See, before y'all picked me up hitchhikin'
that day outsida (where was it anyways, boys? My memories got
these holes in it, I don't know, my brain's like a doily these days, it
seems to work but shit, there's plenty o' blank spots), I know I was a
sorry mess, dusty, and har all tangled and such, it's a wonder y'all
even recognised me when you did.
Well before that, I was ridin' around the hills up thar on my Harley, workin' construction and such like to keep me in grub and a little smoke to pass the long evenin's. For awhile I stayed with a coupla good ol' boys from home, well, they was draft dodgers original, come up thar to BC when they was young and I was younger. When the heat come off fer them fellers they went on back to Northern California and commenced to buildin' houses for John's brother. Now, John, he done time in a medium security on account of his young wife finally turned him in, couldn't handle the pressure of them feds nosin' around more and more frequent, but Rusty, he waited it out and anyway, everything was cool by then. Amnesty.
So I went on down there on the Sportster, why I left's another story for another time but my heart wasn't in such good shape and I needed to get away. I tell ya, I gave away ever single thing I owned except a few clothes, my tools and thet bike. So I'd been up in Oregon on the Warm Springs reserve for a bit, visitin' with a man I once knew, a tribal policeman is what he was by then, and then I tooled on down to Santa Cruz area to see my friend Janet with the big eyes and long hair and her sonof a bitch abusive husband who wanted to go fer a ride and when I let him, (refusin' Paul always ended up in a scene so rather than let anybody drive that baby, which just was not goin' to happen while I drew breath, I let 'im on the back) he commenced to feelin' me up and well, it weren't purty boys, what he yelled from his place down there on his ass in the ditch. Ain't that hard to pitch somebody offa the backa one of them things, all you gotta do is pull on the front brake quick so the back end bucks, then give 'er shit with the throttle, lift the front wheel a bit, they's long gone.
So, yeah,
on down to the Pit to look around, god San Jose gets worse ever'
year. Had a bit of trouble with a coupla youngsters on factory
choppers (sheeit, flames 'n' such all over the gas tank, apehangers 'n'
skinny little forks, folks'll buy anything) thought cripes, I'm outa here,
ran into John's brother, bit of a horse's butt but he's allus got money,
and I heard John and Rusty were lookin' for a crew. Hooked up with
them boys, wasn't exactly glory days but it was okay.
They had a old farmhouse rented, on maybe a acre of land that was left up there in the hills, everythin's goin' fer shit like everwhar else these days, jeezly condos and big ol' plastic houses, people payin' the bucks, they's all crazier than shithouse rats. Yeah, they still got pretty sunsets up there. After work we'd put some dinner together, they'd commence to drinkin' beer and playin' cards an' such and I'd go off on the bike.
One time I set off in shorts & some little shirt, it was still so hot, wasn't thinkin' as per usual in those days, real preoccupied you might say. (Wasn't so bad during the day, bangin' nails mostly, haulin' studs but you had to be semi-alert on accounta losin' a finger if you weren't, but the nights were a cat of a differnt colour.) So, yeah, purrin' along the highline road, country droppin' away on both sides, them nice rollin' hills they got down there, still plentya green and little homesteads tucked away in the hollers and the bushes, and the sun goes down and hey, it's frickin' freezin' up there all a sudden. How I got all the way back to J 'n' R's place, I dunno, but they was out on the porch when I pulled up and fell over an' they had the presence o' mind to pry my fingers offa the handlebars and wrap me in a blanket. Fed me some Liptons, commenced to rubbin' my feet an' other such, I warmed up eventual. So yeah, it was fairly pleasant there with the boys but after a time I could see I should push off, J's bro was runnin' outa cash, there started in to be some squabblin' here and there, not my cuppa tea.