XV  The Devil’s Backbone

 

Six months ago, Damian and I were driving to San Antonio to go party at Fiesta.  Fiesta is a two week mardi-gras-like party that is held in San Anto every April, annually.  It is a great time.  If you’ve never been there, you should go there once in your lifetime.  It is something you will never forget.

            However, it was a late night, and we were driving to San Anto at about three in the morning, the witching hour,  trying to reach Fiesta.  I had been up on meth, obviously my favorite, and I wanted to get away from all the shit Austin was throwing my way.  The bills were piling up, from credit cards to breaking contracts with leasing agents, to unpaid traffic citations, not showing up to court, in a timely manner, or even in a timely dress, not showing up to court-ordered probation, dealers wanting money or pussy or both, and me, feeling wigged out, again, for the umpteenth time, wanting to quit using, but not having the willpower to actually quit;  therefore I decided a little down time with my own folks would do me some good.

            The expressway is so quiet at this time of the night.  There are hardly any drivers on the freeway.  I made the choice, while we were in New Braunfels to take a little side trip. 

            There’s a little range of hills to the west of this central area of Texas, which is locally known as the Devil’s Backbone.  There have been reports over the years that this is a hot spot for unexplained phenomena.  There were reports, a couple of hundred years ago, that whole complete Indian tribes disappeared in the middle of the night.  The first Texans would write reports of tracking down tribes who were wild one night and all of a sudden, the next morning, no trace would ever be found of a tribe or anybody gathering at the same location where there was a wild party held the night before.

            Maybe that’s where this strange activity comes from.  Magic mushrooms and tall tales.  Eating ‘shrooms with an empty stomach gets you tripping a whole lot quicker than if you had a full belly.  I hadn’t eaten in days, so if I came across a batch of mushrooms, hmmm, hmmm, hmmmm, hummm, I would definitely have an intense trip.

            We took a right, drove for a couple of miles, took a left, hung a quick right, passed over a little creaky bridge, drove for another mile, found the fork in the road, and took the one less traveled by, went down a caliche road, until we finally came upon a green pasture, our magic field.

            We jumped the barb wire fence, which was so flimsy, we could have knocked down the fence with one easy kick, and we went in search of cow patties.  We came across some cow patties right away, and we waved our flashlights over them and saw no mushrooms.  We went in search of more patties when Damian remembered that someone had told him to look under tree growth, under the branches, and you would find some mushrooms there.  I don’t know, but I guess it has something to do with the spores and shade and sunlight.  Or was it moonlight?

            The lights that were so far away, suddenly got closer to us as we ran around in the darkness.  We had no idea in which direction my car was.  What if the lights belonged to a stupid Texan red-neck with a gun.  He would surely shoot us Mexicans and say it was self-defense.  Then they would let him be an honorary member of the Texas Rangers.

            I came to, hours later, as dawn was breaking, and I found myself naked in my car.  Damn, did I do it again, have sex without protection, while I was passed out.  That fucker Damian, I thought, what a scumbag.  I sat up in the back seat and noticed Damian was in the front, naked as well, but he was shaking, as if he was cold.

            “You don’t remember what happened,” he finally said in a hoarse voice, as if he had been smoking or screaming all night long.

            I heard Damian mumble, “It wasn’t me.”  That dumb fuck.

            I turned on the car, got on the road and looked for the interstate.  I knew exactly what had happened the night before, but I was trying to play it off.  I saw what they did to him.  Poor Damian.