On the Weekend E.T. either goes to hang out with his Grandma and Grandmas boyfriend, fishing with his Dad or out tagging. He was getting a little old to hang out with his grandparents but they were old hippies and he liked to hear their stories about Haight Ashbury, Marching on Washington DC to protest the Vietnam war and Native American Revolutionaries called AIM who took over Alcatraz. Every once in a while found old hits of LSD in their collection of paperback sci-fi novels and old college books. When he was grounded this is where he went, but he wasn't sure if that was best use of the weekend. He kept thinking about the asian girl at school and the crazy wino in the tunnels at Hobo Beach.
He groans while looking for his shoes under the bed, ET kicks the bedpost sending surging though his body like a short circuit in an electric chair. Looking at his big toe, he sees a purplish tint to his toe nail. His toe looks infected, swollen around the nail and throbbing. He grabs a pocket knife and starts poking at the angry swollen digit. It hurts like hell, but feeling compelled to drain the fluid. The skin is stiff and resisting the point of the knife.
He starts lower and tries to pick off the callus protecting what ever was underneath. Pulling off a yellow callus, whats underneath is reddish and angry. Too tender to mess with. Inspecting his toe nail he sees a blue thread coming from under the nail. Pulling at it, it gives a shock of instant pain, like it was a part of his body. Looking closer he can see it looks like plastic thread or wire but it causes pain and bleeds like its part of the nail.
Checking email he sees Enrique and Max CC’d him on a plan to go looking for magic mushrooms by the grounded oil tanker up the coast, its not far from his grandparents property so he thinks maybe he will go grab a handful once all the hard work is done. Deciding to take a shower and tackle it later he walks through the kitchen to the back porch grab clean laundry. There is none. His dad left before ET woke up with a note that says, “Stay the fuck out of trouble!” So he decides to skateboard to his grandparents for the weekend despite his big toe feeling like it was ran over by a freight train.
The road to the wrecked barge is not good for skating. Every time he is coasting on a cool vibe, looking at the inlet and the birds… Skirrrt! The dreaded sound of the scraper bum. A rock gets lodged under the wheel and he goes flying. He tries to stick to the edge so he can land in pine needles or some soft snow that never seems to melt in the perma-shade of the mountain but this time he wasn’t so lucky as he cut wide on a blind turn so he lands hard on his palms and chest. Sliding with road rash a Hell’s Angel would be proud of. Cussing from the sharp pain in his wrist, probably broke one of a dozen tiny bones only an asshole knows the name of.
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It takes a second to gain the courage to get back up when you hit the ground and slide, especially on these cruddy logging roads cut out of the side of a mountain leaving 1000 shards of sharp gravel every where. He rolls on his back and just dazes on the clouds like the Japanese Samurai movie where the crazy warlord gives the kingdom to his sons, and they betray him and start a big war that kills the whole family by Kurosawa, from the mid 80s. He sees the most majestic clouds, big giant towers of white mist moving fast across the sky in the jet stream.
Hearing screeching brakes and the angry voice of some tucker nearly hitting him, he rolls just in time to miss a bottle thrown at his head. Slivers of tiny glass gets in his eye as he hears “Get the fuck out the road you faggot Indian!” He tries to scream some obcentity but the roar of the trucks engine and velocity down the mountain makes it a moot point. He decides to walk the board the rest of the way while he tries to fish brown Budweiser glass out of his eye. Its under his eye lid and really sucks.
Coming up to the abandoned barge Enrique and Max are nowhere to be seen. The place where the Mushrooms grow is inside the ship and on a little island where the other half of the tanker came to rest in a storm. Everything here is green with moss, there is a rumor that the crew is in the bowels of the ship, their bones totally covered in mushrooms. This place always gave ET the creeps. Knowing these bozos they would lie in wait to freak him out… doesn’t want any sudden moves with his wrist likely broken. He considered leaving until he noticed a familiar red backpack and green jacket hanging on a tree limb on the little island.
That meant climbing across the empty ships rusted bulkheads and slick catwalks. ET was losing enthusiasm fast when he saw a substantial pile of gathered Psychocilocibin caps. He yells out to his friends but only a dull echo in the depths of the tanker came back. His instinct to grab a handful of shrooms and jam them in his mouth was too strong. These retards want to play hide and go seek and ghost him then thats their loss. He decides to head out and feels a feeling of sheer terror. There is no sound or obvious thing to set off his spider-sense but with out knowing why or what caused it he runs back to the road.
Feeling stupid he looks back and is sure he sees bluish and green corpses staring at him from the ship. A twisted human form ducks out of sight just as he turns around. Just like a horror movie thunder cracks across the distant sky and rain breaks. Great, not the weather to cover the mile and a half to his grandmothers house. Getting his board and dashing down the road he feels like he is being watched. From the dense forrest at the sides of the road he hears sounds of fast movement parallel to him. Now he has no fear of gravel or falling. He feels like a deer about to be pounced on by hungry bears. Thats actually not far fetched, not as much as mushroom zombies from a long dead oil freighter.
Pulling up to his grandmas house he sees her boyfriend filling the fountain in the front yard smiling. “All right you little asshole, what did you take?” ET can’t hide how goofy he feels, like his pores are one of those electric Tesla coils from the mall. He doesn’t even want to hide that he is flying on mushrooms by now. All thought of fear are gone as the trees and wind are blazing into trails. Sound feels like its bending and his brain is alive like never before. “Shrooms…” He says. Grandmas boyfriend puts his hand out, “Did you bring any to share?” ET holds out his bruised and batted hands and gets a grimace. “Lets get those wounds cleaned up and you can fill us in on how school is going.”