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  I couldn’t let Jimmy pass this off. I needed him to believe, or else my friends would think I’d lost a few marbles somewhere along the way. “Wait one minute, Jimmy, you know about my dream. I told you all about it right after I woke up, and you stood in the parking lot with me when I smelled the roses. You know what I’m saying is true.”

  Jimmy gave me his intimidating stare, “You want me to believe you’re something special. A rare person with the gift of prophecy?” he huffed, “I got news for you, Loveless—you’re nothing special. You’re still the guy in the gym shower sliding away from my icepick.”

  Flower gave Roger a puzzled expression. He said, “It’s a long story,” and waved his hand at her.

  Addressing Jimmy, I said, “What about those people in the hospital beds? We might be able to help them somehow.”

  “It’s not any of our business. I bet this scary stuff has something to do with what’s wrong with them too.” He stood and pushed Rose’s arm away from him. “If we don’t get on the road, we’ll miss everything.” Jimmy’s voice sounded strained and tinny, he was getting really pissed.

  Flower reached into a filing cabinet and took out a US map. “Every inch on this map is a hundred miles, meaning it’s almost two hours of driving time.” She handed him a metal-edged ruler. “Measure how far you have to go and calculate how long it will take you. Then compare it to how long you have allotted for the trip.”

  Jimmy shook his head and pressed his lips tight.

  “Take it, tiny,” Roger spouted off, “I’m dying to know how long we have before we get there.”

  Jimmy made a fist, waved it at Roger, and loudly whispered, “Reynolds, you want to die, don’t you, numbnuts? After I do this, I’m going to break your arms off and beat you to death with them.”

  Roger could be so thick-headed sometimes that he forgot, or didn’t care about what Dugan could and would do. Jimmy, as I saw him, was still the same bully who harassed us since the second grade and his new connection with me and Roger didn’t make us immune to his pranks and outbursts. At least, I didn’t think so. Jimmy had everything he needed and more to beat Roger to a pulp. Roger’s bravery was pure ignorance standing in the face of a two-fisted brawny pandemic named Jimmy Dugan.

  Fuming, Jimmy sat back down and yanked the ruler and map from Flower’s hands. She laid a pencil down next to him. For a moment I thought he was going to break it in half, but instead, he silently seethed, measured, and plotted his route. Measured again and rerouted hoping the outcome would be different. Finally, he looked up, emanating pure rage.

  Roger sounded like a heckler, “Well, big guy, you’re in charge. Say the word and we’ll do it. But what are we going to do?”

  Jimmy threw the pencil onto the map and yelled. “Damn. Damn. Damn.” Looking right at me he yelled, “I hate this spooky shit. You hear me, Loveless. Stop it.” He put his hands over his ears. “Stop it, so you can be my friend.”

  Silently I answered, I can’t. I’m on this ride till the conductor stops the train and nothing is going to make a difference—not even a powerhouse like Jimmy Dugan.

  Roger replied, “Jimmy, pull yourself together. This is a glorious adventure. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.” He turned to Flower and asked, “You said gifted people have a purpose. Beyond the fact you want to heal everyone who’s sick or injured, what’s your purpose?”

  Again Flower met my gaze. “I’m at a loss. Only someone who possesses the gift of knowledge can know that.” She pulled stray strands of wispy blond hairs escaping from her braids back over her left ear. “My future is a mystery to me.” Placing her right hand on Roger’s shoulder, she said, “As for gifts, I think there are more, but these are the only ones I’ve been told about.”

  Making fists, Jimmy gripped the air by the side of his head. Then he slammed his hands down to his sides. “Shut up the crazy talk.” Jimmy stared at me. “I thought you were my friend. Maybe the only one I’ve ever had and now you pull this. You never wanted to be my friend—did you?”

  “What am I?” Roger dared to ask, “Chopped liver? Arland isn’t the only one who has ridden hundreds of miles with you, listening to your bad jokes and smelling your stinky farts.” He squatted down in front of Jimmy’s chair, well within the danger zone, and said, “Calm down and tell me how long it will take us to get to the concert?”

