Day 5(a), pulling into Braughtigan South Carolina.
(apologies to the memories of Hemingway and Brautigan and thanks to
Doug Lang for stolen notes).
In times of stress, Cletis would pull out his Richard Brautigan primer and
relieve America through the "I"s of a short trout fisherman.
Coming to Braughtigan SC was similar.
How Braughtigan or Brautigan could serve as comfort food escapes almost
everyone.
Billy Bob's thought is 'it fits for those with a gnat sized attention span.'
This is ture of Cletis. Of course his limited attention span is balanced
out by his gnu sized obsession span.
At any rate, they pulled into Braughtigan feeling increasingly relaxed as
the ludes rolled in on them.
"Brautigan...", Billy Bob said, "Brautigan... wrote like Hemingway would
have written had he been a fag and had a lobotomy."
"Huh?" Cletis wondered "I thought Hemingway was a homosexual and that's
why he gave himself a twelve gage lobotomy?"
"Well then - I guess Brautigan wrote like Hemingway wrote after he died."
"Oh?"
Somewhere in all of this, the raven that had been walking backwards down
the road after Billy Bob and Cletis since they left Guthrie's California,
transformed into a peculiar looking woman in a black scarf, bra and panties.
The raven had been heading for the
Burning Man
art experience at Black Rock City Nevada.
'Whoa - that's a long way from here' Cletis thinks looking up through the
windshield as Billy Bob slows the truck suddenly from 50 to 25 when he realizes
they've entered Braughtigan city limits.
"I'm gonna get some pop" Cletis says as he steps out of the still moving
truck into a rust orange puddle which he thinks is from a radiator leak.
He looks around - all the puddles are orange - 'oh ya - red earth society
here in Braughtigan'.
But the woman back stepping to Burning Man starts talking and Cletis spins
to pay attention
"Grow west young man" she smiles
'Can't' Cletis thinks 'got to get pop.'
'Only if I get pop will I grow...'
"Fuck pop" says Billy Bob hearing Cletis's thoughts "we've got beer."
"No way man - too many police in this town - any town - and I'm not feeling
well"
"Beulgheach" - Cletis pukes a yellow scarf into the orange puddle
The woman nods and repeats her turth, "west"
Lost in the neither world - oblivious to any growth and expression of the
last 40 years, Cletis carries on and wonders how and why the hair extension
of the beats seem to have taken hold.
Cletis was introduced to Brautigan by a married, soon to be cuckolded father
of three whom had found, "educated" and raised his young wife from the age
of 15 - when the future cuckold was 30.
At 40 he was overwhelmed with sadness and lethargy as his young wife struggled
to take back her youth while balancing her commitment to their three children.
Brautigan and the cuckold both experienced self inflicted death by alcohol soaked .44.
Cletis falls back from the puddle of puke into the seat of the truck, closes
his eyes and returns to Arizona State Highway 89 enroute to Prescott.