CHAPTER 4
Six-thirteen
The screen door slammed behind Santo as Nat innocently approached the figures who were waiting for them on the porch.
“What's happening, guys?”
“That's what I want to ask you,” Julian said suspiciously.
“Julian, baby, you know me.”
“Yeah, man, I know you.”
“We bought some coffee.”
“Oh, how nice,” Kerry said. “Welcome back, Richard.”
Melisa calmly stepped onto the porch. “Rick. I was worried about you.” She went to him and branded him with a kiss. “I want you to meet someone.” She turned to an attractive woman who was sitting beside Julian. “This is my best friend, Gladys.”
“Hello, Gladys.”
“Hi.”
“And speaking of highs,” Julian said, “you two…didn't…happen to run into anything while you were out?”
“If we had, we would have smoked or snorted it all before we got back,” Santo said.
Julian's glare softened. Then he chuckled as if Santo had told a joke. “Man, you're a funny guy.”
“My drugs that come our way, I'm buying, okay?”
“You hear that?” Nat said. “Rick's buying!”
Julian cracked a dark smile. “You hear that, Gladys?”
“I hear that,” she said.
Gladys was very thin and flat-chested. She had a washed-out complexion, blue eyes, and thin, delicate lips. Her strawberry-blonde hair was a mass of curls and split ends, which served to accentuate the carelessness of her manner…and her sex appeal. She wore a cool country dress without a belt and a pair of leather sandals. Her general appearance gave the impression of vulnerability, but her eyes betrayed a worldliness that could only have come from years of hard living.
Nat presented the paper bag to Melisa. “Why don't you make us some coffee.”
“Why don't you make it yourself.”
“Oh hell, you two. I'll make the damn coffee,” Kerry said. He snatched.the bag from Nat's hand and waddled into the kitchen.
“Now that we have coffee, what are we going to do about food?” Julian demanded.
“If that's our only problem, we'll get food,” Santo said. “Come on, Melisa, let's buy some food.”
“You've really got money?” Gladys said.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Don't waste money on food.” Gladys reached into her bamboo purse and brought out a checkbook. “I can buy us food.”
“I didn't know you had money, Gladys.”
“I don't, Melisa. These are checks. Rubber checks. And I haven't bounced one in this town, yet. Hell, I can buy enough to feed us all for a month.”
“Alright!” Julian rejoiced for the first time that day.
“And as for money,” Gladys said, “that's the only thing that works…when buying drugs. I know someone with enough acid to take all of us on a trip tonight.”
“And everybody lived happily ever after,” Nat said, as he sat beside Julian. “I told you everything would work itself out, my man.”
“No thanks to you,” he said.
“Who wants gratitude, man. I just want to make my head right.”
“Yeah…I love LSD,” Julian said.
“Purple Dome.”
“Orange Hue.”
“That little dot…acid.”
Excitement was in the air: they were getting high tonight!
Gladys rose from her chair. “Let's go shopping.”
Kerry popped in from the kitchen. “I'm coming!”
Nat opened the porch door. “Me too.”
Gladys linked an arm around one of Santo's. “Let's go.”
Melisa grabbed his other arm. “Not without me, sister.”
“But what about the acid?” Julian grumbled with concern.
“That's tonight, you fool,” Gladys said. “Are you coming with us or not?”
“I'm coming. I'm coming.”
The screen door slammed against an empty porch and an unguarded house. It usually remained unguarded because nobody really wanted Six-thirteen. It was the last stop on a road without a destination, a place full of human leftovers; the only direction a transient could go from here was into the streets.