  Jimmy rubbed his head, ruffling his manicured prince charming, J. Sebring style haircut. “As close as I can figure driving straight through nonstop, no breaks, no gas stops…nothing, it’ll take about twenty hours. I’ll add a bare minimum of three hours for fill-ups and necessary pit stops.

  Flower added, “Then there’s traffic. Add another four hours for traffic jams around the Big Apple. You can’t move when it’s bumper to bumper, and the freeway is packed.”

  “That adds up to twenty-seven hours,” Jimmy announced. “But we don’t have twenty-seven hours, so it’s impossible.”

  “Just exactly how much time is left in the concert?” I asked. “You don’t know. You might make it yet.”

  Roger checked his watch and reported, “Looks like twenty-eight hours.” He sighed regretfully. “We could get to hear a song or two…maybe.”

  Jimmy’s face reddened. He gazed my way and gritted his teeth. “Arland, you knew we couldn’t make it in time and now here we are in Weirdsville, Kansas with a bunch of looney tunes. You got me into this mess. I’m not to blame, this is your fault.”

  “How is this my fault? I didn’t check a map before we started and neither did you.” A cold sweat formed on my brow. If Jimmy went ape-shit crazy and started tearing everything up, not one of us could stop him. “We jointly decided to run away and join a hundred-thousand hippies, all enjoying the music of every known rock star in the world.” I stood up and faced him. “If you can’t share responsibility for this, and you’re needing someone to blame… Yes, blame me. All this was my idea.”

  He yelled, “But instead of enjoying a concert with real hippies, we’re here with Oral Roberts’ sister and a bunch of nut-jobs.”

  All I could add was, “But I never intended to end up here.”

  Flower intervened. “Pardon me, but you all ended up here because it’s your destiny. You were guided here for this moment in time. You had to be, there’s no other explanation.” Then she huffed, “And, for your information, I am no relation to Oral Roberts!”

  “Guided? You mean like guided by guardian angels?” I asked.

  “Exactly like that,” She replied.

  Roger started to say something when Jimmy focused his JD stare on him. “And as for you, Reynolds,” Jimmy thundered. “You knew all along we’d only get this far. You’ve been so all-fired eager to get to this place, I bet you knew this commune was here all along. You probably have some special shit going on, too.”

  Roger exclaimed, “Jimmy, you’re talking crazy. Say the word and we’ll get to the concert for the last hoo-rah. A hippie here told me there’s lots of free drugs being passed around there.”

  Jimmy retorted, “Numbnuts, you can’t drive and I can’t do it all myself. Nobody can drive from Texas to New York without sleeping. We need Arland to give up all this spiritualistic crap. He’s got to stop thinking he’s better than us and remember why he got this trip started in the first place.”

  I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Hey!” It was time for complete transparency. Jimmy and I still had one connection bonding us. “Jimmy, I had to leave. Don’t you get it? I was nothing but a dumping ground for all my parent’s crap. Any more would have killed me. I…I felt like I was dying. Leaving was my only hope. When I realized we were the same, suddenly I saw a light at the end of my depressing tunnel. I saw a way to escape.”

  “Cut out the we business, Loveless, you and I are nothing alike. You didn’t have to stay there, you could have left at any time.”

  “Could I? I’m only fifteen. You’re the one with the car. I knew you had to decide to join me. Man, you ditched your old man and ran away, a
ll of your own free will. I didn’t make you do it. Don’t you see? We did this, Jimmy—both of us. We freed ourselves from the pain and suffering inflicted on us by adults who claim to love us. That’s what we did.”

  Rose suddenly understood. Jimmy still lived with his dad. “Jimmy, are you underage?” Concern creased her brow. “How old are you?”

  Jimmy stopped the bluster and locked his eyes on his shoes. “Sixteen, won’t be seventeen until November.”

  Rose confessed, “Never dated anyone younger than me before. It’s only a year.” Jimmy looked up, surprise written on his face. “I lie about my age to get jobs and stay on my own. These guys here are all so smart, they’ve made a home out of some dirt and a few trees. I’m not smart like they are, but I can work to pay my way.” She glanced shyly at him. “I turn eighteen in December. Up to now, it’s been my big secret. You’re the first person I’ve told since I’ve been here. I don’t want to get anyone in any trouble. In three months it won’t matter. The thing is that we all have baggage and crap best not brought out for everyone to know. Just hang loose and let the pieces of your life fall where they will.”

