Under the skin like a bark peeler along the bone, from the 2nd knuckle all the way down to the palm. The wound had not yet healed and it didn’t look like it was going to get the chance, luckily it was only my hand.
We were 3 locks out, on the farthest and most guarded lock in the world. Hawaii. The one island in the world that actually DOES have self driving missiles swimming around the bay.
Ya. the same island they threatened to bomb just a few months ago. Black had to hide out in the coves of mexico. Missile launch detection. Some of you might remember that, our government, by accident, received intell, that Hawaii was going to be hit by a missile. And that was only a few months ago.
And this was six years earlier. When all the people my age were just about finished being corralled into dead-end jobs or shipped off to other cities. At this point most the people I had known had already been admitted to some program. Some sub government lock where they confirm your whereabouts minimum twice a week. Everyone is accounted for. Mathematically trapped by monetary or physical restraints. Not me though. I was part of the Army of the Wolf and a member of The State of the Art.
Hawaii. My finger was hanging off the bone. Never forget this moment. Laying in the tent. Two woman on the left side, another woman on the right, my hand wrapped in toilet paper oozing blood. The closest hospital was over 10 hours away. Two thirds of the people I was with were from Canada, the other was my space girlfriend, Cloud, in an upper class, soft spoken, California girl, yoga chicks body. She only ate vegetables and introduced me to Coconut Bliss Ice Cream. For that i will always be thankful.
Anyways. It was almost springtime so like a kid following a ball into the street I followed Cloud back to the states where I was supposed to join A team, but first I needed to get lost. For some reason I always need to get lost on Easter. Really far away from anyone who knows me. So I biked from 275 miles from San Diego to Santa Barbara on a bike I got for $250. Stopping in LA on Easter morning to drink a glass of champagne at a bar. Alone. The night before that I slept in a Army facility just out of town.
When I met back up with Cloud in California a few days later, we attempted to put my itinerary together. That’s never been our strong suit. Me and Cloud. The communication is all wacky. There is a plan. We do make an itinerary, but usually it’s just a series of hoops for me to jump through to get me to do what she wants. I guess that’s what relationships are. Hoops. But in all seriousness. Many of those things are things I need to do for myself. Not just for her.
So we made some organic sprout smoothies toured the local Santa Barbara lock down town of no one gives a fuck then she made some dumb excuse and told me to meet her in a few months to bike long ways across the country. Long ways? Damn this Chick really wants to make me sweat. So I went back to MN to get ready for the trip.
A few days later she called me up screaming about how I was not to come back to California and how I was to stay in Dog Dick City and meet up with some dude I knew from a long time back.
I said, ‘Fuck You! You damn liar. And that excuse gave me was just a cop out’
She said, ‘you know it's not going to work anyway. You can't leave all your friends in Minneapolis and there's no way in hell this I can move up to MN right now... Plus, I’m already up there. In someone else's body.' I was sick of her nonsense, so I put on my cool hat and went out to see the squad.
I met up with ERK, a general in Army of the Art and and he briefed me on a shindig a secret campground infested with ticks. I assembled my team, hit up Cloud, because we never really stay angry with each other for long, then set off to the correct island, where, apparently, the game was about to begin.
Hawaii - California - Wisconsin!