amount in there ever since I knew about it."

 

"So," Lola said, the pain of an original thought slowing her speech and furrowing her brow "If we swapped the real stuff for the Oregano ..."

 

"She'd never notice!" finished Rachael beaming down on the dubious looking Vic.

 

"I don't know," Said Vic, slowly "Its a bit of a risk..."

 

-------

 

One careful replacement of herbs and application of a bic lighter later the girls were sitting with the box back in the lounge feeling a lot more relaxed about the whole situation.

 

 Rachael who had for the last ten minutes been stroking the still open inside of the rosewood box said

 

"What's this box within a box?"

 

Vic couldn't tear her gaze away from the test pattern on the TV
"Hunh?"

 

"This box within a box?"  Rachael said pulling out a miniature version of the rosewood box.

 

"Oh that." Said Vicki " I don't know I've never been able to get it open."

 

"I've seen one of these before," said Lola "give it here."

 

Reluctantly Rachael handed it over. It was roughly the size of a box of chocolates but felt quiet heavy for the actual size.

 

"Right, You've got to force the hinges on these things." Said Lola taking a strong grip on the box.

 

"Force it?" said Vic her eyes going wide "No no! No forcing! Gentle encouraging, yes. Forcing no!"

 

"Don't sweat it. I know what I'm doing!"

 

"I know what you're doing and I don't want you to do it! Stop"

 

"You want to know what's inside don't you?"

 

"No!"

 

Vic reached out towards Lola just in time to see her fumble and then drop the box. It spiralled down in slow motion catching the corner on the unyielding stone floor and breaking the lid off splitting the wood and spilling its contents under the sofa.

 

"What did you do? What did you do?"

 

"Vic. I'm really sorry." True regret burned dully in her friends eyes.

 

Vic glared at her and picked up the box and tried to start fitting it back together whilst Lola and Rachael started pick up the splinters scattered all over the floor.

 

"That's funny," Said  Rachael from under the bed.

 

"What?" Said Vic failing to see the funny side of anything at the moment.

 

"The only thing that was in the box was this book," She replied holding aloft an aged well thumbed paperback.

 

"Is it porn?" Asked the suddenly interested Lola looking up from behind the side table.

 

"I don't think so. Unless someone's idea of a horny title is 'Notes from the Road'."

 

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