  “I guess you’re right, but I can’t stay here.” Worry and stress brought Jimmy’s eyebrows down until they almost met in the middle. “All this gifted shit freaks me out.”

  “It’s not so bad. You get used to Flower’s gift, and she has a way of making everything so right with the world. Everyone else here is just smart.” She shrugged and admitted, “Well, there’s at least one genius among us. This one guy, an ex-professor, wanted to find a simpler way to live. I ain’t kidding, he’s a freaking genius or something. He and Flower got this place started. They planned to make the perfect community, and they’ve come damn close.”

  Jimmy’s smile returned. “Is it seriously all so good?”

  “Yeah, if the fuzz, County Sheriff, Randy Briggs—You met him back at the wreck—if he’ll stay out of our business it’ll be better. He calls himself the DLE, Director of Law Enforcement, and bosses all the other fuzzies around—even the state ones. I never heard of a DLE before. He probably made it up. Anyway, he sends his officers out here, doesn’t come himself. I think he’s afraid of us. But he undermines the commune at every opportunity, and he advertises the fact he hates hippies.”

  “Sounds to me like he’s the one with the problem.” Jimmy couldn’t help but smile, after all, he was talking to Rose. “A very smart person told me to hang loose and let the pieces of my life fall where they will. What do you think? Sound like friendly advice?”

  “Yeah, great advice.” She shook her head and pulled him closer. “You’re only sixteen?” Disbelief dripped from her words. “You’re the most mature sixteen-year-old I’ve ever seen.”

  Returning her embrace, he beamed with delighted satisfaction.

  “You don’t need Arland. You have me. I can drive for you.”

  “I guess, this means we are going to see the hippies with the drugs.” Roger cheered.

  “That settles it.” I said, “You three go on to Woodstock, but I can’t. I have to stay here and learn more about what’s happening to me.”

  “Your loss, Loveless,” Jimmy called over to me as he planted a wet kiss on Rose.

  Flower said, “Arland, if you want to stay, the council of elders will consider your petition at tomorrow’s meeting and decide if you are suitable for residency. You must understand, even though you’re gifted, it doesn’t mean they will vote you in.” She turned to Rose. “Sister, is this what you want? You only met this man tonight. It seems impulsive.”

  Never taking her eyes off Jimmy, Rose answered, “It is. I’ve never been happier than I am with Jimmy.”

  “Then leave with my blessings. Love isn’t always found in the everlasting; sometimes it’s in the fleeting moments between hellos and goodbyes.” She faced Roger and nodded toward the eastern treehouse. “Before you go, the least we can do is provide you with nourishment for your trip. Let me show you our community kitchen. Frankly, you all look hungry now.” She headed in the opposite direction of the clinic. “It will also allow me to inform Arland of the rules.”

  Frowning, I strolled beside her, “Rules? I thought hippies all believed in anarchy—life without rules.”

  “Some may,” Flower said, “But, because we made them to suit us, here we abide by these rules. Perfect rules for a perfect community. We have rejected the outside rules and the imperfect system they ironically consider a society. For us, the rules outside the commune do not apply here.”

  Roger’s excitement escalated to exuberance. “Do those rules have anything to do with drugs?”

  Flower smiled, “Now you’re trying to get attention by spouting off about something you think I disapprove of.” She looked into Roger’s eyes and told him. “I see you, Roger Reynolds, There’s no need to demand to be seen. You are not invisible here.”

  Roger’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “I guess it’s a habit. I’ve been invisible for so long it will take time to readjust…I mean I would if I were staying.”

  “I want to meet this genius person who’s so smart,” I said.

  “If you want, I’ll introduce you.” She replied. “He’s kinda reclusive.” Her expression immediately changed; she looked as if a light went on in her head. “You’ve already met him. I saw him help you up after you fell. He’s older and has a gray ponytail; anyway, as you may already know, he’s the one who set up the electrical system using solar power.”

  The eastern treehouse was a mirror image of the western treehouse. As we climbed the stairs around the oak trunk, I glanced up at Flower. “I thought Stoney set the system up.”

  “Stoney oversaw the installation of the system. We are a commune. We work together and share ideas, as well as, the labor to see it through. Together we share the rewards of both.” She gave me one of her sunshine-filled smiles. “Each to our own gifts and the effort of the whole.”

  There was her mysterious choice of words again. I suspected Flower had more secrets she wasn’t sharing.

  At the top of the stairs, where the clinic sat in the western treehouse, the room had been turned into a stainless-steel kitchen. I assumed its creation to be more of the enigmatic professor’s doing. Everyone dove into one of two refrigerators full of vegetables. Rose took large slices of cucumber and made sandwiches with it. Surprisingly, even Roger thought they were not bad. He admitted he could get used to being a vegetarian if all the veggie sandwiches were as good.

  While they raided the refrigerator. Flower came and stood by me as I looked out of the window. From the high vantage point, I could see out into a field adjacent to the huts and trailers. Little blue lights flashed amidst a glittering barrage of yellow lightning bugs. For every blue flash, a multitude of yellow twinkles answered in return. Like an ocean of Lilliputian stars poured straight from the heart of the Milky Way, they glimmered in the dark night.

  I said, “All this electronic machinery here and in the clinic can’t be operated from car batteries. There’s got to be more to it.”

  “The pole lights run on the car batteries. All the rest of the commune’s electrical power comes from a series of very large nickel-iron cell rechargeable batteries housed in huts behind the treehouses. It’s pretty complicated and I don’t actually understand how it works, but I’ve been told it was invented by the guy I mentioned earlier, Thomas Edison. What a gift he had.” She sighed in awe.

  I gazed out of the window. “The blue lights out in the field, they don’t move. What are they?”

  She said, “Oh, we attach those blue lights to our photovoltaic collectors. As long as the lights flash, we know the panel is operating correctly.”

  “Why would you need to know if they were working correctly when it’s dark out?” I replied.

  No sooner had the words came out of my mouth, I noticed darkness from several places where blue lights had been flashing. Flower gasped, “Oh, no. It’s happening again. I’ve got to alert the others. We’re under attack.”
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br />   Chapter Nine

  Sheriff Briggs

  It was Rose who reacted first. She ran out the door and along the decking to a metal box mounted on a pole. Flinging it open, she pressed a concealed button inside. An earsplitting alarm sounded. People raced into the Roundhouse. Flower addressed them from the staircase. “They are destroying the photovoltaic collectors in the field.”

  All the residents rushed out to the eastern field, flashlights in hand. We boys followed.

  Everyone approached the collectors cautiously. We tried not to make any excess noises as we walked side by side between the primitive solar panels. At the far end, someone had smashed a dozen of the black boxes into pieces. Raw splinters protruded from the inside of Photovoltaic panels. They also broke the 2x4 boards making up the frame, shattered as a child might tear into a paper bag.

  I heard a man’s voice call out, “This took a lot of strength to break those planks into two pieces like this.”

  Farther to the east, a fire blazed up in a field. Stoney’s unmistakable voice rang out, “They have set the cornfield on fire. Get the sandbags and water buckets.” The hippies ran toward the field, all but Stoney, who ran toward the river. “I’ll unroll the hose and prime the pump,” he cried.

  With the entire population of the commune fighting the fire, I heard more popping and cracking coming from the field behind us. There in the flickering light of the blazing field, I could see a half dozen young men, vandals with sledgehammers destroying more photovoltaic collectors. They were following one huge guy who stood head and shoulders taller than the others.

  The next thing I knew, Jimmy Dugan was there. He ripped the sledgehammer away from the biggest of them and began swinging it wildly. They barely stayed out of his reach. Then he threw it like an athlete in the highland games, casting it off into the darkness. On his return swing, he connected with his enormous fist, smashing it into the big vandal’s jaw with an uppercut. Maybe it was my imagination, but I swear I heard the crunch of bone above the crackling roar of the fire. The big man lifted off the ground, flew through the air, and landed on the guy behind him.